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[rjm]

I read the change log carefully and did not see a fix for files being randomly detected as having changed during manual auto-import (I reported this in 12.0.410).

Has this issue been addressed?

I hope so because I consider this a critical problem due to possible library corruption. I was surprised that 4.0.410 was not withdrawn.

[Matt]

I read the change log carefully and did not see a fix for files being randomly detected as having changed during manual auto-import (I reported this in 12.0.410).

Has this issue been addressed?

I hope so because I consider this a critical problem due to possible library corruption. I was surprised that 4.0.410 was not withdrawn.

Others haven't been reporting it, and we can't reproduce it.  It seems more likely that some other program is touching your files.

Feel free to start a new thread.

[rjm]

Others haven't been reporting it, and we can't reproduce it.  It seems more likely that some other program is touching your files.

Feel free to start a new thread.

Nothing touched my files. I did binary comparison against my backup and nothing changed.

I believe few others reported same problem in 4.0.410 thread.

I will try 12.0.421 to see if I can reproduce it and report back.

[rjm]

I'm back with the same problem...

If you recall, 410 updated my library to match external changes in many files. However none of my files had actually changed. I therefore returned to 404 and have been happily using it without any problems. Today I decided to try 422 in the hope that the issue had been resolved.

Unfortunatley 422 is doing exactly the same thing as 410. It found about 47,000 files that it thought had changed and updated my library to match the external changes.

I haven't read the forum for a few days, but I am assuming that no one else is experiencing this problem or it would have been fixed by now. Therefore there must be something unusual about my media content or the way I have tagged my files.

I would appreciate your help in diagnosing what is going on so that I can fix whatever is causing the issue in my library.

The exact sequence of operations that illustrates the problem is:
- Run auto-import now with 404 and it reports no files have changed.
- Install 422 (or 410).
- Run auto-import now and it reports 47,000 files have changed (about 30% of my library).

I have always assumed that MC detected external changes by looking at the last modifed date/time. It is clear that MC is looking at something else because the last modified date did not change in any of the 47,000 files.

Can you please tell me how MC detects external changes?

One thing that might be unusual about my library is that I have a large number files that do not store tags internally (like avi, txt, pdf) AND it is quite common for me to leave the Name and Artist fields empty for certain media types (for example, in Movies I store the title in Album and leave the other fields blank).

Is there any chance that MC assumes a file has changed if a field is empty that it would otherwise have filled on import? (for example Name is populated with filename the first time you import an avi file).  If this was true, then I could correct the problem by not leaving key fields empty.

This is a very big issue for me. Thanks in advance for your help.

[JimH]

Is there a date problem somewhere?

It could be ours and it could only be in certain locales.  Where are you?

[Matt]

If you just let MC update its database, will it then report 0 changed files the next time?

Also, could you compare the "Date Modified" column inside MC with the actual file-system date for a few of the files in question?

Thanks.

[rjm]

Thanks for answering so promptly.

Is there a date problem somewhere?

It could be ours and it could only be in certain locales.  Where are you?

I'm on the west coast of Canada, Pacific Standard Time. My system is set to automatically adjust for daylight saving changes.

If you just let MC update its database, will it then report 0 changed files the next time?

I had to forceably terminate MC 422 before it finished updating my library. I have a large collection of video & high-res photos so updating tags and thumbnails for 47,000 files is a 10+ hour operation. Let me know if you really need this information and I will reinstall 422 and let it finish one night while I'm sleeping.

Also, could you compare the "Date Modified" column inside MC with the actual file-system date for a few of the files in question?

I looked at the date modified for two of the "changed" files:

James Bond, Dr. No.avi
    Windows: 19-Sep-2006 23:16:58
    MC:         19-Sep-2006 11:16 pm
Godfather, The.avi
    Windows:  30-May-2001 23:46:28
    MC:          30-May-2001 11:46 pm

MC does not show seconds. Could this be related to my problem?

To elaborate on the sequence I described above:
- Run auto-import now with 404 and it reports no files have changed.
- Install 422 (or 410).
- Run auto-import now and it reports 47,000 files have changed (about 30% of my library).
- Re-install 404.
- Restore library used in step 1.
- Run auto-import now it reports no files have changed.

I think this suggests that something in the external change detection logic changed after 12.0.404.

Thanks again for your help.

[edit]
I don't know if this is relevant, but the date modified of the folder that contains the above 2 files is set to today (much different than the file dates)

[edit2]
Maybe a 12 vs 24 hour clock issue?

[Alex B]

I tried a few things, but couldn't reproduce the problem with a library of 65000 files.

I switched back and forth between the 12 and 24 hour time display modes, but that didn't change the import behavior. MC didn't detect any changes in the files.

In addition, I tried changing the last modified date of a few folders without changing the files that are included in the library, but this didn't have any effect. Actually, any effect should be impossible because MC doesn't store the folder dates anywhere. Inside the database the only reference to the folders is in the Filename field.

James Bond, Dr. No.avi
    Windows: 19-Sep-2006 23:16:58
    MC:         19-Sep-2006 11:16 pm
Godfather, The.avi
    Windows:  30-May-2001 23:46:28
    MC:          30-May-2001 11:46 pm

This looks odd. I have either the 12 or 24 hour clock in both places. If I change the time format in Control Panel MC uses the new changed display style automatically.

[ADDiCT]

I have the feeling this problem might be connected to my iPod synching troubles. This is just a shot in the dark, but maybe MC always "thinks" the files on the iPod are more recent than the ones in the library, and thus updates the tags in the MC database. This could be due to a misinterpretation of the date format, or the dates themself, which would lead to the effects RJM is seeing. I think this is a very severe problem. Many users could be affected, not noticing the problem until they specifically look for the symptoms.

Btw, i'm on a locale with 24-hour time format (XP SP2, all patches).

EDIT: I just noticed another strange effect that might be connected to the problem. To see which files have been changed recently, i'm using a simple smartlist that sorts the files with "[Date Modified]-d". Now, when i change the rating of a track, that track is not showing up in the smartlist. I've made a lot of changes to my library in the last few days (mostly tagging), and today - but the latest entry in the smartlist is two days old.

[Matt]

I can reproduce a date modified problem.  It'll be fixed soon.

Sorry for the hassle.

[rjm]

Wonderful. Can't wait to try the latest features.

Sounds like you understand what is going on, but in case it helps, I forgot to mention one key fact. I changed the Windows time format to display AM and PM in lower case.

[Matt]

It's complicated and boring to explain, but basically file system times are UTC and the conversion from UTC to local time wasn't always happening correctly in our date code.

[rjm]

I've been wondering over the last 3 weeks why more people did not report this problem. I just came up with a plausible explanation. I'll bet the majority of MC users have auto-import turned on and did not notice that MC was updating tags for "changed" files in the background.

It might be a wise idea for everyone to check their tags for files that do not store tags internally.