This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.
While this is fine and dandy, What about people who need these
ringtones for their iPhones?
The problem remains an iTunes-internal one and is neither caused by
nor residing in Remote Buddy and since it's not in Remote Buddy, it
also can't be addressed or fixed in it.
Is it possible for Remote Buddy to just ignore the ringtones in the
database?
They are not accessible to be shown like the other iTunes system
playlists, so is there a planned update to resolve this?
The ringtones are not even part of the database XML file, so there is
nothing to ignore for Remote Buddy, nor can it even have any effect on
what Remote Buddy is doing.
Whether you add or remove ringtones to the library does not change a
single byte of the data Remote Buddy is using. It makes zero
difference to Remote Buddy. And it does not change the behaviour and
AppleScript code Remote Buddy is executing at all.
In short:
Before adding ringtone to iTunes:
- Remote Buddy and iTunes work perfectly together
After adding ringtone to iTunes:
- a few users experience problems
Difference between the two:
- iTunes internal: iTunes added a ringtone to its internal,
proprietary database that is not used by anyone. The ringtone is now
presented in the iTunes interface
- For third party tools (short): not a single byte. iTunes starts
borking on AppleScript now, though, that previously was executed
properly by iTunes and worked perfectly.
"So why did rebuilding the iTunes library help?" I hear you ask. Easy:
- iTunes apparantly has a problem with handling standard AppleScript
as soon as ringtones are in the library
- the XML file used as the basis for rebuilding and also used by
Remote Buddy to grab a lot of information *fast* does not contain
ringtones
- therefore, after rebuilding, the iTunes library from the generally
ringtone-free XML file, the iTunes library is free of ringtones and
iTunes does no longer expose the bug it is apparently carrying
For whatever reason the ringtones are dealt with seperately, Apple
broke iTunes' AppleScript support in the course of adding special
handling for them. We all remember the back and forth about - at first
- allowing only purchased ringtones, allowing third party ringtones
with a trick, pushing a fast update to fix that "bug" and finally
allowing third party ringtones officially. Chances are, that if Apple
had decided to deal with ringtones just like they are with all other
media files in iTunes, they wouldn't have broken the app.
As said before, I’d love to fix the bug. Yet, it's not in my code. Or
in any of the code of the myriad of other third party tools that are
affected by the bug in the very same, very odd way.
The bug is in iTunes. Apple is and remains the only party that can fix
it.
Best regards,
Felix Schwarz
