Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[jptrudel]

Hello,

Just upgraded from V21 and V22.  Both versions are still installed.
V22 does not see libraries from the previous version.

What is the correct procedure to upgrade and get back settings and libraries ?
What is the correct way to get rid of the old version without loosing anything ?

First major upgrade I am going through and I could not find a detailed workflow to do so.
I was expecting that installing the upgrade would simply replace the old version and that I would be back on track with the same settings and librairies.

Thanks ,

jp

[JimH]

MC should have found your old library, but you can back up in MC21 and restore in MC22.  When you do, you can also restore your settings, if you wish.

[jptrudel]

Do I have to do this for each library ?

After backing up the libraries in V21 and restoring them in V22, How do I get rid of V21 so I am not running two database ?

[jptrudel]

I did  a backup for one library in V21.
I restored the library in V22.
When I checked under Artist the total number displayed looked different than what I was seeing in V21.

Went back to V21.  The library will not load.  Trying to restore the backup crashed MC.

After import in V22 is there a flag on this library that would not allow V21 to reload the file ?

[JimH]

No.  That isn't the problem.

Odd problems like that often have odd causes.  Antivirus software sometimes causes problems like that.

[jptrudel]

Ok, let's start from scratch and create a new library in V22 as it clearly seems that there is some modifier in the library's location between the two versions. I get similar behavior with other libraries that I am trying to backup/restore from V21 to V22. Message from MC is Be sure you get acces to the library location. and nothing has moved.

Would you be kind enough to give me the proper way to rebuild a library from scratch in V22 pointing to a single location on my computer (windows 10) at I:/My Music.

[JimH]

The link called "Getting Started" in my signature tells you how to import your files.  You could clear your library (from File > Library) first.

But something isn't right if the backup can't be restored.

Antivirus?

[jptrudel]

I cleared the library.
Reimported from the location.
All files have been scanned.

In the library I have a large number of files that are under the tab Unassigned in the Artists field
A lot, of if not most of them, have been ripped using MC.
These files showed up properly in V21.

What would cause a file to get unassigned ?

[JimH]

Check the Artist and Album Artist tags.

[blgentry]

Restoring your MC21 backup *should* get all of your older metadata back.  Doing an import won't always get all of the meta data.  The restore is the right way to go.  To be explicit, you should be doing:

File > Library > Restore Library

Brian.

[jptrudel]

Well, I have a lot to learn to get things right.
The upgrade is maybe not the only problem for all these unassigned files as the same library in V21 now shows as many unassigned files.

I started digitizing my CD collection in flac format in V21. As the process was moving forward I could see the albums and artists populating the database called Flac Library. The whole collection is about 600 CDs.  I am not sure what was the status of auto-import at the time but I would guess it was the default setting.  My goal was to get the flac files only in the MC database no contamination with Wav or Mp3. Location of the media was on a separate drive and the media went to I:/My Music.

Later, I created a new Library called JP Library. Auto-import on the library was turned off. I ran an auto import manually pointing to the same location (I:/My Music). At this point the Flac Librariy and the Jp Library looked the same.

Then I started to add my Itune collection. The PC use for Itunes is a different unit so I copied the album files to I:/My Music on the MC server adding albums to existing artist's folder and creating new folder for artists that were new.

I then ran an auto-import to add the new .m4a material  and the original flac to JP Library.  Things looked OK.

Recently, just before the upgrade, I did the same exercise to add my mp3 to the JP Library.  Mp3s are mainly used for an old Zen Media mp3 player.  This library had the CD collection  (wma and mp3) And some additional albums that only exist in mp3 format.  I manually compared the my new location and the mp3 disk drive to add only the albums that are not part of the CD collection. These files have been added manually under the artist name in I:My Music or a folder was created if the artist was new.

I:/My Music now has my CD collection in flac,  additional .m4a files from Itunes collection and mp3 material only existing in this format.  I then ran an auto-import to update the database.

Here I am now restoring the JP library and finding hundreds of files that are unassigned, artists and albums unknown.

I don't mind redoing the work from scratch but I am missing some understanding on how to organize and validate that the naming convention and folder organisation that MC could understand. Strongly believe that the product is OK but my knowledge deficient.

The tree I use right now is I:/My Music/[Artist Name] / [Album Name] / [Song Name]

Please note that most unassigned files are flac and have been ripped with MC.

Sorry for the long post, but if there is a best practice for what I am trying to achieve, I am listening...

Thanks

[JimH]

Are the problem files all m4a or all mp3?

[jptrudel]

Most are flac created by MC when I ripped them.
In Windows their type is Media Center File

[blgentry]

I'm unclear on whether or not your MC21 library was correct at some point or not.  If it *was* more correct at some point, what happened?  Or *when* did MC21 start looking wrong?

MC makes automatic database backups every 2 or 3 days.  So you have some history you can go back to.

I would encourage you to restore one or two of your MC21 backups into MC22 in a fresh clean library and see what you get.  If it was correct in MC21, it should be correct in MC22 also, as long as you use a database backup as the source.

Good luck.

Brian.

[JimH]

Did you check the tags for Artist and Album Artist?

[jptrudel]

All unassigned files have their name tag filled ex: Beck- Volcano
all other fields are empty (Album, Artist, Date, Genre, Track# )
When I positioned the mouse over the file in the MC browser the path is OK
ex:  I:/My Music/Beck/Modern Guilt/Beck - Volcano.flac

[jptrudel]

I tried to import one of the problematic album in a clean library and it gets unassigned.  Unknown album by unknown artist .   I see the cover art and all the songs properly listed.   All other tags are gone like in the restored library.

[JimH]

... all other fields are empty (Album, Artist ...)

This is the problem.  The tags need to be filled. 

It is possible to copy one field to another.  It is also possible to use MC's Library Tools to fill the tags from the filename.  Select a few tracks, right click them and use Library Tools > Right click the tracks and choose Fill Properties from Filename.  Try a few before you do very many.

You might also get some of the tags filled by choosing Library Tools > Get from Internet.
The more important question is how did the tags get lost.

[jptrudel]

I don't understand why the files tag are empty.  When I ripped them Mc must have filled the flac metadata fields not just the MC library information, isn't it ?

Also, If I click on one of these files in Windows it will try to open it in MC V21. 
I can't wait to get rid of this version and work with one instance of the program.
How will I attach the flac files that are showing as Media Center file in Windows to V22  ??

If I fill the tag inside MC will they be part of the flac file metadata or will it just populate the MC library ?

[jptrudel]

I have been able to recreate the tags from the filename for individual artist. I used two of the Beck album that were unassigned.

How will I deal with multiple artist albums ?

[jptrudel]

For your information there is 7088 files that are showing unassigned.

I want to do it once and there is not much to keep from existing libraries, if I can rebuild everything with import and filling the missing flags.  So Would it be better to
1) get rid of V21 and all librairies related to it.
2) Clear and delete all librairies in V22.
3) Start fresh with a new library
4) Reimport from I/My Music
5) Deal with unassigned files and make sure the metadata are transmitted to the flac, mp3 and m4a metadata in case we need to re-import at some point with MC or other programs.

Please let me know what is the best location when creating a library so it will be consistent. I am surprised that there is not a proposed default location showing when creating a library.

[jptrudel]

Well after 4 hours 250 files have been tagged.  More than 7000 to go, so I think I need a work around.
At this point I don't know if the tags have been written to the flac files themselves or jut to the library.  I would need a way to propagate the tags to the files themselves so than other devices and software could read this information.

The main question I have is :  When I ripped the CD in MC was there a way to write the tags (metadata) to the files themselves and to the library  ??  I ripped files with a bunch of applications and it never happened that the the informations was not written to the files themselves.

It would also be good to have more option for online tagging and to be able to feed the search engine with clues.

[ferday]

tools>options>Library&folders>....manage library fields

check a few of the main fields (album, artist, etc.) and make sure the box is checked "save in file tags (when possible)"

for the cover art:

tools>options>File Location>Cover Art

make sure the box is checked "also store image in file tag"

for files that already are tagged, you can select all of those files, and right click > Library tools> update tags (from library).  this will force any library-only tags into the file

you can auto-tag as you import as well, using the folder structure on disk as a template (so it sounds like at least you could grab artist and album from your folder structure)

[JimH]

Ripping probably did write the tags, but they were lost sometime afterward.  You could test this by ripping a few again.

[jptrudel]

To auto-tag on import from filename,  I guess I have to enable the task : "Write file tags when analyzing audio, getting cover art, and applying folder-based tags"

[jptrudel]

Could we bring this thread offline as I think it's becoming really confusing.
My lack of experience can only scare others.
Is there another way to reach tech support ?

I think I have some ideas why my libraries/tags  are so messed up. 

[jptrudel]

My invitation to take this offline and get in touch with support has stayed silent for almost a week, so I guess the forum is the way to move forward.

I am confident that I am back on the track as all flac, mp3 and m4p showing properly in a new library.

As recommended on this forum I restored archives until I got the flac reference back.  That went back to the time where I ended ripping the CD collection.   The material was ripped to an external Drive H:my music
The library location at the time went to H:   

When restoring the old library, MC reported an error asking for drive H:
Although nothing had physically moved. Windows renamed the external drive to I: at some point
Did not know any way to workaround this, so I went to disk Management and renamed the Drive to H:
The old library came back with the proper reference. Some hope. I pushed the the tags to the files

Going back to the current library with  flac,mp3 and m4a  I noticed the library residency was on C:My documents/JRiver/My Libraries.   Looks like after restoring the old archive the path to media changed from I:My Music to H:My Music.  So at first the system showed no unassigned files but will refuse to play  maybe because the H: drive was under I: the last time this library was loaded.   I gave up and took a break.  When I came back 3-4 hours later, MC had built a new reference to the media and things were looking good. Some magic happened.

That brings some questions that I will submit to the forum on separate thread regarding best practices for library location and archived libraries.

Thanks to all for the patience and the clever clues