More > JRiver Media Center 23 for Mac
Fixing Paths and Filenames with special characters (Accents, etc.) Mac/PC
RoderickGI:
Hmmm. Complex.
First set the Auto Import setting "Fix Broken Links" to "No" for now. It can do some strange things when set to "Yes (protect files on missing drives)", I'm told, though I haven't seen it myself. Better to be safe for now, and that will provide visibility of any issues.
Now let me clarify. Both the Mac and the PC have copies of your music files on their own internal drives, correct? Your videos are on an external drive, but your music is on an internal drive with exactly the same path and file naming, underneath the "My Music" folder?
So on Windows your music is under the root path of: C:\Users\susie\Music\My Music\
On Mac your music is under the root path of: /Users/susiemelo/Music/My Music/
In both cases, setting "Fix Broken Links" to "Yes (protect files on missing drives)" doesn't protect any missing files on internal drives, and you music is on internal drives for each PC. I should have thought of that. But I assumed that each computer had an exact copy of your audio files. It seems they do not.
You see with Auto Import off, if files are reverting to "not found by MC", as shown by the "-" image, then MC isn't finding the file in the expected place, and is changing their status as you navigate around Views.
So now, do a new Restore of the backup, and do not "Restore settings". Only "Restore Library and playlists", using the check boxes in the Restore process. As you haven't run Auto Import yet after the second Restore, this step probably isn't required, but it doesn't take long and it gets us back to a known condition.
Now, you have an Audio > Panes View. Open that and make sure all files are being displayed using the column selections at the top, then enter this expression in the search field in the top right corner of MC:
[=ismissing([filename])]=1
See https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Test_and_Comparison_Functions#IsMissing for reference.
Your Panes View will now show all files that MC can't find under the "C:\Users\susie\Music\My Music\" directory. The View may take a while to finish displaying results. Now that you have a View of all missing files, start checking the path and filename on the Mac under the "/Users/susiemelo/Music/My Music/" folder. If you like you can print the results of the View using the "File > Print list" menu item. You probably don't want to print all page though if there are hundreds. Just print a sample. You may also want to copy your existing Panes View (drag it to the Audio group heading and select "Copy" on the small popup menu), and then modify the columns to make a printed list more useful. i.e. You may only want the [Album], [Artist], [Name] and [Filename] columns for the printed list, as you are only checking filenames, but the other fields help confirm what the file is.
If a sample of the missing files match from the PC to the Mac, then check on the PC using Windows Explorer. They can't be there. There must be some slight difference. The fact that the "right-click > Locate > On Disk (external)" function doesn't find the files shows there must be a difference. Check carefully. Report back. Specifically, if you can find all the files on the PC in the correct place, but MC can't find them, copy the full path and filename from inside MC and paste it in a post, and then do the same for the file from Windows Explorer.
For example, the first line below is from the MC [Filename] field, the second from Windows Explorer (concatenating the path and filename copied from Explorer, only adding in a \ between them):
F:\JRiver MC AMINTHA Local Media\Music\(Multiple Artists)\Private Compilation 001\03 - Linkin Park - Points of Authority (live, Docklands Arena, London).flac
F:\JRiver MC AMINTHA Local Media\Music\(Multiple Artists)\Private Compilation 001\03 - Linkin Park - Points of Authority (live, Docklands Arena, London).flac
Identical. No funny characters. No invalid characters replaced with position holders, like an underscore.
We probably should have fixed one of the Windows PCs first, and then fixed the Mac. But I thought you were making your Mac the primary computer. Oh well.
tangolovers:
JUST HAD 2 "AH HA" MOMENTS!! SEE BELOW!!!!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please pray it's simple!! I'm nervous because I was supposed to have my music for an event this Sunday...
Both MAC & PC have exact copies of the music files on their Internal HD's. I can change that if necessary. I am 99.999% sure both machines have exactly the same music on each because I just re-ported it to the PC on Saturday to be sure, but I can recopy again if you suggest. ** HOWEVER (AH HA #1) ** I just discovered that MC appears to have added some files to my Music folders because I just discovered files that weren't there before. For example, in the first folder I checked, there are duplicates of the same file, but the duplicates start with "._". For example, I see the following 2 files:
02 Pedacito de Cielo
._02 Pedacito de Cielo
They are definitely not on my MAC like this and were not like this when I copied them to the PC. Just did a search on "._" and found 53 such files!!! I've already started a re-copy to an external HD to do a clean transfer again to PC. Alternatively, I can just delete these instances. Unfortunately, Windows Properties & MAC Get Info, do not return total number of files/folders in the same way, so they aren't useful to make sure they both have exactly the same number of files.
Videos are lost in action somewhere on an External drive that I've misplaced.
You are correct about my music file paths - but here it is for each machine:
MAC: /Users/susiemelo/Music/My Music/
PC(Windows 7): D:\Music\My Music\
PC(Windows 10): C:\Users\susie\Music\My Music\
I haven't done anything with Windows 10 machine yet, since my initial attempt last week. I went back to Windows7 machine because that's where I was last playing it a week a go and I'd rather experiment on that machine until I get it right - unless you think otherwise.
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on December 02, 2019, 06:46:04 pm ---You see with Auto Import off, if files are reverting to "not found by MC", as shown by the "-" image, then MC isn't finding the file in the expected place, and is changing their status as you navigate around Views.
--- End quote ---
Just did another Restore as you suggested (w/Restore Settings unchecked), after setting Fix Broken Links to NO and I am getting the results… many random files just do not play – one song in one album, 2 songs in another and sometimes a whole album. I have checked the actual path of many of these files that have a “-“ and the paths are exactly the same as what I see in MC, so I’m bewildered. If I did a select all and Update Location, then how could it find some songs and not others w/in the same album?? Can this be possible?
LIGHT BULB JUST WENT ON (AH HA #2)!!!!!!!!!!!!! I THINK I SEE WHAT IT MAY BE…..
About half of our music is Latino (French or Ethnic) and their spelling includes typical letters like áñéé. I have never had trouble with these on this machine before, but it seems like it could be the culprit now. I put on my analytical hat and began scanning the music to look for something other than the path names. Every songs I looked at and everyone so far with a “-“ has a special character somewhere in it’s path. The problem will be how to solve this. It never caused an issue transferring before and if I do a re-import on the PC it recognizes everything. Could it be a bug or otherwise in this version of MC?
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on December 02, 2019, 06:46:04 pm ---Hmmm. Complex.
Now, you have an Audio > Panes View. Open that and make sure all files are being displayed using the column selections at the top, then enter this expression in the search field in the top right corner of MC:
[=ismissing([filename])]=1
See https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Test_and_Comparison_Functions#IsMissing for reference.
--- End quote ---
Hallelujah… I’ve been wondering how to isolate only the files that have “-“!!!! (1060 to be exact). Not sure I’d be able to figure out how to use some of the other functions, but at least I know they’re there.
I wanted to get this message while I continue to look at the next steps… Please let me know what you think.
RoderickGI:
I think you are on the right track.
You have to compare the full content of the [Filename] field, which includes the Path and Filename, with what Windows sees. So if the Windows filenames are slightly different, that is the problem.
So do the accents show up in MC but not in Windows Explorer, or is it the other way around?
There is one setting in MC that might be the issue. "Options > Tree & View > Sorting > Ignore accents when sorting". But that is just used for sorting and not likely to be your issue.
RoderickGI:
I think you edited the above post while I was typing and looking at stuff, as I'm pretty sure there was only one Ah ha on my first read. :)
On a Mac files that start with a dot "." are hidden. So for example, the file "._02 Pedacito de Cielo" is on the Mac, it is just hidden.
They are files that OSX creates and uses for... something. This is why Windows Properties & MAC Get Info, do not return the same total number of files/folders. Googling would probably find the answer. I don't believe they are media files though, or playable. When I get a drive or USB stick from someone who uses a Mac, I just delete those files. They are no use on Windows.
tangolovers:
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on December 02, 2019, 08:35:36 pm ---You have to compare the full content of the [Filename] field, which includes the Path and Filename, with what Windows sees. So if the Windows filenames are slightly different, that is the problem.
So do the accents show up in MC but not in Windows Explorer, or is it the other way around?
There is one setting in MC that might be the issue. "Options > Tree & View > Sorting > Ignore accents when sorting". But that is just used for sorting and not likely to be your issue.
--- End quote ---
The special characters are both in MC as well as in the Music Folders (PC & MAC). There is NO difference! The names in MC look EXACTLY the same as in Explorer, **HOWEVER**, in MC I selected rename on pathname (in this "-" list) and surprise!! Wherever there was a special character I would see a space after that character, but as soon as I exit Rename it looks normal again. Example:
Filename: \03 Sueña.flac
In Rename: \03 Sueñ a.flac
If I delete the space in Rename, the file is recognized and plays. Again, I HAVE DONE this transfer many times and never had this happen. This is new!
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on December 02, 2019, 08:45:12 pm ---I think you edited the above post while I was typing and looking at stuff, as I'm pretty sure there was only one Ah ha on my first read. :)
On a Mac files that start with a dot "." are hidden. So for example, the file "._02 Pedacito de Cielo" is on the Mac, it is just hidden.
They are files that OSX creates and uses for... something. This is why Windows Properties & MAC Get Info, do not return the same total number of files/folders. Googling would probably find the answer. I don't believe they are media files though, or playable. When I get a drive or USB stick from someone who uses a Mac, I just delete those files. They are no use on Windows.
--- End quote ---
Forgive me for editing my text. I know it's bad behavior, but I've been doing that a bit, because this is moving so fast and I don't want to create lots of extra posts to cause confusion. You're right, I started w/only 1 AhHa moment and then when I discovered the other one after I posted I went back and edited.
My music just finished copying to the External drive and as you said it has appended these extra files. I knew about the ".ds_Store files" and I had to delete these before, although it doesn't always create them. These other files with "._" were something I hadn't seen before. I just deleted all of those. I will call Apple to see if we can stop that from happening...
Now that I have deleted all of those unexpected files, what do you recommend?
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