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[billF]

Thanks in advance - this is a bit tricky!  On my Mac system, I inadvertently unplugged my ext. drive containing my music database without ejecting it first.  MC was quit and my playback system was off - but the computer was just asleep.  About 3/4 of my music folders were wiped out. Just gone. 

I have everything backed up on an identical hard drive.  Same names, same folders, same locations.  So, I have now transferred the missing 350 or so high res albums back onto the original ext. drive.  I (of course) was hoping MC 27 would simply "not notice" that the folders and files had been replaced.  But MC is seeing all the replaced music as new and is importing them into the library as new. The problem is:  none my Library data is being applied to any of this replaced music including my unique genre names. 

Is there some way for me to "re-connect" my Library data to these backed up files that MC has imported so I don't have to redo all the work that has taken me months to do? OR, perhaps there is another way entirely for me to approach this problem.   BTW, the 150 or so albums that didn't get deleted are working fine and my Library data is still working fine for them.  Thanks again. 

[wer]

I would start by reverting to an MC library backup that was made before you had your little accident.

You should immediately ensure the Auto-Import is disabled, and remains disabled, especially after you do the library restore.

It is indeed true that MC can just "not notice" but several thing must be true for this:
1. Auto import is off
2. MC is not running or trying to access the files
3. When you put the files back, the filespec must be absolutely identical: the mount point, all the folder names at every level, and every file name, down to the last letter dot and space.

So I suggest you start over, and adhere to these conditions. Based on what you describe, it would appear you violated 1 or 3 or perhaps both.

If you violate #3 only, that can be fixed afterwards by clever use of MC's RMCF tool. If you violate 1 or 2, you had best start over.

So your steps:
1. Turn off auto import
2. Copy your files properly
3. Restore library
4. Immediately ensure auto import is still off

Check to see if all is well.

Note, you can have problems if the auto import setting was turned on when your library backup was made, because as soon as you restore it is turned back on.

[billF]

Thank You, wer.  I have worked with these parameters as you described and have found a fairly quick way to make the corrections in the file path & names.  If the music file won't open, I go to tools / locate and it gives me an easy to read window of what MC wants to see on my hard drive.  Often it's tricky to find the extra space or character to remove & change but I'm getting faster as I go.

It's odd to me that MC didn't mind that these differences before the disk damage and does now that I'm replacing with back up files.  When I rip an SACD or download a high res album, I prepare the folder, file name and track names how I want to see them, then transfer the finished folder to both my main ext. drive and the back up drive at the same time.  I never change how the drive is set up, only what I see in MC Standard View.

Anyway, I am very happy to be getting this work done much quicker than re-importing and tagging all these music folders.  BTW, if I leave auto import off - which I don't mind doing - I've always had problems getting MC to import one folder at a time using tools / import.  I get it all set up and, often it just says "0" files imported.

So, thanks, again, wer, very much for your help!

[wer]

Glad to help. 

It's not that MC "didn't mind" differences in filenames before: it's either that there were no differences before, or you didn't notice that some files weren't working.

So if you are seeing discrepancies in the file names that were not there before, then either the file names on the disk or the file names in the library were changed between before and now.

In order for a library file to be playable by MC, the filename (and path) recorded in the library must EXACTLY match the actual filename and path on the disk.  Period.  If the filenames are different, even slightly, they are just not the same file.  If the filename listed in the library is wrong by even the tiniest bit, it is wrong, and the file does not exist (by that name).

This full file specification (path+filename) is called the "link" in MC.  If the link is incorrect (broken) then MC cannot find the file when you try and play it.  It's that simple. There is no such thing as a small difference: any difference whatsoever means the link is broken, and the result is total failure.

If you had autoimport running with the "fix broken links" setting turned on, MC might have been finding and trying to fix the broken links for you behind the scenes, but they were still broken until MC fixed them. If this was happening, it's because the files were being changed or moved on your filesystem outside of MC: that's bad.

You do not need to actually try to play the file to see if the link is broken.  MC will show you with the icon (it will be a little red do-not-enter sign with a white line across it).  And MC provides you additional tools to identify library entries with broken links... Take a look at this article:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Broken_Links

This step should not have been necessary based on your original description, that you had everything backed up "Same names, same folders, same locations".  It would appear that was perhaps not the case, as now you're talking about filename differences, and therefore you have broken links.  You can use the info above to quickly find all the problems. Fixing the discrepancies will be a manual process.

Going forward, I recommend you write your tags to the music files. That way, your metadata is saved both in the files and in the library, so you won't have to ever re-tag.  If the library is lost, a new empty library can read all the metadata from the files. If the files are lost, and replaced with untagged backups (why? backup the tagged versions!) then the metadata is in the library and can be rewritten to the tags in the files (what you should be doing now).

Good luck...