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[Lunatique]

I just had to build a new PC because the old one was dying. So I used the database recovery feature in Media Center, and it did restore my database, however, because I also had to move my music files to a different drive, once Media Center detected the files had been moved, it only kept the ratings I had for a portion of the songs, but not the rest, so now I have thousands of songs that no longer have ratings anymore.

 I tried to redo the database recovery using the same database backup, and the same thing happened again. At first all the original ratings showed up, but as soon as Media Center detected the files had moved, and started relinking them to the new locations, a large portion of the relinked files in the new location would lose their previous ratings.

Why did this happen? How can I get those ratings back?

[JimH]

There are some tools you can use.  On the wiki, please read the topic called Moving Files.

It's possible the ratings are in the file, but not in your MC library.  You can update the library from file tags or vice versa.  That's under the Tools menu.   Experiment with a few files before you do very many.

The library backup does contain ratings, so it's odd you're having this problem.

[Lunatique]

There are some tools you can use.  On the wiki, please read the topic called Moving Files.

It's possible the ratings are in the file, but not in your MC library.  You can update the library from file tags or vice versa.  That's under the Tools menu.   Experiment with a few files before you do very many.

The library backup does contain ratings, so it's odd you're having this problem.

I just tried updating the library from file tags, but it didn't do anything.

What else can I do? I cannot move the files back to the old location because that was a different computer, so I can't recreate the condition of the previous setup.

Is there anyway I can first restore the backup database, and then somehow relink the old ratings in Media Center to the files new locations?

[mwillems]

Is there anyway I can first restore the backup database, and then somehow relink the old ratings in Media Center to the files new locations?

Yes.  After loading the library backup immediately disable the "auto-import in the background" setting and do not manually run an import.  Then select a few songs and open the rename, move, and copy tool.  In the upper left corner there is a menu where you can select an option called something like "Update database to point a new location."  You can then point the old entries to your new file locations.  Try doing an album or two until you get it working the way you like, and then you can do all the rest at once.

Based on what you're experiencing it sounds like the ratings are in your library database but not written to the actual files, so once you have everything lined up again, you may want to update the file tags from library rather than the other way around.

[Lunatique]

Yes.  After loading the library backup immediately disable the "auto-import in the background" setting and do not manually run an import.  Then select a few songs and open the rename, move, and copy tool.  In the upper left corner there is a menu where you can select an option called something like "Update database to point a new location."  You can then point the old entries to your new file locations.  Try doing an album or two until you get it working the way you like, and then you can do all the rest at once.

Based on what you're experiencing it sounds like the ratings are in your library database but not written to the actual files, so once you have everything lined up again, you may want to update the file tags from library rather than the other way around.

I just tried it on one album, and it worked.

Do I have to do this for every unique artist or album folder directory? That's pretty daunting considering there are thousands of songs. Or is there a way to set it up to select all the files that have moved in Media Center, then use the move tool to point to the new root directory where the various genres, artists, and albums are organized in different directories, and then Media Center will do the rest by searching all folders within that root directory and link up with them separately?

[wer]

Mwillems gave you good advice.

You can do it all at once, if you relocated your files on the new drive systematically.

Lookup the RMCF tool in the wiki.

If you preserved the same folder structure, just on the new drive and/or under a new base directory, then just use the find and replace option in RMCF to change the path as needed. Watch the preview.

You can act on every file in your library if you select them all before entering the RMCF tool.

I hope you realize now, it was not the restore that caused you the problem. It was Auto-Import being turned on with Fix Broken Links activated, and not seeing the files at the known path.

You would be well advised to turn the Fix Broken Links option to NO to prevent unfortunate incidents like this in the future.

Good luck.

[Lunatique]

Thank y'all for the help!

While I was testing a handful of files, Media Center seems to have relocated all the moved files and relinked them, even though auto-import was turned off. I'm assuming this is because it was simply looking within the directories previously already used in the database, and the files happened to have been moved to somewhere within one of those previously established directories. (I originally had D and H drives in the database. Then when I switched to the new computer, I kept the H drive, and moved the files from D to H).

Other than a few dozen files that didn't get updated, I think this time Media Center took care of almost all of it. This is a huge relief.

The vast feature-set of Media Center is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it allows you to do stuff that's impossible in most other competitor's software. On the other hand, the learning curve is incredibly deep and you could use it for decades and still not know most of the features. (I've been using it since the early Jukebox versions, so it's been many years).