Corrupted FLAC files after tag edit

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Expand view Topic review: Corrupted FLAC files after tag edit

Re: Corrupted FLAC files after tag edit

by Peke » Sun Feb 27, 2011 6:36 pm

Is there any way that you send one of files (megaupload, hotfile, netload.in) to analyze. Simply send me PM or Open support Ticket with link where I can DL it for testing.

Re: Corrupted FLAC files after tag edit

by maddmaxx » Sun Feb 27, 2011 12:03 pm

Amen to that. I have a myriad of flac files that all check out as okay, using the flac -t command, but when I play them in mediamonkey, they skip all over the place, they were all okay before I used mediamonkey to update the tags with things like year and genre... pretty hokey, considering I paid for mediamonkey gold... any comments, or suggestions would be gratly appreciated!

Re: Corrupted FLAC files after tag edit

by GlennT » Sat Mar 06, 2010 3:36 pm

I know... old post. But I used MM to tag nearly ever one of my FLAC files when I ripped over 500 CDs 3 years ago. It tooks *months*, using EAC +Accurate Rip. I never noticed anything was wrong until I decided to make a lossy copy of the library for my wife's new iPod. I couldn't understand how nearly ever single file could be corrupted, and happened across this message thread. As you can imagine, I am *not* happy. So far, it seems all the original files are playable with my Slimdevices Squeezebox, but I wanted to try the fix anyway. I ran the FLAC Fix tool on a copy of the library, and while it says it "fixed" virtually anything it found wrong (i.e. I didn't see any failures), many of the resulting files are completely un-playable now. And for many of those that will no longer play , I can go back to the old copies and even MM will play them.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do, since at least half are failing the FLAC tester with sync errors, even *after* running the FLAC Fixer tool. I could probably just re-encoded using what I have - I'm sure I wouldn't hear a difference and that sure would be better than hauling boxes of CDs out of the basement - but I hate to have to do that.

by Bill » Fri Oct 26, 2007 6:49 am

I ran the FLAC fixer and it corrupted many of my files. It looks like the files are still there and they are shown in the library. However, MM will not play the file. It just skips over it like it has zero length. I guess when I have time, I'll have to replace these files. :(

Flac fixer

by redsox » Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:15 am

I haven't run any tests on my files (other than flac -t, which confirms a lot of files are corrupt) but will probably start using the MM issued 'flac fixer' on thousands of files soon. I have the following question:

Will the flac fixer tool be superior to doing a flac to flac conversion, other than automating the process for many files?

In other words:
If I simply do a flac to flac conversion in 998 on a corrupt file (let's assume it's been tagged several times and lost 60 bytes of audio), it will remove the first FRAME (which might be a few KB, depending on compression level) ?

If I run the flac fixer on the other hand, will it be able to somehow reset the frames and end up with a fixed file that only lacks the 60 BYTES of data originally loss, rather than the entire FAME?

Let me know if this makes no sense at all (my understanding of file formats is limited)

Thanks!

Followup

by ogdoad8 » Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:56 pm

I've now run both the AudioTester utility and the FlacFixTool on my collection. None of the files showed up as damaged on either one, and for this I am quite thankful.

If it helps anybody track this down, I was using EAC with FLAC 1.1.2 (fairly old) to compress my FLACs. Possibly this bug doesn't surface with older FLAC versions? I'm not sure, but it didn't seem to affect me for whatever reason.

Sorry for the rant, but I really think this should be addressed with high priority. Maintaining the integrity of large music collections is paramount and it seems like nobody even knows (or has said) what this bug really is.

AudioTester

by ogdoad8 » Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:48 pm

I have not yet run the MM FlacFixTool ( http://www.mediamonkey.com/beta/FlacFixTool.zip ) on my collection (thousands of FLAC files tagged with MM). I am quite scared of the results and honestly scared to let any MM code touch my FLAC files right now. It surprises me how long it took MM to address this issue and the fact that they are pushing forward with MM3 without fully addressing this serious problem.

What does the AudioTester utility ( http://www.vuplayer.com/files/audiotester.zip ) actually test? Will it identify FLAC files that have been corrupted by MM's bug, or only once they've been attempted to be fixed? Can somebody explain specifically what's being tested by this utility and how to see if any of my files are damaged? Does running "flac -t" test something different?

Personally: I keep a bit-perfect archive of my CD collection by ripping to FLAC using EAC + AccurateRip, then using MM to download album art and fix up tags, and then playing my music mostly with Sonos devices or portable players (downconverting to MP3 from FLAC). So the primary purpose for me of MM (for which I paid and have been strongly recommending to people) has utterly failed and possibly caused me a tremendous amount of lost time. I hope the MM developers understand that many people use it specifically for its tag management of their archive-quality audio data, and for this use it has gone from A- to a big red F.

by jaco » Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:40 pm

Hi Teknojnky,

Thanks for pointing that out to me. Unfortunately it's not very visible (I lmost get the idea it has been done on purpose, but that is only my opinion). When I go to the home page I look at the date of the top recent news item. The current top item is dated Jan. 30, 2007. When I see that I don't even read the rest since it has been the same for the past six months. I believe most other readers of the home page will do exactly the same.

I would suggest putting a recent news item with the date of June 13, 2007 in the recent news section with the urgent notice. That would place it at the top of the recent news and will make sure it gets the attention of people visiting the page.

Just my 2 cents!

by Teknojnky » Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:06 pm

B)
Note: users of versions 2.5.5.996/997 and FLAC should update immediately. See the following note for details.
from the right side news bar on the front page

A), haven't seen an email go out either, but its also possible that spam filters caught it

by jaco » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:31 pm

Yes, I did see that post. However, rusty posted this on 13 June:

[quote]Enough with the excuses. Most importantly we want to make this right. I'm going to:
a) send an update notification so that all pre 2.5.5.998 users are told to upgrade to MM 2.5.5.998 (done--but see note below).
b) update the announcement on the home page re. 2.5.5.998 to describe the problem (done)
c) post a note to our support page containing a description of the issue along with the flac fix tool and post the same note to our forum and make it sticky (done).
[/quote]

So far I've only seen c) being addressed (and only partially so)

I'm still waiting to see any progress on points a) and b)...

by Bex » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:24 pm

This has ben added in the FAQ:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/faq/index.ph ... artlang=en

A note to the article on the main website should however be a good thing!

by jaco » Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:04 pm

It has been almost a month and I haven't seen any mention of this problem being made on the home page of the MM web site, or any emails sent out to registered users warning them of this problem.

Developers of MM, please realise that every day wasted is a day where many users out there are corrupting more of their precious FLAC files. Is this how little you feel for your user base? That definitely does not send out a good signal!

I'm already busy looking at alternatives, and I'll strongly recommend the alternative to everybody if this situation continues for much longer...

by Bex » Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:39 pm

Ok guys, as promised, my "Advance Duplicate Find & Fix"- script has now been updated (by me and Trixmoto) to allow for easy transferring of database values and copy tags/Album Art. Check it out and let us know what you think.
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13000

NOTE: I edited my post, above

by tbessie » Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:47 am

I just edited my post above after clarifying my thoughts about how this "sync tool" might work. I think the design I've described is a little more direct and simple (and easier to use) than previous ideas. Let me know what you think.

- Tim

by tbessie » Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:33 pm

[EDITED]
Bex wrote:Yes, both set of files must be in the library. Actually I've been thinking a lot of this and came to the conclusion that it is the best approach. The reason for that is not all tags are supported between various formats but can still be present in the database. You also have explicit database values such as playhistory, playcount, Date Added, Last Played, Playlists entries. Those values would simply be impossible to transfer to a new set of files unless they are part of the library.
Remember, I'm talking about 2 sets of functionality:
  • 1. "Take all the tags in the database which are currently associated with database Record X (and which may or may not be currently associated with File A) and write all tags *which we can* to File B."

    2. "Do step number 1, AND change the association of Record X from File A to file B." (i.e. replace the "file" field in the database with the new file.
Bex wrote:The steps are going to be like this:
- Rip the CD and add the tracks to the library
- Select the new tracks and perform a new special search for the old tracks
- Drag & Drop the old tracks to a special node made for the purpose
- Confirmation window pops up. Select desired transfer/copy actions and hit ok
- Done (Well, you might want to auto-organize the new tracks and of course delete the old tracks.)
Yeah, that's a bit more involved than I'd like. I'd prefer something like:
  • 1. Enter a special "sync mode", which brings up a window where you've got 2 panes. Both panes contain a navigation tree with all the functionality of the main view (searches, filters, etc.) on the left, and a tracklist on the right. The righthand pane, however, will only contain a "My Computer" navigation tree, to assure that the right pane contains actual found files, not database records that may or may not contain file paths in them.

    2. I can drag/drop any track or group of tracks to order them, within the tracklist of each pane.

    3. Once I am satisfied with the list of database tracks in the left pane, lined up with the list of files in the right pane, I press "go" and the tags (all that can be done) in the left pane are written to the files they are associated with on the right pane.

    4. In addition, there may be a 3-state toggle (set of 3 radio buttons, possibly), which would have 1) "do not change database file association", 2) "change database file association", and 3) "add database file association". These would, as listed, (1) not change the file in the database record, (2) change the file in the database record to that of the new track file, and (3) ADD a new record in the database, which is a copy of the old one, but with the newly associated track file. As in a mass-rename operation, files that are *already* associated with a given track could be color-coded as such, as would any conflicts (not sure how that could happen, but it's a possibility).
It's not THAT much more different than your suggestion, just has a slightly different emphasis and feel, I think. I'd have to think about it more to put in more details.
Bex wrote:Try it on some copied files and let us know what you think. If you want to test my script as it is now send me a pm and I'll give it to you.
I'll definitely give it a try, to see how it is. I'll PM you in a bit.

- Tim

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