How to using Platinum Notes on your whole iTunes library
This guide is based on my using Platinum Notes to process all of the music in my iTunes library in June 2014 on Windows 7.
The official guidance from Platinum Notes here is that you should manually re-add all of your processed music files into iTunes, but this is obviously a non starter if you have a few thousand tracks and lots of playlists you want to retain. The issue is not just that Platinum Notes won't overwrite existing music files with the processed file, its also that your iTunes library probably contains several different types of music files (e.g. .mp3, .mp4, etc) and the iTunes library needs to somehow be updated with the new adjusted filenames and file extensions. It turns out that although the iTunes master database .itl file can't be edited (its in a proprietary format), there is a way to export it to an .xml file, exit it and then re-import it (you can see details of the files iTunes uses here). After a bit of research this process worked for me, but take care and ensure you keep a backup of your original music folder and the iTunes database files in case you get problems…
I used Platinum Notes on my iTunes music folder and selected it to save to a new folder but with the same structure. This created a copy of all of my music files (make sure you have enough disk space!), but with all of the files now .mp3's and with _pn.mp3 on the end of the filename.
Make a backup copy of your "C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes" folder which contains your iTunes Library.itl master database file.
Open iTunes then from the menu use File > Library > Export Library. Export it to an xml file and save it somewhere.
Now open this xml file in a text editor. I used Dreamweaver because I have it, but any simple text editor should do. This file contains all of the music file information and playlist information (search for a track or playlist name and you should find it in the file) Use find and replace to update all of the track files name as follows (this assumes you have exported from Platimum Notes as mp3 – adjust the replace with's if not):
.mp3</string>
replace with:
_pn.mp3</string>
.m4a</string>
replace with:
_pn.mp3</string>
.wav</string>
replace with:
_pn.mp3</string>
.aif</string>
replace with:
_pn.mp3</string>
Save the file.
In iTunes select All Music and note the total number of tracks you have so you can check all or most are there after the update.
Close iTunes and remove "iTunes Library Genius.itl" and "iTunes Music Library.xml" (move them somewhere else so you have them as a backup if you've not already copied them). This takes away all of iTunes knowledge of your music library!
Copy or move the Movies folder from your old music folder to your new music folder if you have movies.
Now change the name of your existing iTunes music folder, e.g. to "\Music-ORIGINAL". Change the name of the folder containing all of your Platinum Notes processed files to be the name of the original \Music folder iTunes uses. Now you have all of the new files in the same place as the old, just renamed with _pn.mp3.
Open iTunes. It will be blank! Menu > File > Library > Import Playlist (yes Playlist – it doesn't have an Import Library option but this works). Select the .xml file you exported and edited.
Now iTunes will re-find everything and all of your playlists should re-appear.
If anything goes wrong, close iTunes, delete the new .itl and .xml files in the iTunes folder, edit your exported .xml file or make whatever changes you need to make and re-try opening iTunes again. If all else files do the same, restore your backup copy of the iTunes library folder and rename your original \Music folder back to its original name and hey presto you are back to the way you we're!
If you don't have the same number of tracks as in the old iTunes library then maybe there was a problem, or if the difference is small then maybe a few tracks weren't really there in the old version? One other trick is to look at the iTunes Recently Added playlist and note the last entry. Then can select add folder to library from the menu and select your iTunes Music folder to have iTunes find any tracks not already in the library. Then have a look at the Recently Added playlist again to see what got added.
