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[Solomon]

This comes up from time to time but it's hard to replicate so I'm not sure how to describe it!

I use search-and-replace to replace "C:\" with "E:\" in the filename field of a bunch of songs.

I get a dialog box that says "the destination drive does not support long filenames" and forces me to rename one of the files with an 8-character name.  This is clearly erroneous, because I'm certain that my E: drive supports long filenames with no problem.

Then I get an error moving that file, after which Media Center is no longer able to play it.

Looking into exactly what happened, it appears that the Filename field was not updated (still points to drive C: with the long filename) but the file itself was moved and renamed (onto drive E: with the new 8-character name).  I have to go in by hand and fix the name in the Filename field so that it points to the new location.

(I have no idea what was different about the one file that caused this problem as opposed to the nineteen that worked fine...)

Solomon

[lalittle]

How long is the entire path plus the filename?  I've run into odd problems in the past when the ENTIRE path and filename exceeds 255 characters, which can happen more easily than you'd think depending on how you tag your files, how you name them, and how you have your folder structure set up.  For example, some classical albums have LONG names for the tracks, plus LONG names for the composers.  If you name the file based on the tag, it can end up with a LONG filename.  When you combine this with a folder structure that uses the artist name, you can exceed the 255 character limit.  If you're using "My Documents" as the location, this alone will add over 50 characters since the folder is actually "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\My Music|..." etc.

It was because of this situation that I stopped including the album name in my filename rule.  Now I just use the track number plus the song title, and I use the folder structure for the album name.  This saves me quite a few characters for some ablums.

This may have nothing to do with your problem, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

Larry

[KingSparta]

Make sure your using the Latest version Of MC 11.1

Matt Had a few comments on this in the past also, you could do a search

And there was some changes that were done and i am not sure about what version it was.

But if the path and the file name are long it can create a few problems.

[GHammer]

In the interest of not exceeding the total path/name limits, I simply moved My Documents, My Music, and My Pictures
D:\Documents, D:\Music, and D:\Pictures respectively

Some silly tools have "My Music" hard coded, but I don't use that sort of tool...

Easy enough to do and you save the whole "Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents" length.

[KingSparta]

I simply moved My Documents

Yes I did the same

And one of the reasons i asked Matt (and thank you again Matt) to include a way for use to use parts of a field Like MID Option (Like: "Mid([Artist], 0, 1)\[Artist]\" )

Making My Documents one of the default locations I think was a mistake but other programs also do the same thing now days. Sometimes A Casual User Will Not know how to overcome this problem.

[lalittle]

Some silly tools have "My Music" hard coded, but I don't use that sort of tool...

Ironically, Media Center actually forces you to use the default "My Music" path with Audible downloads -- i.e. you cannot change the path that Audible files are originally saved to.  You can move Audible files AFTER downloading them (I use "Rename files from properties" to change the path), but it would be really nice if MC offered the same placement options for Audible downloads that it offers for ripping CD's.  This would save me the extra step of having to move/rename my Audible downloads every time I download a new title.

Larry

[park]

I agree with lalittle about the audible thing

[Solomon]

Okay, a couple things here...  First of all, to answer your questions about my problem:

How long is the entire path plus the filename?  I've run into odd problems in the past when the ENTIRE path and filename exceeds 255 characters, which can happen more easily than you'd think...

The entire filename (including the path) is 98 characters long.

Make sure your using the Latest version Of MC 11.1

The problem came up again today and I'm using 11.1.167, which is the second-latest version (Thursday's build).

Second thing, I want to point out that there are two bugs here.  First, MC is incorrectly claiming that my external drive doesn't support long filenames.  If it's the entire pathname that it is complaining about, then why is it forcing me to rename just the filename portion to 8.3 characters?  But regardless, I'm certain my external drive can support a 98-character pathname including a 25-character filename.

And the second bug is that after MC forces me to rename the file, and successfully moves the file to the new location (with the shortened name), it does not update the Filename field in the library, which means that it loses the file.

The first bug is annoying, and the second one is crippling.  I'd love to see the second bug fixed immediately, and the first one fixed real soon now.

Thanks!

Solomon