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[sygnus21]

Hi, running the current version of Media Center 22 (22.0.59) on Windows 10 x 64 Pro.

Anyway, my issue is track ratings aren’t being saved or sticking. I’ve noticed this issue even going back to MC 21.  Yesterday I rated several tracks on an album in JRiver, and today I noticed they’re all gone. This behavior tends to be random as not all tracks get wiped (lose their ratings), but the ones from yesterday is now baffling. I also notice this behavior when media center auto updates at times. 

This is most annoying as I use these ratings as a marker to play certain tracks when jumping from album to album or playing DJ.

Anyone know what’s going on, and how to fix?

Thanks.

[MusicHawk]

It's been many years since I used the Rating field, and the Stars that show the Rating value, because I kept losing the Rating I had set. I realized that the Stars indicate the value in the Rating field, AND they can change that value by touching a different star. But there's a risk, because the Stars appear in various places (tag window, any view or list that has that field, etc), AND they will change simply by touching. This is unlike other fields that are changed by first selecting the field/tag, then typing or selecting from a list.

Is it possible that the Stars are being touched inadvertently, such as to scroll/drag a window or list, or when accessing an adjacent field/tag, thereby changing the Rating value? There may be other scenarios that will alter the Rating field value.

That problem happened to me so many times that I gave up on the Rating/Stars field and added my own custom field to do the same, calling it Grade (as in A, B, C, etc). I've never had a Grade value get changed accidentally. (Another benefit turned out to be using the field for odd Grade values that would not correspond with the numeric values of Rating/Stars.)

Or, if you find a different cause or solution, please share it.

[sygnus21]

Hi, thanks for replying.

As far as the stars changing when touched or moused over, yeah, I've seen that behavior as well. That said, this isn't the case here, because I know about the touching behavior. This is something totally different. Some ratings simply don't stick once you exit and reopen the program. No rhyme or reason, just simply disappear. 

And yeah, I would echo the same, if anyone has a solution or know what's happening, please share.

Thanks.

[DJLegba]

If you're changing ratings from a client they only "stick" if there is already a rating on the server. And rating=0 is not the same as unrated (field is empty).

[JimH]

If you're changing ratings from a client they only "stick" if there is already a rating on the server. And rating=0 is not the same as unrated (field is empty).

And you have to have set authentication on the server.

[sygnus21]

And you have to have set authentication on the server.

I'm not sure what all this means. All I'm doing is setting a rating of 5 stars to tracks I like. NOT a rating of zero (0). And these ratings aren't sticking.  Why do I need server authentications and all that stuff for a simple track rating? It shouldn't be that complicated. What am I missing?

Thanks.

[Spike1000]

It isn't complicated, it's just a requirement if you're making changes from a client. You don't say if you are doing this from a client or not.

Anyways look here for Authentication options

Tools | Options | Media Network

Spike

[sygnus21]

It isn't complicated, it's just a requirement if you're making changes from a client. You don't say if you are doing this from a client or not.

Anyways look here for Authentication options

Tools | Options | Media Network

Spike

Thanks,

Ok, so for the sake of this issue... what's considered the "server" and what's considered the "client".  I know a client PC accesses data from a centralized PC called a Server. The Server is the PC in which all other client accesses and store data to. Got that. 

That said, I'm not running a server, just a single desktop in which Media Center is installed on and accessed from. Thus to answer the question, the changes are local... done on the PC where Media Center is installed. From that we can consider my PC both client and server.

Anyway I just need to understand what we're talking about so I may solve my issue.

Thanks.
 
 

[Spike1000]

You aren't using MC in a client server setup so authentication isn't the issue here.

An example of a client server setup would be say PC1 being your main MC PC with the say the music files stored on that PC's hard drive. That's the server. PC2 has a copy of MC installed but it plays the files from PC1 via the copy of MC on PC2. Here PC2 is a client to PC1 the server. If you want to change track ratings via PC2 (the client) it has to be authenticated to the server (PC1) as the settings are stored on the server (PC1).

Spike

[sygnus21]

You aren't using MC in a client server setup so authentication isn't the issue here.

Exactly. Thus my confusion of why I need to go through server authentication tweaks and stuff.

An example of a client server setup would be say PC1 being your main MC PC with the say the music files stored on that PC's hard drive. That's the server. PC2 has a copy of MC installed but it plays the files from PC1 via the copy of MC on PC2. Here PC2 is a client to PC1 the server. If you want to change track ratings via PC2 (the client) it has to be authenticated to the server (PC1) as the settings are stored on the server (PC1).

So we are one the same page.  With that, everything is installed, stored, and accessed from one PC - My desktop. 

With that all cleared up, I'm still left with the issue of my track ratings not sticking.

And I want to say thanks for taking the time in trying to figure out what's going on. Appreciate that.

[Spike1000]

Having a bit of a guess here. . . It could be related to your antivirus (if you have one installed). There's a sticky post I think that give some instructions on how to exclude the music and MC folders from your AV as AV can cause some odd things to happen with MC. . .  and you've got something odd going on. There's no harm in excluding them anyways.

Spike

[sygnus21]

Having a bit of a guess here. . . It could be related to your antivirus (if you have one installed).

Being a computer geek and PC builder since late 90's I seriously doubt this is an AV issue. And while I never count out anything PC wise, I still stand the statement this isn't an AV issue.  That said, I'm running Windows 10 x64 Pro on a custom built skylake system I did and the only AV on it is Windows Defender. 

Anyway it appears no one knows why this is happening or how to solve it. Would have been nice if admin participated a bit more, but OK.

I do however, want to thank you Spike for your help in trying solve the issue. Appreciate it.

Peace:)

[Spike1000]

With the greatest of respect if you do read the thread on AV issues you will see that AV can, and does, cause weird issues with MC. It may not be the issue in your case, but you haven't ruled it out (from memory there are specific instructions for defender). I agree it's not normal, but it does happen.

The issues you are seeing are not normal or typical of a working install of MC to get to the bottom of it will take some effort on your part as PCs are complex things. I suggest reading the long thread on weird issues and their fixes. I'd reinstall MC and I'd definitely exclude the MC folders and its database and music folders from your AV.

YMMV may vary, that's my 2p as that's what I'd do for starters for a weird issue like yours.

Spike

[JimH]

Here's the thread:
Antivirus Problems

[sygnus21]

With the greatest of respect if you do read the thread on AV issues you will see that AV can, and does, cause weird issues with MC. It may not be the issue in your case, but you haven't ruled it out (from memory there are specific instructions for defender). I agree it's not normal, but it does happen.

The issues you are seeing are not normal or typical of a working install of MC to get to the bottom of it will take some effort on your part as PCs are complex things. I suggest reading the long thread on weird issues and their fixes. I'd reinstall MC and I'd definitely exclude the MC folders and its database and music folders from your AV.

YMMV may vary, that's my 2p as that's what I'd do for starters for a weird issue like yours.

Spike

Hi, sorry for the late reply.  That said, I'm going to say this just to close this thread out...

If Media Center is having issues with Microsoft's built in AV, than there needs to be a serious look at it (MC). I would also expect a myriad of people using Windows with Defender to have similar issues. I see no other posts on this.

With that, I stand firm in my statement this is not an AV issue. And my issue has been happening off and on while several defender updates have occurred. Anyway, as stated before, I've got NO other AV installed other than the built in Windows 10 Defender.

All that said all seems well for now.

Thanks.

[BartMan01]

A little more info about your environment might help:
Where are your files located?
Are any other media programs accessing those files?
What other media programs do you have installed or use?

The only times I have had rating disappear like this was either user error (accidentally clicking stars) or when using MCiTunesSyncronizer to sync data between MC and iTunes where the old data in iTunes 'won' the sync logic.

FYI, I keep a user defined field called 'My Ratings' where I store a back up the ratings values and I have a smartlist that finds differences. I check this periodically (esp after rating a bunch of tracks or after an iTunes sync dance) and never find MC has unexpectedly changed my ratings.