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[derekc]

Hi - newbie here.

MC 21

I decided to adopt computer audio and have now uploaded my entire CD (yep even that Christmas recording that actually never gets played) onto a QNAP NAS. Three CD drives later, over 2K rips and all was good. I spent a lot of time tidying up after this mammoth exercise - mainly correcting missing artwork etc. I did this via the MC interface.

However, once I started to use MC in earnest, I noticed some recordings (though on the NAS and could be imported and played in MC ) were not showing in the Library. Hmm. Auto import is on and very recently ripped CDs were appearing OK.

Well, I thought the easiest option was to re-import the Library from the NAS folder where the music is stored. Surely it would only import the missing albums. After the import finished MC declared only a 100 or so albums had been added, which seemed reasonable.

However, I now have 3 issues;

1) Some and only some albums now appear as triplicate (all triplicates share same date modified - so are not new)  on the NAS drive  e.g. this track from the album Equilibrium by Benedikt Jahnel

\\nas\multimedia\music\01 Benedikt Jahnel - Gently Understood.wav
\\nas\multimedia\music\Equilibrium\01 Benedikt Jahnel - Gently Understood.wav
\\nas\multimedia\music\Benedikt Jahnel\Equilibrium\01 Benedikt Jahnel - Gently Understood.wav

The original ripped album was copied to
 
\\nas\multimedia\music\Benedikt Jahnel\Equilibrium\

but the whole CD now also appears in

\\nas\multimedia\music\
and
\\nas\multimedia\music\Benedikt Jahnel\

Why has MC done this and what is the safest way to rectify it please?

2) All the artwork I had painstakingly corrected has in some, not all, instances reverted back to original incorrect artwork?

I accept I will have to go through every recording and manually correct the errors - but I would like to know please why this happens. I assumed any corrections I made to artwork via MC would be held against the files on the NAS. Seems that this is not the case and therefore must be independently held in MC somewhere?

3) Before the re-import - albums of various artists were shown as one album, now for these albums every track appears as a separate album. I have seen this mentioned on these forums before, but am unclear exactly what the process is in MC 21 to rectify it please?

Please remember my newbie status when answering :-)

Thanks for any help.

[blgentry]

The root of each of your problems seems to be the multiple copies of the songs that you see.  I'm confused about how you ended up there:

A)  You say you could import the files into MC, but you couldn't "see them in the Library".  Can you elaborate on this as I don't follow you.

B)  Not knowing how you copied the files to the NAS, it's hard to speculate on how you got multiple copies. I can tell you this for sure:  MC doesn't move or copy files unless you explicitly tell it to.  The only two ways I'm aware of doing this are:

Rename, Move, and Copy tool.
Handheld Sync tool, set to copy to a directory structure.

If you didn't use either of these tools to copy or move files, MC is likely not the culprit of the multiple copies.

You could try rolling back to an earlier library backup, made before you did this latest import.  That should restore how your library looked before.  MC makes automatic library backups.  Just go to File > Library > Restore library, and choose a backup made just before your newest big import.

Of course restoring the Library only restores the metadata.  It won't (and can't) move or copy files around on disk.  So it's not going to fix your multiple physical copies issue.

You don't happen to have a backup of your NAS from some time ago do you?  I suspect it would still have multiple copies, but it would be worth examining if you do have a backup of the NAS.

With 2000 albums, it's going to be some work to clean up the copies.  If you're lucky you'll find that only some subset of the albums have copies.  As usual, I may be missing something here.  Others may have more info or better ideas.

Brian.

[glynor]

The only two ways I'm aware of doing this are:

Rename, Move, and Copy tool.
Handheld Sync tool, set to copy to a directory structure.

You can also create copies by drag-dropping from MC's UI onto Windows Explorer (or the Finder in OSX). It doesn't do a directory structure or anything when you do that, though, and just copies whatever is selected to wherever you drop them. I suppose it is possible the OP drug them onto the root of her/his NAS or something? That doesn't seem likely, but possible.

Also, it isn't relevant to this discussion at all, but you can also move and rename files by directly editing the [Filename] tag.

So, if you have a file here:
M:\Audio\Music\B\The Beatles\Abbey Road\01 - Come Together.flac

And you directly edit the [Filename] tag (in the Action Window, for example, or inline in a details view) and type in:
C:\foo.txt

If the original file exists on disk, MC will move the file to the root of the C drive and rename it foo.txt (which will break the file in all other applications because it isn't a text file), ala Rename mode in RMCF.  If the original file does not exist on disk, it will just update the link (ala RMCF in Update Database Only mode).

In fact, in days of yore, there was no Find & Replace template in RMCF, and the way you did it was with the regular Find & Replace Tool and just edited the [Filename] field directly. We were like savages poking our computers with sticks.

It isn't possible to create duplicates this way though, so it is unrelated here, but just worth throwing out there for general knowledge.

[derekc]

thanks Brian

A)  You say you could import the files into MC, but you couldn't "see them in the Library".  Can you elaborate on this as I don't follow you.

Sorry what I meant was if I went to FILE then OPEN MEDIA FILE - the album could be seen on the NAS and played. It would then appear in the library.


B)  Not knowing how you copied the files to the NAS, it's hard to speculate on how you got multiple copies. I can tell you this for sure:  MC doesn't move or copy files unless you explicitly tell it to.  The only two ways I'm aware of doing this are:
Rename, Move, and Copy tool.
Handheld Sync tool, set to copy to a directory structure.
If you didn't use either of these tools to copy or move files, MC is likely not the culprit of the multiple copies.

None of these. All I initially did was rip the files to lap top, and at the end of the day copy to NAS and backup drive. Oh dear - I hold my head in shame - the triplicates are on the back up drive as well. I see what has happened - initially the library was showing the one location, the  re-import has picked up all three locations. Why this has happened I do not know, but clearly not a MC issue. The command line "dir /b /s \\nas\multimedia\music > c:users\derek\documents\dump\list.txt" which at least creates a file to analyse in excel. But still a lot of work to do here :-(

[zombie-wmd]

Why has MC done this and what is the safest way to rectify it please?

greetings -

i have had similar problems with MC running from a NAS.  my situation is different from yours, and probably my own fault, but reference my latest post for, perhaps, some clues to your problems.

i suspect MC has, in some instances, NAS shortcomings.

regards.

[blgentry]

Sorry what I meant was if I went to FILE then OPEN MEDIA FILE - the album could be seen on the NAS and played. It would then appear in the library.

Ah ok.  That's not the way it normally works.  It shouldn't add files to the library just because you played them.  I think you probably have an option turned on to make that happen:  Tools > Options > General > Importing & Tagging > automatically import files when played.

Not that it's any big deal.  It's just not what I would normally expect.

Why this has happened I do not know, but clearly not a MC issue. The command line "dir /b /s \\nas\multimedia\music > c:users\derek\documents\dump\list.txt" which at least creates a file to analyse in excel. But still a lot of work to do here :-(

Sorry to hear about your issue.  But your solution to analyze in excel (and maybe track your progress?) sounds like a good one!  Good luck on your fix.  You might learn something about your collection in the process, which can only be a good thing. 

Brian.

[JimH]

It shouldn't add files to the library just because you played them.

It will if MC is set to do that.

[derekc]

PS  found it - for some strange reason when copying from the laptop to the NAS - for a few days only - the album was first copied to the root drive, then the artist folder was created and then the album was copied immediately again to the artist folder - hence I ended up two or more copies. It is easy enough to put right in windows explorer but am at a loss as to why this happened.



Automatically update... and Update tags when file info changes are set to Y

[JimH]

i suspect MC has, in some instances, NAS shortcomings.

From MC's point of view, a NAS is just a drive, like any other.  Either it works or it doesn't.  It isn't treated specially.

[derekc]

hi again

thanks for all the help above, I would like to ask a few more questions please;

I have deleted all the duplicate files via explorer as this was the easiest way to spot them. But of course they are still shown in the library. Is the best option to re-import the library to get everything straight?

Because of the last re-import I lost a lot of artwork which I had added via the MC interface - is there a better way to manage artwork on wav files that it is permanent?

Finally - my original question- before the re-import - albums of various artists were shown as one album, now for these albums every track appears as a separate album. I have seen this mentioned before on these forums, but am unclear exactly what the process is in MC 21 to rectify it? I am thinking the best way is to delete the albums and add them separately after the library re-import, but even then I am not sure that they will not get split up again.

Many thanks

[blgentry]

I have deleted all the duplicate files via explorer as this was the easiest way to spot them. But of course they are still shown in the library. Is the best option to re-import the library to get everything straight?

Hard to say for sure. Make a database backup before you start, so you can roll back if you don't like the results.  File > Library > Backup library .

One way to do it is to just let MC remove all of the dead entries for files that don't exist any more.  Tools > Options > Library & Folders > Configure auto import > Tasks > Fix Broken links > Yes

Because of the last re-import I lost a lot of artwork which I had added via the MC interface - is there a better way to manage artwork on wav files that it is permanent?

I write my artwork into the files themselves, so they can't get separated.  Tools > Options > File Location > Cover Art > also store image in file's tag > (checked) .  Oh, but you're using WAVs.  They don't support many tags, and they certainly don't support embedded images.  If you're still ripping CDs and obtaining digital files from other places, you would be well advised to stop using WAVs.

How much art is missing?  Do an experiment:  Go to a file that has art, and view it's tags.  Look for the tag called Image File.  It will tell you where the file is.  This might help you figure out if you have art in a common cover art directory, or if the art is mostly stored in the same directory with the songs themselves.  That's what I would advise:  Keep the art in the same folder as the songs.

Tools > Options > File Location > Cover Art > Audio Mode > In the same folder as the file

Finally - my original question- before the re-import - albums of various artists were shown as one album, now for these albums every track appears as a separate album.

Let's address this after your library is "clean" with only one copy of each album.  It *might* resolve itself if we are lucky.

Brian.

[derekc]

thanks again Brian

I can confirm that Tools > Options > Library & Folders > Configure auto import > Tasks > Fix Broken links >  has always been set to to Yes.
I suspect the issue is that the actual album has not been deleted - only the duplicate, so there is nothing to trigger the library update?
It is not a major issue, but would like to get it looking right, so will do as advised and create a library backup first - good advice!

I see there is a facility to store new artwork in the same folder so will do this for all added artwork. I noticed some artwork I previously added added has come through.

Finally, amazingly, and nothing I have done, all those individual albums for various artist tracks have returned to appearing under one album.

[blgentry]

I can confirm that Tools > Options > Library & Folders > Configure auto import > Tasks > Fix Broken links >  has always been set to to Yes.
I suspect the issue is that the actual album has not been deleted - only the duplicate, so there is nothing to trigger the library update?
It is not a major issue, but would like to get it looking right, so will do as advised and create a library backup first - good advice!

So you still show the duplicates?  Files that have been deleted from disk, but are still in MC's library should show with a red minus sign ( - ) next to them.  Is that what you see?

I probably can't hurt anything to run auto import manually:  Tools > Import > Run auto import now

If it comes down to needing to find the individual items that are no longer on disk, we can have you create a smartlist to do so.  It's not hard, but I'm not going to type it all out unless it's necessary. 

Good luck!

Brian.

[derekc]

as an update for anyone who has a similar problem - after a week or so, all the deleted duplicates disappeared of their own accord. I have had one reboot in that period, whether that realigned the library or not I do not know.

The missing artwork was only for a few albums, and I made sure any pasted in artwork was then stored in the artwork folder.

As I said above - the various artist issue resolved itself.

All is good and thanks again for the help above.