Random Metadata Loss Issue!

[justalistener]

I recently got a new Dell XPS 12 and wanted to move my library to my new computer. Because all my media files are stored on an external Hard Drive, the best way I could think of to accomplish this was by Installing the newest and same version of MediaMonkey (that is 4.1.1.1704), and overwrite the new temporary files with the old ones, as this common denominator thread suggests here: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... w_computer.

It is here I'd like to note I have an extensive DVD collection (700+ movies), which I hired my brother to ever-so-tediously convert to matroska files (mkv) and type in the metadata from wikipedia. So after successfully accomplishing this transfer (metadata and all), all of a sudden after a few days I was adding new music, is stored under an different collection, I flipped to my movie collection and the metadata for maybe 250 movies is missing! It just says Unknown for 'Title' and the rest of the field boxes are blank, except for the Rating! - so weird

Can someone more intelligent than I tell me how I could possibly access an old metadata file somewhere? Or maybe solve the problem a different way than I can see? I'm a dedicated and paying MediaMonkey user, I love this program, and any help would be appreciated!

justalistener

[justalistener]

I recently got a new Dell XPS 12 and wanted to move my library to my new computer. Because all my media files are stored on an external Hard Drive, the best way I could think of to accomplish this was by Installing the newest and same version of MediaMonkey (that is 4.1.1.1704), and overwrite the new temporary files with the old ones, as this common denominator thread suggests here: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... w_computer.

It is here I'd like to note I have an extensive DVD collection (700+ movies), which I hired my brother to ever-so-tediously convert to matroska files (mkv) and type in the metadata from wikipedia. So after successfully accomplishing this transfer (metadata and all), all of a sudden after a few days I was adding new music, is stored under an different collection, I flipped to my movie collection and the metadata for maybe 250 movies is missing! It just says Unknown for 'Title' and the rest of the field boxes are blank, except for the Rating! - so weird

Can someone more intelligent than I tell me how I could possibly access an old metadata file somewhere? Or maybe solve the problem a different way than I can see? I'm a dedicated and paying MediaMonkey user, I love this program, and any help would be appreciated!

justalistener

[nohitter151]

Where is the metadata for the mkv files from?

[justalistener]

I appreciate your help.

I'm fairly amateur in this world, so I feel I'm risking sounding stupid here, but I entered all the metadata through MediaMonkey. I used MM to store and save all movie artwork the directors, producers, actors, etc. All of it showed up on my new computer after I made the transfer for the first few days though! All of a sudden all these movies just lost everything but their playcounts and ratings - so odd. I don't even remember when all that metadata was lost, or why exactly.

After continuing to read I realized my biggest mistake has been not backing up my MM.db file, is it possible that that metadata could be stored in a temporary file somewhere else besides the MM.db? Is there anything I can do besides have someone re-enter the data for 200+ movies haha?

I wish there was somewhere specific I could read a guide as to where MM puts all its data when you install it on your computer, and where it stores and updates files as you continue to use the program.

Thanks again,

JAL

[Lowlander]

MediaMonkey can't write metadata to MKV: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... erties/4.0 (so it's only stored in the DB).

Thus any time the files are removed from the Library or you revert to an older database that didn't have the metadata you loose the metadata.

I don't know exactly what you did, but possible problems are that the external drive had a different driveID on the new PC and you didn't update it as suggested. That in combination with Folder Monitoring can result in files being removed from the Library (and added again so you won't notice this). Alternatively scanning (either manual or Folder Monitoring) was allowed to update metadata from the files (which as you tagged with MediaMonkey would be empty).

[justalistener]

Yes, another issue is that I I use MM for my iPhone too, which won't work unless you install iTunes, haha which I'm not tryna do. So I moved the MM back to my old computer and have started a file on my external hard drive to back up the files in Local > MediaMonkey and the icon cache, as well as Local > Roaming files from both computers.

Is it possible for me to operate the same MM database from two computers? If so do I need a MM installed on both computers? Or just one but install it in the external harddrive by using the portable installation button, will this work? Again, thanks for showing around a newbie

[justalistener]

Also, because you've been so helpful so far, is MM able to edit the metadata on matroska files with an add-on? Or is an external program able to accomplish this task more effectively than MediaMonkey?

What would you suggest to edit the metadata on these files? I keep reading that .mkv is an open container file and even after reading about it I'm really not quite sure what that means. Thanks

[Lowlander]

Well Apples restrictiveness and closeness requires iTunes to do iOS syncing. However you can just get the needed components without the full iTunes install: http://www.copytrans.net/support/instal ... ng-itunes/

Doing a Portable Install on an external drive should allow you to run the same install (and DB and settings) on multiple computers.

MediaMonkey can't write to MKV and support for writing to unsupported formats can't be added through Addons (just Playback support can be added). Native write support is on the horizon, but it seems a challenging issue: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=7787

[justalistener]

Thanks a lot! You were a great help!