Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[trott]

Hi all,

There are (as I understand it) 2 ways to get media files removed from MC:

• remove from library (removes the file from the library but does not delete the actual file)
• remove from library AND delete the file

What I'm wondering: is there a way to REALLY remove something from the library? I'm guessing that the above 2 methods do not really remove a file from the library but rather mark it as removed since you can specify to not re-add it during import if previously removed.

[glynor]

Question....

Why?

The library files are tiny.  Is there a particular reason you want to do this?  FWIW, if you uncheck the "ignore files previously removed" from all of your Auto-Import folders, then it'll really remove them.  Of course, it'll re-add them if they're still in a watched folder, so that is of limited usefulness (if you are actually leaving them there)...

[trott]

I have found 2 uses so far:
1) I want to transcode from a set of flac files. However, I do not want to add the flac files permanently to my library. I can get around this by deleting the files from the library. However however, I want to be able to re-add the folder tree holding the files when needed.
2) when moving files outside of MC, if auto-import is enabled and the moved files get re-imported, I cannot point the old library entries to the new files using search & replace. Deleting the new files from the library does not help.

[Doof]

I have found 2 uses so far:
1) I want to transcode from a set of flac files. However, I do not want to add the flac files permanently to my library. I can get around this by deleting the files from the library. However however, I want to be able to re-add the folder tree holding the files when needed.

Are you using the Convert Format tool to do this? If so, you can tell MC to move them to a location outside of your watched folders when converting them.

2) when moving files outside of MC, if auto-import is enabled and the moved files get re-imported, I cannot point the old library entries to the new files using search & replace. Deleting the new files from the library does not help.

Can you move them to a location outside of your watched folders, then use Search & Replace to point the library entries to the new files, and then use MC to move them to their permanent location?

[ThoBar]

I've wondered about this too. 'Tiny' is close to 400MB for me at the moment, and I KNOW there's a lot of junk in there (my fault).

I figure it can't be good keeping all the junk references in the library, but while performance has been good, and I've other things to worry about, it hasn't been on the priority list. If there's an easy way to clear it out though, I'm all ears.

C.

PS. Given that I'm using the Library server / Shared library more, over a non-uber high speek link, its becoming more pressing.

[marko]

re. #2
The theory goes that...

if you move files oustside of MC to a folder auto import is watching, the files don't get re-imported, instead, the links get updated, thus retaining existing database info such as [number plays] and [date imported]

if you move the files to a folder auto import is not watching, then the existing database entries are deemed to be 'broken links' and the entries are removed from the library.

I've had very limited success with the 'fix broken links' side of the auto import tool, so whenever doing anything like this, I always turn auto import off first, do any file moving thing required, then update the [filename] field of those files to point them in the correct direction.

-marko.