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[BigCat]

I am considering folder structure and number of files in a folder. With modern computers and Win 7 or later, is there a performance hit if one puts a few tens of thousands of audio files in one folder which is in JRiver's database, as opposed to spreading the files between several different folders?

And does it matter if one is using a traditional hard drive or a SSD?

Thanks!

[RoderickGI]

The performance hit wouldn't be in MC, but you would notice it in Windows if you ever tried to look at the contents of any folder with a few tens of thousands of audio files in it using Windows Explorer!

Best practice is to use sub-folders at least to some degree, which is why the default directory structure for audio files is typically \Artist\Album\ for many audio applications, including MC. But MC uses its Library, which is an index of all "imported" files it knows about, so I don't think it would be slowed by having a few tens of thousands of audio files in one folder. MC doesn't care where the files are stored, it just needs to know where they are. Not that I have tried that. My 27,000+ audio files are spread over many sub-folders. My main HTPC Library has a total of 38,219 files indexed in it currently, and is only 31.3MB in size. The whole thing fits comfortably in memory, and only writes back to the Library files themselves are a constraint.

I'm sure you can Google if there are any actual limits to the number of files in a sub-directory on an NTFS, exFAT, or any other file system. Certainly, there used to be limits to the number of files that could be stored in the root directory of a drive, but I think any limit is pretty high these days. Once again though, best practice is to define a base directory for all music files, such as D:\Music, and then put the Artist and Album sub-directories below that, so D:\Music\Artist\Album\Track.ext would be the full path.

It is best practice to use an SSD as a boot disk these days, and also to store the MC Library (the index, not the files) on the SSD as well, to get the best performance. But MC will work fine on a traditional hard drive.

Does that help?

[Manfred]

I have not much to add to RoderickGI comment. I have 38044 files under management. The largest folder I have are my Blu Ray Rips on a 10 TB disk. The folder contains 1762 files. No performance problems so far. I have in general the following sub folder structure on my central mirrored drive (Win 10 storage space):

Audio\[Artist]\[Album] which fits also if you buy some HighRes files from various shops

My-Data\Subfolder Structure (I have no local data on my PC and media renderer any more and use MC also as Document Archive)

Images\[Photo album]

TV Recordings\[Recording]

Video\4k Demo Videos
         \Mediathek (In Germany you could download concerts and films (own productions) of the public TV)
         \Movie Trailers
         \Music Concerts (ripped BD&DVD as subfolder)
         \Music Videos
         \Test Files (to adjust lipsync etc. )

I have also separate Drives for video each having two sub folders for ripped movies & TV series (all *.mkv)

[BigCat]

Thanks for the replies. This is pretty much as I see it, too. How does one confirm the location of the MC Library index?

[RoderickGI]

On the PC where the library is located, i.e. the local PC for local libraries and the Server PC for libraries shared to other PC Clients, just click on the Library name under Playing Now. The full path to the Library is shown at the top of the view.

[swiv3d]

Or just hover over the library name in the playing from section. (Previous query - Max files: 4,294,967,295 files in 2010 woulldn't like to search through that lot to find the one I want!)

[BigCat]

OK, that works. Thanks!