Oh, this opened a can of worms for me.
I was just about to point out the inconsistency of claiming that nothing on the C: drive was ever imported, and then using a Video View within MC to prove that this was the case, as in the first image of this post:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,118352.msg819710.html#msg819710Then this:
Oh I figured it out. You're using the Explorer view. When looking at such a view, MC temporarily "imports" all files shown in the view so it can get tags etc.
I always knew that the Files views only showed what had been imported into MC, and that the Explorer views showed everything. But I never knew that the Explorer views temporarily imported everything! I thought MC just scraped what it got from Windows using Windows APIs. Note I can see why it is done, as it does make viewing images and such without importing, and checking their tags, quite easy and handy.
That makes a huge difference, and this:
Do they get analyzed every time MC is started?
has a bunch of implication as well, such as would using an Explorer view, causing everything you look at to be imported, mean that everything is analysed, causing some of these unexplained slowdowns I (we) see on occasion?
As a surprise, and perhaps a hint to an answer to the above, while viewing my C:\Users\[User ID]\Pictures directory using an Explorer View, and leaving it sit there for a while, MC started downloading images from my skydrive.
I will point out now that the view shown in the first image I mentioned above is, in fact, a Video view, and not an explorer view, and MC knows some about the C: drive in that view.
So I would assume that JustinChase has used an Explorer View, MC has imported the files temporarily, and then the Explorer database with all those files are now available to the Video View for display?
So I built a similar View, navigated my C: drive, specifically the C:\Users folder to pick up some images that have never been imported, and then checked in my new View if I could see those files. Nope.
Ah, but I hadn't included the "Location" column. So I added that, freshed everything, and I could see one part of the C:\Users directory, and drill down to the MC library backups. But nothing else. No Downloads folder with images in it.
So using the MC Explorer functionality didn't allow my Video View to see all the files using the Explorer Database, but did allow me to see one directory, the backups directory, and the files in it. EDIT: In fact it showed me that one sub-directory as the two backup files in it had been imported as Documents into MC in the past, and still were.
So I ask the question:
Why does JustinChase's Video View show the contents of his C: drive? (Although it is a very limited amount of his C:\Users\Chris folder, and doesn't, for example, include the Music or Pictures sub-folders.)
I would suggest that the answer is that at least some files in the directories shown had been imported into MC in the past, and maybe still were. JustinChase, Drill down into the location and see what MC reports.
I imported one image from my C:\Users\[User ID]\Pictures directory, and it showed up in my new Video View, and in my Images view. I deleted that image from the MC Library, and it disappeared from all views.
JRiver: Was the RM&CF function ever intended to be used on non-imported files, via an Explorer View?
Answers:
Don't use an Explorer View for moving files, or if you do, expect the results reported. Particularly when trying to move files that have not been imported.
If a Location shows up in the "Video > all Library View", then something in that location has been imported into MC, and still is.
Like I said: Can of worms!