Author Topic: All media refusing to eject from iMac (Read 3877 times)

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #15 on:** July 10, 2013, 11:32:11 AM »

I hate to bring up an often touchy topic... but does your car's Owners Manual or a supplemental book covering the audio system have any info on this subject?

I can only assume that whatever kind of device you put your music on it must be recognized as an 'audio' (or video) container. Audio CD's have a fairly specific data structure and not all players can even use any music format except 'aif' Only newer ones can use mp3.

Further, just like a volume/drive on your computer, there is a directory that tells the system where the actual 'music' file are. But if you insert a CD that you simply burned on your Mac with any kind of file type; music, text, word processing, graphics, etc. that directory will simply include all that, also. Since the device is really not made to use all those other file types, it just displays what it sees in the directory and hopes the user has some idea of what it all means!

I'm sure you've heard people say that a computer is a very dumb machine. It is only made 'smart' by having programs that know what to do to keep us humans happy (most of the time). The CD/radio/video player in your car is even dumber than a computer! While it can play all sorts of music and/or video, its computer doesn't really know how to do much of anything else. And it doesn't really need to!

The basic problem, as I see it, is that you made what is actually a 'data' CD (card) instead of a 'audio' CD (card). The car's system did exactly what it 'thought' it should; it displayed what was on the disk/card. Period.

What happened next, back at your computer, is a completely different story.

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #16 on:** July 10, 2013, 12:15:44 PM »

QUOTE

open Finder->Preferences->Advanced and check the "Show all file name extensions" checkbox. You can now see all those other 'hidden' files and even delete the .DS_Store file in any folder. Simple, Safe, Easy.

QUOTE("gray")

This does not work on my 10.8.4 set up!!!

This option does not reveal .DS_Store files.

EDIT: The reason method does not work is because the name "DS_Store" is not an extension.

You are absolutely correct! My furst miztaik thiz yeer!!!

I also was reminded of the biggest problem with using the "defaults write" method. I often forget I used it!

I'm pretty sure that's how I made the 'invisible' files visible... sometime ago, months? Years?!

But there are many utilities that can do this for you, also: Cocktail, Onyx and Tinkertool. I'm not sure I would remember using them any better than the 'defaults write' method, but at least I could see the settings in those apps if I but looked!

All that actually happens is that a new key and value are added to the very beginning of the Finder plist:

NO

CODE

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>ComputerViewSettings</key>
<dict>

SHOW

CODE

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>AppleShowAllFiles</key>
    <true/>
    <key>ComputerViewSettings</key>
    <dict>

That's exactly what the "defaults write" method does. It writes to whatever plist file you tell it and exactly what you tell it to write.

defaults write.com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE; killall Finder

defaults used to access plist files
write. Can also be read. Might be a good idea to do a read first and write down the values you see!
com.apple.Finder is the name of the plist file so there's no need to include the ".plist" part
AppleShowAllFiles the name of the key value
FALSE or TRUE In this case only a Boolean value is possible, in other cases, a numerical or even text value could be entered
; end of the defaults write command
killall Finder needed to relaunch the Finder. A plist is usually only read when an app starts. In order to get Finder to 'see' the new value, it needs to restart.

Notice that no electrons were harmed in this exercise. HOWEVER, even the defaults write method can cause problems! If you ask it to write an invalid value or even a misspelled key word, the app may not work. So judgement should still be used!

HamptonCaught · « **Reply #17 on:** July 24, 2013, 04:35:03 AM »

Hi all

As promised, an update. I had hoped it would have a happy ending, but I'm not quite there yet!

First the good news. Reinstalled the system software following Paddy's link above, and all worked perfectly. Went through some huge updates and now all media is ejecting as it should.

Now to try and get the music onto the SDHC card. I can create playlists in iTunes, the problem is I can't get those onto a card. Playlists won't 'drag' and if I go to 'Burn' the system wants a blank disc inserted. Unless I'm missing something, there doesn't appear to be any way to get a playlist onto a card.

In album view in iTunes, I can drag any album to the card and it will then copy over. The only issue there is that all of the tracks copy but they are not contained within a folder. So I then have to manually create two folders - one with the artists's name and one with the album name in order to maintain a structure. Unfortunately, this didn't work particularly well. There are duplicate files (e.g. where I've got 'audio_track_1.mp3', I also get '._audio_track_1.mp3') which is hidden, yet doesn't show using the terminal command shown above. These are obviously resource forks, but I fear I may be stuck with them.

Dragging the music folders directly from my hard drive (i.e. outside of iTunes) gives a mixed bag. Some work perfectly - artist name, album, track name and album cover artwork, while others have duplicate files as described above and/or no album cover artwork.

The Terminal command I listed above works well for deleting hidden files - the only one that I can't get rid of is .Trashes, which I guess I'm stuck with.

It's been suggested that TinkerTool may help so I'm going to have a look at that when I get time.

I'm not giving up on this as I don't like being beaten, but I suspect there are going to have to be some compromises.

Thanks again for all of your help and suggestions. I'll report back when I have something solid!

Paul

rgray · « **Reply #18 on:** July 24, 2013, 06:05:00 AM »

Take a look at a resource called Doug's Scripts for iTunes. There are a number of options for file management that may be suitable as is or modifyable for you purposes. It may be worth communicating with Doug as he seems to know a hell of a lot about iTunes.

This script might suit your needs!

HamptonCaught · « **Reply #19 on:** July 24, 2013, 07:37:15 AM »

QUOTE(rgray @ Jul 24 2013, 12:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Take a look at a resource called Doug's Scripts for iTunes. There are a number of options for file management that may be suitable asis or modifyable for you purposes. It may be worth communicating with Doug as he seems to know a hell of a lot about iTunes.

This script might suit your needs!

Thanks very much for that - looks interesting and 'ConvExp to Album Folders' could be just what I'm looking for. I'll have a play around and let you know how I get on.

Sometimes I just wish everything worked as it should with no issues or problems, but then I guess we'd all lead very boring lives with nothing much to talk about?

Thanks again.

kimmer · « **Reply #20 on:** July 24, 2013, 12:43:43 PM »

QUOTE(rgray @ Jul 24 2013, 04:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Take a look at a resource called Doug's Scripts for iTunes.

Great site. Thanks!

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #21 on:** July 24, 2013, 02:41:53 PM »

How is that SDHC card formatted? And how did you do it?

HamptonCaught · « **Reply #22 on:** July 25, 2013, 03:56:11 AM »

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Jul 24 2013, 08:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How is that SDHC card formatted? And how did you do it?

Actually, I didn't format it at all - it went straight from its Amazon packaging into my computer and showed up on the desktop immediately.

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #23 on:** July 25, 2013, 11:12:18 AM »

That's what I suspected. Cards/Flash drives/hard disks often come completely without any formatting. Whatever the first use may do the formatting automatically.

OS X will always adds the .Trashes and other 'hidden' files if it assumes the device will be used on a Mac. OS X can usually read/write to any widely-used disk format, so it's not a problem on your computer, if it was formatted on a Windows PC. However, whatever OS is used in your car's CD player may expect different OS and fewer files. And I doubt it would expect to see an OS X format.

Again, the only way to know that is from any User Manual that should have come with the vehicle. In all probability, it is a version of Windows. You can format the card (I think) in either MS-DOS (FAT) or EXFAT. That may prevent its use in a camera but you seem to be mainly interested in audio, anyway. And reformatting is simple.

So, first see if there is any info in any User Manual for your vehicle, hopefully, it will specify a format that you can do in DU. It may even be possible to format the card in the CD player!

After getting the correct format, see if iTunes will then 'see' the card as a usable device for placing Playlists.

HamptonCaught · « **Reply #24 on:** July 26, 2013, 07:18:00 AM »

QUOTE(rgray @ Jul 24 2013, 12:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Take a look at a resource called Doug's Scripts for iTunes. There are a number of options for file management that may be suitable as is or modifyable for you purposes. It may be worth communicating with Doug as he seems to know a hell of a lot about iTunes.

This script might suit your needs!

I downloaded 'Export to Album Folders' last night and having set up a playlist in iTunes, ran the entire playlist through it. It actually does what it does very well, but when I put the card back into the car, there are some albums missing the cover art, some not displaying the track title properly and many that have hidden duplicate (resource forks) files. Some of this I can probably get around manually - I'll just have to work through my iTunes library and check all of the tags, but I'm looking at trying something called 'DriveCleaner' (not the Symantec product of the same name!) to see if I can eliminate the duplicates.

I might also try 'ConvExp to Album Folders' from the DougScripts link you provided, just to see if it handles things any differently.

I'll report back.

rgray · « **Reply #25 on:** July 26, 2013, 12:25:58 PM »

The feedback is appreciated. Thank you.

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #26 on:** July 26, 2013, 05:28:24 PM »

Peaking of Feedback, any info in your owners manual? At least a mention of the card formatting requirements?

As long as you allow OS X to treat it as a Mac volume, it will always put the .Trashes and probably the .DS_Store, .fseventsd and .Spotlight files on there. That what it is designed to do. Period. And the OS for the player obviously has no idea what to do with those. So, if you want to prevent them from being installed, you will probably need to format it as instructed in the manual (at least it should have instructions for that).

rgray · « **Reply #27 on:** July 26, 2013, 09:15:33 PM »

An ordinary SD card probably was formatted MSDOS or FAT32 when it came from the manufacture.

I think OSX writes .DS etc files whatever the format it is writing to but I don't have anything to test it on.....

The owners manual or the dealer should be able to clue you on this issue.

I believe you said the car was a Golf??? I did a quick Google search on search on golf sd card format and it looks like the sd card should be format FAT32.

Also I found this by searching golf sd card mac

QUOTE

some more information for you
1. Make sure that all of your music files are .MP3 files
2. If you are using a Macintosh to fill your SD card, there is one additional step you need to take.

Take a look at the music files from on your radio, if there are ones that start with the prefix "._" this means that they are invisible resource files that the Mac uses to keep track of the file's metadata, and they need to be removed prior to using in the Car.

To do that you need to install some system software on your Mac to automatically remove these files. The software is called Blue Harvest.

Once you have this software installed, you can set it that it will automatically clean your SD card every time new music files are copied to it.

Hope this helps

Xairbusdriver · « **Reply #28 on:** July 26, 2013, 09:29:46 PM »

HamptonCaught · « **Reply #29 on:** July 27, 2013, 09:36:22 AM »

Sorry I didn't get back on the users' manual. Here it is;

'SD and MMC memory cards using FAT 12, FAT 16, FAT 32 or VFAT file system up to max. 2GB, SDHC memory cards up to max. 32GB and SDXC memory cards up to max. 2TB.

I have a 32GB SDHC card and yes, the car is the Mk 7 VW Golf.

I had looked at Blue Harvest and noticed that they do a free trial, so that may be the way to go. If it works, then I'll happily pay for it.

I feel like I'm devoting too much of my life to this right now, but really appreciate your contributions - it feels much easier when there are others willing to offer advice and help.

Thanks again - I'll be back!

Paul

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Author Topic: All media refusing to eject from iMac (Read 3877 times)

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