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[mesue]

Today I noticed a good chunk of my music (~2700 files) was missing the lyrics. I did 'Update library from tags' and sure enough they were all still there (whew!). But does anyone know what might have caused MC to drop lyrics from its database like that?

[mesue]

Once again, MC has lost the lyrics for thousands of my files. Around 5000 this time.

I can't think of anything I'm doing differently that would cause this.

I don't think I've had any permanent loss yet, but I can't be sure and the potential is certainly there if I was to edit something before realizing the lyrics are missing the next time this happens. Also, it is quite time-consuming just to go through and do "Update Library" on all these songs that suddenly have missing lyrics.  At this point I don't trust MC enough to do them in one big batch.

[JimH]

There are a lot of ways data can get "lost".  I'd appreciate it if you don't jump to conclusions about what happened.  The least likely cause is MC.

Lyrics can be stored in the database or in the tags. 

Are you using any third party plug-ins or other programs that write to the files?

[Alex B]

MC can lose data if something interrupts it when it is updating the library files. Each library field has a separate corresponding .jmd file in the library folder and there are some other library files too. An interruption can occur if the program crashes for some reason or if the operating system is violently shutdown before MC has properly exited. Sometimes MC can keep on saving its library changes for a little while after the MC window has disappeared from sight. Thousands of lyrics fields must contain a lot of data and if there have been changes it may take some time to store the data.

A best thing to do is to make library backups regularly. (File > Library > Backup Library). I make a library backup before any major changes and after the changes I make another backup with another filename. I keep at least the ten latest backups stored in my backup folder because sometimes I make mistakes and don't notice them before making new backups.

[mesue]

@Jim
I have media center set to store lyrics in the tags and the database.

The only other music software I use regularly is MusicMagic Mixer and SlimServer. MusicMagic only writes its analysis to the tags. SlimServer only reads tags. The MC plugins I use are aTagger, Chart Finder, and Lyrics Finder. However, most (if not all) of the affected songs had not been touched in a while — not by MC, plugins, or other software -- not even to play them.

It's just that out of the blue MC shows the lyrics fields as blank when the lyrics were there before. I'm worried that if I edit some other tag before noticing missing lyrics that MC will overwrite the existing lyrics in the tags with an empty lyrics tag. Is this a possibility?

@Alex
Like I said to Jim, the majority of these files had not been touched, so there would be no reason for MC to be updating the database for them. That is what's most puzzling.

I do make regular Library backups, but since I had recently added a bunch of new music to my library and I wasn't sure if the lyrics went missing before or after, I chose to do "update Library from tags" this time. I've been doing incremental backups at every folder change but maybe I need to spread them out a little more.

[Alex B]

I guess MC must rewrite the whole "field (lyrics).jmd" file every time there have been any changes. If an interrupt occurs before the file is complete it is possible that you lose for example 90% of the data and only the first 10% is usable.

Once I lost about 25000 cover art links because of a program crash. I had just made some big folder changes, but I didn't have an up-to-date backup yet. I restored the previous backup and reconstructed the changes. I took me a couple of evenings.

[mesue]

I guess MC must rewrite the whole "field (lyrics).jmd" file every time there have been any changes. If an interrupt occurs before the file is complete it is possible that you lose for example 90% of the data and only the first 10% is usable.

That makes sense. The first time it happened I noticed the lyrics were missing for all artists starting with P and later. And now I am remembering the Lyrics Finder plugin causing MC to become unresponsive and I had to do an end task on it a couple times.

Mystery solved. I'll have to remember to make a backup before using that plugin from now on.

[KingSparta]

And now I am remembering the Lyrics Finder plugin causing MC to become unresponsive and I had to do an end task on it a couple times.

If you leave it alone it will start back up, i have found when the ftp contol locks up it may be locked up for 10 mins. one day i will change this and use another FTP control.

there is no hooks into J rivers FTP control thru the SDK as of yet (that i know of) if there was i could use that one.

[mesue]

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.