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[jgreen]

I have my  10,000 music files (.wav, .wma, .mp3) on two seperate drives, g: and h:.  I want to  move the h-drive files over to the g-drive, keeping all the subdirectories intact, but won't this mean I have to create all new library info for the 5,000 files coming over from the h-drive?  Is there any way to move files around and keep all the info retained, including ratings,number of plays, replay gain, etc?

[edbro]

I think you can just use Rename Files from Properties using G:\ as the target path. I think this will move them into G: while retaing library information.

[marko]

Move the files from h:\ to g:\ maintaining the directory structure using explorer.

Open MC, select media library in the tree
Select all files in the list
right click selected files, choose library tools > find/replace

click the select none button, then tick either filename or filename (path), I don't know what would happen if you chose both, but it doesn't 'feel' like a good idea

find h:\
replace with g:\

Job done

-marko.

[Cmagic]

Hi,

I can confirm that both procedures submitted by edbro and marko will work for moving files around while preserving tag info.

I personally use the "Rename file from properties" quite often for moving files from a disk to another without any glitch.

As a precaution test the procedures on a few files first. And of course do not forget to backup your lib before moving stuff around.

good luck !

Christian

[lOth]

couldn't you just move the files in explorer and then run an import including the new location with the "fix/remove broken links" option checked?

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong about this.

[Cmagic]

1Oth,

You could do that but this might be tricky.
You would have to import the new files before deleting the ones in the old location.
Then copy the data that were not stored inside file tags between old and new files.
Then of course you would lose the number plays and last played infos.

Tricky indeed !

C.

[glynor]

couldn't you just move the files in explorer and then run an import including the new location with the "fix/remove broken links" option checked?

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong about this.

Yes.  This doesn't work exactly the way you think (or hope) it does.  The "Fix/Remove Broken Links" name is a little misleading.  It really just removes the files it can't find and imports any new files it can (which usually has the result of re-importing the moved files as long as you are searching their path).  It does not retain any tag data as far as I've seen, unless the file hasn't been moved at all (in which case it wouldn't be broken in the first place).

It is possible that I'm wrong on this with certain file types.  My experience in this regard is limited mostly to Video files, as I always use the "rename files from properties" option for my audio files and don't have a reason to move them manually.  I think I've had it work the way I described with MP3's, I'm just not positive.  Either way, I wouldn't trust it not to lose any non-embedded tag info.

[marko]

Hi,

I can confirm that both procedures submitted by edbro and marko will work for moving files around while preserving tag info.

I personally use the "Rename file from properties" quite often for moving files from a disk to another without any glitch.

As a precaution test the procedures on a few files first. And of course do not forget to backup your lib before moving stuff around.

good luck !

Christian

I figured that as we need to maintain the directory structure, and we don't know what that is, a manual copy would prolly be the safest option here.
If you use g:\ as the target path, you also need to set the directory and filename masks. If you copy manually explorer takes care of the folder structure and the find/replace job in MC will be lightning quick.

here, when I'm importing, tagging etc I find the rename from props tool indespensible. imo, it's easily one of MC's most powerful library tools.

-marko.

The "fix broken links" tool kind of works, and the theory says that it should work in this case. It has to be absolutely certain that the file it's found corresponds to a particular library entry that is reported as missing. I figured it might be handy for my images as I use different programs to manage them, but the success rate was abysmal, undoubtedly due to the fact that the filename had changed. For the tool to be that good, it would a crc database of every file to check against, and while I could be wrong, I really don't think that's reasonably feasable, or nessecary.

[glynor]

I figured that as we need to maintain the directory structure, and we don't know what that is, a manual copy would prolly be the safest option here.

Agreed.  That's the major difference between the two methods.  If you need to maintain the folder structure you want to use Marco's method.  If you want to create a new folder structure based on properties, use the Rename from Properties tool.

here, when I'm importing, tagging etc I find the rename from props tool indespensible. imo, it's easily one of MC's most powerful library tools.

Absolutely.

The "fix broken links" tool kind of works, and the theory says that it should work in this case. It has to be absolutely certain that the file it's found corresponds to a particular library entry that is reported as missing. I figured it might be handy for my images as I use different programs to manage them, but the success rate was abysmal, undoubtedly due to the fact that the filename had changed. For the tool to be that good, it would a crc database of every file to check against, and while I could be wrong, I really don't think that's reasonably feasable, or nessecary.

I suspected that's how it worked.  Most of the time when I cause the database to "lose" files, the filename has also changed.  However, regarding MC creating a "hash" of the files to use for comparison, I don't know that it would really be that difficult.  With modern processors creating MD5-style hashes is not that intensive (and could easily be done in the background while idle).  The hashes are small text "keys" and could easily be stored as one of the MC library fields.  Realistically, every P2P app does it and stores the hashes...

It would be useful not only for finding lost files, but in tracking down duplicates as well.

Obviously not a feature for v11, but maybe v12 (which all indications point to is coming soon).

[JustinChase]

You could always just use the move files command in MC.  One step, and everything stays in MC´s realm of use.

It worked quite well for me.

[Cmagic]

Hi,

You could always just use the move files command in MC.  One step, and everything stays in MC´s realm of use.

Not quite Justin, If you're talking about the Tools > Library Tools > Move/Copy Disk files..
It really moves files but does not automatically keep the directory structure.
It's alright if you have a fairly simple directory tree. But if you want to copy thousands of files while keeping a traditional Artis/Album/Files structure you will have to enter each path as you move files one directory at a time.

C.

[Cmagic]

Thinking about it, there is another way to do that.

In the navigation tree, in Drives & Devices > My Computer >
1/ locate the root of your source files
2/ simply drag'n drop them to their destination location

Just tried and it worked on a few hundreds files. Tags are preserved and everything seems fine.

C.

[hit_ny]

I have always used this method of drag n drop when moving folders. It's the easiest to use and works.

...Almost

..if the albums you are moving have cue files then the cue files themselves get lost. So if you did any tagging, ie rating or AA on them all that library only info is lost.

I was testing with the release version of MC 11. and it seems to move a directory with cue files you can.
- drag it to it's intended destination.
At this point the audio, image files etc are moved fine. But the cue files are not updated with the new location ie they still point to the old location.

- You then have to import the directory again to get the cue files back. It seems they retain any library only tags when done this way. More testing is required.

- It's imperative you *DO NOT HAVE* Fix broken links ticked or the cue tracks will be removed. I would prefer instead of have a smartlist that checks for broken links and then do the needy.

This is not an ideal way to be doing things with cue files and is a poor workaround. I might not use cue files with MC at all if this condition persists.

A drag and drop of a directory (when done within MC) should not lose items associated with it. Maybe we can bug them to death to fix this when 11.1 starts.