mm won't read mediaplayer files as they are

[meganmegan]

hi there.

i downloaded mm a while ago and since then i decided to clean up my music files in window media player because there were several instances where i had several folders for a single band. so i made new folders and compiled the various albums of each band into it's own folder. in some/many cases i deleted extraneous info or added track names to those listed as 'track 1', 'track 2' etc... i had also downloaded some new music and moved the files into appropriate folders. all this happened within media player.

then, i add/rescanned my hard drive from mediamonkey to get the new music i had downloaded into mm. at this point, mm told me that some files couldn't be found in their expected location. when i tried to play those files, the white text of the titles etc.. turned gray and those songs/albums wouldn't play. i noticed that this only happened to the files that i had changed w/in media player.

some time after this happened, and for other reasons, i uninstalled mm and reinstalled it a few days later. i assumed that this would fix not only the other problems i was having (it did) but the miscommunication that seemed to be happening between media player and mm. it didn't. all those same albums and songs weren't recognized by mm and wouldn't play at all. i got a wee bit frustrated by this and uninstalled mm again. for now, i'm just using media player to listen to my music.

can you explain this to me and maybe offer a solution?

please know that i'm not very tech savvy and don't understand any acronyms or tech-specific lingo. please explain in simple language for this beginner.

many thanks

[Guest]

You can't change the information in one program and expect mm to see the changes. you need to use mediamonkey to be the only program you control your library with. Use
the file menu to find missing files now that you did change them in the other program.

[Lowlander]

Uninstall/Install doesn't remove the database thus it won't fix the problem. A clean install would: http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/inde ... ediamonkey

The problem is that you moved/renamed files thus MediaMonkey can't locate them (as it told you). You'll need to remove these entries pointing to the old location. You can use the Files to Edit > Dead Links node in the affected Collection to locate all the affected files, select the listed files and remove them.

[meganmegan]

lowlander,

thank you and...
so, to confirm: if i did a clean install using the link you gave me, mm would be able to read the files as they currently are in media player? would i still need to use the Edit > Dead Links node? and, if so, will removing them then allow mm to see the new links somehow?

i moved them around in media player because they were a mess and when i download new files i want them to make sense in every program they exist in.

when you said the database wasn't removed during the uninstall, do you mean the mm database? why would anything from mm be left when i uninstall?

pardon my confusion.

btw, guest, after uninstalling and reinstalling why would i expect mm to still act like it did before i uninstalled? is this a stupid newbie question? did you see the part of my letter that mentioned my lack of tech-savvy?

[Lowlander]

It's either clean install or dead links (I'd use the latter). Rescanning (File > Add/Rescan Files) is required to see the files in the new location.

MediaMonkey doesn't remove the database during uninstall. Just to prevent data loss I guess. Thus on reinstall this data is still available.