More > JRiver Media Center 23 for Mac
Fixing Paths and Filenames with special characters (Accents, etc.) Mac/PC
tangolovers:
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on December 02, 2019, 08:35:36 pm ---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 ---
It's not just accents that are the problem, it's also tildes (over the n or N) and possibly other special characters typical to Latin, French, Italian etc, but so far I only see accents & tildes.
RoderickGI:
--- Quote from: tangolovers on December 02, 2019, 09:24:59 pm ---Filename: \03 Sueña.flac
In Rename: \03 Sueñ a.flac
--- End quote ---
Well, there is your problem. So when you use the "Find & Replace" function of RM&CF during your transfer process, MC adds a space (probably a NULL character) into the file name, which doesn't show up in MC or Windows Explorer. This is why I asked you to do this:
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on December 02, 2019, 06:46:04 pm ---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
--- End quote ---
I was hoping that in copying, and not retyping, the file names, any special characters would still be visible if I pasted them into a Hex editor. That was a bit of a long shot, but worth a try.
--- Quote from: tangolovers on December 02, 2019, 09:24:59 pm ---Now that I have deleted all of those unexpected files, what do you recommend?
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If you are happy to do so, could you share say five files that show the problem? I could have a look at them and try to work out how to do a mass fix. Upload them to a file-sharing site like Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox, and then PM me the link. I suspect that there has been a change of character set somewhere in the life of those files, perhaps driven by a change in Language used on one of your PCs, or an OS update or something. Maybe a setting in Finder when you used it to copy the files?
I'm guessing a bit here. But if I can look at some files I might be able to work out a fix. Probably not until tomorrow morning though, 18 hours away. So if you can do some research and find a solution in the meantime, go right ahead!
If there is a NULL character in the file name, and if you can either enter or copy that NULL Character into the "Find & Replace" function of RM&CF, you may be able to do a mass replace for all file of the NULL character with nothing. That's my curreny thinking anyway.
There may be a technically better solution. Maybe even a fix in MC, but that would only happen in MC26, so not much use for MC23 or MC25. If someone else reading this has a better idea, share it!
tangolovers:
Wow... some really tough questions/requests…
Isn't it a little curious that I’ve been successfully transferring files between MAC & PC from 2017 until until now, yet never had an issue with special characters? I feel like if we could figure out what changed, we’d be much closer to a solution. Suspecting the external HD since it was ExFat format and not knowing what format HD I previously used I formatted a new drive using WindowsNT. I then re-copied all music folders & Library to PC. Unfortunately, no difference except no “._” files. As for the “.ds_” files, I delete all 243 of those. There are still 1060 non-playable files with this special character problem.
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on December 02, 2019, 06:46:04 pm ---Hmmm. Complex.
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
--- End quote ---
The only way I know to copy filename is via Rename>Ctrl-A>Copy>Paste into an email on PC then emailing to MAC... is this what you need? No idea how to paste into HEX editor.
Explorer: D:\Music\My Music\! NEW IMPORT\08 Bésame Mucho.mp3 (Copied from Home Tab Ribbon)
MC D:\Music\My Music\! NEW IMPORT\08 Bésame Mucho.mp3 (Copied using Rename, Ctrl-A, Copy/Paste)
These both look perfect - right? But in Rename mode, the file name looks something like \08 Be' same Mucho.mp3 (see screenshots).
**** BIG SURPRISE!!! THERE IS NO SPACE – NO NULL!!! ****
I discovered Rename in MC is placing the special character next to its’ respective letter giving the appearance of a space in both file names & paths (see screenshots). As soon as I exit Rename, it looks exactly like it does in Explorer but doesn’t play. The surprise is when attempting to delete the space, it deletes the special character instead - because there is no space! Then the song becomes playable. Seems crazy to remove all special characters – especially since they never caused an issue in the past! The special characters do not affect playback when done directly from Explorer. See 2 screenshots from Windows7 PC.
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on December 02, 2019, 10:43:24 pm ---
I suspect that there has been a change of character set somewhere in the life of those files, perhaps driven by a change in Language used on one of your PCs, or an OS update or something. Maybe a setting in Finder when you used it to copy the files?
--- End quote ---
Totally agree! It seems like something wrong the underlying representation of these files (or special characters or character set) that have been altered either in the Backup/Restore or copy/transfer process, or possibly something w/MC. But this something was not happening in the past!!! My process was exactly the same as before – I always followed my written instructions precisely, so nothing different in Finder that I’m aware of.
Personally, I feel like it’s has more to do with Library Backup/Restore vs transferring of files. Because the file count is the same except these hidden/invisible files (which are far fewer than the non-working ones). I'm not inclined to blame Apple's invisible extensions because MC transfers worked so seamlessly for so long. Plus, I would expect playback in Explorer to be affected as well.
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on December 02, 2019, 10:43:24 pm ---If you are happy to do so, could you share say five files that show the problem? I could have a look at them and try to work out how to do a mass fix. Upload them to a file-sharing site like Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox, and then PM me the link.?
--- End quote ---
I’m delighted to share whatever files you like! But is a mass fix still viable in the absence of a null space? I'm not sure how to upload using the above methods, so I for now I uploaded to my FTP site. Here’s the link:
http://www.xotango.com/ftp-archive/MediaCenter/
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on December 02, 2019, 10:43:24 pm ---If there is a NULL character in the file name, and if you can either enter or copy that NULL Character into the "Find & Replace" function of RM&CF, you may be able to do a mass replace for all file of the NULL character with nothing. That's my curreny thinking anyway.
--- End quote ---
Regarding your Find & Replace suggestion: Since I couldn’t isolate any Null character I couldn’t get it to work. Is it still relevant if there’s no space?
BTW – The topic of my post no longer matches our quest, perhaps it would help to change something (i.e. separate the post, change title) to illicit more input?
Meanwhile, doing a factory reset on new Windows10 machine to start fresh with MC23.
HELP!! I’M STUCK!! Can I run MC26 w/o changing my MC23? Would I be worth purchasing it to see if anything changes, or is it too soon?
RoderickGI:
I have learned some stuff from your last post, particularly the images you attached, and the files you shared. I probably have a fix that can be used on mass.
I was going to wait until you finished re-copying your files to a drive formatted in NTFS to see if that fixed the problem, but that step seems to have disappeared from your post. You were trying that, weren't you? Did it not work?
SOLUTION:
It appears, based on the sample files you shared, that all your files have the same naming structure, "[Track #] - [Name]".
If that is the case, and the metadata is correct for all the problem files, I think all you have to do is rename the files using the RM&CF function in MC. Don't move them. Just use the "Filename" rule as per the attached image. Try this for just one file first. Once the file is renamed, check in MC that when you edit the file name using the Rename function you no longer see "Huraca´n" but see "Huracán" instead.
Then check if the file now plays. I can't check this part of the process, because as we know, if the "bad" files are re-imported they work fine anyway, even though special characters display incorrectly when edited.
Note that in the example I am using there is a (1) suffix on the file name, which would have been put there because it was a second copy of a file in the same directory at some time. I'm assuming that the original file is gone now, or you may get some naming clashes. If that is the case you will need to handle those files separately, and decide which of the two versions you want to keep.
Of course, if the metadata for some files is incorrect, specifically the [Track #] and [Name] fields, then you will need to fix those. But the same process should work. i.e. Rename the files using RM&CF and source data that displays correctly when edited. If you hand edit any [Name] fields with special characters, that new metadata should work.
So you may have to work through any special cases in groups of files. i.e. Those with suffixes that you want to keep, or those that need metadata to be fixed. Where the filename actually changes, you will need to update the files on your Mac as well. Hopefully, there won't be too many with a suffix that gets dropped.
If all is good, rename a few files and check that they worked. Once the process is proven, rename all files and your problem will be gone.
EXPLANATION:
I found that it is only the file name that has issues with special characters. The [Name], [Artist], [Album] fields, for example, which have special characters are fine when you try to edit them use the Rename function. The file name is using Compound characters, which means two characters are combined to create a special character. It is an alternate way to create special characters on a keyboard, and it seems that the individual components are saved with the data.
So taking the example file, "01 - El Huracán (1).mp3", when we edit that we see "01 - El Huraca´n (1).mp3". In a hex editor, the word Huracán looks like:
In "Huraca´n" from the [filename] field the á in HEX is 61 B4, so it is a compound character.
In "Huracán" from the [Name] field the á in HEX is E1
In the file system, at least on Windows, "01 - El Huracán (1).mp3" displays correctly, even when edited, but also:
In "Huraca´n" the á in HEX is 61 B4, so it is a also compound character.
I can only assume that is a file system, characters set, code page, or language issue, but I don't know where this came from, or why it is happening now, but hasn't before. Therefore, I don't know if it will happen again in future transfers. But if you upgrade to MC25 and use the new functionality, you won't need to use the old transfer process.
tangolovers:
Thank you so much for not giving up on me!!! I can’t believe the effort you have made to resolve this!! Please forgive me for editing my reply again (I thought you weren’t looking yet ::) ) but I never noticed the “Preview” button, so much easier! ;D Although I do wish they would make this typing window larger! I will try to use Preview from now on. Is there any way to Quote just a portion of a reply? When I use Quote, it brings over the entire reply which I have to edit in Word to remove what I don't want in the quote.
Actually, I did reformat a completely new drive and no luck (see beginning of my previous reply)!! I too had hopes this would be the fix. Negative.
After I did the Find/Rename on 5 files, some of them played and other's didn't. I started doing one then accidentally selected all, so I got a mass Rename on all non-playing files. Yikes! Of the 1060 non-playing ones, 329 now play... leaving 731 to go. At least we're progressing again.
My observation is that for almost every one of these (not quite all :'() there is a special character in it's path, but for the renaming ones, I'm stumped. For the one's that have a special character in their path, I'm trying to figure out how to fix it. Strange thing is that after some of the renames, the file played and then it reverted back to "-". (Run Auto-Import is still off & Fix Broken Links = NO). As you will see from my Alabina1 screenshot - look at the 1st two songs... The very fist song I tried this on when I was going one-by-one was "Suena" and it played, but then it reverted back. Same w/"Besame Mucho". You can see from the 2nd screenshot that Besame Mucho gets renamed, it plays, then reverts back to non-playing.
This time I got prepared... I tried it on "Alabina (span. Version)", 5th from the bottom of screenshot and same thing, only this time I got a before/after screenshot of the RM&CF window. BTW, All of these files DO play when I click on them in Explorer... I checked it several times before.
Lastly, you will see the final screenshot of what remains after the mass rename.
--- Quote from: RoderickGI on December 03, 2019, 04:49:08 pm ---EXPLANATION:
I found that it is only the file name that has issues with special characters.
--- End quote ---
I think the path is affected too, because I get the same issue of apparent space there too, even when the file name has no special characters. It sure seems that if the path has special characters they still aren't recognized. The remaining question is what to do with the few that don't have special characters in file name or path...
While you were writing, was frantically thinking what else I can do. I’m still not too savvy with the form, but I started searching on “special characters” and seems like it's not the first time MC has had an issue with them. In fact, I noticed that many of the posts involved MAC users or mixed platform situations. I'm starting to wonder a MAC update could be part of the issue. I haven’t yet upgraded from Sierra to Maverick as I usually prefer to wait several months for kinks to get worked out. Maybe it’s almost time.
Here are a couple of the links I ran across referencing MAC, but no helpful information:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,114396.msg791107.html#msg791107 (a MAC user talking about mixed environments!!!) YIKES!!!
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,114396.msg804043.html#msg804043 (seems to be a MAC user)
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