Thanks guys. Presumably one obvious thing to do is delete whole library and re import? I write all tag changes to file so other than time taken to do this, there is no reason not to do that?
You can do that, if you are just starting out and have a relatively small number of CD's ripped and imported, but this is not really a big mess up. My sons used to do what you did to me all the time before they left the nest.
Configuring your import options and then just running auto-import, will sort out your dead links to files you removed.
A couple of reasons you may not want to:
- you will lose original import dates, and playback stats (like number of plays etc.), and some calculated data.
- you could lose custom field data that you created, if you have not chosen to write the tag to the file.
- Most key fields are indeed set to write to the file tags by default. I would still double-check (Options=>Library & Folders=>Manage Library Fields -- check that the "Save in File tags when possible" is checked for all metadata you find key.
- If you don't reconfigure your import options, this could happen again.
If the above doesn't concern you, then OK you could I suppose. (you are talking about just clearing the library (deleting just all the tracks and not deleting the whole thing; or a complete uninstall/reinstall as this would mean reconfiguring everything which is not necessary)
I'd recommend just configuring the import options and running autoimport. You probably should configure your import like this anyways. Your tracks that no longer are linked to files will be cleaned up and the stuff that is already in your library will be skipped or updated for external changes you might have made.
If you happen to have duplicates too, this happens to everybody, especially when you have a large collection. You might want to re-look your work flow at this time and use "sandboxing" - what I mean here is that you have your main media section like z:\Music\Album Artist\Album .. you might want to put your ripped files into a temp directory and incorporate that into your watched folders in your import configuration. You can stil listen to the stuff that way, but you can also run some admin (like check on duplicates, rename files, modify artwork etc.) and when satisfied you use the Rename, Move tool that Glynor linked the Wiki article to to move it from Z:\Temp\Album Artist\Album to z:\Music\Album Artist\Album. This makes duplicate searches for example very easy, as when found you remove the ones in your temp folder for example.
Can't emphasize enough the importance of Library backups (not the media files themselves) to include an archive copy of this backup. When things go wrong or you do something stupid, first line of defence is just to restore the backup (its like a big "undo"). And maybe run autoimport manually if there were new media added since the prior back-up. Read on how this works in Glynor's link ... although JRiver does do this automatically, if you are going to do major maintenance, I run this manually first. Or after real big tagging session, I'll run another one.
Anyways your choice
