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iTunes: File Naming Convention
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Description |
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This is an attempt to define the file naming convention used by iTunes
1).
I haven’t been able to find any authorized documentation from Apple
on the subject. So this is simply a summary of my own findings.
While working on a play button for the OrangeCD 2)
Crisp theme
and CMI template
, I needed to know how iTunes organized and named audio files. This is what I found.
1) iTunes is a digital jukebox created by
Apple Computer, Inc
2) OrangeCD is a music collection manager created by
Firetongue Software.
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2. |
File name syntax |
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fqn = <DBdrive>:\<DBfolder>\<ArtistFolder>\<AlbumFolder>\[[<VolNum>-]<TrackNum> ]<FileName>.<FileExt>
where
<DBdrive>
= the drive letter of the drive where your audio collection is located
<DBfolder>
= the name of the folder that contains your audio collection (including all parent folders)
<ArtistFolder>
= the artist name (album or track artist name)
- if the Compilation CD option is checked in iTunes, <ArtistFolder> will be set to "Compilations"
- if the Compilation CD option is not checked, and the track artist name is different from the album artist name, <ArtistFolder> will be named after the track artist name
- in all other cases the abum artist name will be used
- if the chosen artist name exceeds 40 characters, the exceeding characters will be dropped
- a leading or trailing dot (.) will be replaced with an underscore (_)
- 'illegal' characters will be replaced with an underscore (_) – see separate section on How iTunes handles ASCII characters
<AlbumFolder>
= the album title
- if the album title exceeds 40 characters, the exceeding characters will be dropped
- a leading or trailing dot (.) will be replaced with an underscore (_)
- 'illegal' characters will be replaced with an underscore (_) – see separate section on How iTunes handles ASCII characters
<VolNum>
= the album volume number
- the volume number is only included if the album is part of a set (defined by setting the second Disc number field to a number greater than 1), and the iTunes option Create filenames with track number is checked
- if included, the volume number will be followed by a dash.
Example: '2-01 Your Song.mp3'.
Note that iTunes does not use a leading zero in the volume number.
<TrackNum>
= the track number
- the track number is optional, and only included if the iTunes option Create filenames with track number4) is checked
- if the track number is included and below 10, iTunes will add a leading zero (01, 02,....09) to the number
- if included, the track number is always followed by a space.
Example: '01 Help!.mp3'.
<FileName>
= the track title
- if the track title, including volume and track number (when applicable), exceeds 36 characters, the exceeding characters will be dropped
- a leading or trailing dot (.) will be replaced with an underscore (_)
- 'illegal' characters will be replaced with an underscore (_) – see separate section on How iTunes handles ASCII characters
<FileExt>
= the audio file type
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Copyright © 2004 Juventas. All rights reserved.
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3. |
Screen shots
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Figure 1: iTunes: Edit | Preferences | Advanced (tab)
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Figure 2: iTunes: CD Info (right-click CD source, select Get Info)
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Figure 3: iTunes: Edit | Preferences | Importing (tab)
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Copyright © 2004 Juventas. All rights reserved.
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4. |
How iTunes handles ASCII characters
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The following characters are considered 'illegal' by iTunes,
and will always be replaced with an underscore (_):
| Char |
Description |
ASCII |
Entity Name |
| " | (double) quotation mark | 034 | " |
| * | asterisk | 042 | * |
| / | slash, virgule, solidus | 047 | / |
| : | colon | 058 | : |
| < | less-than sign | 060 | < |
| > | greater-than sign | 062 | > |
| ? | question mark | 063 | ? |
| \ | backslash, reverse solidus | 092 | \ |
| | | vertical bar | 124 | | |
| ‚ | low left rising single quote | 130 | ‚ |
| „ | double low quotation mark | 132 | „ |
| ‘ | left single quotation mark | 145 | ‘ ’ |
| ’ | right single quotation mark | 146 | ’ |
| “ | left double quotation mark | 147 | “ ” |
| ” | right double quotation mark | 148 | ” |
| ´ | acute accent | 180 | ´ |
| Ø | capital O slash | 216 | Ø |
There may, of course, be additional characters that
iTunes replaces
with an underscore. I have not tested the entire universe of UNICODE
characters.
The play button in the OrangeCD
CRISP_PLAY theme and the CMI_PLAY template works fine with all these characters,
with the exception of the backslash (\) character.
iTunes does NOT replace any of these ASCII characters:
| Char |
Description |
ASCII |
Entity Name |
| | space | 032 | &sp; |
| ! | exclamation mark | 033 | ! |
| # | number sign | 035 | # |
| $ | dollar sign | 036 | $ |
| % | percent sign | 037 | % |
| & | ampersand | 038 | & |
| ' | apostrophe, single quot | 039 | ' |
| ( | left parenthesis | 040 | ( |
| ) | right parenthesis | 041 | ) |
| + | plus sign | 043 | + |
| , | comma | 044 | , |
| - | minus sign, hyphen | 045 | ‐ − |
| . | period, decimal point, | 046 | . |
| 0-9 | | 48-57 | |
| ; | semicolon | 059 | ; |
| = | equal sign | 061 | = |
| @ | commercial at sign | 064 | @ |
| a-z | | 65-90 | |
| [ | left square bracket | 091 | [ |
| ] | right square bracket | 093 | ] |
| ^ | spacing circumflex accent, caret | 094 | ˆ |
| _ | spacing underscore, low line | 095 | _― |
| ` | grave accent | 096 | ´ |
| A-Z | | 97-122 | |
| { | left curly brace | 123 | { |
| } | right curly brace | 125 | } |
| ~ | tilde | 126 | ˜ |
| | | 127 | |
| € | euro sign | 128 | € |
| | | 129 | |
| ƒ | small italic f, function of | 131 | ƒ |
| … | low horizontal ellipsis | 133 | …&ldots; |
| † | dagger mark | 134 | † |
| ‡ | double dagger mark | 135 | ‡ |
| ˆ | letter modifying circumflex | 136 | &710; |
| ‰ | per thousand (mille) sign | 137 | ‰ |
| Š | capital S caron or hacek | 138 | Š |
| ‹ | left single angle quote mark | 139 | ‹ |
| Π| capital OE ligature | 140 | Π|
| | | 141 | |
| Ž | latin capital letter z with caron | 142 | Ž |
| | | 143 | |
| | | 144 | |
| o | round filled bullet | 149 | • |
| - | en dash | 150 | – &endash; |
| - | em dash | 151 | — &emdash; |
| ˜ | small spacing tilde accent | 152 | ˜ |
| ™ | trademark sign | 153 | ™ |
| Š | small s caron or hacek | 154 | š |
| › | right single angle quote mark | 155 | › |
| Œ | small oe ligature | 156 | œ |
| | | 157 | |
| ž | latin small letter z with caron | 158 | ž |
| Ÿ | capital Y dieresis or umlaut | 159 | Ÿ |
| | non-breaking space | 160 | |
| ¡ | inverted exclamation mark | 161 | ¡ |
| ¢ | cent sign | 162 | ¢ |
| £ | pound sterling sign | 163 | £ |
| ¤ | general currency sign | 164 | ¤ |
| ¥ | yen sign | 165 | ¥ |
| ¦ | broken vertical bar | 166 | ¦ &brkbar; |
| § | section sign | 167 | § |
| ¨ | spacing dieresis or umlaut | 168 | ¨ ¨ |
| © | copyright sign | 169 | © |
| ª | feminine ordinal indicator | 170 | ª |
| " | left (double) angle quote | 171 | « |
| ¬ | logical not sign | 172 | ¬ |
| | soft hyphen | 173 | ­ |
| ® | registered trademark sign | 174 | ® |
| ¯ | spacing macron (long) accent | 175 | ¯ &hibar; |
| ° | degree sign | 176 | ° |
| ± | plus-or-minus sign | 177 | ± |
| ² | superscript 2 | 178 | ² |
| ³ | superscript 3 | 179 | ³ |
| ´ | spacing acute accent | 180 | ´ |
| µ | micro sign | 181 | µ |
| ¶ | paragraph sign, pilcrow sign | 182 | ¶ |
| · | middle dot, centered dot | 183 | · |
| ¸ | spacing cedilla | 184 | ¸ |
| ¹ | superscript 1 | 185 | ¹ |
| º | masculine ordinal indicator | 186 | º |
| " | right (double) angle quote | 187 | » |
| ¼ | fraction 1/4 | 188 | ¼ |
| ½ | fraction 1/2 | 189 | ½ ½ |
| ¾ | fraction 3/4 | 190 | ¾ |
| ¿ | inverted question mark | 191 | ¿ |
| À | capital A grave | 192 | À |
| Á | capital A acute | 193 | Á |
| Â | capital A circumflex | 194 | Â |
| Ã | capital A tilde | 195 | Ã |
| Ä | capital A dieresis or umlaut | 196 | Ä |
| Å | capital A ring | 197 | Å |
| Æ | capital AE ligature | 198 | Æ |
| Ç | capital C cedilla | 199 | Ç |
| È | capital E grave | 200 | È |
| É | capital E acute | 201 | É |
| Ê | capital E circumflex | 202 | Ê |
| Ë | capital E dieresis or umlaut | 203 | Ë |
| Ì | capital I grave | 204 | Ì |
| Í | capital I acute | 205 | Í |
| Î | capital I circumflex | 206 | Î |
| Ï | capital I dieresis or umlaut | 207 | Ï |
| Ð | capital ETH | 208 | Ð |
| Ñ | capital N tilde | 209 | Ñ |
| Ò | capital O grave | 210 | Ò |
| Ó | capital O acute | 211 | Ó |
| Ô | capital O circumflex | 212 | Ô |
| Õ | capital O tilde | 213 | Õ |
| Ö | capital O dieresis or umlaut | 214 | Ö |
| × | multiplication sign | 215 | × |
| Ù | capital U grave | 217 | Ù |
| Ú | capital U acute | 218 | Ú |
| Û | capital U circumflex | 219 | Û |
| Ü | capital U dieresis or umlaut | 220 | Ü |
| Ý | capital Y acute | 221 | Ý |
| Þ | capital THORN | 222 | Þ |
| ß | small sharp s, sz ligature | 223 | ß |
| à | small a grave | 224 | à |
| á | small a acute | 225 | á |
| â | small a circumflex | 226 | â |
| ã | small a tilde | 227 | ã |
| ä | small a dieresis or umlaut | 228 | ä |
| å | small a ring | 229 | å |
| æ | small ae ligature | 230 | æ |
| ç | small c cedilla | 231 | ç |
| è | small e grave | 232 | è |
| é | small e acute | 233 | é |
| ê | small e circumflex | 234 | ê |
| ë | small e dieresis or umlaut | 235 | ë |
| ì | small i grave | 236 | ì |
| í | small i acute | 237 | í |
| î | small i circumflex | 238 | î |
| ï | small i dieresis or umlaut | 239 | ï |
| ð | small eth | 240 | ð |
| ñ | small n tilde | 241 | ñ |
| ò | small o grave | 242 | ò |
| ó | small o acute | 243 | ó |
| ô | small o circumflex | 244 | ô |
| õ | small o tilde | 245 | õ |
| ö | small o dieresis or umlaut | 246 | ö |
| ÷ | division sign | 247 | ÷ |
| ø | small o slash | 248 | ø |
| ù | small u grave | 249 | ù |
| ú | small u acute | 250 | ú |
| û | small u circumflex | 251 | û |
| ü | small u dieresis or umlaut | 252 | ü |
| ý | small y acute | 253 | ý |
| þ | small thorn | 254 | þ |
| ÿ | small y dieresis or umlaut | 255 | ÿ |
Not included: ASCII 127,129,141,143,144,157
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Copyright © 2004 Juventas. All rights reserved.
iTunes is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.
OrangeCD is a registered trademark of Firetongue Software.
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