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[thecrow]

Is there a quick way to make the library remove all entries that no longer exist?
I often copy files onto my laptop or attach an external disk to watch or listen to things while away from home then later remove them.
MC will happily enter these into the local library but when I remove the files the library entries remain.
Manually removing these from the library is tedious is there a way to have these automatically removed?

I've checked the wiki (which always seems to say it is out of date, this page making references to MC14) and already have "Fix broken links" set to Yes and "Update for external changes" ticked but it does not behave as suggested

Thanks

[blgentry]

There was a recent topic about this.  They have added a new Stock Smartlist to find missing files.  Audio - Tasks - Missing Files .  You'll have to "add stock smartlists" again to make it show up.  Or you can build it yourself; it's pretty easy.  Here's the thread:

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=99633.msg690243#msg690243

With that smartlist, you can just highlight all and delete them.  Poof.  Gone. 

Brian.

[thecrow]

Thanks for the reply, but you have lost me already.
I don't know what a Smartlist is or where to find/use/create one.
I guess I will have to invest some more hours of my time to learn how to use this program.
Is it really that difficult to achieve this?
I was assuming MC would have a setting to do this automatically as it does to add these to the library in the first place.
I love the versatility of MC but it is often really frustrating to use.

[blgentry]

Take a deep breath.    MC isn't the world's easiest to use software.  It *is* the most powerful media player and library in the world.  IMHO.

I like to say that MC is like a race car.  You can't just sit down and drive it.  You need to know a few things.  You need to understand the controls.  If not, you either won't get good performance, or you might not be able to get out of first gear.  But once you know what you're doing.... you can do things in this "car" that you can't do in any other. 

A SmartList is a Playlist that has criteria that let's it build itself automatically.  Like you could have a list of just music made between 1972 and 1981.  The SmartList would look at the date and only show you files between those two dates.  Cool right? You can use a LOT of different criteria for an MC SmartList, including a way to locate missing files.

I thought that if Fix Broken Links was set to "ON" then it would remove any files that are no longer on disk.  I'm not sure.  <shrug>  But I can help you find all of your missing files in about 60 seconds.  Here's the step by step:

1.  Go to the Left Navigation Pane and find Playlists.  Right click and select "Add Smartlist"
2.  In the dialog that comes up, name it something descriptive like, "Missing Files".
3.  Click the button at the lower left labeled Import/Export.  Paste this into the Import/Export box:

Code: [Select]

[Media Type]=[Audio] [=ismissing()]=14.  Click Ok until the dialogs are all closed.

You should now see a list of all missing files in your system.  Check a few and make sure they are the files you are expecting.... the ones that are no longer on your system.  Let's delete them:  Click one of them.  Select all with Edit > Select All.  Press the delete key.  You can choose the default in the box that comes up.  Missing files should all be gone now.

Good luck to you.

Brian.

[thecrow]

Thanks again for the reply and taking the time to walk me through that, it worked a treat.
I have now been introduced to Smartlists.

I do love the program but to a newbie the user interface is so unintuitive. I have been shown places to enter code to achieve other things, then a few weeks later when I want to modify it I have real difficulty finding that location again. I am sure clicking the Import/Export button to enter code is going to be another one of those, that is not obvious to me.

[Zhillsguy]

Is there a quick way to make the library remove all entries that no longer exist?
I often copy files onto my laptop or attach an external disk to watch or listen to things while away from home then later remove them.
MC will happily enter these into the local library but when I remove the files the library entries remain.
Manually removing these from the library is tedious is there a way to have these automatically removed?

I've checked the wiki (which always seems to say it is out of date, this page making references to MC14) and already have "Fix broken links" set to Yes and "Update for external changes" ticked but it does not behave as suggested

Thanks

I have found that MC will remove the entries at some point.... but if you do a "Run Auto-Import Now" it removes them immediately.

[thecrow]

Thanks Zhillsguy, after short search found "Run Auto-Import Now" under File>Library>Import> and since running that once MC now appears to be automatically removing entries by itself within a minute of starting MC or the file being deleted, so may have cleared something that was stopping it behaving before. Looking at the details of that first run it removed over 200 entries most of which were not actually showing up in the library anyway so maybe something funny there was causing me a problem.