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[coffeethecat]

For some reason, now, when I click on a tune in any of my playlists, "most of them" don't open up and play and I get an error message - see attached screen shot.  What's up with this?

[MrC]

This would indicate that the files have moved locations. See the Filename field for your affected files.

[coffeethecat]

Yes - that's exactly what I thought and yes that's the first thing I checked.  In fact, the address that shows up on the screenshot I attached to my posting is the EXACT address of where my song files reside.  This is what is so weird about this problem.  I cannot tell you how many playlists this problem has cost me!  

I need to know how to scrub my MC library of all the entries that point to tunes that it thinks are not there.  When I go to AUDIO and click on the same song, it works, yes, the address works but there are now entries riddled throughout my Library with those pointers that cause the error.  How do I get rid of them. And please don't say one-by-one because there's thousands of them!

[MrC]

Other than saying "Hey, there's a problem", there's not much other diagnostic info here, so we're speculating.  There's no "address" in your screenshot.

It would be best to not thrash - if there's a problem, and you want the best chances of resolving it, it needs to be understood better.

Show some screenshots showing the Filename path for the media and the playlist entries.

Add an expression column to each of those two views (your library and playlist), and use the expression Filekey().  See if this key matches in both cases.

Go to an Audio view, show the file list, and use a Search expression:

   [=ismissing()]=1

to see if any files are missing.

Let's see where this all goes...

[coffeethecat]

Screen shots of the errors attached:  Shows the paths to the tune.  The tune IS actually really there but MC, when trying to launch it from a Playlist, yields the error.  When I switch to my AUDIO menu - there is an entry for the tune with the bad pointer and entry for the tune that actually works.  Also attached.

[MrC]

Hmmm, I don't see a single Filename column value in any of the screenies.

I do see that you have both Drive-based and UNC-type paths being used.  Hard to know which entries refer to which paths.  You could select the files, and do an export in CSV format of the affected files:

Select the files in question, and use File > Export Playlist.  Select:

   Format: Text File (CSV delimited)
   Included Fields: All Fields
   Output Range: Selection

Save it to the Desktop, zip it, and attach it in a reply here. 

[coffeethecat]

The filename is "Beds Are Burning" and the path is located at the top of the screenshot in Screenshot003

[fitbrit]

Seems to be quite straightfowrward.

MC has the path as \\Dan-pc\p\Midnight Oil\Diesel and Dust\01 Beds Are Burning.mp3

The computer's path is:P:\Midnight Oil\Diesel and Dust\01 Beds Are Burning.mp3

They are not the same.

Assuming all your music is on the P drive, you can fix this.

DO THIS ON ONE OR TWO FILES TO START WITH, TO TEST THE PROCEDURE

Select some of the affected files that are in playlists.

Right click and go to Library> Tools> Copy, Move, and Rename.

From the top left, select the option beginning with "Update..."

Then check the Find and Replace option (only).
Find:  \\Dan-pc\p

Replace with: P:

When you hit the OK button, all the files that are in P:\, but the playlists thinks are in \\Dan-pc\p\, will be recognised. Use similar logic, if not all the files are on the P drive, or other variables need to be changed.

[coffeethecat]

That worked - thank you so much! 

Now can you please tell me why the addresses changed within MC as nothing else had changed on my PC

Dan-pc = Computer - - - Does MC see this as two differing syntax's? 

I'll start a new topic for this next question if you like, but, I've suddenly ended up with a lot of duplicate tunes in my MC db.  My music db on my p: drive only has one copy of each tune.  Is there a way to scrub the MC db of all duplicates?

Again - thanx so much!  This has saved me weeks of work regenerating these playlists!

[MrC]

There can be several reasons.  You might have both paths in auto-import.  You might have one type of entry in your playlists, and the other in your library.  You might have manually imported from both location.  Check auto-import first (Tools > Import > Configure Auto-import...).

Determine which file version you want to get rid of (maybe you want to get rid of those using the UNC-style path).  Use the Search wizard to show you only those files (use Filename (path) as the criteria).

[coffeethecat]

This is what my Auto-Import configuration looks like - see attached:  This is correct - right?

[dean70]

Try typing \\Dan-pc\p\Midnight Oil\Diesel and Dust in Windows Explorer address bar to see if shows the files.

[coffeethecat]

Yes - it goes directly to the song file:  attached screenshot

[MrC]

This is what my Auto-Import configuration looks like - see attached:  This is correct - right?

That's fine.  So you want to use Drive letter style paths in MC.

Then you'll want to remove the UNC-style paths from MC (those files whose paths begin with \\Dan-pc\).

Regarding your post immediately above this one...

This is where you're creating a problem for yourself - you're not aware that you can get to your files either directly by the file system, or by network path.  Use one or the other - they are not the same as far as MC is concerned, but Explorer shows you the same file ultimately.

[coffeethecat]

OK - just a Select All from my main AUDIO MC Library - then did a Library Tool - Rename, Move, Copy /  Find & Replace - entered \\Dan-pc\ for FIND and P: for REPLACE WITH and it seemed to go off and do the task and came back a few seconds later.  I got about 70000 songs.  All tunes are opening just fine now.