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[kstuart]

My music organization is to keep each album in its own folder, and those folders are in Genre folders on my Music external drive.

If I have imported an album, and then change my mind about the genre , what is the best way to move the album's folder - and keep the Library from being confused about where the album's files are located ?

Possibilities that I see:

* Delete the album from the library, move the folder in Windows Explorer, and then re-import.  (Would this cause problems with the album being simultaneously in "deleted" list and "imported" list ?)

* Use the Rename, Move and Copy.  I tried this, and there is no "Move a Folder" function.  It is also, frankly, very non-intuitive.  (It also asks if I want to "delete the remaining empty folder", when the folder actually still had image files, MD5 file, text files and so forth.)

What do you recommend ?

[MrC]

For cases like this, just use Explorer to rename the folder.  For convenience, use Locate > On Disk (external) to find the folder.

Then run auto-import and let MC fix the links.  That's generally all you have to do.

[glynor]

* Use the Rename, Move and Copy.  I tried this, and there is no "Move a Folder" function.  It is also, frankly, very non-intuitive.  (It also asks if I want to "delete the remaining empty folder", when the folder actually still had image files, MD5 file, text files and so forth.)

The Rename, Move, and Copy tool is quite powerful and useful.  You can set up Presets that create your desired folder organizational structure on disk based on tags (even calculated fields and the whole bit), and apply them to large batches of files at once.

The "Delete empty folders" part won't remove any folder that contains significant files that MC didn't create itself.  However, it does ignore any files that it also moves as part of the rename operation (so cover art, for example).  It is pretty smart and I haven't seen it cause havoc ever, but if you can come up with a case where it does, I'm sure they'd fix it if you post details.

So... You may want to play around with this a bit for the future.

If you only have one folder to do, there are a ton of ways, including what MrC suggested.

If you change the [Filename] tag, MC will move the file.  You can do this with one or more files at a time.  I prefer to use the Find & Replace tool in Rename, Move, and Copy because it shows a preview of the results first.  However, you can just change the tag directly.

If you use the Rename, Move, and Copy tool, you can:
1. Use Find and Replace mode to do simple moves, or large system moves (from one logical volume to another, for example).
2. Build a custom path using tags with the Directories and/or Filename options.  You can save these under the Preset button.
3. You can use a combination of the two systems if you want.
4. You can use it to create copies or move the files (via the combobox up top).

You can drag-drop in the Filesystem Explorer part of MC, I believe, but I haven't done this in years.  I just use my presets.

[MrC]

Adding to glynor's nice reply, don't forget that you can also rename via MC's explorer, which gives you the best of both worlds: the Rename tool, and access to the content for the entire folder.  Use Locate > On Disk (Inside Media Center), select your files in the view, and Rename away.

[glynor]

Adding to glynor's nice reply, don't forget that you can also rename via MC's explorer, which gives you the best of both worlds: the Rename tool, and access to the content for the entire folder.  Use Locate > On Disk (Inside Media Center), select your files in the view, and Rename away.

Yep.  That's what I was trying to get to for the last point... But, like I said, I hardly ever actually do this because I just use my presets (or Find & Replace to move whole folders).  It can be handy in a pinch, though.

[kstuart]

If I forget and rename a file or folder in Windows Explorer - that has previously been imported - what is the best method for correcting MC18's database ?

[csimon]

Another way is to edit the Genre tags for the album(s), then use Rename, Move, Copy, selecting the directory option only and specifying the directory using the Genre tag, e.g. \\NAS\Music\[Genre]\[Album], so this way you can edit the tags for multiple albums and move them all in one go without hardcoding the Genre name.  It will give you a preview of the new location so you can check it's correct.

I'm not sure that this tool moves cover art though?  I've used it many times and the old folder is never deleted because it's not empty, it still contains the cover art file.  I have to manually delete the old folders then Save Cover Art To External Location on all the files to regenerate the image file.  (I have my cover art stored in the tags but also in a file located in the same directory as the file).

[glynor]

If I forget and rename a file or folder in Windows Explorer - that has previously been imported - what is the best method for correcting MC18's database ?

Same.  Find and Replace.  If the files are broken, they won't (obviously) be moved on disk.  Change the [Filename] tag to point to the files and they'll be fixed.  You can do this via any of the means we discussed above.

Or, remove them and re-import them.  MC will recognize them and preserve metadata, with a few exceptions ([Date Imported] for example).