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Author Topic: Where did my library go?  (Read 3054 times)

raym

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Where did my library go?
« on: December 14, 2006, 04:32:25 pm »

This is the second time in 2 weeks that my entire library (on a client pc) has got wiped out due to my media server dropping off the network for a little while. I don't recall this ever having to me in v11. Is this a new "feature"? In the past, if media content residing on a network share became unavailable, the worst that would happen is MC would throw up an alert box when attempting to play something. A re-map of the drives and you're off again. Having MC delete this content from your library and then requiring a complete re-import (or library restore) seems very unneccessary to say the least.

This is not somehow tied to Auto Import is it? I have the "Fix Broken Links" option set to "yes" and I understand what this means but this should ONLY apply to watch folders right?
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KingSparta

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2006, 05:45:14 pm »

Not Sure This Is The Same Issue But

Make sure you have a name for all your libraries

Using "Default" Library Sometimes You Can Lose A Library, And It Has Been Around For A Long Time (MJ8 Or MC9). It Also Has Been Commented On In The Past By Me And A Few Others From Time To Time.

Normally This Is Not An Issue For Most People, But After I Lost A Few Libraries I Just Made Sure I Never Used "Default" Again.

Make Sure You Have A Backup And You Can Recover Without Importing Again.
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Matt

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2006, 06:15:09 pm »

Whether a library is the default library should have no bearing on internal functionality.  King, do you have any steps to reproduce the problem you're seeing?

As for auto-import, one of its jobs is to remove missing files. (not dependent on watch folder locations)

Missing files should reappear once the drive becomes available again.

Perhaps the file won't reappear if it's not in a watch folder? (although I don't think it matters)

Have you tried restarting MC with the drive hooked up again and waiting a minute to see if the files come back?

(p.s. you can turn also turn off the "remove missing files" option if you want, although it should work fine for drives that come and go)
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KingSparta

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2006, 06:24:16 pm »

Quote
Whether a library is the default library should have no bearing on internal functionality.
I Know

Quote
King, do you have any steps to reproduce the problem

I think the last time someone else brought it up you could not reproduce it.

I think it happened when media server had problems.

I wrote it down on my things to do list, I will see if i can figure out how to lose the library, I have not had a problem since MC10, but I also do not use default Library, and have not since MC10.
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raym

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2006, 04:19:02 pm »

As for auto-import, one of its jobs is to remove missing files. (not dependent on watch folder locations)

Yes, I think this is what got me confused to begin with. I just hoped AA was looking at changes in watch folders only.


Missing files should reappear once the drive becomes available again.

Perhaps the file won't reappear if it's not in a watch folder? (although I don't think it matters)

Have you tried restarting MC with the drive hooked up again and waiting a minute to see if the files come back?

(p.s. you can turn also turn off the "remove missing files" option if you want, although it should work fine for drives that come and go)

I didn't try a restart. I'll take a closer look at this and let you know.

Thanks Matt.
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Alex B

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2006, 07:46:52 pm »

Yes, I think this is what got me confused to begin with. I just hoped AA was looking at changes in watch folders only.

In my opinion each watched folder should have separate options. Currently there is no way to use the maintaining features of Auto-Import only with a couple of defined folders.
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raym

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #6 on: December 21, 2006, 04:39:15 pm »

This has just happened to me again!! Over half my library is now missing??? This time though I've had no network outages.... If it's OTTO, does it really need to mess with non-watch folders!? A re-start of MC doesn't fix it. I've had to restore my library to bring things back.

I've given my default lib a name so that's not the cause (king).

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KingSparta

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2006, 04:46:11 pm »

Quote
I've given my default lib a name so that's not the cause (king).

I could not reproduce the problem, so the problem I had seems to be gone, and like I said, Matt and Crew could have fixed that long ago.

You may want to check your hard drive for errors, maybe it is going bad?

C:\ChkDsk
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raym

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #8 on: December 21, 2006, 05:30:44 pm »

No it's nothing like that... we're talking about 3 different pc's. One of them brand new. Never had the problem before. I'd say it's something introduced since a recent build.
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KingSparta

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #9 on: December 21, 2006, 05:35:25 pm »

I don't think anyone else has reported this.

Is there something common about the Pc's and or a program that maybe on all the pc's?

thats the only thing I can think of, Sorry
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raym

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2006, 05:57:00 pm »

Is there something common about the Pc's and or a program that maybe on all the pc's?

No.
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marko

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #11 on: December 22, 2006, 02:02:10 am »

This is not somehow tied to Auto Import is it? I have the "Fix Broken Links" option set to "yes"....
If you have network files in your library, I think "Yes (leave network files)"  would be a better option?

.... and I understand what this means but this should ONLY apply to watch folders right?
wrong. Alex vehemently maintains that the options should only apply to the specified watched folders, and I totally agree with him.
I really think the options panel needs to be re-jigged. I mean, look at it:

If you collapse "Auto-Import Folders", the "Options" branch folds up inside it.
When you expand "Auto-Import Folders", the "Options" branch is tabbed to the right, and the whole layout implies that the options specified apply to the watched folders listed above. Why would you think otherwise?
These options should be outside of watch folders, and instead of options, perhaps call them something descriptive of their nature such as "Additional library-wide tasks", or alternatively, and preferrably, make it so they only apply to watched folders.

-marko.

hit_ny

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #12 on: December 22, 2006, 01:30:31 pm »

As for auto-import, one of its jobs is to remove missing files. (not dependent on watch folder locations)
Correct me if i'm incorrect, but isn't "fix broken links" the option that removes missing files. Auto-import does not remove anything i thought, quite the contrary :D

(p.s. you can turn also turn off the "fix missing files" option if you want, although it should work fine for drives that come and go)
May i suggest raym disable the fix broken links option, then reload a good library and create a smartlist with the missing files expression

[=IsMissing([Filename])]=1

This will show you the files (if any) that MC cannot find *without* removing them (as with "fix broken links").
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Mr ChriZ

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #13 on: December 22, 2006, 01:39:43 pm »

If you have network files in your library, I think "Yes (leave network files)"  would be a better option?
wrong. Alex vehemently maintains that the options should only apply to the specified watched folders, and I totally agree with him.
-marko.
Sounds good to me too.  :)

KingSparta

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #14 on: December 22, 2006, 02:25:33 pm »

Quote
May i suggest raym disable the fix broken links option

Maybe he is using a networked file system, if so Then this would be why some of his files are missing when the network goes down, OTTO removes them because OTTO Thinks they are missing.

Makes sense to me
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raym

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #15 on: December 23, 2006, 03:51:46 am »

Maybe he is using a networked file system

Yes that's the whole issue.

I think I've worked out what's happening... This particualar network share is being powered down automatically after 2 hours (power save). When OTTO kicks in on one of my client MC machines once the drive is powered down, this is when the problems begin because as far as OTTO's concearned, the media is missing.  I have the fix broken links option set to YES because ALL my media resides on network drives.

I guess I'll try leaving the shares up 24/7 but I'd rather not have to do that.

I agree with others, the way the options for this are layed out is causing a lot of confusion. Until now, I thought the fix broken links thing pertained to OTTO watch folders only. If this was indeed the case, the worst that might happen is that I may loose that watch folder content untill OTTO kicked in again. This would be acceptable.

Thanks.
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marko

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #16 on: December 23, 2006, 06:15:14 am »

If you have network files in your library, I think "Yes (leave network files)"  would be a better option?

Did you miss this??

raym

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #17 on: December 23, 2006, 07:26:18 am »

Did you miss this??

No, I get it. It's just that I don't want this. For example, when a file is removed from the networked watch folder, I want MC to detect this and remove it from my library. This option simply marks the file as missing but doesn't automatically remove it.

For all intents and purposes, my current setup works perfectly. My complaint is that MC doesn't know the difference between a missing file and an unavailable one with respect to network shares. And then it makes the assumption that if the file is unavailable, it must be missing so it removes it from the library altogether. I wish it had the capability of knowing the difference somehow...




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marko

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #18 on: December 23, 2006, 08:07:16 am »

ahah, now I understand (but can't help)

Save to say that here, I use MC for all my file management too, so, if I want to remove/move a file, I use MC to do it, which keeps the library sweet, and allows me to reign Otto in with the "keep network files" option.

-marko.

raym

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Re: Where did my library go?
« Reply #19 on: January 02, 2007, 02:14:08 am »

Ok, it's got nothing to do with the shares being offline. Here's what I did to reliably reproduce the problem.

a) 2 PC's both configured to have OTTO watch the same shared network folder containing dvr-ms files.
b) both MC sessions are running at the same time
c) a new dvr-ms file is being written to the shared WATCH folder.
d) OTTO kicks in repeatedely on both PC's (since the file is being writted to over a period of time).

This is where the "corruption" takes place. Ie, sometimes I lose my entire library and sometimes only a portion of it - AND IT NEVER COMES BACK. I must always restore it.

Hopefully this is enough info for the problem to be narrowed down. I know this scenario may be somewhat unique and the reason no one's reported it before but hopefully it will highlight a problem somewhere with Auto Import.

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