Topic: How to rid library of dup references to same file (Read 4861 times)

Zoner · « **on:** May 03, 2003, 03:01:13 am »

My MC9 library has many duplicate references to the same file. For example, the file "d:\music\Queen - Killer Queen.mp3" is in there 2 or 3 times. I'm pretty sure this is a bug in MC9, but I'm more concerned about fixing my library.

This is a serious issue for me, because when I notice duplicates, my first reaction is to hit Shift+Del to delete one of them and remove them from the hard disk. Since both library entries reference the same file, that results in deletion of my only copy!

I have hundreds of these in my library - is there a sure-fire way to safely detect and remove them? Note that I need to differentiate between multiple references to the same file and multiple copies of the same song.

KingSparta · « **Reply #1 on:** May 03, 2003, 03:40:15 am »

how about when you use the ~dup option you don't use [artist],[name] rather you use [filename]?

Zoner · « **Reply #2 on:** May 03, 2003, 08:54:08 am »

That worked perfectly - thank you!

LisaRCT · « **Reply #3 on:** May 04, 2003, 04:09:53 am »

I have the same problem with duplicate listings of the same file (same exact: artist/album/name/filename/location).
King, I do not understand what you are referring to when you state 'using the ~dup option'
I tried to fumble my way through modifying the AutoPlaylist for 'Possible Duplicates' but was unable to filter these out . . . wrong syntax perhaps?

KingSparta · « **Reply #4 on:** May 04, 2003, 05:17:06 am »

if you type in ~dup

then edit the filter

and add [filename] in the "fields" box

is what i was trying to say.

you couls also use

[artist],[name] in the "fields" box

Benjamin0 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 04, 2003, 05:24:58 am »

Hi,

i have an other questions about dup.
Many songs are in the original album and in a soundtrack? so i must have two times this files.
Is ther a way to have one songs with two albums, so when i play the original album the song is playing in the right number track , and if i play the soundtrack this song is playing in the right number track?

sorry for my english, my explication is mayber not really clear
thanks for your help

Benjamin

KingSparta · « **Reply #6 on:** May 04, 2003, 05:38:10 am »

>> Is ther a way to have one songs with two albums
no, delete one

Benjamin0 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 04, 2003, 06:04:20 am »

i can do this, bur if i delete it, i will not can play the songs if i choose to listen the others album.

Maybe i can be interesting to create a fonction like Alias. If MEdia jukebox play this file it can directly play the song what is refer to.

Zoner · « **Reply #8 on:** May 04, 2003, 01:05:15 pm »

Who cares about albums? It's 2003. One of the things I love about MP3 is that I get to decide the order I listen to music. You don't have to listen to your songs in a certain order, just because some fat-cat record industry exec decided he liked them in that order back in 1973 when LPs were the delivery method...

Cmagic · « **Reply #9 on:** May 04, 2003, 02:14:39 pm »

Salut Beanjamin,

Quote

Is ther a way to have one songs with two albums, so when i play the original album the song is playing in the right number track , and if i play the soundtrack this song is playing in the right number track?

If you are using Win XP it is possible to keep only one copy of the track and create "links" to this copy.(RMC / New / Link).
Unfortunately MC does not recognize links to music files and cannot play them. On the other hand you can perfectly play them (with MC) when you dble click on them in WIn explorer.

Zoner,

Quote

Who cares about albums?

It might be 2003 but jewels like "Abbey Road", "Sgt Pepper's..", "Dark Side of the Moon", "Tommy" and many others would sound very strange in random play order. Well, at least for me !

C.

Now Playing :

On Media Center 9.0

zevele10 · « **Reply #10 on:** May 04, 2003, 02:28:26 pm »

Who cares about albums? It's 2003. One of the things I love about MP3 is that I get to decide the order I listen to music. You don't have to listen to your songs in a certain order, just because some fat-cat record industry exec decided he liked them in that order back in 1973 when LPs were the delivery method...

-=-=-=-=-=-=-
people who knows better thank junk food - junk culture- junk drink- and many others junk things.
Most of them have some culture and good taste

Benjamin0 · « **Reply #11 on:** May 04, 2003, 03:01:01 pm »

Thanks for your answer Cmagic.
I try what you tell me, but it's really strange.
If you click twice on the Link, it can open MC and ply the right file.
But if you try to go to go by "My computer" in MC to the link, MC can't read it. So the problem is here......
Maybe it can be an interesting improvement for the next build no?

Thanks for your support of the listening of a complete album in the right track number

Benjamin

KingSparta · « **Reply #12 on:** May 04, 2003, 03:29:53 pm »

just tried something.

I had two files imported.

F:\My Music CD Collection\Alabama\Alabama - Alabama Live - 01 - Can't Keep A Good Man Down.mp3

C:\My Test Music CD Collection\Alabama\Alabama - Alabama Live - 01 - Can't Keep A Good Man Down.mp3

if you click on the "Filename" of the second and replace the path to the file, MC9 will ask you if you wish to replace it. basicly mc9 copies it to the 1st place

you will still have two entries in the database but only one file path shared between the two.

KeystoneCop · « **Reply #13 on:** May 04, 2003, 04:11:48 pm »

had the same problem, all I did was find dupicates, using filename.. remove them from database, then import the files again. was not a big deal.

Charlemagne 8 · « **Reply #14 on:** May 04, 2003, 04:36:06 pm »

A music exec decides what and how you listen to songs even in 2003.

But that's not the point. There are some songs that are so intertwined as to be thought of as one song.

The one's that spring immediately to mind are:

Almost the entire "Dark Side of the Moon" CD
Heartbreaker/Livin', Lovin' Maid - Led Zeppelin
Black Magic woman/Gypsy Queen - Santana
About 5 tracks on "Abbey Road" - (The Beatles)

I'm sure there are lots more.

But all that has little to do with dealing with duplicate files.

Find them and delete them ... from the hard drive. The Database will keep up. Keep your criteria in mind when deciding which one needs to go. For me it's higher bit rate = keep; I used to keep everything in "D:" drive but I copied it to "E:" and so have thousands of dups ... but not all on "D:" are dupes - got to be careful. Some things in "E:" are both in Media Center Download Manager and also in EMusic Download Manager. It's just directories but under the present circumstances, Emusic goes. I've found as many as four copies of some tracks. It gets tricky and very tedious. Due to the variables in personal criteria, it would be almost impossible to automate the process and achieve satisfactory results.
CVIII

Cmagic · « **Reply #15 on:** May 04, 2003, 09:50:36 pm »

KIng, that's a good tip and it works well, thanks.

However as stated by C8 it gets tedious to do that for every dupe. What I found is that many of my dupes are for 'simple songs', I mean songs that in the zoner philosphy can be played in random orders. For this type of dupes, I'll only keep one copy (the best encoding/bitrate combination).
Other 'album songs', where I find important to keep the song in the album sequence are just a few and King's trick is fine.

C.

Zoner · « **Reply #16 on:** May 04, 2003, 11:34:28 pm »

> There are some songs that are so intertwined as to be thought of as one song.

That's true.

> Find them and delete them ... from the hard drive. The Database will keep up.

That's not what I posted about - I am talking about multiple database references to a single file. This happens when you do a Move/Copy within MC9 and replace an existing file. In this case, MC9 has a bug in that it doesn't remove the replaced file from the database. So you end up with only one file, but two database entries referring to it. IMHO this should be fixed ASAP, since if you see the duplicate reference and Shift+Del it, you will lose the only copy of that song you have!

Zoner · « **Reply #17 on:** May 04, 2003, 11:37:34 pm »

> For me it's higher bit rate = keep

Me too, but it's not that simple - make sure that they're the same duration before deleting one. What I find all the time is that one of them is a live or extended version. I have even found two tracks with the same name & same duration, but one was a completely different version of the same song. Very tricky this database cleanup business.

Marko · « **Reply #18 on:** May 04, 2003, 11:51:17 pm »

Quote

> For me it's higher bit rate = keep

Me too, but it's not that simple ......... I have even found two tracks with the same name & same duration, but one was a completely different version of the same song. Very tricky this database cleanup business.

So true!! especially as far as my Dylan collection is concerned. Sometimes as many as 4 apparent dupes, but actually very different renditions of the same track.
Delete one of those? Perish the thought!!!

For the others though, KingSparta's tip will do nicely. Nice one King!!

having no imagination of my own, thought I might steal a neato touch from cmagic too...

Listening to:

on Media Center 9.0

I can't afford a lawyer Cmagic, please don't sue

Zoner · « **Reply #19 on:** May 05, 2003, 12:08:34 am »

One more thing I forgot to mention earlier - when cleaning up your DB, make sure to display the "Peak Level", "Replay Gain", and "BPM" fields - they are very handy in trying to work out which song to keep, and whether two tracks are exact duplicates or not.

BTW, I was shocked to see ladt night that some of my tracks have a "Peak Level" of only 44%! This means it probably has less than half the audio quality of a file with 100% peak level, which in turn means that a 128kb/s version with 100% peak level would probably have higher audio quality than a 192kb/s version with only 44% peak level.

Note that I'm over-simplifying a little here: if a track only has 10% peak level except for a glitch somewhere that goes up to 100%, that doesn't make it a good quality track. So you have to look at the radio gain as well. Complicated! If you have time, the best way is to simply listen to both tracks.

Cmagic · « **Reply #20 on:** May 05, 2003, 12:31:31 am »

Marko,

Quote

I can't afford a lawyer Cmagic, please don't sue

Don't worry I can't sue you since you don't use the same font !!

Maybe a suggestion for MC10 : Graphical copy listening to...

KingSparta · « **Reply #21 on:** May 05, 2003, 09:48:55 am »

Quote

I have even found two tracks with the same name & same duration, but one was a completely different version of the same song. Very tricky this database cleanup business.

add ,[duration] to the ~dup search and it will eliminate the ones with diffrent durations

Zoner · « **Reply #22 on:** May 05, 2003, 11:25:27 am »

Just noticed another bug with the Copy/Move function. If it asks you "Do you want to overwrite this file?" and you answer No, then it obeys that, but removes the source file from the database (without deleting it) anyway.

KingSparta · « **Reply #23 on:** May 05, 2003, 02:18:20 pm »

Quote

Just noticed another bug with the Copy/Move function. If it asks you "Do you want to overwrite this file?" and you answer No, then it obeys that, but removes the source file from the database (without deleting it) anyway.

thats not new, thats been there for 2 years since MJ7

Zoner · « **Reply #24 on:** May 06, 2003, 12:37:09 am »

Who said it was new

?

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Author Topic: How to rid library of dup references to same file (Read 4861 times)

LisaRCT

zevele10

Marko