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[K1lted]

I have resisted upgrading for some time, because MC removed the opportunity to view my files in the way that I wanted to do so.

Having upgraded to Win10, I was forced to upgrade the client, which promised it would find and import both my media and playlists.  Neither worked.

With over 28,000 music files and dozens of playlists, I have used MC to prevent exactly this kind of nonsense, yet here we are again. On importing my music (again) I have lost all of the tags that were there before and none of my playlists survive . . .neither can MC find them when I ask it to search.

[Matt]

Load a library backup.  It contains your playlists.

[~OHM~]

Sorry to hear you're having problems....
Something must be broken on your end...I have never experienced the problems you describe and I have been a MC user since MC18 and am currently using MC23 and EVERYTHING migrated flawlessly. I have 355,957 music files along with upgraded artwork (still in progress) tags (still in progress) lyrics (still in progress) MC23 even caught the last time played and play count in my playlists.

[blgentry]

As Matt said, you should restore a library backup from your previous version.  I mostly use the Mac version of MC, so I'm not 100% sure where the automatic backups are located.  But I think they go somewhere like:

<your user directory>\Documents\JRiver\Library Backups\

You can tell MC23 to use one of these backups with:

File > Library > Restore Library

Good luck!

Brian.

[Spike1000]

There can be issues with importing settings when a MC is upgraded to a new major version if you're not running MC under an Administrator account. (Best practice is not to run applications under Administrator accounts!)

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,111045.msg767603.html#msg767603

Spike

[Spike1000]

Edit: Double post removed be me.

Spike

[K1lted]

I have previously beeen using MC 16, because that is the last version before all the options I liked were removed . .. have been here since 9 or 10 . . .

I installed the beta with default options, which should have done what it promised to, but imported nothing. Now I am left searhing through multiple HDDs for where the old MC stored it's files and backups - hardly ideal  . . . so far, have found nothing, though I know they are there somewhere.

My issue is - why promise that the update will find and import your settings and data if it can't? I know this is a beta, so maybe this is just something to be ironed out, but given that I was FORCED to update this time, I am very disappointed.

Brian, I have already re-imported all of the media, it is the playlists I spent countless hours creating that MC has once again failed to import - why is this such a recurring issue, I have been reporting it for years?

Needless to say, whilst I can import backups, I cannot import the (up until now) extant library and it's playlists . . . even though they must still be there

[K1lted]

For info, I AM running under an administrator account, and, whilst I have found the client files for the old version, none of the playlist info is within those folders.

[JimH]

Playlists are part of the backup.  MC makes them automatically.  They are .zip files.  Usually saved in your User directory.  Here's an example:

C:\Users\JimH\Documents\JRiver

but substitute your user name.

File > Library > Restore

[K1lted]

Thanks Jim, but as stated, whilst I have found backups (none since 2014), there are no playlists that have been restored . . . . I have since found that they seem to be stored in M3U format and am currently searching for them, but, once again, this was supposed to happen automatically . . .

[blgentry]

1.  Library backups happen automatically.  As far as I know you can't turn this off.  So you should have backups that were made within a few days of the last time you used MC16.  If MC16 will still run at all, you can find the location of the backups under Tools > Options > File Location > Program Files > Library Backups .  Otherwise, look where Jim said.

2.  Playlists are part of the backup.  They are part of MC's internal database.  They are not stored separately as M3U files.  You might have exported some of these at some point as M3U, but that's not how MC stores them.  They are part of the database.  You will have the greatest success if you can find your most recent backup and restore it into MC23.  Note that all of your metadata is in the internal database too.  So you really want to find those backups!

3.  The automatic finding of your library normally works between 1 or 2 versions of MC.  For example, MC23 should find a library made with MC21 or MC22.  Maybe even MC20.  But the "automatic find my library" feature apparently doesn't go back as many versions as you are upgrading across.  16 to 23 is 7 major versions. 

4.  There's a slim possibility that you'll have to do a "stepped upgrade".  That is, you might have to install each version in between MC16 and MC23 in order for each newer version to find and import the last version's database.  I hope this will not be required for you, but I'm mentioning it for completeness.

Good luck Sir.

Brian.

[K1lted]

Thank you once again, Brian.

1. This is not possible. If I could open MC16, i would, but (without warning), having reluctantly "upgraded" to Win10, I find myself unable to do so. Apparently the executable is incompatible with Win10.

2. MC23 appears to be incapable of finding such information. I have tried restoring the most recent database, none of my playlists were restored - again, I have been bringing this up for many years, yet it seems not to have improved in any way.

3. Whilst I comprehend your willingness to limit compatability between versions, that is not what you advertise.

Quote "MC23 will find your old data and settings and use them."

4. Whilst I appreciate this advice, why would I bother? I have now had this problem time, after time, after time. JR seems not to care that it cannot deliver what it promises. Given that the one feature that I employed the software for no longer functions, I am left wondering what value (if any) it offers.

Sadly, the answer is none, whatsoever, which is a real shame for something that one offered so much.
Dissapointedly
Brian

[JimH]

Did you try using the browse button in the restore process?  Go up a couple of directories.

Or search for *.zip

[blgentry]

Just to clarify:  I do not work for JRiver or represent them.  I'm just a customer trying to help another customer.

I'm very surprised that your playlists did not migrate.  I recently lost a few playlists myself, but I wasn't sure why or when.  It *might* have been during a transition from MC on one machine to MC on other machine.  But I can't be sure.

If playlists are not preserved across different versions of MC, or are not preserved during backup/restore, that would definitely be something to investigate and fix.  In my opinion.

Brian.

[JimH]

Playlists are preserved.

[~OHM~]

Thank you once again, Brian.

1. This is not possible. If I could open MC16, i would, but (without warning), having reluctantly "upgraded" to Win10, I find myself unable to do so. Apparently the executable is incompatible with Win10.

can you try and run MC16 in a different compatibility mode? like XP or W7...it's worth a try!

[RoderickGI]

can you try and run MC16 in a different compatibility mode? like XP or W7...it's worth a try!

This is what I was going to suggest. If you can get MC16 running again, you can almost certainly (though maybe not absolutely certainly) get all of your original Playlist, tags, and everything else in your library back. Assuming, of course, that you did an in place upgrade from your previous version of Windows to Window 10.

Run MC16 in compatibility Mode for the version you upgraded from. Then do a backup of your library to a known location, then a restore into MC23. Then check everything you expected is in the MC23 Library, and if it is not, you may need to;

4.  There's a slim possibility that you'll have to do a "stepped upgrade".  That is, you might have to install each version in between MC16 and MC23 in order for each newer version to find and import the last version's database.  I hope this will not be required for you, but I'm mentioning it for completeness.

In which case old versions can be downloaded from here: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Old_Versions with MC22 here: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/board,50.0.html and you may need to do a backup and restore between each version rather than rely on MC to find the previous version, since you are now running Windows 10, and you may need compatibility mode for versions up to MC21.

That process would be a bit of work, but if you value the information in your old library, it should be worth it.

But if you don't value the data, then;

why would I we bother?

PS: I have had to backup from a previous version and restore to the new version when the MC upgrade didn't find my previous library, but I think that is normal PC software management. I have never lost any data out of the library during an upgrade. It is likely neither will you, if you follow everyone's advice above.

[K1lted]

Thank you Roderick and OM - definite progress made

As you suggested, I was able to run 16 in compatability mode and export the playlists (I checked first to make sure they worked). After exporting all of them to file, I then went back into 23B and imported them again. Sadly, this was the result for each of them

"Library now has 14873 files. Search and update took 0:00.

Imported 0 new files.
Failed to import 1 file.

In-depth details:
Failed to import:
    C:\Users\Brian\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 16\Library\Playlists\Imported Playlists\Brian.m3u"

Some of the playlist titles were listed under "imported playlists", others were not. All of them were entirely empty.

This is, however progress - at least I have a copy of the playlists now, so thank you for that. Am now going to attempt a library backup and restore and will report back.

[K1lted]

Success, After seeing the path that MC uses to save the exported playlists, I was able to find the library backups for 16. I created a new one in compatability mode, imported that into 23 and alll my playlists were intact.

The only thing left to do was change the drive letter for all the files which were wrong, having recently moved them from a failing HDD to a new one, which was trivial.

Thank you for those who offered suggestions and possible solutions rather than judgement.

[~OHM~]

Success, After seeing the path that MC uses to save the exported playlists, I was able to find the library backups for 16. I created a new one in compatability mode, imported that into 23 and alll my playlists were intact.

The only thing left to do was change the drive letter for all the files which were wrong, having recently moved them from a failing HDD to a new one, which was trivial.

Thank you for those who offered suggestions and possible solutions rather than judgement.

Glad to here you got it sorted out...

[RoderickGI]

Excellent.