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[darichman]

[Solution found below -- user error]

I just did a "Run Auto Import Now" (I don't use otto, only run him when I need him)... on my audio directory. It says "Imported 23495 New files"... WHAT? I don't have 23495 new files! All the files with non-taggable formats have lost their tags (wav, midi, png for coverart, documents for the albums etc etc). That's hours and hours of work gone

All these files were already in the library (bar an album or two - the reason for me running the auto-import)
  -I have not moved the files or renamed the files outside of MC.
  -I have not changed the drive letter.

Why is MC picking them up as "New Files"?

Fortunately, I have a library backup from right before I did it. So I restored the library.

Here's what I found:
All the "New Files" are happily in the MC library and are playable inside MC
I ran a "Update files from library" to make sure they're def not disconnected
Running the auto-import again with "Ignore File Changes" produced the same results.

So here's where I stand. I have a working database with all the fields filled out to my liking, but I can't run an import anymore without MC thinking that the files are "New" and wiping the tags accordingly. Taggable files are also recognised as "New", but at least all that info is stored safely in the files.

I have definitely run auto-import in the last few weeks and it's been fine... so I have no idea what's happened.

What can I do?

(PS this was first noticed by me with 409... have since installed 413 and 414 with the same results)

[JimH]

Check your system date.  It could be off.

What time zone?

[hit_ny]

Out of curiosity, did you run the manual batch import in the same file area as the previous imported files ?

When i do an import i usually have a seperate section where for new stuff which is then moved *after* the import.

At this point i'm not sure if re-importing an already imported but untaggable file will overwrite existing tags...that sounds like a bug to me. MC should just ignore these.

[darichman]

I found the problem, crisis averted!

I had many entries of X:\Music\\
(two backwards slashes)

Must have popped up in a mass "Find & Rename" at some point (maybe MC should disallow illegal instances of "\\" in the filename?)

Thanks for your help

[darichman]

Okay spoke too soon.

MC cannot perform a Find & Replace of X:\Music\\World with X:\Music\World
It reports that "MC encountered errors while tagging and moving files" (lists 23000 odd files) and fails to update the database

So as it stands, the files are all
X:\Music\...   on the hard drive directory structure
X:\Music\\...   in the database

Yet MC can still play them, but can't seem to access them in any other way.

Help! (Please )

[marko]

Try breaking the connections...

close MC, open explorer and rename X:\Music to to X:\_Music

open MC. It should be "red x" city. If so, try your find & replace again, it should work now. If it does, close MC.

Using explorer, rename X:\_Music back to X:\Music

Open MC and test again. Hopefully, all should be good now?

-marko.

[darichman]

Marko, that did the trick (although I just unplugged the hard drive )

Thank-you SO much

(And I'd like to take this opportunity to mention how useful it would be to store metadata with the files in otherwise untaggable files )

Alright it's nite-nite time for me now...
Cheers

[Alex B]

And I'd like to take this opportunity to mention how useful it would be to store metadata with the files in otherwise untaggable files

You can do this. It is not automatic, but by exporting an MPL playlist you can store all library field values in a disk file. The revised "Import Playlist" tool can update existing files besides just importing new files.

For example, if you want store the video file tags in a separate disk file you can simply select the video root catogory and use the "Export Playlist" tool for creating an MPL file.

[mlefebvre]

You can do this. It is not automatic, but by exporting an MPL playlist you can store all library fileld values in a disk file. The revised "Import Playlist" tool can update existing files besides just importing new files.

For example, if you want store the video file tags in a separate disk file you can simply select the video root catogory and use the "Export Playlist" tool for creating an MPL file.

It would be really good if MC offered the option to automatically save these MPL files whenever a file is imported and also when the metadata changes.

I'm also paranoid about losing my metadata with file formats that do not support embbeded data. AVIs, TIFFs, PNGs etc...

...Michel.

[darichman]

Thanks Alex, I must admit I do always forget about MPL files

And yes, I'd love to have MC automatically save an MPL file for each folder and automatically use that when reimporting.

Anyway, problem sorted, so thanks guys!
My library is safe and sound for yet another day

[hit_ny]

It would be really good if MC offered the option to automatically save these MPL files whenever a file is imported and also when the metadata changes.

I've been wanting this for a long time as its the method i use (as backup) for every album with the mpl in its folder. Its very tedious to do manually.

One thing i would love is for the mpl dialog to detect (automatically) which folder to save to if all files selected have the same filepath otherwise usual behaviour.

[darichman]

"Find and Rename User Error"

Way to rub it in guys!
Jim, would you please rename this thread to: "Look at what Darichman did. Isn't He Silly"
Thank you.

 

[JimH]

Done.

[darichman]

And on that note, I'm going to bed... it's almost midnight here

[JimH]

Night, night. 

[Qythyx]

Thinking out loud here...

If the problem related to external meta data being disattached from files happens because the files get moved around outside of MC's knowledge, wouldn't it be possible for MC to associate the meta data with a checksum (MD5 or other) of the file? That way even if the file did get moved and then re-imported MC would be able recognize that it already has meta data for that file.

Of course this depends on the files not changing outside of MC as well, but if they're of the type mentioned in this thread they're not changable unless they're actually edited to be contentually (is that a real word?) different from the original. Also, of course, technically, you'd have the handle checksum collisions in implementing this, which could be a bit difficult, but you guys are pretty clever. Also, calculating the checksum for some files (like large videos) could be slow, but if it happens in the background then that's ok I guess.

[Alex B]

I've been wanting this for a long time as its the method i use (as backup) for every album with the mpl in its folder. Its very tedious to do manually.

One thing i would love is for the mpl dialog to detect (automatically) which folder to save to if all files selected have the same filepath otherwise usual behaviour.

I don't usually save MPL files by folders. I have four smartlists that I regularly save as MPL: cue tracks, video files, images and documents. I don't think I have needed to actually use them (I keep about 20 latest library backups in a safe place), but they bring additional security. I use MPLs regulalrly for updating file info in other libraries. For example, if I have copied a playlist of video files to my laptop I can easily add the file tags to a local libary with an MPL file.

I have one problem with the current implementation though. As mentioned before by me and some others, I find the new "Browse For Folder" window design inferior to what was available previously. It doesn't give any information about the existing files. Usually I need to open a separate Windows Explorer window for checking the existing filenames and dates. Here is the difference between MC11.1 and MC12:

[hit_ny]

I don't usually save MPL files by folders. I have four smartlists that I regularly save as MPL: cue tracks, video files, images and documents. I don't think I have needed to actually use them (I keep about 20 latest library backups in a safe place), but they bring additional security. I use MPLs regulalrly for updating file info in other libraries. For example, if I have copied a playlist of video files to my laptop I can easily add the file tags to a local libary with an MPL file.

..and thats fine , my way is just a little more granular. Never needed to use it, just a habit i got into long time ago and feels a little strange to stop as previous to v12, large MPL files were not very reliable.

I recall you saying you could load up MPLs with an excess of 30k files in v12 without issue ?
given that i don't save tag updates back to the files, i'm looking at saving *all* to MPL

Your method with the few smartlists seems a lot less tedious to do and if its done a regular basis will actually be more upto date than my method.

I have one problem with the current implementation though. As mentiened before by me and some others, I find the new "Browse For Folder" window design inferior to what was available previously. It doesn't give any information about the existing files. Usually I need to open a separate Windows Explorer window for checking the existing filenames and dates. Here is the difference between MC11.1 and MC12:

I brought this up several months ago when i first noticed it but did not get much traction.