Especially the above statement, ...that is why we decided..., made me decide to reply in this topic. I think I have the Pro-for-life since 2007 or somewhere around that time. It has been my THE tool to survive DJ-ing from the vinyl age into the digital era via Serato & Mediamonkey and its plugins. I thought for once I'll break it down why I can't find a replacement.

Comming from broadcast television digital editing support, I realized early how much more important [b]libraries[/b] would be (and so [b]databases[/b]), than folder & file management. That started with 'professional' download sites like Beatport that in its early days often did not have [b][i]Album Art[/i][/b]. I am very bad in names. So I used to create sets based on visual recognition. I found MM looking for something to easily add album art. Customizing things gave me an urge to backup. So:
- [i][b]'Backup'[/b][/i] extention is essential

That also allowed me to easily sync between laptop and workstation in worse case scenarios that always happens when you prepare a set. Of course all the bulk renaming combined with [b][i]RegExp Find and Replace[/i][/b] was a monster organizer to get things ready for filenaming using [b]Mixed in Key[/b] to add tempo and key to the start of the[b] filename[/b], so in any system without library, I could see the most important part of the next file to be played, first.

Once most of the [b]metadata[/b] and the filenaming was right, Mediamonkey proved to be great in [b]moving files[/b] to 'current/ recent' folders and Archiving via 'near-line' to 'historical' archive.

Mean while:
[b][i]- Batch art-finders
- Discogs tagger(s)
- Restore/ Sync database (Dimitri)
- Update location of files in Database (Dimitri)[/i][/b]

Made it hardly impossible to move away. Very important was the Music industries 'wisdom' to expect all DJ's and producers to buy and own a laptop with iTunes. [b][i]'Export to iTunes library' [/i][/b]was and still is a little piece of heaven to a guy that refused to give in. My record-box DJ and Serato DJ softwares think I have an iMac for way over 10 years now. And in MM it's a mouse-click and miliseconds away to move a preparation [b][i]from the music player to the DJ ecosystem[/i][/b]. Finding the tracks in either equal filesystem.

I am quite sure I forgot to bother you with some great automations the accessibility and simplicity of these plugins offer. And I shouldn't forget the help I got from Pioneer to adjust the export to iTunes library script when their software changed hte way they read the playlists form the real iTunes.

My point is...being...
Many thanks for all those years enjoying MM 3-4 and I hope you will continu to offer the versatiliy it has brought me. [i][b]Knowing that I produce dance sets with the same software music listner freaks organize their classic libraries and much more[/b][/i]. I would love to see some numbers in feedback you guys get of types of users and the way they use it.

And I am happy I can start trying 5 side-by-side though you may see the hangups I run into now.

I moved [b][i]from Windows to an all Ubuntu-studio ecosystem[/i][/b] now. A very interesting challenge in which Wine offers me MM4 and I did not yet try if all functionality is available. Like with this simple reply, I would like to help out other users and the makers where I can. So all of this CAN be in my advantage but is mostly FYI.


Export/ Import playlists (Zvedan Dimitrijev) was the next magic tool to let go of the file/folder management.

[quote=sallenmd87 post_id=485789 time=1629326460 user_id=70846]
[quote=Peke post_id=485724 time=1629249634 user_id=213]
Hi,
I meant to manually copy [url=https://www.mediamonkey.com/support/knowledge-base/mediamonkey-install-config/modifying-the-mediamonkey-db-and-ini-files/]DB files[/url] from MM4 to MM5 not media itself.

Both Installations will be separate and changes to one will not propagate to other.

You can disable Tag changes in tools -> Options -> Library -> Tags & Playlists, so any change will be in library only.

Please note that RegExp is not our addon and only Author can update it.

As for [url=https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36013]simple append[/url] it is 12 year old script, I have not used it and beside you I have not seen any other user publicly state it is essential during MM5 development. Quick look in script it should be fairly easy to convert to MM5, we can ad dit to our to do list if there is enough demand and Author do not want to update it.
[/quote]

Thank you. Very helpful. I recognize that RegExp is a third-party. I simply cannot use MM without it, so I hope the developer does update it. In the interim, perhaps I could use MM4 to edit tags and MM5 for everything else. As for Simple Append, I use it for the very specific purpose of adding composer names to the beginning of track names for classical music where there may be a bunch of tracks for a single work of a single composer and different titles for each track, but I want each to begin with something like "Beethoven:". I could continue to do that in MM4 as well.
[/quote]
Experiment, that is why we decided to make MM4 and MM5 versions work alongside as two separate installations.

[quote=Peke post_id=485724 time=1629249634 user_id=213]
Hi,
I meant to manually copy [url=https://www.mediamonkey.com/support/knowledge-base/mediamonkey-install-config/modifying-the-mediamonkey-db-and-ini-files/]DB files[/url] from MM4 to MM5 not media itself.

Both Installations will be separate and changes to one will not propagate to other.

You can disable Tag changes in tools -> Options -> Library -> Tags & Playlists, so any change will be in library only.

Please note that RegExp is not our addon and only Author can update it.

As for [url=https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36013]simple append[/url] it is 12 year old script, I have not used it and beside you I have not seen any other user publicly state it is essential during MM5 development. Quick look in script it should be fairly easy to convert to MM5, we can ad dit to our to do list if there is enough demand and Author do not want to update it.
[/quote]

Thank you. Very helpful. I recognize that RegExp is a third-party. I simply cannot use MM without it, so I hope the developer does update it. In the interim, perhaps I could use MM4 to edit tags and MM5 for everything else. As for Simple Append, I use it for the very specific purpose of adding composer names to the beginning of track names for classical music where there may be a bunch of tracks for a single work of a single composer and different titles for each track, but I want each to begin with something like "Beethoven:". I could continue to do that in MM4 as well.

Recently changed to just running the "Debug" normal versions of MMW4 and MMW5. I no longer bother with the "standard" (non-debug) versions.

However, I have a copy of the MP3 files on my D: drive for MMW4 and E: drive for MMW5 (using Foldermatch or Beyond Compare).

So, I typically add music to the MMW4 drive and run things like Auto-Organise, Lyricator / Tagging Inconsistencies / BPM Analyser and create Playlists.

Then when I am happy, I "Foldermatch" my D: drive to the E: and rescan using MMW5.

Since I synchronise ~15k music files to several devices, I prefer to use the faster of the two versions. This is currently MMW4.

Since version 2433 I have found switching from synching devices using MMW4 to MMW5 and back to MMW4 seems to work well.

The only little niggle is that I have a few steps to export the new Playlists from MMW4 for import into MMW5 in order to keep both version "identical".

Hi,
I meant to manually copy [url=https://www.mediamonkey.com/support/knowledge-base/mediamonkey-install-config/modifying-the-mediamonkey-db-and-ini-files/]DB files[/url] from MM4 to MM5 not media itself.

Both Installations will be separate and changes to one will not propagate to other.

You can disable Tag changes in tools -> Options -> Library -> Tags & Playlists, so any change will be in library only.

Please note that RegExp is not our addon and only Author can update it.

As for [url=https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36013]simple append[/url] it is 12 year old script, I have not used it and beside you I have not seen any other user publicly state it is essential during MM5 development. Quick look in script it should be fairly easy to convert to MM5, we can ad dit to our to do list if there is enough demand and Author do not want to update it.

[quote=Peke post_id=478474 time=1613484281 user_id=213]
Hi,
I would only suggest that you manually copy library files instead of importing existing if prompted for import as that way new/separate install will create own space and eliminate possible cross share of folders.
[/quote]

What do you mean by library files? Are you saying that I should keep two copies of all the songs? All 250,000 of them? I'm thinking of just installing MM5 to test the look and feel without making any changes to any of the files. Without RegExp Finad and Replace and Simple Append, MM5 is useless to me for management purposes. Only playback.

Hi,
I would only suggest that you manually copy library files instead of importing existing if prompted for import as that way new/separate install will create own space and eliminate possible cross share of folders.

Thanks, all.

I think I'll go with two installations.
There is only one thing better than MediaMonkey. It's two MediaMonkeys. 🤣😂😃

Hi,
Same here I have both MM4 and MM5 normal installs running OK and also number of test MM5 portables installs along with one MM4 portable.

Only thing I watch is that Server Ports are not same and you should be safe.

Hi,

Two pc's with both MM4 and 5 running on them. One PC also has a portable MM5 installation on it.
No problems running any of them.

I run with four installations of the most current versions. All portable installations with a "normal" and "debug" for both MMW4 and MMW5.

All four installations point to the same music folders. The music folders are backed up using One Drive.

MMW4 is most useful for the add-ons / extensions as not many have been re-written for MMW5. Things like Tagging Inconsistencies / RegExp Find and Replace / Batch M3U Creator.

Not needed to use the "debug" versions for some time due to the improvements and evolution of the software👍.

Got myself mixed up a few times with synchronisation of devices. What works best for me is to do a "clean install" as per https://www.mediamonkey.com/support/knowledge-base/mma-install-config/clean-install-delete-sync-profile/ every few months. I also purchased a few dodgy micro SD cards that gave issues.

Take care to set Auto-Organise correctly and consistently between versions! This is a very powerful feature.

Yes you can use both together, but you must remember, any changes made in either one of them will not show up on the other. On first install of mm5 it will offer you to migrate from mm4, but that is only to help you continue where you left off. Anything else will be separate from each other. Example playlists if you create new playlists in either one of them it won't show up on the other. Anything database related won't show up on the other.

Thanks, guys.

So either way must be OK.

I haven't seen any problem with both installed. Running one at a time though

Use Portable Installs it recommended as this keeps everything within the install folder. Otherwise there are no problems having both installed. I have multiple Portable Installs of both MediaMonkey 4 and 5.