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[jnahman]

I rip my CDs on a laptop saving the files to my C drive. Later, I move the files and folders to an external drive (listed as my H drive on the laptop). On the laptop, MC still keeps the original filename and paths to the C drive even though the files no longer exist there. Is there a way to have MC update (and drop its database listing automatically) when files move?

Second question: Once my music is loaded on the external, I move the external drive (physically) to a different dedicated laptop at my stereo where I think the external drive listing is most likely F drive. Is this a problem for the MC program sitting on the second laptop since its database target (F drive) has not changed? I don't think it should be an issue and has not presented a problem but thought I would ask. (Oh, in case you are wondering why the two laptops, the second one doesn't have a cd drive)

So main question is how to get laptop 1 MC to drop removed items and add moved items to external...thanks in advance.

[blgentry]

Is there a way to have MC update (and drop its database listing automatically) when files move?

There are two basic ways:

1.  Move the files using MC.  MC has a wonderful and powerful tool called Rename, Move, and Copy files.  You just select the files, run the tool, and configure it, and it will do the the moves and the database updates for you.  Depending on exactly how you're doing your moves (preserving directory structures, or reorganizing), this might be a great tool for you.

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Rename,_Move,_and_Copy_Files

2.  Auto import.  If you set up Auto Import to import from both your C: location *and* your H: drive, it should sort out anything you move externally, within reason.  This should be relatively seamless.  You might want to try it with a few files first and see how it works.

Regarding moving the drive to another computer:  I'm assuming these are totally separate installations of MC that share nothing but the drive.  In that case, you shouldn't have any issues, except for any special tags that you write on the first computer, that might not be copied into your files.  Something like a custom field you defined, or some other field that can't be saved into the music files.  Otherwise, as long as the changes are being written to the files, you should be fine.

Moving the drive back and forth might have some implications for play counts, ratings, and that kind of thing, depending on how you use MC on each computer.  If they both write to the files, the last one to write "wins".

Brian.

[jnahman]

Thank you Brian for both responses to my posts. I will try them out. Regarding the copy/move feature, I had not moved data that way. I had used Windows Explorer to move files since my external drive might already contain a folder for "Michael Hedges" with a number of albums under it. I am not familiar with how MC would organize the data if I used it to move but will read the link you included.

You are correct that the two laptops each contain MC on it and it is only the external drive that moves. I don't know how happy I am about each one overwriting the tags as the last used. I spent today trying to clean tags to get rid of split albums and I would hate to think that the changes are only good on my ripping laptop but that may be the way things are. I actually do not care about ratings, when something was last played, etc. so losing that isn't of interest to me but losing changes in the tags are.
Thanks again.
jaime

[blgentry]

since my external drive might already contain a folder for "Michael Hedges" with a number of albums under it. I am not familiar with how MC would organize the data if I used it to move but will read the link you included.

You can give it rules like:

Directory:  H:\Music\
Rule:  [Artist]\[Album]

...and it will move the files using that rule.  So in this case you'd get (for example):

H:\Music\Michael Hedges\Aerial Boundaries\01_Aerial_Boundaries.flac

You can control the way the files are named too, if you want.  Or it will just use the existing file names.

I don't know how happy I am about each one overwriting the tags as the last used. I spent today trying to clean tags to get rid of split albums and I would hate to think that the changes are only good on my ripping laptop but that may be the way things are.

MC only writes to your files when you make tag changes in it's library.  So if you only make changes on the first machine and never on the second, then the second will never write any tags to the files.  You can explicitly tell MC to not write tags to files if you want.  You might do that on the second machine.  The setting is:

Tools > Options > General > Importing & Tagging > update tags when file info changes > (uncheck)

Good luck!

Brian.

[jnahman]

Thank you so much for the help and suggestions.