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[camusmuse]

Ok, I know...search, read FAQ.  I have and did, for over a week now, there is a ton of information....almost too much and its not very well organized.  Usually I can find what I need without bothering any one...but I'm just stumped here...and quite frankly feel a bit foolish....

I added another HD(external) to my computer and transferred all my media files to the new drive from the old drive(Drive with OS on it).  So now all of my playlists are "dead" with red dots with lines through them, additionally, EVERY file that I moved still shows in MC with the same red dot with line.  I have two of every song, but only one plays.  I get a message "Playback Problem"  ---"Details:  The file could not be found. Check the filename in the library matches the filename on disk." 

I have already mapped MC to the new drive, but for some reason it still shows where the files used to be.  I could not find a way to remap my extensive and time consuming custom playlists to their correct location.

I know this is probably an elementary, easy thing to do...but I never had trouble like this using the free Winamp.  My "trial" ends in a couple days...I will really have a hard time paying $50 for this if I have to redo all my playlists and manually remove the "dead" files that MC is still recognizing. 

Thank you for your time,

Nathan

[JimH]

The wiki has a topic called Moving Files.

[adamt]

Library Tools / Find and Replace 

Replace the path to the old drive with the path to the new drive for your whole library.

[camusmuse]

Read it, tried it, and it still does the same thing...I guess I'm just not bright enough for JRiver.

[adamt]

Could you give an example of the following?

1.) The path to the file that MC currently has
2.) The path where the music actually is
3.) Exactly how you used Find and Replace

We'd be happy to help!

[glynor]

Read it, tried it, and it still does the same thing...I guess I'm just not bright enough for JRiver.

Moving the files "properly" will work best if you do it first.  You can use, generally, the same process to fix already broken files, but this might be challenging in the state you have your Library in now.  However, MC automatically makes backups of the Library, and saves them in your My Documents folder.  So, what I'd recommend now that you've already moved them is as follows:

1. Find a copy of your Library Backup from before you made the move.
2. Turn off Auto-Import background importing for now.
3. Restore the Library Backup (you can pick only the Library, as you don't need the settings).
4. Now, since you've already moved all of your files, when it loads this Library, all of the files should be "broken".  That's okay, as we can fix the broken links.
5. You can still use the Rename, Move, and Copy tool to "move" them, and since they're just broken links, it'll actually just move where MC looks on disk for the files.  So, basically, you're going to use the Rename, Move, and Copy tool in "Update Library Only" mode, to "move" the files within MC from where they were before to where they are now.

[DaveT1081]

OK- After reading this I am completely confused and scared to death of screwing up all my neatly organized files/library listings/cover art.  
At 450GB, I am within 50GB of what my notebook pc (windows 7) will hold - and I'm steadily expanding - added 250GB since I purchased MC about 3 months ago.  My solution is to purchase a 1 or 2TB external drive for all my music files.  My current router hasn't the capability, but down the road I'd also want to purchase a wi-fi router w/ usb port so I could access my music w/o the ext drive wired to my notebook.

As an experiment, I moved a couple of albums to a MUSIC folder on a flash drive using the "Rename (moves files...)" library tool.  The files moved and played fine in MC but when I looked, the files were a jumbled mess in my new general MUSIC folder.  The two albums weren't moved as folders or organized by artist or album. When I re-imported them to my notebook, they appeared as duplicates - along with the old, now dead end listings.  Closing and reopening MC didn't remove the duplicates.

Isn't there a step-by-step guide to this for the novice??  I'm afraid if I start moving files on a grand scale, I'll have dead ends everywhere or all my individual song files will be dumped into a massive 18,000 file hodgepodge! - I can't deal with a possibly catastrophic mess that can't be reversed.   Right now everything in my on-board HDD is in a folder called MUSIC, then folders for artists, then albums, then songs.  I would hope to be able to move the giant main MUSIC folder to the new drive - but then what??  Would it be easier/safer to move the giant organized folder to the new drive, delete everything in MC, then re-import everything again from the new location??  Help!

[BryanC]

It's incredibly simple. When you get your new drive, let MC copy your music files for you.

Select all files in MC, right click, library tools-> rename move and copy files.

I would select copy and update database to point to new location so you will have two copies of your files, one on your laptop and one on the external. You can delete the music on your laptop HDD manually later on.

Select find and replace. In find, enter the current drive path, ie C: and in replace, put the drive letter of the new external drive ie E:

Click OK, let it do it's thing. Your files will be copied using the current directory structure and the database will point to the new drive. If you have liner notes, etc, after you delete the old files, you can manually drag and drop the old directory into the new.

The other option is to manually copy the directory over first and then use the rename move and copy tool to point the database at the new drive using the same search and replace expression as above using the point database to new location mode.

BTW, this process is detailed in the wiki.

[JimH]

BTW, this process is detailed in the wiki.

The topic is called "Moving Files".

[DaveT1081]

OK - I like the idea of copying first to make sure it's correct before deleting.  I'll do it this weekend.  I imagine it'll take most of the day even with USB 3.0.  Thanks!