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[macdonjh]

I've been creating a back-up disc of my media collection (external USB hard drive using exFAT as the disc format).  Overall that's gone pretty well and given me lots of practice with the Move Rename & Copy feature of MC.  I have had some weird difficulties with that utility, though:


When copying music files, it would only copy a few albums' worth of music at a time.  I know in theory I should be able to highlight every album in my collection, tell MC to copy all those files to another disc and let it go.  In practice, if I highlighted more than five or six albums, most wouldn't be copied.  I wonder why that is?

When copying my movies, only the video files got copied, the sidecars and cover art files had to be manually moved.  At blgentry's suggestion, I did have better luck using "Move", but as I said, I wanted a back-up copy of my files, not just to relocate them.

Finally, a couple dozen movies just would not import correctly: the cover art wouldn't link to the video file and display.  I made sure the video file, sidecar and .jpg were all in the same folder and all had the same filename.  I also used the "Rename" utility in "update database only" mode a couple of times for each of the problem files.  I had no luck with that.  I am having some luck recopying the problem children, though.  I just wish it wasn't such a pain.

[macdonjh]

Oh, one other thing I did: I had better luck getting all the video, sidecar and cover art files to resynch together if I did my copying and moving by hand and file renaming first, then "importing" into the library.

[macdonjh]

Movie library is fixed.  I had to recopy the problem files into new folders, then delete the folders that were giving me trouble.  When I copied the files a second time, the video and .jpg files copied, but the sidecars did not.  Weird.  I still had one movie that would not cooperate, so I copied it again.  I know I used the COPY (and update database to point to new location) option for that one movie, and only the video file copied, I had to copy the .jpg and sidecar manually.

[macdonjh]

Does anyone have any tips for renaming sidecar and .jpg files?  Is it possible to use Rename Move & Copy to do that?  I'm getting ready to copy my TV shows so I have hundreds of files (x3, really for the video, sidecar, and cover art).  I really don't want to rename the sidecar and .jpg files manually.

[RoderickGI]

Does anyone have any tips for renaming sidecar and .jpg files?

Yes. Absolutely. Don't do it!

MC names Sidecar and Cover Art jpg files. Leave them alone. The RM&CF function renames them correctly when you move the Movies, TV Shows, Audio Tracks etc. If it doesn't, something is wrong, or you are doing something wrong. Fix the issue, and then MC will look after the files.

If Cover Art images don't link to movies correctly, fix the Cover Art, don't re-copy the files from the source. Just right-click on the movie > Cover Art > Add from file, and navigate to and select the correct file. MC will take care of moving and renaming the Cover Art image file. Or you can use "Quick find in file / Cover Art directory, which works well if the file is named correctly and in the correct location, but just not linked to the movie record. You can do those processes in bulk, for any movies not set up correctly.

Unless you are fixing something that you screwed up by manually copying and renaming stuff, and you know what you are doing, don't go renaming Sidecar files either. Just rerun the "Get Movie & TV Info" process again. If you lose some tags in those files when you do that, and if that concerns you, just run the "Update tags (from library)" function for those movies / TV Shows.

One reason that Sidecar and Cover Art jpg files might not get moved is that you have imported them into MC. You do not want to do that. Check that your Auto Import settings for Movies, TV Shows etc. does not include importing images and xml files. Incorrectly set up Auto Import settings explains a lot of these sorts of problems.

BTW, the RM&CF function isn't really the best tools for creating a backup of your files. Sure, it can do it, but if you get the directory and/or file expressions wrong, MC is going to not just move the files between disks, but also rename the sub-directories they are in and the files. Plus if you copy the files, I think MC is going to import the copies into its Library as well, and you will have two copies listed. I haven't checked that.  But anyway, a backup application or a file sync tool would be better for what you are doing.

Someone else has reported that the RM&CF function would only Move/Copy a few Albums worth of files at a time. Search the forum for that thread. There may be answers in it. The MC RM&CF function can copy thousands of files at a time, although that isn't really recommended. Break any large move operation down into smaller lots.



Also, make sure you are running the latest version of MC. There have been some fixes and improvements in the above features recently.

PS: I just noticed that you are running the Mac version, I run the Windows version, but in this functionality, they should be identical. But no guarantees.

[blgentry]

As I said in another thread, I don't like using RM&C to do large copies or large moves.  I haven't experienced the things you are reporting, but I probably haven't tried in a while, so I'm not sure what might be going on.

My approach is a little unusual I know, so I'm going to tell you what I do, but without tons of detail.  Because I'm probably one of a very few people that would use my method.

My backup method is to use rsync, which is a command line program for making exact copies of directory structures, including all subdirectories, all files of all types, etc.  It also preserves date and time information, permissions, etc.  I have written scripts that call rsync to back up my various disks to other disks.

If I were you, I would probably be investigating one of two methods:

1.  Time Machine with external disks.  Time Machine is a fantastic "set it and forget it" backup tool.  But I'm not sure how well it works when backing up external disks.  It's mostly designed to back up your internal disk to ONE external backup disk.  I mention Time Machine because it's included with OSX and has been around for a long time.

2.  A third party graphical sync tool.  Something that you can do a few clicks to tell it "back up this directory and everything under it, and put it in this other directory on this external disk".  That way it will be easy to understand and it will get EVERYTHING.

RM&C should not need to be used AT ALL with either of these scenarios.  You'll just have your backups done without involving MC.

Good luck to you.

Brian.

[macdonjh]

Yes. Absolutely. Don't do it!

MC names Sidecar and Cover Art jpg files. Leave them alone. The RM&CF function renames them correctly when you move the Movies, TV Shows, Audio Tracks etc. If it doesn't, something is wrong, or you are doing something wrong. Fix the issue, and then MC will look after the files.
That's the heart of my questions, I think something is wrong, with my technique or perhaps with MC.  For example, I wanted to COPY a movie to my external USB drive.  I used RM&C to COPY:
[Movies]/[Movies]/[busters]/Ghost Busters.mkv to
[5TB Library]/[Movies]/[Ghost Busters]/Ghost Busters.mkv
(for example)
I was using the MR&C utility to do the renaming for me.  I knew from looking in the Finder that the original [busters] folder had my .mkv, .xml and .jpg files.  I don't know why, but MR&C utility copied and renamed only the .mkv file.  I ended up manually copying the .xml and .pdf files.  They didn't "connect" with the .mkv file until I renamed them to match the newly renamed .mkv file and used MR&C utility to "update database".  Now my new library is working properly, except for the subtitle files, which apparently didn't get copied, either.

If Cover Art images don't link to movies correctly, fix the Cover Art, don't re-copy the files from the source. Just right-click on the movie > Cover Art > Add from file, and navigate to and select the correct file. MC will take care of moving and renaming the Cover Art image file. Or you can use "Quick find in file / Cover Art directory, which works well if the file is named correctly and in the correct location, but just not linked to the movie record. You can do those processes in bulk, for any movies not set up correctly.
I'll look at the "Quick find in file / Cover Art directory" which I didn't know about.  In another thread blgentry has suggested some other ways of finding files using MC, which I also have to try.  I don't want to simply link new copies of audio or video files to existing copies of cover art.  I want copies of the cover art, too.  A complete copy of my collection.  That's why I am copying.


Unless you are fixing something that you screwed up by manually copying and renaming stuff, and you know what you are doing, don't go renaming Sidecar files either. Just rerun the "Get Movie & TV Info" process again. If you lose some tags in those files when
I didn't think about that.  Duh.  Like I said, I have gotten everything relinked, though, I was just hoping there was an automated way within MC to COPY (again, I don't want to move the files, or simply create another library, I want my whole collection copied).  I also like the idea of having cover art in the same folders as the "matching" audio or video file.  My video collection got set up like that, but my audio collection has a central folder with all the cover art in it (somewhere).  I want to change that.


One reason that Sidecar and Cover Art jpg files might not get moved is that you have imported them into MC. You do not want to do that. Check that your Auto Import settings for Movies, TV Shows etc. does not include importing images and xml files. Incorrectly set up Auto Import settings explains a lot of these sorts of problems.
How can I tell if .xml and .jpg files are imported?  Is there a way to "un-import" them?  I'm not on the computer that I have MC installed on, and I don't remember what my auto-import settings are, but it wouldn't surprise me if I had it set to import everything. 

BTW, the RM&CF function isn't really the best tools for creating a backup of your files. Sure, it can do it, but if you get the directory and/or file expressions wrong, MC is going to not just move the files between disks, but also rename the sub-directories they are in and the files. Plus if you copy the files, I think MC is going to import the copies into its Library as well, and you will have two copies listed. I haven't checked that.  But anyway, a backup application or a file sync tool would be better for what you are doing.
I understand what you're saying, but I am using RM&C to rename a lot of audio and video files and reorganize subfolders as I copy everything to my back-up disc.  I don't have a back-up or file sync tool (at least that I know about).  I see that blgentry below is recommending Time Machine, but I don't want a back-up I can use only with my Mac.  Most of the computers in my house are PCs, so I want to be able to transfer files between the Mac and PCs, too.  A lot of what you're saying and warning me about is why I am COPYing my files to my new disc, rather than MOVing them.  My original files and library are still intact and functioning fine.  They are just terrible disorganized because of the way I created them when I first installed MC.


Someone else has reported that the RM&CF function would only Move/Copy a few Albums worth of files at a time. Search the forum for that thread. There may be answers in it. The MC RM&CF function can copy thousands of files at a time, although that isn't really recommended. Break any large move operation down into smaller lots.
That was me, at least most recently in the Mac forum.  Breaking my copying down into smaller chunks is how I solved the problem.

Also, make sure you are running the latest version of MC. There have been some fixes and improvements in the above features recently.

PS: I just noticed that you are running the Mac version, I run the Windows version, but in this functionality, they should be identical. But no guarantees.

[macdonjh]

As I said in another thread, I don't like using RM&C to do large copies or large moves.  I haven't experienced the things you are reporting, but I probably haven't tried in a while, so I'm not sure what might be going on.

My approach is a little unusual I know, so I'm going to tell you what I do, but without tons of detail.  Because I'm probably one of a very few people that would use my method.

My backup method is to use rsync, which is a command line program for making exact copies of directory structures, including all subdirectories, all files of all types, etc.  It also preserves date and time information, permissions, etc.  I have written scripts that call rsync to back up my various disks to other disks.
Sounds like you are using rsync to set up a RAID structure.

If I were you, I would probably be investigating one of two methods:

1.  Time Machine with external disks.  Time Machine is a fantastic "set it and forget it" backup tool.  But I'm not sure how well it works when backing up external disks.  It's mostly designed to back up your internal disk to ONE external backup disk.  I mention Time Machine because it's included with OSX and has been around for a long time.
I don't want to use Time Machine to do this work because I want to be able to use my newly created and reorganized collection (and the back-up I'll create from this new USB disc, once I get it working properly) with both Mac and Windows computers.  Also, as we've talked about in my other thread, I also want to use this opportunity to better organize my collection, since I was lazy when I was ripping everything originally.  I've got stuff scattered and with no real logic in the file names.


2.  A third party graphical sync tool.  Something that you can do a few clicks to tell it "back up this directory and everything under it, and put it in this other directory on this external disk".  That way it will be easy to understand and it will get EVERYTHING.

RM&C should not need to be used AT ALL with either of these scenarios.  You'll just have your backups done without involving MC.

Good luck to you.
Thank you, you've been really helpful.

Brian.

[macdonjh]

When I get this all sorted out and finished, I'll be able to go back to using the MC utilities for what they were made for. 

[RoderickGI]

How can I tell if .xml and .jpg files are imported?  Is there a way to "un-import" them?

Check your Auto Import detailed setting for the top level folder that contains the media files. In there you will see what files types are being imported.

You can also just search for xml and jpg files in MC, in one of the views, and see if they exist in the Library.

You can't un-import them, but you can just delete them from the Library if you find they have been imported.



As you are reorganising and renaming files as you copy them, you aren't really getting a backup of your files and library, so much as a different copy. In your situation this is what I would have done.

0. Find a suitable sync application. There are plenty around, and lots are free. Rsync may be a good choice. No, it doesn't have to use a RAID structure. There have been quite a few recommended in the past on the forum.
1. Sync your existing drive to your external drive.
2. Use the RM&CF function to rename and move files on your original disk to what you want. i.e. Do all the cleanup on the original disk.
3. Regularly sync to the external drive, whenever you are happy that what you have done is all good. Don't do it all at once, and resync after each part is done.
4. Repeat 2 & 3 until finished.

[blgentry]

I just did some experiments with RM&C and my video collection. 

1.  Copied 10 movie files from one disk to another:  RM&C did NOT COPY the jpeg or XML files!  So this appears to be either "broken" if you expect it to do that, or "by design" if that's how the authors designed it.  My naive first take on this is that copying should copy all relevant files, which for video is the cover art jpeg and the XML sidecar file.   Perhaps there's a good reason why it does not.

Note that this took a really long time (minutes) and showed absolutely no status.  I had to watch the file system to see any progress at all.  This is the main reason I do not use RM&C for big copies.  Or for moves to another disk.  Anything that involves a bunch of data getting written somewhere should not be done with MC in my opinion.  Not that there's anything wrong with MC.  It's just that it clearly wasn't designed for this because it is not resumable, not stoppable, and shows no status.  Which makes it a poor tool for moving lots of data.  It is a FANTASTIC tool for many other operations.  It's one of my favorite features of MC.  It's just not good at this particular task.

2.  Used the "Rename" function of RM&C to move those same 10 files to a different directory on the same disk.  This happened relatively instantly, as it's just a "rename" so it's super duper fast.  This worked as expected and put the files into a new directory.  It also moved the JPEG and XML files!

3.  Did the same "rename" operation above, sending the 10 files to another folder.  But this time I also did a filename rule so that it changed each file name also.  Again this happened almost instantly.  It also moved the XML and JPEG files and renamed them properly as they went.  Great news.

4.  I cleaned up after myself and put the files back where they went, with their original file names.  This also worked and transferred the XML and JPEG files, leaving my test directory empty.

I'll put some other thoughts and advice in the next post.

Brian.

[blgentry]

I mostly agree with Roderick on a good methodology for organizing and backing up the movie files:

Do it "in place" on your existing disk.  That way you can use all the power of RM&C and it will properly move and rename the JPEGs, XML files, and the main movies.  All very quickly and reliably.  I would suggest that you set up a parallel directory on your existing disk.  If everything is under "Movies" now, then I would create a parallel directory called something like "Movies Cleaned", or "Movies Organized", or something similar.

Use the Rename feature to move all of you existing movies there, using the rules and organizational structure you want.  You can do some tests to make sure this works the way you want.  Then do it in pieces, or all at once.  I probably wouldn't do more than 50 to 100 at a time myself, but I only have a few hundred movies, so it would only take a few passes.

Once you get it all neat and organized, your existing Movies directory should be empty.  If it's not, you might have some movies that didn't get imported, or have problematic file names, or something else.  I would make sure that directory is empty when you are done.  Then the big finish:  Delete the Movies directory.  ...and rename "Movies Organized" to "Movies" again.  You can even use MC's RM&C tool to do it!

From there, you should use a sync tool of some sort to copy this to an external disk that's formatted for both Mac and Windows, since you want to share *and* do a backup.

I hope this is all digestible.  I've been doing these kinds of operations for a number of years now, so it's pretty familiar territory to me.  If you have questions or need clarification, please ask.

Good luck!

Brian.

[RoderickGI]

Good advice Brian. I would add a backup/sync once before fixing everything "in place" though. Because sometimes things go wrong.


I just tested the movie copy functionality of the RM&CF function on Windows, and it also only copied the movie file itself.

While this could be the way it was designed, I don't think so, because for a DVD that is stored using a folder structure, where MC just points to an IFO file (actually it points to the "VIDEO_TS.dvd;1" file, which in turn points to the IFO file), RM&CF only moved the IFO file and not the rest of the DVD. Of course, that would be completely useless, so either the functionality is broken, or it has never been upgraded to cope with DVDs, Blu-rays, or anything other than single file movies, and also never upgraded to cope with ancillary files.

I think the RM&CF function needs to be fixed or updated to handle all movie types, ancillary files, and maybe even Extras files.

Regardless, you can't use the RM&CF Copy function to make a backup of movies or any other file types at the moment.

[macdonjh]

RoderickGI,

Thanks for the advice in Reply #9, I wish I'd thought of that.  By now you can see what a rookie I am in database management.

I certainly picked the hard way to go about it, but I do have a functioning, cleaned-up copy of my movie collection/ library on my external hard drive.  So that part is finished.

I am now working on my TV shows.  Most of them were ripped in a much more organized fashion.  Also, now that you've reminded me of the obvious (just copy the video files and then re-execute the "Get TV/movie information", this phase is going much faster, even with RM&C.

I have to go back and double check my audio files to verify that cover art has been copied.  My new LIBRARY may simply be looking into the original folder where all that cover art was stored by my original LIBRARY.

Thanks for all your help, and your help, too Brian.  When it comes time to make a back-up of my cleaned and reorganized collection, I'll get a sync program and let it do the work.

[macdonjh]

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.  Thank goodness the ratings for my audio files seem to have followed.  That's too many files to contemplate rerating!

[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]

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.

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.

[macdonjh]

Thanks for your continued support, Brian.

I am close to getting the results I want, and with almost no manual work.  That said, I still get some weird results, too.  As you said, it may not be worthwhile writing down exactly what I did at this time, so I won't.  I just got inconsistent results with RM&C even though I followed the same procedure (albeit with different sets of files).  I found that strange.

For the record, my "new" process is:
Using OS-X Finder: drag and drop a folder of files into my external USB hard drive to copy them
Use MC MR&C to rename all the files in the new folder on the external drive using a consistent convention
That's it.

[Manfred]

If you use MC Explorer (under drives & devices) and then go to your directory where the files are located you want to copy, you see:

*.mkv (if you have ripped to mkv)
*.jpg
*.xml (JRsidecar files)

You can then use Move Rename & Copy to create a back-up disk to copy all file types to a new Directory (external USB disk).

This process works to my knowledge only if you use the MC Explorer and not the standard views.

[blgentry]

For the record, my "new" process is:
Using OS-X Finder: drag and drop a folder of files into my external USB hard drive to copy them
Use MC MR&C to rename all the files in the new folder on the external drive using a consistent convention

I'm confused how you can use RM&C on files you copied with Finder, because MC will not know about them, and will not have them imported.  Are you importing the files in between?

I think it makes a lot more sense to organize in place with RM&C, then copy with Finder.

I'm also trying to figure out what your end configuration will be.  Will your Mac version of MC be using the files on the external drive as it's media files?  It seems like NO because you are calling them both a backup and a way to share with a windows box.  But you keep talking about importing them into an MC library, so...

What is your desired end configuration for each machine?

Brian.

[RoderickGI]

I'm confused how you can use RM&C on files you copied with Finder, because MC will not know about them, and will not have them imported.

As Manfred mentioned, you can use the MC Explorer (under drives & devices) to process files using the RM&CF function without importing files first. In fact, MC temporarily imports the files into MC to enable the MC Explorer functionality. Ref: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,118352.msg819733.html#msg819733

There were some problems with using that process, but I think they were all fixed in MC24.0.68
24.0.68 (12/10/2018)
13. Fixed: Non-imported files were not moved with selected media files even if "Move all files..." checkbox was checked on "Rename, Move, & Copy" dialog window, when the action was initiated in Explorer view.
14. Changed: Moving files with "Move all files in folder (including non-imported files)" checkbox checked will only skip moving files that are at "main database location".
15. Changed: "Move all files in folder (including non-imported files)" checkbox on "Rename, Move, & Copy" dialog window is renamed "Move all non-imported files in folder with selected media files".


Of course, as usual, my information is based on the Windows version.


PS: Brian, I am still confused as well. We have both advised fixing any issues, moving, and renaming files in place on the Mac, and then backing up to a separate drive, but macdonjh hasn't picked up on that. I also don't know why a second Library is required, unless it is on the Windows PC is will share the external drive with.

[macdonjh]

I have picked up on both recommendations to clean-up my files on my Mac, using MC tools like MR&C, then copy them to my external hard drive using a sync  application or Finder.  I'm not doing that on purpose, even if it's making things hard, because as goofy as my current file structure is, MC knows where everything is, and I can play everything.  I don't want to mess that up.  If I lose, delete or corrupt a file, I don't yet have a back-up for recovery.  I will soon, though.

MC hasn't had any trouble finding files copied by "drag and drop" using the Finder.  If you guys think it is unusual or shouldn't happen, I don't know why it's happening, but it is happening.  I do have a library defined that looks at my external USB drive, but Auto Import is not configured to look at that drive.  So, I don't know what's going on, either.  It is working, though, and I'm not copying lots of files to new drives using RM&C anymore.

[macdonjh]

To answer the question regarding my end goal:

I have two 5TB hard drives.  Each is big enough to hold my current media collection. 

Step 1: Copy and reorganize my media collection on an external hard drive, formatted in exFAT so Macs and PCs can read it.
Step 2: Create a copy of that first hard drive on a second external drive to act as a back-up.
Step 3: Abandon the files on my Mac's internal drive.