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[fitbrit]

I screwed up. After painstakingly tagging 650 movies, I was ready to rename the files to my convention, based on certain tags, from the gibberish they were before. Since I've been away a while, I am still not used to the new rename/copy/move tool that remembers your previous selection of actually making the changes, or just updating the library.
The tool was set to "update library only", rather than actually make the changes, and I didn't notice - the tool used to always have the changes being executed as a default before. So now all those movies still have their old filenames, but MC thinks they have my new filenames. Therefore they cannot be found and I can't simply fix my problem. Any suggestions?

[fitbrit]

So far, I've found that i can delete the movies from the library and reimport... that preserves all the tagging, I assume because of the sidecar files. The problem is that the movies are distributed among about 4500 video files, in various folders, all in my Import directory.
So far, I've saved the library, deleted all 650 entries from the library, and am now reimporting the whole import directory. My hope is that the 650 movies will be ofund as new entries and the rest will be recognised as already being in the library.

[lepa]

Did you try undo first (ctrl+z)? (Of course it doesn't help you anymore but maybe in the future cases)

[Matt]

Sorry about the trouble.

Undo (Ctrl+Z) should have worked.

Is there anything else the program should have done to help avoid this?  Would a confirmation message have helped?

[fitbrit]

Thanks for the replies. I did try ctrl-z, but it didn't work. Upon reflection, I think this is because the original operation took some time to execute, and I should have waited for it to complete before trying ctrl-z. Could that be a possibility as to why it didn't work?

In the end, I did manage to reimport everything eventually. Thanks to the sidecar files retaining the old filenames, everything was as it should be. I think a dialog/confirmation box may have helped during my transition period getting used to the new system. The ironic thing is that I've been meaning to suggest that copy/rename/move work exactly as it does now (remembering your last setting) for a couple of years now!
Anyway, lesson learned. No real harm done. I think the confirmation of action might not be a bad idea (especially if we can turn it off), but in this case I may just have dismissed it anyway.

On a side note, I do often use the update only feature, without getting MC to move files from one "directory to another". This is because my unraid server has 20 hard drives and multiple user shares that span many drives and vice versa. So moving a file from the I:\ (Import) directory to the M:\ (Movies), for example, would require a lengthy process in MC/Windows, where the file is copied from one to the other. However, I can just go into Midnight Commander in a telnet session to my server and instantly move the same file(s) within the Import and Movie shares of the same drive. So I often shuttle between the different modes of rename/copy/move.

[lise]

I did a similar thing when re-ripping hundreds of cds to ape.
And I still do it about every 3rd time I use the feature.

I would love if the Update function were somewhere else entirely so that the confusion can't happen (2 disctinct options in the menu).
The advantage of this is that you can save your "rename" settings and you can save your "update" settings (very convenient when re-ripping because you have to update alot, and you end up renaming when you catch stuff that isn't in the right place.

Just my 2 cents.

[fitbrit]

I did a similar thing when re-ripping hundreds of cds to ape.
And I still do it about every 3rd time I use the feature.

I would love if the Update function were somewhere else entirely so that the confusion can't happen (2 disctinct options in the menu).
The advantage of this is that you can save your "rename" settings and you can save your "update" settings (very convenient when re-ripping because you have to update alot, and you end up renaming when you catch stuff that isn't in the right place.

Just my 2 cents.

What if that drop-down menu were removed altogether? You make the changes you want, then instead of an OK/apply button, there are four buttons and a cancel; the four buttons correspond to the options - rename, copy, copy and refer to new one, update only. You make your choice of action as the last thing you do. It forces you to think about what you're doing.

[darichman]

What if that drop-down menu were removed altogether? You make the changes you want, then instead of an OK/apply button, there are four buttons and a cancel; the four buttons correspond to the options - rename, copy, copy and refer to new one, update only. You make your choice of action as the last thing you do. It forces you to think about what you're doing.

That's a really good idea.

[fitbrit]

That's a really good idea.

Thanks. I hope it's something think about, at least.