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[Vocalpoint]

As I get set to import my FLAC library into a new install of MC on our HTPC - I am a little confused on how specific date fields are populated during import.

It is very important that my Recent Albums view (when the import is complete) actually displays recent albums (Say albums I added in the last 90 days). And I was using Date Imported to do that - but I am already 99.9% sure that in the case of a fresh "master" import - where I bring in all 77,000 tracks on my server - that Date Imported will be today - which is of little use to me.

Are there any other date fields that are baked into the FLAC file and that will display as originally set (Like perhaps Date Created) so my Recent Albums view will actually work? Or do all Date fields regardless of file metadata get reset to the actual import date.

I also would like to know how Date Created is different from Date Imported. I see tons of tracks (via my Desktop install of MC) where the Date Imported value is BEFORE the Date Created value - which makes little sense to me. How can a file have a "created" date that is after a "import" date. The file had to exist (be created) before it could be imported?

EDIT: Took a deep dive into my FLAC library. I see files in here with a Date Created date of many months before Date Imported. And the reverse as well. (See attachment)

Appreciate any info on this.

Cheers,

VP

[blgentry]

Sounds like you are kind of like me and enjoy seeing your albums in reverse import order, with the newest stuff at the top.  I've gotten very, very used to that view.

That view has survived at least 2 major upgrades of MC, and at least 3 different installations on (effectively) different computers.  I've done a Library Backup and Restore each time and altered file paths with the Rename, Move, and Copy files tool as necessary.

Are you able to use the Backup and Restore functionality on your library to make your new computer have the old library contents?  That's the most straight forward way of doing this.  Otherwise you've got to figure out some kludge to externally store your original Import Date and then get MC to sort on it.  Getting it straight from the Library Backup is definitely the easiest way to do this.

Brian.

[Vocalpoint]

Are you able to use the Backup and Restore functionality on your library to make your new computer have the old library contents?  That's the most straight forward way of doing this.  Otherwise you've got to figure out some kludge to externally store your original Import Date and then get MC to sort on it.  Getting it straight from the Library Backup is definitely the easiest way to do this.

Brian,

Unfortunately restoring my server backup (which has been in use for at least 5 versions of MC) was no longer viable. I did give it a good try but the restored settings were acting very bizarre and I decided I was not going to waste anymore time trying to figure out what was wrong.

So I installed 24.0.52 clean and started a fresh library. And that meant re-importing everything - and dealing with the fact that the Recent albums view is now torched since it simply operates under Date Imported.

I will now need to wait until MC starts seeding my releases as they come into the library. Or figure out another date. Was hoping to try Date Created - but found out now that as soon I add cover art to a FLAC file the file creation date is reset - so that will not work.

And I just noticed that Date Created is not even available as sort choice if I use Album as my Category in the Recent Albums view. So that will really not work.

So it goes...

VP

[blgentry]

There's something else you can try:  Export Playlist as MPL.  You can do this for the entire library and it creates an MC specific "MPL format" playlist.  This playlist has every field in it including Date Imported.

You can take this MPL file and import it into a fresh MC library and it should get all of your fields including Date Imported.  I'm not sure if this is still true, but there used to be an odd behavior with MPL import which required you to do the import TWICE before it got everything.  You might try that too.

If you think some of your custom fields are the problem, you might try creating a clone of your library, and then deleting all of your custom fields.  *Then* do the MPL export and import that MPL file back into your fresh library on your new system.

Not sure if any of this will help you, but here's hoping for the best.

Brian.

[wer]

Someone else just asked how to avoid the recent albums problem when re-importing.

I gave them the solution I use in this thread:  https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,117429.msg813054.html#msg813054

Maybe it will be of use to you as well...