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[manuelmv]

Hi there,
I've had this problem for quite some time and so far have not been able to solve it.
I have 2 pc´s with MC21 and each one with its own media location (1 in a network disk and the other in an external hdd). The files are exactly the same but the libraries are different.
In each library I have audio playlists that sometimes do not match completely (eg. sometimes I add files to one playlist in only 1 of the pc's and don't update the other one).
When I import or sync the playlists, they have no files in it (although I know the file location paths are really in there, i cannot see them in MC)...
I realized this is because when I import a playlist, the location path in the filename does not change, which makes the playlist empty.
If I edit the playlist in eg. notepad, i can change the location and point to the new location (and then the files appear in MC!). But this is not practical and does not make sense. If you import a playlist, there should be a way of editing the playlist or assign a way of pointing to the new location.. The thing is that, because there are no files in the playlist, I cannot edit them in MC..
Am I missing something here?
Is there a command that can do this for me?
Thanks very much for any help.

[Arindelle]

there is a way to repoint ... use the library tool rename, move copy (right click on selected files or F6). In the top left drop down box choose Update database to point to new location. Fill in the new drive letter (and/or root path) you are using on the machine importing the playlist.

If you do this often you can set a preset (bottom left).

Using multiple libraries like this is sort of a PITA ... I suppose its because you can't network them.  You probably want to have one library be the "master" and keep the directory structure virtually identical. Might want to map them to network drives even if you are not on a LAN with the same drive letter on both machines like z:\? Probably could avoid the F6 step that way provided that your physical files are all in sync.

hope this helps and welcome to the forum btw

[manuelmv]

Thanks for your reply, Arindelle.
See, that's the whole problem: I cannot use Find & Replace to point to new location on a playlist that's empty, with no files in it. That's because in the importing process of a m3u playlist, MC does not change anything. File location remains the same as in the original playlist, pointing to the older location. And so the playlist shows "empty" despite the fact that I know it's not empty, it just cannot find the files in the new library location...
I'm not sure I know what you mean by PITA... but my objective is in fact to do that, to have one library as "master". But first I wanted to merge all the playlists that I already have.
Am i complicating?
Tx

[Arindelle]

Thanks for your reply, Arindelle.
See, that's the whole problem: I cannot use Find & Replace to point to new location on a playlist that's empty, with no files in it. That's because in the importing process of a m3u playlist, MC does not change anything. File location remains the same as in the original playlist, pointing to the older location. And so the playlist shows "empty" despite the fact that I know it's not empty, it just cannot find the files in the new library location...
I'm not sure I know what you mean by PITA... but my objective is in fact to do that, to have one library as "master". But first I wanted to merge all the playlists that I already have.
Am i complicating?
Tx

haha PITA = pain in the ass, but the forum censors things so I have learned these PG rated acronyms ! IMO -in my opinion- yes you are complicating, if you can set-up a LAN. And I think you can get it to repoint if the path structure for the media is identical.

But if you really can't setup a client PC/server PC config over a local network, you just have to be disciplined about a workflow if your goal is to have a master like this (there is a large post on different options that people do, just can't find it right now). It gets complicated when you make changes to both and don't have a 1 "master" library .. a true sync if you will.

What you could do is get PC-A library and media all set-up. Map a drive letter (like say the drive is f:\ map it to z:\ (google how to map network drive if I've lost you :p, I'm not going there  ).   Backup your media files and put it in PC-B (again map to a (fake) network drive say z:) Change Import settings to the mapped drive letter on both machines. Then do a manual library backup from PC-A.

Then on PC-B restore the backup file obtained from PC-A to include the playlists. All you have to do in the future is copy any new files and import the playlists as the paths and drive letters will be the same. You could also just reimport PC-A's backup file (without checking the settings option) - there could be benefits to this, like transferring new "views" and things.

hope this helps some

[manuelmv]

You bet it is a PITA!
And a pity, too... ?
I thought that by sincronizing libraries through the media network (i do have a lan and both pc's are connected) it would update pls instructions to point to the new library location, but unfortunately i have to change them manually. which leaves me with the same problem: I wanted to find newly added songs and merge both playlists in one new, complete playlist..
I'll try mapping network drives but the goal is to have all the media library in one location and access it from both pc's through the network. then all my troubles are gone.. I just wanted to prepair the playlists without having to compare them item by item to know the differences..

[glynor]

I'll try mapping network drives but the goal is to have all the media library in one location and access it from both pc's through the network. then all my troubles are gone..

MC is designed to do exactly that. You need to run MC in Library Server mode on one of the PCs and then connect to it as a client with the other PC's copy of MC.

Then both copies use the same Library, and always contain the same playlists.

[Arindelle]

MC is designed to do exactly that. You need to run MC in Library Server mode on one of the PCs and then connect to it as a client with the other PC's copy of MC.

Then both copies use the same Library, and always contain the same playlists.

aieeee YES. sounded to me like you didn't want ot or couldn't LAN the computers

The ONLY reason to have separate libraries cloned like that is if you have a secondary vacation home with no internet for example

I just posted a couple of screen shots of a basic config like this for someone having network issues. They might help you visually to set this up http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=102512.msg711106#msg711106

[manuelmv]

Hi there once more!
Well, I solved my problem going through some long steps... Really i thought it was impossible to do it from within MC, and it seems i was right.
First, I have no problems with LAN or media server, I use it since maybe MC18.. at home!
but what happens is that I keep a copy of all my media files on an external HDD to work with my notebook, a portable solution to when i'm out of home (somehow I could never work well with streaming over the net to my library at home. I think it's complicated and slow, and obviously you need net access).
So, I have these 2 libraries, with playlists that mostly coincide but sometimes do not (because i'm always updating them and addin3g new files, etc).
What I did:
1- Export all playlists from PC1 to a folder.
2- Run an external Find & Replace Tool, that can replace strings in a file, and replaced all old file locations with new. Then save the new files.
3- Run an external comparison program (eg. Beyond Compare) and compare the contents of the 2 folders (the old playlists and the new ones).
4- Finding the differences between them, then merging both playlists so that they look exactly the same.
5- In MC, import the new playlist and delete the old, then moving them to the 'playlists' folder, instead of leaving them on 'imported playlists'.
6- et voilá, the playlists now point to the new location and are updated. Now I can create a master library.

this said, it doesn't solve my initial problem: when I want to take my library out with me and all i have is the external hdd, i have to make sure it is an exact copy of the 'home' library...

And also, i had a lot of work to solve something that could be simple if MC had a way to edit the text strings on a playlist...

thanks to all, i hope this helps someone..

[blgentry]

It's nice that you found a good way to combine your playlists.  The normal way of making sure this doesn't happen (again) is to only create and maintain these types of things on ONE computer, and then replicate it all to another computer.  Read on...

this said, it doesn't solve my initial problem: when I want to take my library out with me and all i have is the external hdd, i have to make sure it is an exact copy of the 'home' library...

As above, I recommend that you establish one machine as where you do all of your editing, metadata tagging, etc.  Then periodically replicate it to your other machine(s).  There are several ways of doing this, depending upon your setup.  It can get a little bit complex, but it's definitely do-able.  Our man Glynor has written about his setup a bit.

Glynor's basic idea is to use HandHeld sync on the main system to copy all of his media to a disk held by another system.  Because HandHeld sync can also export an MPL list of what it is syncing, he then uses this MPL file as an import target on the second system, which helps to insure that all fields and metadata get transferred over.

The down side to this is that none of your playlists get exported.  But you can tell Handheld sync to do playlists also.  You just have to select them in the export dialog.  Then you have to import each one on the second system.  So it's not exactly automatic.

Another way of doing this would be with a library backup.  Make a backup on the Main system.  Copy the media files over.  Then do a library restore on the Second system.  That should transfer all playlists, views, etc... and of course all of the metadata too.  The issue with this method is file paths.  If they aren't the same, you'll have to use Rename, Move, and Copy files to change them.  Or let "fix broken links" sort it all out.

You may be thinking this won't work because the playlists will be blank, like your original efforts.  But this is not so!  Because you are doing a library restore, all of the playlists will be populated correctly.  But the media files themselves will have the wrong paths.  If you just fix the paths, the media files *and* the playlists will all be correct.

I hope this helps you out.

Brian.