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[hammy]

Hi to you all and thanks in advance for your assistance. I have made “new” playlists and they keep disappearing. It is maddening!!  How do I “save” my created playlists?

[JimH]

Please describe a little more about your setup.  Any servers involved?

How are you making a playlist?  Details would help.

Where do you look for them?

What version of the software do you run?  It's in MC About.

[hammy]

Thanks for the quick reply. No server. MC 14. I go to "add playlist", rename it, add music. Everything works fine, print the list (thank goodnes). I can open and close the playlist and the software several times and the new playlist is there. Than... it's gone!

[JimH]

MC14 has a build number.  14.0.90, for example.

Is the library on a local drive?  Any network drives, etc?

When you look for it, are you opening the Playlists in the tree by clicking on "Playlists"?

It's unlikely there is a bug in this feature since it is so often used and would have been noticed before.

[hammy]

build 14.0.71, local drive, it is not listed in the "tree". I do a C drive search and cannot find it. This happened 3 times now. Why is there not a "save" feature after building a new playlist?

[hammy]

one more note; I am dragging the individual tracks from multiple files on C drive.

[JimH]

build 14.0.71, local drive, it is not listed in the "tree". I do a C drive search and cannot find it. This happened 3 times now. Why is there not a "save" feature after building a new playlist?

Because they are saved automatically.

Your playlists are stored in a file called playlistx.jmd .  Depending on the version of the OS you use, it could be in a different location, but on Vista, mine is here:

C:\Users\JimH\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 14\Library

The problem you're reporting may be caused by a disk problem or a virus.

Build 90 is at the top of this board.  It's worth trying.

Make sure that you're not running an older version (MC13, for example) sometimes.

[RalphDill]

My playlists mysteriously disappear every time there is a Media player update, It's incredibly frustrating.  I work so hard to build good lists for different occasions (as I have a 300 gb library), only for the software to disregard all my hard work! I attempt to export them to keep them safe, then re-import them when a new update has installed, only for the whol frigging program to fall over.

Also, drive letter changes sometimes ruin my entire Library... I have to start from scratch because the drive letter is integral to the library and is not changeable.
The advice on the wiki is flimsy and full of holes. just getting to a popint where I can voice my frustration has taken 30 minutes of frustrating to and fro with registrations, verifications, codes and more...

It's so much faster when you folks take my $ 49.95 to pay for the software..... Where's the quid pro quo here....
 

[Alex B]

RalphDill,

I'd say that there are simple ways to avoid the problems and frustration you have experienced.

Personally I have never lost a playlist. I established my main library over 7 years and six major version changes ago. I have moved my media files numerous times from a PC to another and between various internal, external and networked drives without losing anything.

When a new build of the same MC version is installed it doesn't touch the library (aka database) files at all. On the first run it just uses what you already have. During the development stage JRiver has sometimes changed the storage format of the database files, but these rare changes have always been tested before the public release and so far I have not seen any problem reports. Just installing a newer build does not invoke any mechanism that would broke the file links or invalidate the existing playlists. There must have been some additional factors that have caused it to fail in your case, if that is what happened.

When there is a major version upgrade (for instance, from MC13 to MC14) the installer is programmed to offer to use your existing library and also that works for the majority of the users. If you have a more complex setup with several libraries you must add the additional libraries by hand, but that is expected and should not be a problem for someone who has created the additional libraries and is using them.

I hope your drive letters are not changing daily or so, because that kind of behavior is not expected and should be avoided. An MC library is always based on the imported media files and their filenames (including the paths).

If the files disappear from the previous location the default settings in the Auto-Import feature will cause them to be removed from the library. That will also cause them to be removed anywhere they exist inside MC, including the playlists. It would be better to move the files by using the tools that are available inside MC because then the file links would be maintained.

However, you can temporarily disable the auto-import feature or at least the "Fix Broken Links" auto-import setting and mass change the file links by hand if you have reason to move the media files outside MC. I have recently explained the procedure as a few simple steps here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=55547.msg377589#msg377589
and here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=55224.msg375699#msg375699

In case something goes wrong you can always restore a library backup file and start over. MC creates them automatically from time to time, but I'd recommend always creating a new backup file manually before doing any major changes. (File > Library > Back Up Library...)

[JimH]

Thanks, Alex.

[kurushi]

Hi , for the drive letter change u can change it in windows.I have do this so when i plug my external device it stay on drive letter "p".
here the tuto:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844
(For to open drive management i think right click on my computer works too.)

[Tolga]

My two-cents 1:
not loosing playlists is very important. I think auto-import deleting links in the playlists is a very bad idea, because sometimes, the playlist sequence (the order of names of the songs) is even more important than the files themselves.
 
My two-cents 2:
Loosing links with external files is another big issue. Unfortunately, MC is still a bad explorer replacement. The basic problem is that "My computer" in MC does not look like explorer. I have a very difficult time convincing my "MC-novice" wife to make all physical location changes within MC. In particular, we need

Right pane folder navigation in internal "My Computer" explorer. The location thumbnail view in MC14 is huge improvement but it can only be used for viewing. A similar look internal explorer would be used for moving files and folders.


This would also help our ability to manipulate files that are not imported yet. (i don't want to import all files).

After that we can say:

"See, you don't need explorer, you can do all within MC"