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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 18 for Windows => Topic started by: 6233638 on May 08, 2013, 05:21:51 pm

Title: Is it safe to delete the sidecar files?
Post by: 6233638 on May 08, 2013, 05:21:51 pm: By default Media Center will save sidecar files for videos.

Are these necessary, or are they only if you want to access the files outside of your normal library?
Can I disable sidecar creation and just delete them all? I assume the information is all stored inside MC's library anyway.
Title: Re: Is it safe to delete the sidecar files?
Post by: Matt on May 08, 2013, 06:45:36 pm: They're safe to delete.

Search in the Options search box for 'sidecar' to configure.
Title: Re: Is it safe to delete the sidecar files?
Post by: 6233638 on May 08, 2013, 07:14:03 pm: Great, thanks.

I wonder if this should maybe be disabled by default. If only Media Center is using that metadata, maybe it should just be kept inside the library?

I'm also wondering if being able to write sidecar files should be an option for DFF files, as they don't allow metadata to be written inside them at all.
Title: Re: Is it safe to delete the sidecar files?
Post by: glynor on May 08, 2013, 07:26:59 pm: I would love to have the ability to write sidecar files for other file types (documents, for example).
Title: Re: Is it safe to delete the sidecar files?
Post by: InflatableMouse on May 09, 2013, 02:18:02 am: Yes!
Title: Re: Is it safe to delete the sidecar files?
Post by: yannis on May 09, 2013, 06:47:55 am: Hi. May I jump in with a relative qustion? What happens when a second MC installation loads the same vids folder? Will it read the sidecars? More importantly, will it overwrite them? Please elaborate.
Title: Re: Is it safe to delete the sidecar files?
Post by: 6233638 on May 09, 2013, 07:20:19 am: Quote from: yannis on May 09, 2013, 06:47:55 am
Hi. May I jump in with a relative qustion? What happens when a second MC installation loads the same vids folder? Will it read the sidecars? More importantly, will it overwrite them? Please elaborate.
I assume that the main reason for the sidecar files is so that another installation of MC can read the metadata within them. (the other reason is for a backup of that metadata outside MC's library)
Title: Re: Is it safe to delete the sidecar files?
Post by: glynor on May 09, 2013, 09:33:26 am: Quote from: 6233638 on May 09, 2013, 07:20:19 am
I assume that the main reason for the sidecar files is so that another installation of MC can read the metadata within them. (the other reason is for a backup of that metadata outside MC's library)

Correct.

Because they're XML, they can be used to interchange metadata with other applications as well.
Title: Re: Is it safe to delete the sidecar files?
Post by: fitbrit on May 09, 2013, 10:55:50 pm: Quote from: glynor on May 09, 2013, 09:33:26 am
Correct.

Because they're XML, they can be used to interchange metadata with other applications as well.

Not to mention that they ensure that your tags are easily replaced should you lose your library for example. Just reimport the media and the tags are read from the sidecar file. They have saved me from losing lots of tagging on more than one occasion.
Title: Re: Is it safe to delete the sidecar files?
Post by: Fabricio on May 10, 2013, 06:14:27 am: Quote from: glynor on May 08, 2013, 07:26:59 pm
I would love to have the ability to write sidecar files for other file types (documents, for example).

+ 1, for ISO also ...
Title: Re: Is it safe to delete the sidecar files?
Post by: jmone on May 10, 2013, 06:26:59 am: I love the sidecar files. It is like writing tags to content that don't support tags. If my library is trashed the meta data is still available and is portable to other installs.