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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 26 for Windows => Topic started by: arcspin on May 17, 2020, 12:34:47 pm

Title: What is the best way to manage large folder/file structures?
Post by: arcspin on May 17, 2020, 12:34:47 pm
Hi,
Many of you have a large amount of files being video and or music in JRiver.

Is there a proper way to manage such large quantities of files regarding folder structure in Windows.
How many files are too many in one folder and how many folders with files are to many in one folder before JRiver starts to get slow.



//arcspin
Title: Re: What is the best way to manage large folder/file structures?
Post by: ferday on May 17, 2020, 08:11:43 pm
it doesn't really matter much.  browsing by folder structure in MC can be a bit slower, and of course if you have all your files in a view it will populate slower.  also a lot of expressions in a view will slow you down.

obviously you'll want some level of folder structure so they are usable in an environment outside of MC, but i find even with files spread across drives any slowdown is so minimal as to not matter - if you structure your views efficiently
Title: Re: What is the best way to manage large folder/file structures?
Post by: wer on May 17, 2020, 08:25:47 pm
There is no one best way.

Learning how to optimally organize large amounts of data on a filesystem is something that comes with experience.  Different approaches have different advantages and disadvantages depending on circumstances.

People could tell you specific methods, but that would be what's best for them, not you.

Avoid putting thousands of files in one flat directory. Avoid putting things where they're difficult to find. Avoid putting large amounts of static data that never changes on your boot volume.  Avoid making your structure overly complicated or with too many branches or levels. Try to put things you're likely to eventually want to relocate together in a directory structure that makes them easy to move together.  Try to use a consistent syntax and structure so that it's easier to navigate programmatically with a batch file.

Stick to good general principles and you probably won't go too far wrong.
Title: Re: What is the best way to manage large folder/file structures?
Post by: leezer3 on May 18, 2020, 04:39:31 am
Blunt answer- Don't  :P

I'll never understand why people import files into an app with custom views and metadata and insist on organising the files on disk.

Stuff gets moved from my download folder onto the current media drive, imported and the folder structure ignored.
When this drive is full, another gets added and I import from this.
Title: Re: What is the best way to manage large folder/file structures?
Post by: TheShoe on May 18, 2020, 05:15:36 am
very subjective question.   i tend to go for simplicity:

Movies, Music, Pictures, Home Videos, TV Shows are the set of folders i use across each drive in my NAS.  each movie gets its own top level folder with all variants inside, each artist for music has their own folder with albums inside, each tv show has its own top level folder with seasons separated.   

more important in my opinion is the file naming convention you use which is also subjective.    i use a format that makes meta data lookup easy,  but also conveys enough information in the name to be easily understood what it is , e.g. adding some meta data to the filename itself.

Title: Re: What is the best way to manage large folder/file structures?
Post by: EnglishTiger on May 18, 2020, 10:10:56 am
Hi,
Many of you have a large amount of files being video and or music in JRiver.

Is there a proper way to manage such large quantities of files regarding folder structure in Windows.
How many files are too many in one folder and how many folders with files are to many in one folder before JRiver starts to get slow.



//arcspin

The answer is extremely dependent upon which definition of "Proper" you are using - If it's the one that a certain Fruit Merchant uses then you would have to Organize your Music an Video in accordance with "The Tax-Dodgers Standard"  ;D

A more correct answer is to organise them in a way that looks "sensible" to you; because, unlike a lot of software from "The Big Boys" MC is extremely flexible and usually very efficient. If and when bottlenecks do occur most of the time its usually the Operating System (having an argument with itself) and not MC that causes them.
Title: Re: What is the best way to manage large folder/file structures?
Post by: Manfred on May 18, 2020, 12:42:36 pm
I have ~29 TB of media files. See attached picture of how I organized my filesystem( Disk 1 to Disk n are old disks and deposit in a different location):
Title: Re: What is the best way to manage large folder/file structures?
Post by: darky on May 23, 2020, 04:23:54 am
I have my music share on a different disks in my synology, seperated from movies.
Music
artist> album(year)

Series:
Series>season>episodes

Movies:
Moviename(date)

For movies and series I use TMM to rename and sort. After that MC does the rest.
Music is tagged and mapped with m3tag..and the rest with MC.

I am still thinking about more sorting options. But on the other hand..that is why we have MC. Just drop it on a disk and MC can sort it out.
Title: Re: What is the best way to manage large folder/file structures?
Post by: ~OHM~ on May 23, 2020, 04:27:11 am
I have my music share on a different disks in my synology, seperated fom movies.
Music
artist> album(year)

I put the (year) in front of the album thus keeping them in order of release. looks good in windows explorer
Title: Re: What is the best way to manage large folder/file structures?
Post by: darky on May 23, 2020, 05:36:56 am
I put the (year) in front of the album thus keeping them in order of release. looks good in windows explorer

Thank you. That is not a bad idea.

I have it ordered it in a MC view.