Topic: Album Importing Problem (Read 11285 times)

Willom · « **on:** February 06, 2016, 12:40:16 pm »

I signed up for the JRiver Media Center and am having a problem importing all my music albums from my music file thumbdrive. The problem is that not all my albums are imported and some of the files imported are hundreds of single songs, not albums. I first noticed this problem after the albums were imported automatically when I first opened JRiver. When I went to Library, Import and chose to import a single album, it still didn't show up in my library.

My other question is that I can't seem to make playlists of albums. When I set up a new playlist and drag an album into it, a list of all the songs shows up, not just the album. Then when I drag another album into the playlist, its songs combine with the songs in the previous added album. If I keep adding albums, I'll have a very long list of just songs making it cumbersome to find a particular song to play. This kind of defeats the "locate your music quickly" purpose of a playlist.

Any help will be appreciated,
Thanks,
Bill

JimH · « **Reply #1 on:** February 06, 2016, 02:23:03 pm »

Welcome to the forum. Please try editing the Album Artist tag.

blgentry · « **Reply #2 on:** February 06, 2016, 03:54:25 pm »

Quote from: Willom on February 06, 2016, 12:40:16 pm

The problem is that not all my albums are imported and some of the files imported are hundreds of single songs, not albums.

You probably have compilation albums of some sort that are showing up as a separate album per performer. This wiki article will explain what to do:

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Album_Artist_and_Album_Artist_%28Auto%29

Quote

When I went to Library, Import and chose to import a single album, it still didn't show up in my library.

If you didn't get any errors when you did the import, then the album is probably there. But it might not be labeled as you are expecting it to be. The metadata could be bad (album name, artist name, etc). The easiest way to find it, is to look in the files view. On the left side, under Audio, click on Files. Then drill down through the location box until you find the directory where that album is stored. Then you can see the Artist, Album, etc, and correct it if necessary, using the Tagging Window.

Quote

My other question is that I can't seem to make playlists of albums. When I set up a new playlist and drag an album into it, a list of all the songs shows up, not just the album.

Yes, this is what should happen. Playlists show all of the songs, not just albums.

Are you coming from itunes? I ask because itunes recommends the use of playlists for EVERYTHING. Pretty much any organizational need you have in itunes is answered with "make a playlist". JRiver MC is very different in that regard. Playlists are great. But there are many, many better ways to organize, display, and browse your collection using MC. Views are the big deal in terms of organization in MC.

You mention "finding your music quickly". Take a look on the left under Audio > Panes. That's one way to find your music quickly. You can customize that view to show more or different Panes up top if you want. The search box is another fast way to find things in any view.

If you give us an example or two of what you are trying to accomplish, we can probably recommend the right way to get it done using MC.

Brian.

Willom · « **Reply #3 on:** February 08, 2016, 07:24:46 am »

I'm trying to organize my albums into categories like "Male Vocals", "Female Vocals", "Classical Music", "New Age", "Jazz Combos", etc. Is this possible in JRiver? Currently when I drag and album into a playlist, like I mentioned before, all I get is a list of all the songs in that album, not just the album itself. Is there a way of organizing my albums into different categories like stated above?

Thanks, for your help,
Bill

blgentry · « **Reply #4 on:** February 08, 2016, 07:36:02 am »

What you're describing sounds like it would work well with the [Genre] tag or the [Style] tag. Once you set up Genre and/or Style, you can add those fields to a Panes view and select your albums based on those Panes. Panes are those small scroll lists that appear at the top of a view that let you narrow down your choices by various categories.

Also note that MC has many, many fields you can use for organization. Description, Keywords, Genre, Style, etc are all available. You can also add your own custom fields if those make more sense to you.

Brian.

Willom · « **Reply #5 on:** February 13, 2016, 12:10:50 pm »

Thanks to everyone who has helped me learn how to use this awesome program. I have one more question. Does anyone have a good suggestion as to how I can get the blue equilizer icon (bottom right of top playback bar) to light up blue indicating bit-perfect playback. I am using a Meridian Explorer 2 DAC and have tried setting it up per the "JRiver Media Center 17 In Detail" playback instructions with no luck. This DAC is USB DAC. As you can tell, I'm trying to get the best audio playback afforded by the equipment I have. The computer is set to the exclusive mode as suggested by the article.
Thanks,
Bill

blgentry · « **Reply #6 on:** February 13, 2016, 03:18:10 pm »

Quote from: Willom on February 13, 2016, 12:10:50 pm

Does anyone have a good suggestion as to how I can get the blue equilizer icon (bottom right of top playback bar) to light up blue indicating bit-perfect playback.

The light does NOT light up when changes are being made by the DSP. Turning off those DSP features that are changing the sound will make the light show and indicate that you have some level of "bit perfect" audio being sent to the DAC. If you hover over the eq icon, it will show you the audio path, including what changes are being made. Then you can figure out what to turn off in the DSP studio to have unaltered audio.

Brian.

Willom · « **Reply #7 on:** February 14, 2016, 06:18:48 am »

Thanks Brian, but per the detailed instructions provided, I turned all the DSP stuff off except for the headphones box which is set at standard. This is the only thing I have checked under DSP because I only use headphones. I'll uncheck it and see what happens. If this works, why would using headphones cause you not to get bit-perfect music? Are headphones considered DSP?

Another question: Is there a way of creating your own "genre" categories such as "male vocals" and "female vocals" for example? I would like to group my albums into my custom genre categories. For my tastes, there are way too many JRiver provided genres and they are only about 80% accurate. A lot of my music should fit into their categories such as a jazz group under Jazz but can't be found there. Sorry to ask so many questions but I am only one week into this program and there is a lot to learn that isn't covered in their instructions. The forum feedback has been a huge help.

Thanks,
Bill

blgentry · « **Reply #8 on:** February 14, 2016, 08:17:55 am »

Quote from: Willom on February 14, 2016, 06:18:48 am

I turned all the DSP stuff off except for the headphones box which is set at standard. This is the only thing I have checked under DSP because I only use headphones. I'll uncheck it and see what happens. If this works, why would using headphones cause you not to get bit-perfect music? Are headphones considered DSP?

The "headphones" check box in the DSP Studio does what's called crossfeed processing. It puts some of the left signal into the right channel and some of the right signal into the left channel. So yes, it's definitely DSP processing; it's altering the output.

Quote

Another question: Is there a way of creating your own "genre" categories such as "male vocals" and "female vocals" for example? I would like to group my albums into my custom genre categories. For my tastes, there are way too many JRiver provided genres and they are only about 80% accurate.

None of the Genres you see are "provided by JRiver". All of the Genres you see came from your music files! But you're certainly right that most of the Genre information you get from your music files is "wrong" and rather inconsistent.

If you want to change the Genre tag for an album, highlight the album, then open the Tagging Window (Edit > Tag or <alt><enter>). Find the Genre tag in the Tagging Window and change it. You can select from the pulldown list, or type in new values if you want.

Brian.

Willom · « **Reply #9 on:** February 14, 2016, 10:30:20 am »

Brian, your awesome. I got the bit-perfect blue icon and I'm now creating my own genres. This is a fantastic program once you learn how to use it. Thanks again.
Your fellow audioholic digitologist,
Bill

Willom · « **Reply #10 on:** February 14, 2016, 02:23:01 pm »

I have what I hope is my final question. 90% of the music I am playing from my Windows 10 computer hard drive thru my Meridian Explorer 2 DAC are ripped cd's that are being inputed to the DAC at 16 bit, 44100 hz (CD Quality). Will I get a better sound if I up this to 24 bit, 192000 hz (Studio Quality) in the Default Format box (shared mode) under the Advanced tab in the properties window for my DAC?

blgentry · « **Reply #11 on:** February 14, 2016, 08:36:36 pm »

^ In my opinion, you normally get the best sound by sending the original format of the file to the DAC without upsampling it. If you *do* want to upsample (converting 16/44.1 to 24/192) then I would do that in MC's DSP Studio > Output Format > Sample Rate section.

Brian.

Willom · « **Reply #12 on:** February 15, 2016, 06:16:02 am »

After reading your reply, I tried the 24/192 and the highs seemed a bit too bright for my likes. So back to the native 16/44. The blue bit-perfect light rules. Thanks again Brian.

Willom · « **Reply #13 on:** May 06, 2016, 04:21:54 pm »

Hi everyone, I recently developed an interesting problem with JRiver. All my ripped CD music files are on a usb thumbdrive. I imported and organized all my albums into genres and sucessfully tagged them all complete with album art in JRiver afew months ago. Up till today, I've had no problem accessing and playing these albums using my computer or JRemote. All of a sudden today, when I clicked on an album to play a song in it, I get the message "Something went wrong with playback. Details: The file could not be found. Check that the filename in the library matches the filename on the disk." I've tried rebooting my computer, using a different usb port, and even uninstalled and reinstalled JRiver using the option to keep my library intact. What's interesting is that when I click on File, Library, Main Library in The JRiver tool bar, my usb music files are listed there and when I click on an album/song IT PLAYS. I'm am totally befuddled by this and any help someone can give me will be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks all,
Willom

ferday · « **Reply #14 on:** May 06, 2016, 05:21:35 pm »

sounds like because the USB stick is plugged/unplugged, MC isn't seeing when it's plugged in all the time

if you are using this stick as a "permanent" drive with a library, i would suggest assigning it a permanent drive letter
http://www.howtogeek.com/96298/assign-a-static-drive-letter-to-a-usb-drive-in-windows-7/

also, in the tools>import>configure auto import, make sure the box "fix broken links" is set to "yes (protect files on missing drives"

Willom · « **Reply #15 on:** May 07, 2016, 04:15:17 pm »

Thanks Ferday. I tried both of your suggestions and still not having any luck. All my albums and artwork etc are there but JRiver is not linking them to the Library on my thumb drive. Any other suggestions?
Thanks again,
Bill

Listener · « **Reply #16 on:** May 07, 2016, 07:24:33 pm »

Quote from: Willom on May 07, 2016, 04:15:17 pm

Thanks Ferday. I tried both of your suggestions and still not having any luck. All my albums and artwork etc are there but JRiver is not linking them to the Library on my thumb drive. Any other suggestions?

The drive letter that Windows assigned to the thumb drive may have changed. When you imported the music files, MC stored the file's location including the drive letter. MC may be looking for the files and cover art in that old location. You can use the "rename, move, copy files" command to change the drive letter in the file locations that MC stored. Before you do that, read the next paragraph.

If you are going to keep your music files and cover art on a removeable drive, you should assign a permanent drive letter to the drive in Windows. Pick a drive letter that isn't currently in use, preferably one well up the alphabet from those letters in use. I use Drive M: for music files on my computers. Look for my post in this thread

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=102142.msg708684#msg708684

You can find a number of useful links about the problem and the solution by searching for "drive letter" in the JRiver Wiki.

Willom · « **Reply #17 on:** May 09, 2016, 10:05:38 am »

Thanks for your input. Where, in the media center, do I find the drive letter that media center originally used when I created my files? If that's findable, wouldn't I just permanently change the current drive letter the computer has assigned to the original one? You can tell I'm really nervous about changing things that may negate the many hours I spent ripping all my music and cover art to the media center. If possible, could you or someone give me a step by step procedure to get the media center to recognize my thumb drive so that I don't have to start from scratch? This is a bit much to ask but would definitely alleviate my fears.
Thanks

blgentry · « **Reply #18 on:** May 09, 2016, 10:38:54 am »

As a safety measure, you should make a Library backup before you make any changes: File > Library > backup library .

To see where MC thinks your files are, go to the left navigation pane > Audio > Files . From there you should be able to drill down into drives and folders and see where MC thinks your files are. If they are all on one drive, you should see that as the only drive listed.

Good luck,

Brian.

Willom · « **Reply #19 on:** May 09, 2016, 11:57:52 am »

Thanks blgentry, because of your reply I found the problem. When I clicked on Audio/Files I got a list of all my songs. Actually, I got two copies of each song. One listing my thumb drive with a drive letter as the source, and a second one notated by a small red circle with a minus sign in it. This one listed an incorrect source file. Thus when I clicked on a song in a cover art album, the Media Center, for some reason, chose this invalid file and gave me the file can't be found message. When I delete the invalid duplicate file and click on an album song, the song now plays, Hooray. Do you know what the red circle signifies in Media Center terms?
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction,
Bill

blgentry · « **Reply #20 on:** May 09, 2016, 12:00:25 pm »

Glad you seem to have it sorted out. You might still want to force windows to assign that drive letter to the thumb drive. Otherwise it might change again when you remove it, power down, reboot, etc.

The red circle in MC means "I used to be able to find this file that was imported into MC, but I don't see it on disk any more. It's missing."

Brian.

Willom · « **Reply #21 on:** May 09, 2016, 12:15:49 pm »

Thanks I will assign it a permanent drive letter and then backup my files. It's taking forever to delete the bad song files but it is a labor of love. Thanks again.
Bill

Willom · « **Reply #22 on:** May 09, 2016, 02:22:26 pm »

Hi blgentry, I have another question. After solving my Media Center problem concerning the media center finding my files, now my JRemote app on my tablet can no longer find my computer. Did I screw something up again?

ferday · « **Reply #23 on:** May 09, 2016, 02:29:55 pm »

easiest thing (that works most of the time) is to close MC (and make sure you close the server, it's in the notification area on the right of the start bar)
restart MC, wait a minute, then restart JRemote and try again

you can also try reentering the server key into JRemote if it still doesn't connect

Willom · « **Reply #24 on:** May 09, 2016, 03:07:52 pm »

When do I shutdown and restart my server? i.e. do I shutdown the server before or after shutting mc down and do I restart it before or after starting mc back up?

blgentry · « **Reply #25 on:** May 09, 2016, 03:35:28 pm »

Quote from: Willom on May 09, 2016, 12:15:49 pm

It's taking forever to delete the bad song files but it is a labor of love. Thanks again.

Glad to help.

You should be able to isolate all of the missing files either by drive letter, or by a directory or something. Then just highlight them all and delete them at once.

If you can't isolate them that way, here's a search you can put into a smarlist to find all "missing files":

Code: [Select]

[=ismissing()]=1
You can paste that directly into the search box in a view that shows all files and it will filter down to just the missing files. Or like I said, make a smartlist so you can use it any time you need to.

Good luck.

Brian.

ferday · « **Reply #26 on:** May 09, 2016, 08:41:07 pm »

Quote from: Willom on May 09, 2016, 03:07:52 pm

When do I shutdown and restart my server? i.e. do I shutdown the server before or after shutting mc down and do I restart it before or after starting mc back up?

not your server (if you have one), but the JRiver server. it will automatically restart when you restart MC. close MC first then the server

i'm pretty sure if you use task manager and shut down the MC service "process tree" it will shut the server down as well

Willom · « **Reply #27 on:** May 10, 2016, 06:58:26 am »

Sorry, but I'm confused. If I close the MC first, how do I access the JRiver server to shut it down?

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Author Topic: Album Importing Problem (Read 11285 times)