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[toneking]

I have created about 25 custom User fields and need to use these in many libraries.
We have a huge music data set and find it easier and safer to work in smaller chunks that are currently in our pipeline.
I am hoping there is a way to export and import these?

Thanks,
Peter

It seems like an easy request to add if there is no way to currently do it.

[blgentry]

Are you starting from scratch on the new libraries?  Or are they already populated with media, views, etc ?

I ask because I've asked some sort of similar questions in the last few months and I've been given various unusual answers.  Most often I've been advised to restore a backup of the Source library to the Target machine and then delete all of the media entries on the target machine (since they were for the Source and aren't relevant).

If that would work for you, you'd get all of your Views, SmartLIsts, etc, transferred at the same time.

I don't think there's a supported way to move just library fields, but I am far from an authority on the subject.

Brian.

[toneking]

Thanks Brian

I am hoping to avoid this because of library sizes.
I am a bit confused why certain things custom column preset do transfer but not other items.
There should be an option to bring across all custom fields, playlist ,settings.

[glynor]

Restoring a Library Backup, and choosing only to restore the Library portion, will transfer everything that is part of the Library (imported files, Media Views, Playlists and Smartlists, and other similar things).

Restoring a Library Backup, and choosing to restore the Settings portion, will transfer everything else of relevance (primarily things set in Tools > Options and the DSP Settings). This would include user-defined fields.

This is covered in the Library Backup article:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library_Backup

The simplest way to migrate things is to restore a Library Backup. There is not a solution to "merge" Libraries. There are some things you can do fairly quickly, manually with copy and paste, or via creative Settings file edits (though the latter is not supported) if absolutely necessary.

But, this is why I usually strongly recommend to never make separate Libraries unless you really, really, really won't ever need anything from one in the other. Almost every time I've ever seen this kind of request, is because the user should not have been using separate Libraries in the first place. If you find you regularly need to migrate things, intact, from one Library to another, it is an extremely strong clue that you're using multiple Libraries in MC in an ill-advised way.

The most common answer I see to this is "I wanted to keep the media in Library A segregated from the media in Library B" (because, perhaps, one set is Pop music and the other is Classical, or something like that). This is not a good use for multiple Libraries. That's what Media Views are for, and it works much, much better (and has the added benefit that you don't need to restart MC to switch from one to the other).

[blgentry]

I am hoping to avoid this because of library sizes.

I don't understand what you mean.  There are two parts to the Library.  The data and the media.  A Library Backup is just the data.  It's very small.  Even if you have 50,000 songs, the Library (just the data) is very small in terms of it's size on disk.  You don't need to copy the media to restore a Library Backup to a new machine.  Just the Library Backup ZIP file.

If you're concerned about a bunch of "dead" entries in the library once you restore it to the new machine, that's no big deal either; just delete all the entries.  That's just one operation.

Maybe you mean something else?

Brian.