Problem is resolved. Logically the problem seemed to be with file permissions. Files are on an external drive so all user accounts should normally have R/W access by default (I think). Don't know why this set of files needed special treatment. From User1 (admin) and using Finder Get-Info for the folder containing all problem movies I gave full R/W access to User2 (again). However, this time I had deleted all the un-editable movies from iTunes for User2. And this time it worked. The subsequent reloading of the movies into iTunes gave User2 full rights to edit metadata and change the Media Type to TV.
I did not turn File Sharing on to make the change to User2 privileges as this is just one computer, not a network. All help on file permissions I could find were based on the premise that File Sharing was a necessary first step. But NO help forum covered the situation of accessing files on an external hard drive. Well, we try things and learn from the experience. Cheers Alan On 16/07/2011, at 8:44 PM, Alan Smith wrote: Hi Wamuggers I have two User Accounts on my iMac and the problem is associated with User2. iTunes metadata for just one set of movies (40 files converted from VHS tapes) can not be edited, while the Options/Media Kind choice is greyed out. I want to mark these movies as TV Episodes. Other similar ex-VHS movies give no problems with fully editable metadata in User2. Metadata for the "problem" movies can be fully edited in User1 account, hence the finger of blame is pointing to User2. Any suggestions to fix the editing issue in the User2 environment? Most of my movies are stored on an external hard drive with only their links copied to iTunes. Normally the movie links copy across as 'Films' but I can change the category in iTunes metadata (through Get Info) to 'TV Episodes' etc. Movies for User1 and User2 are kept separate - no dual entries in their individual iTune libraries. User2 is a new clean account with standard preferences. I did a full shut down of the Mac to clear away any loose bits and bytes but it had no effect on the problem. I am using an iMac with OS 10.6.8 and iTunes 10.3.1. A strange result from User2 Finder may be relevant. The file Get Info "sharing and permissions" information show a few variants, most with "you can only read" and some with "custom access" with the privileges table greyed out. I used Admin access to modify one file for full read and write access and read and write privilege. However this had no effect on iTunes metadata access - still greyed out Media Kind choice and the other tabs/fields not editable. I don't think that "sharing" should be involved on just the one iMac anyway. But all the "good" movies in User2 have nice clean read/write permissions and privileges. Another Clue (or red herring): These particular movies were originally set to Media Kind = Podcast in User1 iTunes library. It seems that some, but not all, metadata editing done through iTunes is written back to the original files on the external drive. (For example, files remember the Description field data but re-set the Media Kind back to Film.) Perhaps there is some some residual podcast metadata impacting on User2 editing. And Clue 3: Just one of the problem movies had been written to a backup drive. When the file was directly option-copied from the backup drive to User2 iTunes, metadata could be edited and the file successfully marked as a TV episode. However when the file was firstly copied to the normal movie hard drive (but to the root directory) and then option-copied to User2 iTunes, metadata could no longer be edited. At the time of the backup this first movie would not have been set as a podcast. Regards, Alan Alan Smith iMac 21.5" Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06GHz 4M - OSX 10.6.8 iPad2; ATV2 -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:[email protected]> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:[email protected]>
