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Author Topic: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?  (Read 3371 times)

raldo

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Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« on: July 06, 2008, 07:13:47 am »

I just did a move of many video files files from one drive to another drive. The files were moved from one auto import folder to another.

I thought that when using the "built in file explorer" of MC, "Drives & Devices", tag data of video files would be preserved?

Ok, so I have lost a whole bunch of ratings. I then try to restore the library, going back a week. But now MC removes the files it cannot find from the original locations, and then reimports them without the original tag data.

What gives?
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Alex B

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2008, 09:35:26 am »

I think a problem regarding "preserving tags when files are moved in Drives & Devices" was fixed some time ago. It appears to be working in the latest build.

You could disable Auto-importer before restoring the backup library. After that you can fix the filename paths either directly in the "Details" view mode (add the "Filename (path)" field to the visible columns) or by using the "Rename, Move, & Copy Files" tool.
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raldo

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2008, 09:41:24 am »

Sorry, I forgot to tell you the version I'm using: 12.0.515

Should tags have been preserved in this release, you think?
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Alex B

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2008, 10:01:05 am »

Actually, I didn't remember the fixed problem correctly. It was this:

Quote
12.0.511 (6/5/2008)

8. Fixed: Moving a folder under My Computer in the tree would break the library links.

The library was not updated at all when files were moved in "Drives & Devices > My computer"


I couldn't reproduce your problem, but I don't use Auto-Importer (or at least I always have the "update for external changes" and "fix broken links" options disabled).

Can you reproduce the problem when Auto-Importer is disabled?
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raldo

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2008, 01:50:04 pm »

Well, just moving one file works, rating is preserved.

I don't know why the big move failed yesterday, maybe it's related to autoimport.

However, when I do a library restore, shouldn't MC's "update for external changes" preserve tags for externally moved files?
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fitbrit

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2008, 11:50:19 pm »

I have auto importer off, and moving files within MC has resulted in tags lost more than once.
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ghappe-MC

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #6 on: July 07, 2008, 04:25:27 am »

Same here, :'(

Using 12.0.520 now but when moving some 250.000 mp3 files the library loses files, just the link, not the actual files on disk, and is losing tag-info from several tag-fields, just in the library, not in the actual files.

Rereading the files/disk solves the problem for me. :D

Guido

 
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hit_ny

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #7 on: July 07, 2008, 06:39:42 am »

Using 12.0.520 now but when moving some 250.000 mp3 files the library loses files, just the link, not the actual files on disk, and is losing tag-info from several tag-fields, just in the library, not in the actual files.

This should not be happening at all  :o
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raldo

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #8 on: July 08, 2008, 03:58:58 am »

[...]
Rereading the files/disk solves the problem for me. :D

Guido

Yes, reimporting mp3 would solve the problem when the tags were saved in the file itself, such as in mp3.

But for video and images, much of the tag data is taken care of by MC. Thus MC's tag handling must be watertight. I just lost tagdata for hundreds of files.

[Correction: The tagdata is not completely lost, yet, because I can prevent MC from removing the old files by restoring the library and then deselecting autoimport]
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hit_ny

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2008, 06:30:58 am »

[Correction: The tagdata is not completely lost, yet, because I can prevent MC from removing the old files by restoring the library and then deselecting autoimport]

Yes you can do that but what if you have imported new stuff & tagged in the meantime  ?

the key seems to be 'when' you notice the problem isn't it.

This is a big bug that needs to be fixed, any steps that can reproduce it would be most helpful.
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Matt

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #10 on: July 08, 2008, 09:00:52 am »

Does anyone have steps to reproduce this problem?  How exactly are you moving / renaming files?

Do all fields blank out, or just certain fields?

Thanks for any more details.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

fitbrit

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2008, 09:14:04 am »

Does anyone have steps to reproduce this problem?  How exactly are you moving / renaming files?

Do all fields blank out, or just certain fields?

Thanks for any more details.

If I knew how to reproduce it exactly, I wouldn't. :)
I've seen it happen when I move one folder's location to another via drag and drop within MC. Also when moving several files from list view to a new location by dragging and dropping into the desired folder in the drives and devices area.
On theory is that it only happens when I do a subsequent move of the file(s) to another folder before the original has fully copied over, but I haven't tested this. To elaborate:

I have a drive (network share, really) that I use to put in new files for importing into MC. Once imported, I tag them and move them to the desired location on my server. If I have three different TV show files, I'll move them together to the TV show network share, then immediately from within that location move each show to the subfolder for each show. Could this type of workflow be a problem?
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Matt

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #12 on: July 08, 2008, 09:17:24 am »

I have a drive (network share, really) that I use to put in new files for importing into MC. Once imported, I tag them and move them to the desired location on my server. If I have three different TV show files, I'll move them together to the TV show network share, then immediately from within that location move each show to the subfolder for each show. Could this type of workflow be a problem?

It shouldn't be a problem at all.

If you or anyone else can make it happen with a small (or large) set of test files, let us know.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

fitbrit

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #13 on: July 08, 2008, 09:28:02 am »

It shouldn't be a problem at all.

If you or anyone else can make it happen with a small (or large) set of test files, let us know.

Sure, Matt, I'll be adding/moving more files shortly and I'll be sure to keep track of both my behaviour and that of MC12.
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glynor

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #14 on: July 08, 2008, 10:30:49 am »

I've seen this too over and over again when using Rename Files from Properties (the old version) with Autoimport enabled.  If you use this tool to move a large number of files on a slow disk (such as a network drive or something similar) it can get all screwed up if the Autoimporter is turned on.

Basically what happens is that the Autoimporter "imports" the new files at the destination before the move operation is complete, and these newly imported files have no tag data associated (of course).

It makes me very angry.  My pitiful workaround has been to always remember to turn off Autoimport before I run the tool.  If you forget even once though, you can loose tons of data (boo).  I posted about this once way back when and suggested that Autoimport be automatically disabled while any file move/copy operation is running (and then auto-re-enabled once they are done).

EDIT: Original report here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=44053.0

Matt, you did respond and made some changes, but I've still seen it happen.  Keep in mind that sometimes these move operations (with 100 1GB 720p MKV files for example) can take a LONG, LONG time -- meaning hours, not minutes.
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Matt

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #15 on: July 08, 2008, 02:10:22 pm »

When you move files, it changes the filenames in the database immediately.  It also keeps a list of the original filenames.

The tagging / renaming engine works through the files in the background, taking hours if it needs to.

If auto-import runs during this time, it could only do two things wrong we can think of:

1) Import the old file that's waiting to be moved -- but this won't happen because it checks the list of original filenames.
2) Update from tags on the new file on disk before the copy finishes -- but this can't happen either because auto-import skips files in the tagging / renaming queue.

So we can't understand what could be going on.  Any tips to reproduce the issue would be appreciated.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

glynor

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Re: Moving files within MC: Tag data lost?
« Reply #16 on: July 08, 2008, 03:32:50 pm »

I'll try my method and at home when I can and get back to you if I can get it to fail.  Haven't been messing with it in a while because I haven't had many new shows to re-encode in the "new" folder (being post-season and all).
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