Topic: Rename files from properties problem (Read 2873 times)

sherbs · « **on:** June 07, 2005, 07:21:55 pm »

Set 20 newly imported .avis to rename from properties, 9 didn't make it. A log came up saying they were locked - read only, in use etc. All 20 files were in the same folder and in the same condition, ie not read only and not in use.

I removed dodgy files from library and re-imported, same story.

Next, I removed files from library and manually moved them to another folder, while this happened MC gave a message the library had been updated with external changes???

Import and rename from new folder, same story.

Lastly, I manually renamed one of the files in Explorer, moved it to the correct folder, imported it into MC where it is now living happily in my library.

I don't know what's going here and why MC can't rename a file that I can.

What should I do with the other 8 files?

MC 11.0.279
WinXP Pro SP2

Alex B · « **Reply #1 on:** June 08, 2005, 05:19:40 am »

Also, you should provide the old names including the paths and the naming rule you tried to use. That information is missing from your post.

Quote from: sherbs on June 07, 2005, 07:21:55 pm

Lastly, I manually renamed one of the files in Explorer, moved it to the correct folder, imported it into MC where it is now living happily in my library.

What should I do with the other 8 files?

How about doing the same? Eight files is not much.

However, if updating MC doesn't help and you like to get the problem resolved more information is needed.

sherbs · « **Reply #2 on:** June 08, 2005, 08:20:38 am »

Thanks guys, upgrading seems to have sorted it...but why?

It never ceases to amaze me the number of times a problem is sorted by upgrading. I mean, how does the old version know there is a new version and it must therefore stop working?

This wouldn't have anything to do with that downloading version info thing that happens from time to time would it?

sherbs · « **Reply #3 on:** June 08, 2005, 04:51:47 pm »

Nope, still problems with 285.

A new batch of 5 files being renamed results in 4 of them encountering errors.

I'm doing the same thing I've been doing the last couple of weeks (with no problems) and that is renaming files in a temp folder to the following path:

L:\Multimedia\Visual\Videos

Rule: Category\Album

Filename: Name

I don't know what good that info will do as whether it works or not, the temp folder is the same, the new path is the same and all the files are avis. And I can do what I like with them in Explorer. Under the same conditions, it didn't work last night, it worked this morning after an upgrade and it's not working again tonight.

Any ideas?

JimH · « **Reply #4 on:** June 08, 2005, 04:58:49 pm »

Is any other application open at the same time? Possibly altering attributes of the files?

Are the files correctly tagged?

sherbs · « **Reply #5 on:** June 08, 2005, 05:32:28 pm »

As far as I can tell there's no program using them. It still didn't work after a reboot.

I've been using the same simple tagging convention for weeks, ie put them in one of 6 categories, put them in an album and use the name of the program for the name.

I'm racking my brains trying to think of anything that's changed over the last couple of days as I've been doing this with many files over the last couple of weeks with no problems. I can't think of anything.

sherbs · « **Reply #6 on:** June 08, 2005, 05:44:48 pm »

Some more info, in case it helps.

Just went into the temp folder and renamed one of the files via Explorer, no problem.

Because I'm moving them to an external drive, L: I tried changing the path to another external drive, N: still no go.

All I see is Saving tag changes (1 remaining) in the status bar which stays there after I've removed the file from the library. It even remains while I'm moving round the library. If I click on a file in the library I will briefly see it's name before it reverts back to Saving...
When I close MC I'm shown the tagging error box.

sherbs · « **Reply #7 on:** June 08, 2005, 06:40:44 pm »

OK, so I renamed the four files in Explorer, moved them to the desired folders and imported them into my library. As it did this, MC informed me that it had removed four broken links.

Any help?

JimH · « **Reply #8 on:** June 08, 2005, 06:42:05 pm »

Are the files tagged correctly?

sherbs · « **Reply #9 on:** June 08, 2005, 07:07:09 pm »

Quote

Are the files tagged correctly?

Not sure what you mean.

How would I tag them incorrectly? All I'm tagging is the same 3 fields:
Category/Album/Name. All files have been tagged the same way whether MC can rename them or not.

sherbs · « **Reply #10 on:** June 08, 2005, 07:44:48 pm »

Before I give up on this for another day I thought I might summarize what I'm seeing in the hope that someone will spot something.

Up until 2 days ago I had imported and renamed from properties 315 avi/mpg files (mainly avi). In the last 2 days, 10 of the 25 I've attempted to do this with have shown errors and can't be renamed.

Even when I've manually renamed and moved the bad files, they still can't be changed from within MC. I can edit and save changes to any of the non-bad files. This would lead me to believe there was somthing wrong with the files but then I can see no differences in file properties and they can be edited in Explorer.

I think the problem lies in the Saving tag changes bit. When I attempt to edit one of the bad files the path changes correctly but the program seems to hang on saving the change as it will display saving tag changes in the status bar until I close the program. Only once the program is closed will it display the tag error dialog.

Sorry to keep on about this but I've still got a lot of this stuff planned and need to sort this out somehow.

Alex B · « **Reply #11 on:** June 09, 2005, 03:45:06 am »

Quote from: sherbs on June 08, 2005, 07:07:09 pm

Not sure what you mean.

How would I tag them incorrectly? All I'm tagging is the same 3 fields:
Category/Album/Name. All files have been tagged the same way whether MC can rename them or not.

I guess Jim wanted to know if the tags contain "legal" names for the filesystem. MC should use underscores instead of illegal characters, but it is possible that there is a bug.

Quote

L:\Multimedia\Visual\Videos

Rule: Category\Album

Filename: Name

You didn't say what the problem files have in the "Category", "Album" and "Name" fields.

BTW, how are your external drives connected? If they are networked NAS drives it can be a short/longname handling issue.

sherbs · « **Reply #12 on:** June 09, 2005, 03:58:05 am »

Quote

You didn't say what the problem files have in the "Category", "Album" and "Name" fields

That's the point I've been trying to make. There seems to be no difference in the tags for good or bad files.

Eg,
Good file:
Category: Series, Album: Black Adder, Name: 0101 The Foretelling

Bad file:
Category: Series, Album: Black Adder, Name: 0404 Private Plane

I guess that also rules out the illegal names thing.

sherbs · « **Reply #13 on:** June 09, 2005, 04:56:32 am »

More observations and more confusion.

Marko,
Tried that little program and at first thought it had found something although I don't know what.
First bad file it looked at showed 7 instances of explorer.exe locking it. I killed the first instance which closed the folder and all other instances got an 'impossible to kill' message. However the bad files were now editable in MC, great!
I then imported a new file, tagged, it renamed from properties and it's back to the new path showing correctly but 'saving tag changes' not budging. Undeterred, I went back into WhoLockMe and found several instances of MC locking the file, killed the process which closed MC. Reopen MC and still got the file showing a red cross.
Then I tried something new. Instead of renaming after tagging, I used the move command to move it to the right folder, that worked. I tried the rename command, that worked!

I haven't got any new files to play around with at the moment and I still don't have a clue wha'ts going on.

sherbs · « **Reply #14 on:** June 09, 2005, 01:59:48 pm »

Yep, I'm still here.

This is the latest develpment.
Import an avi into my library and rename from properties doesn't work BUT import the same avi into my library, tag it, use the move command to move it to the right folder and THEN rename from properties works. Happens everytime.

The only difference between the two situations that I can see is the one that doesn't work involves moving the file, the other doesn't because the file is already there. Any clues there?

sherbs · « **Reply #15 on:** June 10, 2005, 08:07:35 am »

Day 4

Got a new workflow going, import files, tag them, move them, rename them. All from within MC!

Seems MC can't rename a file that involves moving it, in this case to an external drive. Once the file is on the drive, MC has no problem renaming it from properties.

Anything?

sherbs · « **Reply #16 on:** June 11, 2005, 07:13:25 pm »

Day 5

?

KingSparta · « **Reply #17 on:** June 11, 2005, 07:28:19 pm »

mine works fine, it even moves like it should

sherbs · « **Reply #18 on:** June 12, 2005, 03:34:01 pm »

Well I'm happy for you King. Now all I've got to do is find out what's wrong with mine.

KingSparta · « **Reply #19 on:** June 12, 2005, 05:38:44 pm »

maybe a weird chr in the path? IE non Standard American English

I use this setup for rename

[X] Base Path: F:\OTR-Files\

Rule: Mid([ARTIST], 0, 1)\[Artist]\

File Name Rule: [Album] - [Artist] - [Name]

"Category" is not a standard field in MC, did you set it up?

maybe you should try it with out that field, maybe it is not set up correctly

sherbs · « **Reply #20 on:** June 12, 2005, 07:24:35 pm »

I just tried renaming a file by missing out the Category field and it worked! I'll have to try it with some more files before I'm sure but if that's the case, what's wrong the field? Is 'Category' a reserved name, would it work if I changed it to something else?

What puzzles me is that the same path worked with 315 files and when the trouble started 11 out of a batch of 20 files renamed and moved correctly and 9 didn't. The next time 4 out 5 files wouldn't rename and since then none have worked unless they've been moved first.

As soon as I get more files ready I'll play with it some more.

KingSparta · « **Reply #21 on:** June 12, 2005, 07:39:49 pm »

Quote

would it work if I changed it to something else?

no clue i have never made a field and used it for renaming

could be a bug, not sure

sherbs · « **Reply #22 on:** June 14, 2005, 05:55:15 pm »

I've been trying some new stuff.

First I replaced the Category field with Genre - made no difference.
Then I tried moving files to various drives and partitions in Explorer and it was then I noticed something stange. All of the files moved where I wanted them to but three stayed behind even though they were also in the folders I'd moved them to. I tried to delete them but got an Explorer message that they were in use. Tried that WhoLockMe prog again and it showed four instances of Explorer. I killed the process and when everything came back up, the files were gone. This must have something to do with my problem.

I know this now looks like it's my system's fault and not MC's but does anyone know what this behaviour means?

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