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Using Move Rename & Copy to create a back-up disk
macdonjh:
Here's another weirdness about using RM&C to copy files to another disc: most of the tagging information follows the video file, even though the sidecar does not. What doesn't follow is the [Series] tag (though [Season] and [Episode] do follow). So when MC COPies the file to the new disc, it creates a new SERIES for each episode under Shows. Adding the Series name under Tags fixes this, but it's tedious and weird that it happens in the first place.
Is there a thread to request improvements for MC25 yet? I'd like to copy and paste blgentry's post above about how RM&C handles video and video support files and request that get improved.
RoderickGI:
Rating follows audio files because the [Rating] tag is saved to the file when possible. It is possible for Audio files, and not for Video files. It goes into the Sidecar file then. Similarly, if you store Cover Art inside audio files they would have come across in your process. If you store audio Cover Art separately you will need to copy them across or re-acquire them.
You are going to continue to see anomalies as you are still using the RM&CF function, and it isn't copying your Sidecar files. If you had one Library and files in two locations, tags such as [Rating] would remain in the Library, and so you wouldn't lose them. Now you have two libraries, and the second one may be pointing back to the initial location for Cover Art, or at least for Series, Season, and Album Cover Art, but not Episode and Movie Cover Art. Look at the "Options > File Location" settings to see what you have set for Cover Art. If on the one PC, the location is probably shared, and only Cover Art stored next to the files (Episode and Movie) won't have come across.
You can request an improvement or fix in any thread you create on the forum. It will be seen, which means that it already has been seen. Except the JRiver team are on holidays. We may get some comment in this thread later, or a fix may appear.
You can copy tags from one file and paste just the tags to another file. Right-click > Edit Commands, or Ctrl+C and Ctrl+Shift+V. I think you can do that to more than one file at a time, but I'm not sure. You would need to have two identical lists; one to copy from, one to paste to. You would need to test it carefully as you could make a real mess, since it copies and pastes all tags for the files. I don't recommend that.
An easier way would be to create a movie View showing just the Movie names and any other identifying columns you want such as [Year], plus the [Rating] tag, select all, copy, then paste that into a spreadsheet. Then use the spreadsheet as a reference source to manually update movie ratings in your new library.
You really have made this a difficult process for yourself though. A learning exercise for sure. If I were you I would have stopped doing the current process and started over, using the process I wrote in replay #9, even though I had already done lots of good work that would be lost. Way cleaner. No mucking around trying to get tags correct again. All Cover Art exists in the correct place. May take a little while, but probably less than what you are doing now. Better result in the end.
blgentry:
--- Quote from: macdonjh on December 27, 2018, 03:53:57 pm ---Another question: is there any way to "import" the ratings to the new copies of these files? Obviously, since I have all new sidecar files for the TV shows, none of my ratings are there anymore.
--- End quote ---
The issue here is that you are importing fresh again. Whenever you have files that have already been imported and you are just moving them around, you never want to import fresh as you will probably lose some information. All of that information is stored in MC's internal database. MC associates (for example) the Rating of each video file with that video file's name and location.
But when you copy it off somewhere else and then re-import it, it loses that information. Instead what you want to do is to preserve your existing database. Then tell MC to update the location using the RM&C "update database only" mode.
If I move file X from one drive to another, I can do this with any tool I want. Then, I go back in MC and tell it that the new location is on that new drive. That way MC can still associate all of the database fields it had for this file with that same file in it's new location.
If you will use the "reorganize in place" method, this will be much, much easier for you. Even if the side car files don't move over, MC will still have all of it's database information about these files after you update their locations. The key point is that you can update hundreds or thousands of files at once as long as the directory organization is the SAME, except on different disks. So get it organized on the original, then copy it off to the backup disk. Then you can just do an update and your library will be identical... just pointing to files on the external disk instead.
I hope that makes sense.
Brian.
macdonjh:
Thanks RoderickGI (reply 16) and blgentry (reply 17). I started doing a "baby" version of RoderickGI's suggestion from Reply 9 with my TV shows. As you both said, simply copying an entire folder (video, .xml, .pdf and all) using Finder and then using RM&C to rename the files in the new folders on the external USB disc. Everything came over (including ratings and cover art). I did discover several mistakes in episode tagging in one series that took almost an hour to fix, but that's one reason for this whole exercise.
I checked my audio files and cover art and ratings appear in my new library. Now I have to figure out if that's because they got copied like I wanted, or because the new audio files in the new library are referring to the cover art and ratings in my old library. You guys have already told me how to do that.
I just did a "batch" of video files this morning. I copied them using Finder, then renamed them in the new folder using RM&C. The .mkv and .jpg files got renamed, but the .xml file did not (although everything remained "linked" so cover art appeared and tags were still there). I wonder why the .xml file didn't get renamed? I'd like it to have the same filename to make it easier to keep all associated files together.
blgentry:
Your process is confusing me. It's probably not worth it to try to go back and forth to figure out the exact steps you are using. If you are getting the results you want, then that's all that matters. However, if you are still doing a bunch of manual work, then maybe we should figure out where the disconnect is. RM&C should help you do this faster, easier, and with very little manual work. In the tests I conducted, I did not need to rename any thing externally at all. I'm hoping you can get to a point where it requires no manual work for you also.
Good luck!
Brian.
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