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[audunth]

Hi,

I'm noticing MC doesn't make sidecar .xml files for my MKVs anymore, at least not in the same folder as the imported video file. Can I delete all those sidecar files for old imports? Or do I have to tag them all over again then?

Does MC still make the sidecar files, but in a different location?

[glynor]

With the default option turned on, MC makes sidecar.xml files next to the source file (hence the term sidecar).  This happens whenever a file is manually tagged.  This includes you tagging the file by hand, or by a Tag On Import rule.  Carnac auto-parsing does not trigger it (because this can be re-done on the next import the same way, so it is not needed).

So, you won't see the sidecar files generated for newly imported files, unless you've added a tag that doesn't get grabbed "automatically".

These files are NOT used by MC for day-to-day operation (all metadata is stored in the Library).  These are the video file equivalent of ID3 tags, and they allow you to take a file and move it to another computer with a separate copy of MC and it will retain its metadata (assuming you copy the sidecar file over too).  They also allow you to exchange metadata with other external applications.

You do NOT need them.  If you delete them, the current copy of MC will be unaffected.  If you want to turn generation of these files off (if you never need to move files to other computers and retain the metadata), then you can disable their generation under Options > General > Importing & Tagging > Store tags in external sidecar files.

[audunth]

I manually populate the Genre and Notes fields on ALL my video file imports, and often manually edit other fields too. the Sidecar file is still not being generated. They were always created before. The most recent Sidecar file on my hard drive is from January 2012. So something has changed.

Thanks for the info, though

[kensn]

Do you have to manually "Update tags from library"?

Ken

[audunth]

Thank you, I believe I've solved the small puzzle now. When trying to update tags from library, I got an error message saying that I have to enable MC to be able to update tags. So I found this setting under Interface; "Update tags when file info changes". I've never seen this setting before, nor disabled it, so I guess my Sidecar files stopped appearing on new import when this setting was introduced.

So, to sum up: I can just leave this setting disabled, delete all my Sidecar files, and then if I need to use a file in another program that supports sidecar files or need to delete and reimport a file for some reason, I just enable the setting and manually update the tag. Right?

[MrHaugen]

Why leave it disabled, unless you can not live with the sidecar files polluting your folders. You enable the option and do a "Update tags from library". That way, all info will be written to the files and/or as sidecar files. In the case of a disaster or importing it with other MC's, all media meta data is saved in those files and can be easily imported again.

[audunth]

Well, that's the thing, I really hate the Sidecar files making a mess out of my media folders. The most annoying thing is that if I delete a file from the library and reimport it MC will import the Sidecar file as a datafile into the library. If there was an option to store the Sidecar files in a separate folder, that would be good!

By the way, in case of a disaster, MC backs up the library automatically, and as long as the backup folder is on a different physical drive than the library, that's sufficient. If I needed to import the files in another player supporting Sidecar files, I could just do the Update tags from library at that time.

[MrHaugen]

Sidecar files was originally used because some files could not have meta data in the files. As some video types. In case you ** up the library, the meta data could still be saved.

I share your frustration. The sidecar files is something 99,9% of the users have no interest of seeing or messing with. It's just in the way and makes things much more messy. After a lot of pressure, Matt started responding. We suggested using the hidden attribute to at least hide them for most users. The dialogue produced no result as far as I know of. This should be a rather quick fix, so I'm a bit surprised why it's not been done yet.

It would surprise me if it was more job than writing the files with a hidden attribute, and to make this optional with an "Hidden Sidecar = On/Off" option under some advanced settings.

[audunth]

Yeah, wouldn't make a difference for me since I always show all hidden files anyway. But a good idea

As long as the library is backed up regularly and I don't plan to start using other media players, I don't need the Sidecar files.

More annoying is MC does the same with cover art jpegs that are downloaded. You can specify where to store audio cover art, but not video. That's a bug that needs fixing!

[MrHaugen]

Totally agree. It's rather annoying that everything get populated in the media directories. Even though it's hidden. As for the jpg's there should be a way of pointing this to the Cover Art directory imo. System things such as sidecar files should be group together in another folder somewhere.

I tried an application that was totally hiding all jpg and xml files in a directory structure, but it was to unreliable to really use. And it cost money.