# Interacting with iTunes/Music/TV

On Mac OS 10.14 or earlier, Yate interacts with iTunes. On Mac OS 10.15 or newer, Yate interacts with the Music and TV applications. Everything is done automatically for you. Most menu items and documentation refer to Apple Apps. Unless explicitly specified otherwise, Apple Apps implies any of iTunes, Music, or TV.

On Mac OS 10.14 or later, the first time you attempt to access an Apple application, you will be asked to grant permission to Yate. If you do not, interaction with the application will fail. The permission can be manually enabled in System Preferences-Security & Privacy-Privacy-Automation.

Additional information on configuring the Apple Apps and the basics of configuring Yate to work with them can be found at Working With Apple Apps - The Basics.

The primary requirement in interacting with an Apple application is establishing a link between Yate and and the application. This link can be initiated from within Yate or the application (by dragging items into Yate). Regardless as to how the link is established, it is transient and is removed when the linked files are closed in Yate. More detailed information pn linking can be found in Linking to iTunes/Music/TV.

Apple applications keep many metadata items in its library which they never write to the files. When files are linked, you can pass rating, play count, skip when shuffling, start time, stop time, volume adjustment, classical (new to iTunes 12.5), loved/disliked (new to iTunes 12.5) and remember playback position metadata between Yate and and an Apple application. You can also extract an Apple application's artwork for an album and overwrite the linked file's artwork. (iTunes at times did not write out artwork).

Apple applications contain some metadata that is only maintained in their respective libraries and is not read or written by the applications to the media files.

The main window's Linked column displays various state indicators to represent differences between Yate's values and an Apple applications's library only metadata. If any of the indicators are displayed the file is linked. If you're interacting with one of the Apple media applications it is recommended that you display the Linked column. More information on the indicators and their associated metadata can be found in the Link Indicators topic.

We've discussed linking, but Yate can also be used to add files to an Apple application as part of your standard new album workflow. You add files via the Apple Apps menu's Add to Apple App item or via a toolbar button. An attempt will be made to add all selected files not already linked. Files successfully added will be linked. Note that adding files can be very slow if your library is large. Yate simply tells the application to add the files and then waits, and waits, and waits... If Preferences - Apple Apps - Auto Import - Persistent ID is set, persistent IDs will be imported when the files are added.

When files are linked, and Yate renames and/or moves a file, the file's location will automatically be updated in iTunes and Music, if necessary.

Once a file is linked, you can manually import and export library only metadata. You do this via the Actions menu items: Import from Apple App and Export to Apple App. The values that get imported or exported depend on what items you have enabled to be imported/exported via Preferences - Apple Apps - Fields of Interest. You can also compare the Apple application values with the Yate values and selectively import or export any value regardless of the preference settings. For more information see Compare Apple App Values.

When linked files are saved, Yate will automatically tell the appropriate Apple application to refresh its metadata. All changes you have made and saved in Yate, which are supported by an Apple application will be applied to its library.

Hint: Link to Apple App before you start making lots of changes to your tag information. This maximizes the chances of your files being located the next time you link. If you've made changes to your files' Album, Artist or Title metadata and you forgot to link first, you can attempt to link with the initial values in place when the files were first loaded or last saved. You do this via a Apple Apps>Link to Apple App with Initial Values. This only really applies if PIDs are not being used.

Note: No operations are performed between Apple applications and DFF, DFS, FLAC and OGG files. If you want to change metadata in WAV files, link, then make the changes in Yate so that iTunes or Music updates its library. These applications do not write WAV metadata to the files, nor do they display any artwork or lyrics you place in the files (other Audio players will).

If for any reason you want to drop the linkage between an Apple application and Yate, you can use the Apple App menu item Unlink from Apple App item. The only reason to ever use this function is if you do not want to refresh iTunes when saving changes.

If you want to remove items from an Apple application you can use the Apple App menu item Remove from Apple App.