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[Mastiff]

Every now and then I change a lot in my library, and I have dicovered that for a total and anal backup maniac it's rather stupid to have any info at all stored in the files. I have full backups of my library for every change, so I don't think there's much chance of losing any info. Or is there a possible scenario where I can lose that info?

Then it's the updating. To change the files (removing the tag info) I should just let MC work on "Update Tags (From Library)", right? But I did a test, and it didn't remove all. How do I force a full removal of all but a few select fields? Do I have to first remove all tags and then update tags from library to put back in the tags I want?

[hit_ny]

Every now and then I change a lot in my library, and I have dicovered that for a total and anal backup maniac it's rather stupid to have any info at all stored in the files. I have full backups of my library for every change, so I don't think there's much chance of loosing any info. Or is there a possible scenario where I can loose that info?

Are you talking about moving to a library only way of working, in the sense that no tags are ever written to the files and eveything is stored only in the library ?

The losing library info part is harder to protect against as you need to have a system of checks & balances in place. There are 2 types of errors that can happen user error & system error.

For system errors in previous instances of library corruption, either through a crash (bad memory) or power interruptions, i would check a viewscheme that showed me genres, album artist, Albums in the panes and make note of the total files & size. The totals for the above panes indicated at the top of the pane would also be noted.

Further i would quickly scroll across to see if any fields had been blanked out as a result of the crash, usually i would see one field totally empty in which case i would know instantly to restore from backup. I had another viewscheme that has just one pane, for albums to give me an overall album count.

I also have viewschemes to keep track of imported cue albums, i had a nasty surprise when i inadvertantly lost a few hundred imported album cue items, because fix broken links was checked (default) in the import dialog. All imported cue items are considered missing and are summarily wiped out. I keep about 2 months of library backups ever since.

You also have to limit yourself to tried & tested versions of MC to rule out any bugs from corrupting the library, so daily upgrades are defnitely out.

User errors are harder to protect against, all i can think of is do library updates when well rested and never late at night

Other than that i'd be interested in ideas ppl have to ensuring the library is ok.

[Mastiff]

Yeah, I'm moving to storing nothing in the tag. I thought I'd keep the track names, but on second thought I won't, since I haven't finished proof reading my library, and that's something that is done bit by bit, and rather slowly. Much more fun to play music than to read the names...

This means that I won't have to do a backup of all those files if I for instance do a big change and split genres, or something. As for the corruption, I would think that this method is safer. Because, as I said, I always keep the backups of my library (I still have one year old backups laying around), and I do backups before just about every change I do, like importing, modifying info and such. And those backups are also mirrored in other places, like most of the computers in my house (gotta be 10-15 of 'em) One copy is always on my Carputer, which is almost never connected to the power grid in the house. And it's a Chevy Suburban, so it's not parked in the garage either. Actually my media library is better protected than I am! I don't have a backup of myself, unfortunately... (All though one of me is probably enough for anybody!) Wouldn't this really save me whatever happens? I should be able to just go back to the previous library, right? Or can some hidden corruption happen in some way and be carried along for a long time before it's discovered? That would probably corrupt the data in the files themselves as well, wouldn't it?

[hit_ny]

Or can some hidden corruption happen in some way and be carried along for a long time before it's discovered? That would probably corrupt the data in the files themselves as well, wouldn't it?

Thats exactly what happened when i was working with importing cue items, only to notice the albums were missing when it was too late. Live and learn. Having lots of backups is not helpful if you discover something liek this a few months down the line.  If you restore from backup you lost all those months of upgrades. You prolly can tell where the error happened, but there is no log of what changes were made since is there ?

The backup advantage is prolly the biggest when moving towards a library only system. Another tip i can share  is to uncheck store in file when necessary for the individual fields and you notice that tag edits become faster, during AA as well. No need to try store replaygain, intensity & BPM. It's not enough just to uncheck Update files when info changes as i think that check is at the very end of the chain. Defragmentation is kept to a minimum as well.

Moving to a library only system assumes a certain degree of familiarity with the program and your data. When trying new builds you prolly have to test things out a bit more, if you have a test rig this could be quite handy, then say after a week or two move to the next version.

To answer what can go wrong, one needs to answer first what is a "correct" library

[Mastiff]

Good points. I think I know most of what I need to know about the parts of MC I use. I don't use many cue sheets, but the few I use are stored as files on the disk. So that shouldn't be a problem. And the thing is that I'm doing a lot of stuff now, and when that's done I won't change anything, I hope. Except for maybe a few cosmetics (toying with the idea of going through all my files and adding a track genre, everything is now on album genre). But that won't change the original files. I think I'm gonna spring for this! Is there a chance anything could go wrong while removing the tags from the files, or is that such a simple task that nothing can happen? My harddisks are problem freel, of course.