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[shahrukh]

For whatever reason, I decided to split my collection in to two MC libraries. Now I want to combine them into one since there are times when I want to have songs from both libraries in the same playlist. There was no obvious "Merge Selected Libraries" option in the Library Manager. Just important the files that were in library A into library B is not good enough since I want to preserve all the library fields (including those that are not stored in the MP3 tags or within the filename (i.e., the MC library is the ONLY place from which it is possible to import these data).

What is the best way to do this? From what I browsed in other postings (didn't see this exact request), it seems that perhaps Export Playlists in Library A followed by Import Playlists in Library B might be a way to do this, but wanted to check that this was the best way and also I'd like to make sure that ALL the library fields get exported and imported automatically E.g., what happens is I have a library field defined in Library A and not in Library B? Will it automatically be created upon import? Or ignored? Or ...?

Thanks,

Shahrukh

[Alex B]

You can import files including all library field values by using an mpl playlist file.

You can simply create an mpl playlist of the complete source library or if preferred include only a subset of the library. You can export an mpl playlist of any library view. It doesn't necessarily need to be one of the existing playlists in the Playlists tree category.

The destination library must have all appropriete user fields correctly configured before the mpl file is imported. Otherwise the unknown field data will be ignored.

The File > Import Playlist tool is more powerful than the Auto-Import tool. It can even restore the original import dates from an mpl file (if the files are not previously imported you need to import the mpl file twice to restore the import dates.)

Before doing any operations with mpl files you should backup both libraries and disable the "Run auto-import in background" option.

[shahrukh]

Thanks, this answers my question completely.

[hit_ny]

if the files are not previously imported you need to import the mpl file twice to restore the import dates.

This is curious...

would have thought everything in the mpl would have come through on the first import.

[Alex B]

I think that happens because MC first creates the library entry (aka populates the field values) and then marks it as imported. The latter step automatically updates the date imported field value.

It cannot possibly change the import status before the library entry exists.

You can demonstate this by dragging an mpl file to Playing Now. The import date from the mpl is visible as long as the files are not imported. When you do a "right-click import" the date value changes.

When an mpl file is imported again it only updates the database fields including the Date Imported field because the files are already marked as "imported".