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[tuneup]

I have tried several different albums and closed and rebooted MC25 and JRemote a few times. Nothing helps to play files in MC25 on my Windows desktop computer (7 Pro). This happened suddenly after successfully playing another album. I have not changed any file names of any of the tracks I am trying to play. If I switch JRiver to my Id, I can play the same files.

See screen shot of error message - https://www.dropbox.com/s/yiyi0rrqviv0aev/Screenshot%202019-08-18%2018.46.37.png?dl=0

[wer]

Verify that your M drive is mounted, and that the path shown in the screenshot is accessible.

Also, try right-clicking on an audio file in windows explorer and play/send it to MC, and see if it plays (or you could drag and drop it on MC)

[tuneup]

Thank you wer. My music drive is not M, but Z. But this led me to look at what drive my import tool is set to and sure enough it now said M. That reminded me that the last time I opened MC25 I got a message saying that it didn't close properly the last time and it took a long time to boot up. I suspect that MC25 changed the drive from Z to M in that reboot, because I certainly didn't do it. As soon as I redirected it to Z, it imported the entire library from Z, which is my NAS drive. I have no idea why it did this as it already had shown the correct number of files in the action window when it was refusing to play anything. I now have another major problem. All files are now doubled on every CD/download album in my library. Why did it do this? Is MC not smart enough to see that all those files, with correct file names were already in the MC 25 library? This totally sucks.

Can you please tell me how to remove the entire library from MC25. I will then I will import it again from the NAS drive?. I have had this problem before with earlier versions of MC and the delete and re-import solution seemed to be the easiest way to de-dupe the library, but I don't remember how I deleted the library and couldn't find it in the wiki.

[ferday]

one possible way of doing it is to make a smartlist, and set the rule

filename contains M:

this will only show the entries from the M: drive.  backup your library first, then delete all those entries (remove from media library)

if you are happy, run another library backup.

if you really want to re-import, the library tools (including clear) are in the file menu.

[JimH]

File > Library Manager.

[blgentry]

Let's do it the easy way:  Restore a backup from before this happened.  MC makes them automatically.

To find the location of your backups:
Tools > Options > Files Location > Program Files > Library Backups > (path shows here)

Go there and you'll find lots of backup files.  Choose one that is before your problem.  Now:

File > Library > Restore Library > (choose that backup file here)

Hit restore and see what happens.

Good luck!

Brian.

[wer]

Three things:

1. Brian's suggestion to restore the library is good advice.

2. You've been given ways to delete the files; you can also just go to the files view, select M from the top selection pane, and delete everything it shows there.

But you have a problem that you're not addressing.  What you're complaining about is the symptom, not the disease.  That brings us to #3.

3. Most importantly: You say you didn't personally change anything - I'll accept that as a fact.  You say you've had this problem before - I'll accept that as a fact.  And MC does not just randomly reassign drive letters to things in the library - you need to accept that as a fact.  If all the pointers in the library used to point to Z: and MC updated them to point to M:, that happened when Z: was inaccessible and the files were available as M:.  MC cannot make Z: inaccessible, and it cannot make M: accessible.  MC cannot change mount points or drive mappings.  Only Windows can do that, so you'd better figure out why your drive mappings are changing.  That is your real problem, and MC is just reacting to the issues you're having.  But we can inhibit its reaction...

You should go and check two options: Tools->Options->Library & Folders->Auto-Import->Run auto import in background.  Sounds like it's on.  You might consider turning this off until you get to the bottom of your real problem.

Second: File->Library->Import->Configure Auto Import->Fix Broken Links.   You need to set this to NO.

After you do this, MC will not automatically update the file links in your library to fix things.  If you import files from Z, the link in the MC library will stay pointing to Z.  And the next time your Z drive becomes unmapped, MC will do NOTHING, and you will see broken links in MC and will know to investigate and fix your Windows problem.

[tuneup]

Thank you all. I've been very busy or would have replied sooner. I thought I would try Brian's suggestions first and look for a recent backup, but it appears that my MC doesn't make backups automatically. There are no backups. See https://www.dropbox.com/s/biph7uxp7eqicg6/Screenshot%202019-08-24%2019.03.04.png?dl=0 . Is there a place where automatic backups have to be turned on?

So I decided to try Jim's suggestion and went to File > Library Manager. There I saw a choice between Library Serve and Local Library. Since there are no library backups I don't know if I can use either of these. My files are in a NAS drive, but I believe that is not considered a library. So I really don't know how to proceed here. Please advise. Should I delete the current library in Library Manager and then import all files anew from the NAS drive? If so, do I select Main Library or DiskStation (my NAS drive)?

Since I qualify neither as a nerd or an IT guy, I do not know how to make a smartlist nor create rules for it. Likewise, I don't know how to figure out what Windows is doing to create the "symptoms." The mapped drive for the NAS has been Z for a long time. I worked with Synology tech support to make sure it stayed put when the PC was turned off and rebooted and it always shows up as Z. I don't keep this PC on all the time as it is my business desktop and I usually use the Id for music serving. However the Id has other problems, which I haven't had time to resolve. (I need to create a repair stick, etc.) Next time I reboot the PC, I will check to make sure that the Z drive is present before I turn on MC. I don't believe that mapped drives become "unmapped" when a PC is turned off and get "remapped" when it is booted up, but I could be wrong.

I have turned off "Auto-Import in background" and said No to "Fix broken links."

[wer]

... but it appears that my MC doesn't make backups automatically. There are no backups.

Check the folder specified in Options->File Location->Program Files->Library Backups

See if there are .ZIP files in there.  It should be creating backups automatically on a regular basis, if the folder exists and is writable.

[tuneup]

wer, when I go to exactly the location you describe I get the window shown in the screen shot. The tree view you see is about 2.5 times longer than what I've scrolled to in the screen shot. That is the only thing on that list relating to JRiver and as you can see there is no box with a + in it next to Library Backups, which indicates that there are no files in that folder, Zip or otherwise. I don't know if there is another Library Backups folder hidden someplace else.

[tuneup]

I also looked in the MC folders in the JRiver folder within the Windows Program Files folder and found no library backups there.

[blgentry]

wer, when I go to exactly the location you describe I get the window shown in the screen shot. The tree view you see is about 2.5 times longer than what I've scrolled to in the screen shot. That is the only thing on that list relating to JRiver and as you can see there is no box with a + in it next to Library Backups, which indicates that there are no files in that folder, Zip or otherwise.

I'm not sure that is correct.  To be sure, you need to use Windows Explorer (the windows file/folder viewing tool) to go look i that folder.  I think the dialog you showed, from MC, will not show files.

Automatic backups are made every few days.  They do not need to be turned on.  I do not think they can be turned off.  I expect you will find many backup files in that folder if you go look with Windows Explorer.

Brian.

[RoderickGI]

I'm not sure that is correct.

No, it isn't correct. The dialogue shown in your image Tuneup is a Folder Selection Dialogue. A folder will only show a Plus sign if there are more folders beneath it that can be selected, and it correctly does not identify ZIP files as folders like Windows Explorer does.

While my Windows 10 looks a little different to your Windows 7, in that Win10 uses Disclosure Triangles while Win7 uses the Plus sign to indicate more folders, you can see in my attached image that my "Library Backups" folder doesn't indicate there is more to see inside it using the MC Folder Selection Dialogue, and yet the Windows Explorer window shows that it is full of ZIP files. Also note that Windows Explorer does recognise ZIP files as folders, shows the Disclosure Triangle, and shows the ZIP files in the folder tree on the left. My image demonstrates that a Folder Selection Dialogue works differently to Windows Explorer.

Tuneup, I hope you didn't scroll around selecting folders in there, and then click OK, because if you did you just made it much harder to help you, as you would have changed the location of your Library Backups.

Anyway, I always find the best way to locate Library Backups is to just go to the top menu in Standard View and select;
File > Library > Restore Library

Your Library Backup location will be shown in the dialogue window that opens, and if you click Browse you will be shown a list of all recent backups, in ZIP files. Make sure that files listing is sorted by "Date Modified", preferably in reverse sort order. i.e. That the most recent file is at the top. That will work as long as you didn't change the backup location earlier.

Select a backup from before the problem started and restore it. Yes, with settings as well. Why not. MC will want to restart to apply the settings.



If you did unintentionally change the MC Library Backups location earlier, go back into the "Tools > Options > Files Location > Program Files > Library Backups" dialogue and set it to;
C:\Users\7-Pro\Documents\JRiver\Media Center 25\Library Backups

again and then use the Restore function.

[tuneup]

Roderick, when I reached the tree view by following wer's suggestion (Options->File Location->Program Files->Library Backups), I clicked on the Library Backups folder and it had no contents, .ZIP or otherwise. Are you saying that navigating to that folder in MC will not allow you to see .ZIP files? I don't remember clicking OK. If I don't get results that I'm looking for, in a window I click on the X at the upper right corner to close the window and that is likely what I did in this case.

I found the backups using Win Explorer. I went to File > Library > Restore Library and sorted by Date Modified. This worked so I apparently didn't click OK and change the backup location. The 2 most recent backups say they are from the Main Library and average 324 KB, whereas the ones before it, running back 4 mos., are from the NAS and are 240 KB at most. Would the main library backups likely be the ones done on the M drive and could they be larger because they represent the library after all the files were duped? I ask these questions because I'm not sure of the exact date of the start of the problem. I will restore the most recent Master Library backup because I think it was before the problem started and because a very important recent playlist disappeared in conjunction with the duping problem (at least chronologically speaking) and I hope to get it back. Well the dupes disappeared, but the playlist is still absent. Also MC reset the "folders to watch" to the M drive. I will now change it back to Z and do an import because I see that some very recent rips are missing from MC library.

Damn! The import started duping all tracks again! THIS IS NOT WORKING. I am going to try restoring from the NAS. This worked. The dupes are gone, the playlist is back and the most recent rips are there. 

I thank all of you for your time and knowledge. I will make notes on exactly what to do if this problem happens once more, so I will hopefully not have to bother you with it again.

[wer]

Tuneup, the option I directed you to was just to show you what folder to look in, so you would know WHERE JRiver was storing backups on your computer.

Glad you found the files and got it sorted out.