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[Shiny J]

I've searched the forum for this problem and not found it, does anyone have thoughts on this?

Somehow, Media Centre seems to have lost the Artist field in two thirds of my library. I know that probably sounds ridiculous but it has.

None of these files have anything in common, some are on different drives and it's a random alphabetical selection(meaning I didn't accidentally chose A-G and delete the field whilst drunk). The last thing I recall doing was playing with the views and it wasn't until a little while later I noticed that 20,000 files were suddenly unassigned - but it's not a view setting - when I review the tags the details are now missing and I have restored the preset view in customise view.

Strangely, iTunes still recognises the Artist field. So I reimported a folder that had lost the artist field. I get the message that no files were imported but 12 were updated due to external changes.

Was it my fault? And how did I possibly manage it? I'm new to MC and purchased it along with a new drive to consolidate and sort, it seems to have gone horribly wrong. Although I'm assuming the solution would be just to import again as above is this a problem I should be aware of? Is there something here that an experienced user can identify as the cause?

I can't help thinking that it's MC - why would iTunes recognise a tag that MC claims is not there? And if i deleted the tag accidently (however impossible I think that is) why has it not affected the source file?

I'll be solving the problem in the mean time but if someone can enlighten me as to why it's happened I'd be grateful - I hate being confused...!

Thanks

[glynor]

The last thing I recall doing was playing with the views and it wasn't until a little while later I noticed that 20,000 files were suddenly unassigned - but it's not a view setting - when I review the tags the details are now missing and I have restored the preset view in customise view.

You may not realize it but you can actually assign fields by drag-dropping files from the listing into one of the Tree items.  You mentioned you were playing with the fields.  Is it possible that you accidentally may have dropped one of the "children" of one of the Tree items onto some other Tree item and erased the Artist field?

For example, if you do this:

Have 1 View Scheme that contains (for example) [Genre], [Artist], [Album] and is sorted Alphabetically by those categories and has "Populate Tree" checked (so that you can drill down through the tree).

Have another View Scheme that has [Keywords], [People], [Places] and is sorted by Date Imported -d (so that the newest files are at the top) and also has Populate Tree checked.  Now say you don't have many keywords assigned, but you do have a few because you downloaded some of the files from Gnutella and some other people assigned the keywords to them (this isn't specific to that tag, just an example).  Now, if you accidentally drag the "Unassigned" item from the Tree View (not the files themselves, but the Tree item) and drop it into the first View Scheme on top of "Unassigned" under Artist it will reassign ALL of the files with no keyword to "Unassigned" Artist (which deletes the Tag).

This is just an example, of course, and the "Panes View" also supports Drag-Drop.  When I've messed up a bunch of files in one fell swoop, I usually find it's because of an errant Drag-Drop.  Of course, MC does ask you if it's okay to reassign them if there's a bunch of files, so it's a bit suspicious.

As far as the files themselves being unaffected, that is an Option you can turn off in MC.  Go to: Tools --> Options --> General --> Update tags when file info changes.  If unchecked, MC keeps the tag info in it's database but doesn't sync the ID3 tags in the files themselves.

[Alex B]

Have you experienced MC or OS crashes? If a crash occured when MC was saving database changes one of the database files may be corrupted.

For recovering the information you could try this: Select the files > right-click > Library Tools > Update Library (from tags). Try it first with a few files.

MC has a library backup function: File > Library > Backup Library. Use it regularly and keep always a couple of the latest backup files in a safe folder.

[glynor]

For recovering the information you could try this: Select the files > right-click > Library Tools > Update Library (from tags). Try it first with a few files.

Thanks Alex.  I meant to mention that tip too, but goofed.

That should work though, since he indicated that iTunes still shows the correct Artist when reimporting tracks, the ID3 tags are likely to be intact.

[adamsp70]

Weirdly enough i had the same thing this week whereby approx 3/4 of my Album titles disappeared (build 11.0.314) .

I wasn't messing with views or anything - i only play music on a "client" MC that cannot affect the "server" one.

I got it all back by the Update From Tags trick, but my heart was in my mouth for a minute - no way did i want to have to manully repair 9000 tracks!!!

[JimH]

We've seen similar reports for about 3 weeks.  But the version you're using is a couple months old.

What other software are you using with the files?  Including third party plug-ins for MC.

Are your library and music on a local drive?  If not, please describe.

[adamsp70]

All files sit on the server alongside a "server" MC.

Server MC is the only program used to edit tags etc.

Client MC is used for playing the tracks over the network.
Other programs (like Winamp) also play the files via the network (using a shared drive).

Any more info needed?

[adamsp70]

Ooops - no extra plugins, just Library, Tivo & UPnP.

Only Library is in use

[JimH]

Other programs (like Winamp) also play the files via the network (using a shared drive).

Are they also writing to the files?  What's new in the last month?

Check the problems reported and solved here about Maxtor network drives.  See the FAQ and the link to "Weird and Wonderful".

[adamsp70]

Are they also writing to the files?

No, only "server" MC does that

What's new in the last month?

3 new CDs (ripped) and about 600 tag changes

[Shiny J]

Thanks all - I'm pleased to hear that it wasn't just a local problem; however...........

When I was messing with the views it was via view/customise current view so I can't see how it would have affected such a select bunch of files. It doesn't answer either how the selection was chosen. Plus, I have the option to change the source file ticked - so I can't understand why a change made to the tag in MC wouldn't hold for iTunes....?

Updating the library from Tags did not work for me. Neither did my initial solution (reimporting the files) work for any other files than the example previously given (rather mysteriously).

I've now cleared the library and the process of reimporting the files is running although I have little reason to believe this will work if updating the library from tags didn't.

Ho humm...

[adamsp70]

If you've reimported the tracks and the data is still missing, then it sounds like the "bad" information has been written to your files as well as the MC database.

iTunes probably has its own database, and if you re-imported the files into it, that would probably show bad too :-(

However, if you can use iTunes to re-write all your file tags based on its (good) database, and then re-import all the fiels again to MC - you might be back to good data all round!

[Shiny J]

Thanks adamsp70, I wish it were that simple but it's not - iTunes never had the full library as half my data was stored on a Zen 60gb and I used the packaged (rubbish) application to play my music.

As you got back to me so promptly the reimporting has only just started - I'll then have an idea of the size of the task in front of me.

BTW - I tried using the library restore option from the day before this problem started and it made no difference. Does anyone apart from me find that odd? Or am I expecting too much of that feature?

[Shiny J]

Follow up......

It worked. Clearing the library and reimporting the files restored the Artist names.

It leaves a few questions that still need answering though, if anyone has any thoughts?

Why in the first place?
Why could MC not see Tags that iTunes could (bearing in mind that iTunes had not seen a lot of those files before)?
Why did the update library from tags not work if the tags were ok?
Should restoring a backup library have dealt with this?

[KingSparta]

All you prob needed to do was "update library from tags" this would have pulled the info back into the library that was in the ID3 tags.

[glynor]

King, I'm sure you just missed it, but Shiny J did try that.

The whole thing is bizarre.

[Shiny J]

Bizarre indeed.

Having exhausted all the offered opinions and randomly considered thoughts of my own, only clearing the library and reimporting worked. Frustrating, but true.

If anyone fancies giving me an opinion, can I drag your attention to my question about the backup restore? Why did restoring the backup from the previous day not work?

One for the 'Weird and wonderful' thread maybe?

Thanks all for your interest and feedback.

[JimH]

Having exhausted all the offered opinions and randomly considered thoughts of my own, only clearing the library and reimporting worked. Frustrating, but true.

If anyone fancies giving me an opinion, can I drag your attention to my question about the backup restore? Why did restoring the backup from the previous day not work?

Maybe both the database and the backup were corrupt.

One for the 'Weird and wonderful' thread maybe?

That thread contains just problems that were solved and turned out not to be MC bugs.