# Preferences - Apple Apps

## General

By default, Yate uses explict linking methods. Link to Apple App uses metadata and Link to Apple App by PID uses retained PIDs. The toolbar icon is associated with the metadata method. You can configure the metadata method to use PIDs if available by enabling the Prefer PIDs when linking option. The advantage to seting this option is that if the PIDs are not available or are invalid, linking by metadata will be attempted. Note: PIDs are meaningless and should not be retained if you have more than one library in an Apple app.

With the release of iTunes v12.5.2, an incompatibility was introduced with the separate retention of Grouping and Work Name metadata in mp3 and aiff files. This incompatibility is also present in the Music application. The Maximum Grouping-Work Name Compatibility option can be used to get around the issue. More information on this option can be found in Classical Metadata and the Grouping Field.

As Apple Apps do not update empty fields which are emptied (and are no longer in the audio files), Yate forces empty values to fields when the files are linked. Due to the above grouping issues, forcing an empty Grouping or Work Name value can be problematic if you are editing files in an Apple application and in Yate. For this reason, empty Grouping and Work Name values will not be forced unless the Update Apple App on empty Grouping and/or Update Apple App on empty Work Name options are set. Note that these two settings are ignored in MPEG-4 files.

Warning: If you are not setting the Maximum Grouping-Work Name Compatibility option, you should not export (or auto-export) the classical metadata to iTunes or Music. Exporting the Work Name field one of these applications under this condition will cause you to lose your Grouping metadata. For this reason it is a good idea to not enable the classical metadata options in Preferences-Apple Apps-Fields of Interest or Preferences-Apple Apps-Auto Export.

Most audio players treat the default comment as the first comment in an audio file which has an empty description field. Apple applications tend to add the requirement that the comment's language is eng. You can force Yate to use this stricter definition by setting the Use strict definition of 'default' comment option.

Yate may create a temporary playlist in iTunes or Music called Yate-Work when showing files in the application. If the playlist was created, checking the Auto delete Yate-Work playlist option, will automatically delete it prior to closing Yate.

If you get errors specifying a timeout has occurred when attempting to add tracks to an Apple application, you can use the Add Timeout (sec) option to solve the problem. The number zero specifies that the system default should be used. This is a timeout of two minutes and should be more than sufficient. However if you do experience errors, you can specify a longer timeout. Remember that the value is a number of seconds.

The Add to Apple App Staging Playlist functionality adds selected tracks to a playlist which by default is named Yate Staging Playlist. You can change the name of the playlist to whatever you wish via the Add to Staging Playlist adds to settings.

The next two settings affect how MPEG-4 files are read and written. These settings are also available in Preferences - Audio - MPEG-4.

Apple applications do not replace values in their libraries when refreshing a file and the associated tag is not present. For example if iTunes has an Album Artist value, when refreshing the audio file it does not find an Album Artist tag, it will retain the current value. Yate typically does not write empty tags to files. It gets around the refresh problem by programmatically telling the application to set the required field to empty. The Content Advisory field cannot be programmatically set. If you want the Apple application to detect a change to an empty state, the empty tag must be written to the files. The Write empty Content Advisory setting will fix the issue with changing a Content Advisory field of explicit or clean to empty.

The Process iTunMOVI for files with video option provides additional integration with Apple applications when processing video files. iTunMOVI is a file component which contains information about the video. When the option is set, Yate will extract role and studio information from the component. When writing files, Yate will modify or synthesize the construct. The Musician Credits, Involved People and Label fields are affected. The Label field will receive the studio name. For more information on how Musician Credits and Involved People are affected click here.

## Fields of Interest

The Linked column in the main window's file list can display indicators as described in Link Indicators.

You can choose not to display any library only indicator. Simply uncheck the corresponding item that you are not interested in. These settings are also used to determine what is imported from, or exported to an Apple application by action statements or by the Action menu Import from Apple App and Export to Apple App items.

Note that the TV application does not support Classical Metadata, Loved/Disliked and Skip When Shuffling. The settings for these metadata types are ignored on Mac OS 10.15 or later if a file contains video and its Media Type is not Music Video.

## Auto Import

You can choose to auto import any of the library only metadata items described in Link Indicators, when you link a track. Be careful when doing this. This will overwrite existing values in tracks. Also, in versions of iTunes prior to 12.5, the classical metadata fields always import as empty or 0. Auto import settings are only useful if you always set particular types of values in the Apple apps. As an example you might want to import the current play counts whenever linking tracks.

If you specify auto import for PIDs, they will also automatically be imported when tracks are added to an Apple app.

## Auto Export

When you save a track which is linked you can choose to auto export any of the library only metadata items (except the persistent ID) described in Link Indicators. Be careful when doing this. This will overwrite existing values in the Apple app. These settings are useful if you always set particular types of values in Yate. For instance, if you only set ratings in Yate this would be a useful way of ensuring that the latest ratings are always exported.

The Always Clear Album Rating option will cause Yate to reset a track's associated album rating whenever values are exported.