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[David Sydney]

I am setting up Linux MC after many years on windows. My music is on media drive M: in windows which of course does not translate Linux where I have mounted the driver at Home/user/Music. I restored my library and let it run auto import for several hours. Because I maintain my media files without any *.cue files (ie separate tracks not large files indexed by Cue files AND I save clipart in the files themselves not on a appdata/clipart folder ...it imports and fixes broken links pefectly ok after a while.

My question is since it is reimporting everything and deleting the M:\links... the entire llibrary sorted by import date changes. The AAuto import seems to run by alphabetic list that the folders are in. Is there a way to import in the same order I have imported the original Windows library over 10+ years - so that they end up the same? Some setting or config trick on the auto-import setup?

Thanks David

[JimH]

Can you use a different view?  Meaning not the import date?

Normally, one might view by Artist or Album.

[mwillems]

I am setting up Linux MC after many years on windows. My music is on media drive M: in windows which of course does not translate Linux where I have mounted the driver at Home/user/Music. I restored my library and let it run auto import for several hours. Because I maintain my media files without any *.cue files (ie separate tracks not large files indexed by Cue files AND I save clipart in the files themselves not on a appdata/clipart folder ...it imports and fixes broken links pefectly ok after a while.

My question is since it is reimporting everything and deleting the M:\links... the entire llibrary sorted by import date changes. The AAuto import seems to run by alphabetic list that the folders are in. Is there a way to import in the same order I have imported the original Windows library over 10+ years - so that they end up the same? Some setting or config trick on the auto-import setup?

Thanks David

So you can't do what you want using autoimport, but if you still have the library backup with the old M:\ paths, you can use the rename, move, and copy tool to link up your old library entries with the new file locations and keep your import order. 

I'm not in front of my mediacenter right now so I'm giving descriptive names rather than exact menu option names, but the process looks like this.  Select one or two files, and open up the rename, move copy dialog box.  Then you'll need to use the "update path" sub-tool in the upper left hand corner of the rename, move, copy dialog, and the find and replace part of the dialog to change out the front part of the file paths (i.e. change "M:\path\to\music" to "/home/user/Music" .  You'll also need to check the "reverse slashes" check box as well.

Try it with one or two files before you do very many, but once you've got the flow figured out you should be able to do your whole library at once.

[David Sydney]

You guys are legends.... Big thank you. Here is what I did to migrate my library set up over to Linux. I am just used to looking at my music library sorted by date of import since I am focused on new stuff I am importing/cleaning up as I import. I roughly know where to scroll to find stuff on this view I have had even since itunes days. I know the other views are still there for artist etc. but of course they wont be impacted by a rebuild.

1/ Restored library + Settings, quickly turned off/deleted entries for Auto-Import [Should really be a check box for this on the restore dialog? Everyone seems to have to diable quickly otherwise it messes tags up..]

2/ Selected a handful of files.

3/ F6-Rename/Move/Copy - Find&Replace setting only (Filename, Directories unticked). tick-Convert Windows paths syntax, Find 'M:', 'Replace with '/home/user/Music' the mount point for the whole media library. tick-Replace slashes in expressions [not sure I have any expressions though-calculated fields right?]. Created a Preset for these settings called "Linux Media" so I could come back to it.

Original trial did not seem to replace the front directory. So I went in to menu, File,Library,Portable Library can created an entry "M:|/home/user/Music" then tried again. It may have been another setting that I change cant remember - until the 'Preview pane' looked correct. Ran it.

I noticed the tags had successfully changed the path name of the file - but the library still marked the items as broken links. So I took a punt and tried with the same selection - menu Tools, Library Tools, Update Library (from tags) hoping it would process the selection not the entire library which it did. Success!

4/Ran a couple more trials using the Preset in F6-Rename/Move/Copy so the settings were exactly the same, then selected every file in the audio library and let it run overnight. Next morning ran the Update Library (from Tags) again over the selection.

5/Repeated the same for all pictures and videos files also.

I notice a couple of learnings... The F6-Rename/Move/Copy provides no feedback after you hit OK and it returns back to the library view. I didn't know if it had finished or if I could remove the selection. Compare this to Update Library (from Tags) function which provides the "updating file x of y" in the staus bar as it goes. All in all rather painless and far better than letting Auto-Import remove all broken linked files, and reimport everything again.

Besides that I also directly copied my custom standard view skin (Dark black with LP Groove pictures in background) to .jriver/Media Center 30/skins/Standard view. In addition to playing around with a better display font that "Sans" which must be the default... and I was all back up and running. I think this ONLY worked because I have been diligent in storing clip art in the actual media files (not a folder) AND breaking up albums to individual files (ie. no  cue file) by convert audio format eg. Flac -> to Flac then removing cue file & all -in one-album files. Milage may vary for others who have not done this as it will look like blank cover art and/or duplicate audio files.

Thanks Again!

A Footnote: There were ~10 albums I had to rename folder names due to mismatch capitalisation. Items where the file name tag had a path that contained "The" where the actual folder name has "the" therefore not a match in Linux but functions in Windows since it ignores capitalisation. Not an issue for Media Center but Windows. The good thing is the way to find these is via the files display and display "Image File" field and see items that are not 'inside file' or 'folder.jpg' that I have some of the old MP3 still as. Even if you copy paste the cover art back to the tag or look up from internet - it does not stick and save inside the file. This issue should be expect ed from anyone migrating library to Linux set up.