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Author Topic: Playlist files/location  (Read 8573 times)

tangoDJ

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Playlist files/location
« on: March 13, 2007, 03:27:26 pm »

Hello everybody,

my HD crashed on me the other day, but I managed to access its content and transfer all I needed to.
However, I don't know where to look for the playlists I generated with media center on the old HD.
Can anybody tell me where to look?
I hope I'll be able to copy a few files from the old HD into the new one and magically see my old playlists (I DJ, this is very important for me) on the newly installed media center.

Can anyone help?
Thanks!

- R
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marko

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Re: Playlist files/location
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2007, 04:42:13 am »

assuming you mean the playlists shown in the playlists branch of the tree in MC, rather than actual .m3u files you created, you would be looking for the playlistx.jmd file from the old MC library folder. It contains all your playlists, smartlists and groups.

The media files would need to have the same file addresses now as they did before. Go to your \Documents and Settings\user\application data\J River\Media Center 12\Library\ folder to find the old file and copy it into the same location on your current drive, making sure you have a current library backup in case of unexpected results, and also that MC is closed at the time. When you start MC, the playlists node of your tree should be back to its former state.

Of course, if your media files are all in the same location as they were before the crash, there's nothing to stop you restoring from a library backup. Unsurprisingly, you can find these in the \Documents and Settings\user\application data\J River\Media Center 12\Library Backups\ folder. MC creates these automatically for you and places the date in the backup filename.

Choose the file you want, then open MC and click on the File item in the top toolbar, then Library, then restore library. The dialogue opens at the default save location. Use the "Look In..." field at the top to browse to your chosen backup file and select it. This will restore everything, not just the playlists section of the tree and if you have the option, this should be your preferred choice ;)

If your files are not in the same location, it could still be possible to restore from a library backup, but more work would be needed afterwards. How much depends entirely upon what the file paths used to be and what they are now.

Good luck.

-marko.

tangoDJ

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Thanks!!
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2007, 05:19:42 am »

Hey Marko,

your instructions were very clear and I recovered my playlists.
I can't express how gratefull I am!
Thanks a bunch,
- Riccardo
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tangoDJ

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Problem with the new playlists...
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2007, 05:44:33 am »

hey Marko,

I just realized that the names of my playlists were recovered and, I believe, the number of files per playlist as well, but many of the files in each playlist are not right.
This is really strange as I didn't change the location of these files, I just copied the hole "my music" directory on the new HD.

If you have any clue on what the cause of this could be, let me know. I have about 150 playlists with 4-5 songs in each (that's for DJing) and now many of the songs are not in the right playlists anymore. What a mess!

Thanks,
- R
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marko

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Re: Playlist files/location
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2007, 06:00:15 am »

No idea!! :(
You made a new backup before starting, right?

thoughts...
Quote
my HD crashed on me the other day, but I managed to access its content and transfer all I needed to.
How did you manage that and can you be 100% certain of the integrity of the recovered files?
Data recovery programs that scan drives for recoverable data can detect a whole heap of files deleted a long long time ago, and that would include files that might have been re-written for tag writing purposes for example. You'd be surprised just how much debris there actually is floating around on your average hard drive!!
What's actually wrong?
Are the entries in the playlists correct, but the wrong files listed, or are the entries in the playlists just plain wrong ?

Did you use the library restore method or did you just recover the playlistx file?

Are there any other anomalies in other parts of your library?

-marko.

tangoDJ

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Apologies...
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2007, 06:18:37 am »

Hey Marko,

indeed I had only copied the playlistx.jmd file on the new HD. This was giving the wrong songs in the wrong playlists. I used the "library recover" tool now and it worked just fine. Everything is recovered in the right order.

Thanks again for your help. Hopefully this thread will be helpfull for others too.
- Riccardo
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marko

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Re: Playlist files/location
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2007, 06:28:22 am »

Nice one. Pleased to hear you're all sorted, thanks for letting us know how it went.

regards,
-marko.
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