Comments on: How to manually tell iTunes how long a track is

Question: How to manually tell iTunes how long a track is

salmacis — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 01:51:07 -0800

How do I manually tell iTunes how long a particular track is?

I have a few tracks in iTunes where the track length is incorrectly reported. One was from using Audacity to remove the blank crap at the end of an album. Others came from *ahem* downloads. Track length doesn't appear to be an ID3 tag as far as I can tell, from loading up an ID3 editor. In fact, the ID3 editor tells me the correct track length, but doesn't list it as an option to change. Is the information stored in an easy to access place in the XML file? If so, is it safe to manually edit? (On a Mac, in case it matters.)

By: special-k

special-k — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 02:18:48 -0800

You can change track length by right clicking on the file, choose Get Info and then go to the Options tab and set the stop time (before the blank part starts). This info will stick with the file.

By: special-k

special-k — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 02:19:58 -0800

Or rather To change track length, right click on the track....

By: antifuse

antifuse — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 02:23:17 -0800

Or, presuming that it's just that iTunes has cached the track length on a file that you have changed since importing it to iTunes, you could always remove and re-add from/to your iTunes library.

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 02:35:42 -0800

Is the information stored in an easy to access place in the XML file? If so, is it safe to manually edit?

The XML file is a duplicate of the real non-XML library file. Editing it does nothing.

By: Remy

Remy — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 05:38:22 -0800

Re-encode it. Use the Advanced menu and select "Convert to MP3".

Some VBR encoders are rather crappy in their methods, and causes the incorrect time listing. I've found a re-encode (at the cost of a little sound quality) in iTunes always straightens it out.

By: salmacis

salmacis — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 06:15:27 -0800

You can change track length by right clicking on the file, choose Get Info and then go to the Options tab and set the stop time (before the blank part starts). This info will stick with the file.

That doesn't work. I think you can use this feature to tell iTunes to only play part of a file, but it doesn't tell iTunes how long the track actually is.

I'm going to try Remy's suggestion to re-encode to MP3 (assuming iTunes allows me to convert from MP3 to MP3!), and if that works I'll mark it.

By: mikeh

mikeh — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:10:41 -0800

It's a poorly encoded/tagged mp3. I've had this issue with a few downloaded dj sets: iTunes reported the length as 28 minutes while another (more forgiving) player reported it as 55 minutes. I could jump around within the track in iTunes and hear all parts, but if I played it straight through it'd stop after the supposed 28 minute mark.

Reencoding with iTunes did not work for me. I had to check a few different mp3 players/decoders before I found one that'd fix the file. Finally I noticed that Audion (Mac OS) would decode the whole thing so I had it export to a .wav file and then reencoded that. There was some quality loss. I'd also recommend hunting around for mp3 repair utilities that analyze frame data. I had some luck with one of those a few years ago.

By: salmacis

salmacis — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 09:31:45 -0800

Re-encoding to MP3 did work, but there was a noticeable drop in volume, which I attempted to correct with MP3Gain. Thanks for your help.

By: Ptrin

Ptrin — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:07:02 -0800

Make a backup copy before you do! Every conversion degrades your sound quality, and ideally someone else will provide an answer that allows you to keep the high quality file.