Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files? (Read 6712 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Hello everyone. I have a question about iTunes.

iTunes is set to copy the original MP3 file to the iTunes folder in 'My Music' when ever a new song/album is added. This is fine by me as it keeps all my music organised. My options looks a little bit like this.



Is iTunes doing anything to my files (except for renaming them) like adding crappy auto volume and EQ stuff? I don't really want it to be doing that as I have spent a long time transcoding from FLAC files to V0 MP3.

Also, a little progress bar is shown saying that is 'determining gapless playback'. Is that purely for iTunes' use and nothing is written to the MP3 file?

Cheers.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #1 –
No, iTunes will not mess with your files in this way unless you actually tell it to.  You have to manually edit the options for each file.  By default, iTunes won't physically alter your files other than changing the file names and copying them to your My Music directory.

The gapless playback is needed if you want to play the files back gaplessly in iTunes and on your iPod.  I believe the gapless information is written to each file but it is nothing more than, for example, an ID tag entry.  Your main tags are not being modified so there isn't anything to worry about.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #2 –
I'm sure others will be able to further clarify/verify (or repudiate), but I seem to recall that the gapless "tag" is essentially an ON/OFF switch... and that the gapless offsets, as determined by iTunes, are actually stored within the iTunes database rather than within the file itself.

    - M.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #3 –
Yes, the gapless tags are written to the iTunes library file.  The files are referenced to the library file through iTunes.  I don't know why I said that the tag was written to the files, I messed up in my original post.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #5 –
I conducted some further research on the subject.  I think (and I am pretty sure on this) that files imported into iTunes have the gapless data written to the iTunes library file.  Both iTunes and iPods will reference this file when playing back music.  Songs that are encoded by iTunes have the gapless information written to each file's metadata.  This is evident as I can take iTunes AAC files from one computer to another and the new computer won't scan the files for gapless playback.  However, I can move Lame mp3 files and iTunes on the other computer will scan the files again.

Either way iTunes really isn't "messing" with mp3 files other than renaming them and moving them around.  Even the gapless playback written to iTunes encoded files doesn't affect them other than playback through Apple devices.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #6 –
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=430949

Might want to skim over the posts in this thread since it pretty much addresses all the questions found in this one.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #7 –
I give up.  Why oh why did I bother searching other sites?  They all have mixed so it is difficult to come up with any concrete conclusions.  Sorry for any misleading on my part.  I mainly search various forums and took the overall results from them.  I should have just looked up that thread here on hydrogenaudio and linked it.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #8 –
I don't know that you've said anything misleading, kornchild2002.  I certainly wasn't trying to correct you, or anyone else for that matter.

I have read nothing that says iTunes will add gapless information to individual files that have already been encoded, regardless of the encoder.  We know it doesn't for Lame-encoded files.  Even if it did, who cares?  It certainly doesn't harm the audio data in any way, shape or form.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #9 –
Oh, I know.  My "I give up comment" was me stating that I will now search on hydrogenaudio first instead of searching through all sorts of other forums and summarizing the results.  That would have saved me about 20 minutes of time.  That way I could have pointed the OP to that one thread (as you did) and just told them to look through that.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #10 –
If I recall correctly, iTunes does add some tags (as comments, although I don't know whether APEv2 or ID3) to MP3s without telling you. I think one of them is called "iTunesCompilation" or something. In any case, you can see them in MP3Tag. Just select all tracks, right click and choose 'Extended Tags'. You can see them and delete them if you choose to do so.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #11 –
If so then it depends on the version of iTunes you use.

I still use 4.6 and it doesn't do anything to my mp3 files unless I tell it to.

EDIT: I'll gladly test this on the most recent version when I get a chance if you want provided someone else doesn't beat me to it.  As you said, it's easy enough to verify and this way we don't have to rely on your recollection.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #12 –
So just to make 100% sure, iTunes DOES NOT do anything to the actual music compressed in the MP3?

Cheers for all the help and ideas guys.

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #14 –
Quote from: rohangc on
If I recall correctly, iTunes does add some tags (as comments, although I don't know whether APEv2 or ID3) to MP3s without telling you. I think one of them is called "iTunesCompilation" or something. In any case, you can see them in MP3Tag. Just select all tracks, right click and choose 'Extended Tags'. You can see them and delete them if you choose to do so.

Naa, iTunes won't add that tag field unless you tick on a "Part of a compilation" check box. Just clear the check box and iTunes will delete that tag field.

I have been using iTunes since version 4 and have yet to see iTunes make changes to my files beside of adding extra tag fileds (ITUNSMPB, ITUNNORM and BPM; these 3 tag fields are usually added automatically). If anyone doesn't want iTunes to change anything at all, you can make your music files read-only.

EDIT: a bit off topic, but some iTunes users may find this article useful: Slimming down the bloated iTunes 8 installer
 

Is iTunes Messing With My MP3 Files?

Reply #15 –
Quote from: greynol on
iTunes DOES NOT do a single thing to the actual music compressed in the MP3.  We're talking about metadata only!

Many thanks dude, and thankyou to everybody that has contributed to this thread.