Retroactive: Mac app that lets you run Aperture, iPhoto, or iTunes on macOS Catalina

[Airsculpture]

Been running iTunes on Big Sur for quite some time quite happily.

I had seen a few people on here who run Music and iTunes side by side.

Once you have altered the location information in Music (i.e. instead of using the default Media folder arrangement you continue to use your own, in my case Media HD>iTunes>iTunes Media>Music folder) in Preferences, and then select Add to Library, my question is I assume Music does not do anything nasty to your media folders etc and just creates the library based on existing locations ?

I was interested in running both side by side for a while ( I don't often add files to my 30,000+ track library so no worries about the two being out of sync with each other )

 

[Lvivske]

Did you ever find a solution to this? I have the same issue.

Ditto

Has anyone got retroactive / itunes to work on M1 macs?

 

[Airsculpture]

Can you use Retroactive to install 12.9 on El Capitan ?

I am assuming not ?

 

[Koufax32]

Q: How to add downloaded music to Retroactive iTunes? What I have been doing is downloading FLAC files from archive.org, or the usenet, converting to AIFF, burning to discs, then having Retroactive iTunes import the burned CDs. It strikes me that there is probably some way to eliminate the need to burn CDs and simply import directly from the converted AIFFs? Anybody?

 

[Airsculpture]

Just download the FLACs, convert to ALAC with XLD and add to iTunes

Wouldnt bother with the AIFF and CD burning at all.

 

[Koufax32]

Can you be more specific on exactly how to import the ALAC files to iTunes and not Music?

 

[Airsculpture]

Open iTunes and select Add to Library from the File menu and select your newly converted ALAC a files from wherever you have converted them to as a destination folder.

 

[Koufax32]

I was afraid that’s what you’d say, bc it’s exactly what I’ve been doing, and nothing happens. I assumed that after following that procedure, the ALAC files would appear in my iTunes “songs” window. Is there somewhere else I should be looking, besides the “songs”, “albums”, or “playlists” iTunes windows?

 

[Airsculpture]

Not that I know of. All allowed files should add. Check the location of the files added, check that files are copied when added to the library.

 

[Koufax32]

is it possible to stream music from my Retroactive/iTunes library thru my AppleTV? The AppleTV seems only to recognize the Music app, and under ATV settings I see no option to change the music library.

 

[Airsculpture]

Yes I homeshare all the time

 

[Koufax32]

As of now, both Music from Big Sur and iTunes/Retroactive are running on my iMac 2019. My AppleTV (and iPhone) are only seeing the library of Music (Big Sur) and not giving me an option to switch to iTunes/Retroactive. My instinct is to turn off Home Sharing on Music, quit Music, launch iTunes/Retroactive, and turn on Home Sharing from iTunes. Does this seem like the correct approach? I’d love to be rid of the bloat of the terrible Big Sur Trio of Music, Movies, and Podcasts and the mostly redundant libraries they carry along. Does this sound like a good approach?

 

[Airsculpture]

Yes ?

 

[Koufax32]

No luck. When I try to turn on Home Sharing from iTunes 11.4 (after having quit Music.app), I get an error message "Home Sharing could not be activated because an error occurred (5507)". Any suggestions?

 

[Airsculpture]

No sorry, I’m using 12.x and not had any problems whatsoever

 

[Koufax32]

I posted before thoroughly researching, and happily, found my answer. For those of you similarly situated, try this:

1. Type in your apple i.d and password and hit the 'turn on home sharing button'
2. Box shows up with 5507 error ( as usual)
3. Wait until the 6 digit access code pops up on your iPhone. ( I'm assuming it will pop up on your iPad too???) Mine came through after about ten seconds or so while I was cursing at the monitor!
4.Retype your apple i.d. password with the 6 digit code added to it.

Bingo! Home sharing lives!

 

[Airsculpture]

Good to hear

 

[Koufax32]

Appreciate your help & guidance! My final task will be getting my resurrected iTunes to recognize my collection of iPods. If I achieve that, I will have finally restored the functionality I lost by "upgrading" from 10.14.6 to 11.5.2.

 

[Koufax32]

When I installed Retroactive, I chose iTunes 11.4 for reasons I can't even remember now. Any idea if I can upgrade from 11.4 to 12.x? If I try upgrade from within iTunes 11.4, it takes me to the App Store, which of course offers no help. Any ideas?

 

[Airsculpture]

Run retroactive to install it. I would be tempted to remove iTunes first but it may not be necessary to do so

 

[Koufax32]

I will do that…in awhile. I’ve been obsessively rebuilding my playlists for weeks, since my disastrous install of Big Sur, and I need a break before starting that process all over again.

 

[Airsculpture]

Always have a back up before any big change.

 

[dataid]

Does anyone know of a patch to Retroactve 1.9 to solve the issue in Aperture of thumbnails not refreshing when scrolling in Big Sur 11.6.1 and Monterey 12.0.1? The only work around I have discovered so far involves rapidly moving the mouse up then down in a short excursion. This causes a thumbnail refresh with a new set of thumbnails. If one just scrolls in one direction the thumbnails do not refresh leaving a blank area on the screen. The problem does not occur in Catalina 10.5.7. Some underlying mouse scrolling code must have changed since Catalina. Is the author of Retroactive aware of this issue?

 

[Koufax32]

Always have a back up before any big change.

I have a “bootable” clone of my Mojave iMac boot drive the day I “upgraded” from 10.14.6 to Big Sur, on an external USN 3.1 drive. Theoretically, should I be able to boot off that drive and sync my iPod collections that way? My instinct says that if it boots, it would run too slowly and sporadically….but I’m not sure there’s anything to lose by trying.

 

[Koufax32]

I have a “bootable” clone of my Mojave iMac boot drive the day I “upgraded” from 10.14.6 to Big Sur, on an external USN 3.1 drive. Theoretically, should I be able to boot off that drive and sync my iPod collections that way? My instinct says that if it boots, it would run too slowly and sporadically….but I’m not sure there’s anything to lose by trying.

Update: worked like a dream. iPod synced perfectly off the clone.