iVolume Catalina update on the way *

iVolume uses the iTunes XML file to locate song files. It looks like Catalina's new Music app breaks this.

Dang, I went out of my way to update all my other apps. I find iVolume indispensable.

Any ideas for a replacement?

Slightly OT, but I updated DROffline. I'm very disappointed that the developer felt the need to use CodeControl. Jeebus. It's a $15 program. I don't appreciate having to install licensing server software to use it.

 

This was discussed a bit in the Catalina thread. Several of us have tried to contact the developer (through email, his web form, and his twitter account) to no avail, so it looks like he is AWOL.

BeaTuneS may be an alternative. I actually had it already for lyric download and some other features but hadn't used it in a while. I took a look at its normalization features which use ReplayGain2 but never got it to successfully modify the values that iTunes sees. Also looks a little more difficult to choose which albums use the album value and which use track by track values, etc. But if I can get it working, it may be a workable replacement.

 

Great news. I reached out to iVolume lead developer Manfred Schwind on Twitter. He replied that he is working on an update to iVolume for Mac Catalina.

 

How will we find out about the iVolume Catalina update? Any idea when this will available. Thanks

 

You know everything I know. Maybe reach out to Manfred Schwind on Twitter.

I’m assuming that when it’s done, he will let us know somehow. Otherwise it’s wasted effort.

 

Manfred just tweeted out that the Catalina iVolume update is available.

 

iVolume 3.8.0 with Catalina compatibility has been released. There is a little trick in the FAQ to restore your settings....

Help, iVolume 3.8.0 lost all my fancy settings and previous analyzation results!
For the Music app on macOS Catalina iVolume for Mac had to change the way how it reads the music library. Furthermore iVolume always supported multiple libraries and differences them by an identifier. However, by using the new method to read the libraries, all identifiers have changed, so iVolume sees “new” libraries since version 3.8.0.
If you are an advanced user, you can rename your old file containing your previous settings and results to the name of the new one. The files are stored in
~/Library/Application Support/de.ivolume.mac/de.ivolume.IDENTIFIER.plist
You may look at their modification dates to identify the right ones. Please quit iVolume before making these modifications.

 

That suggests a question I have about the new Music app... does Music support multiple libraries?

 

If you open Music with the Option key you get the same menu to select a library that you did with iTunes, so I suspect so, but I haven't tried it.

 

Oh man, I ended up in a world of hurt trying to use multiple libraries in Catalina, which is a mission critical feature for me. I won't even go into it. Suffice it to say that it is majorly broken. Don't use it if you don't have to.

I ended up having to reinstance my main listening library. I didn't lose any sound files, but I lost all my playlists and external metadata in the process. Right now, I'm using Audirvana to play that second library. It's a mess.

Apple QA just sucks.

 

Broken by design. They looked at Microsoft and Intel bending over backwards to keep old software working, and said, "nah". Can you give a very brief description of how it doesn't work, so people know what to look out for? I for one would appreciate it...

 

I'm very upset about this. While I didn't actually lose any sound files, I lost everything else. Re-hashing it right now is just too painful. Here's a link describing the problem:
Catalina Music can't switch between multiple music libraries : MacOS

 

Thank you - and very sorry to hear about the problems you've faced. I'm sure we all dread having to deal with reproducing all the careful thought and setup that goes into our systems. Best of luck, man.