Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_!

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Cienega32
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 4:33 pm

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by Cienega32 »

So, are you saying that when I rescanned and then continued with Remove Unavailable Items from the Scan option - that's when the Playlists were affected regardless of whether or not the option(s) to remove were checked or not?

In other words, after I rescanned to include the new paths for the "fixed" locations of the retagged tunes, if I quit at that point, I would've had playlists with the "missing" files grayed out but property editable? That it would not affect the playlists until I manually "Remove..." after a scan?

BTW - Thanks for your time!
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by Lowlander »

Yes, if remove unavailable items is not selected missing files won't be removed (unless manually done by user) and thus your Playlists would show with greyed out files.

Note though that you shouldn't rescan after moving files outside of MediaMonkey. You either use File > Locate Moved/Missing Files on the moved files in MediaMonkey or: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... w_computer
Cienega32
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 4:33 pm

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by Cienega32 »

Being that 'Remove Unavailable Items' has never been selected, I guess I am guilty of manually removing them during/after the rescan.

I've used to Relocate function once before - older, non-Gold version - and while it did find some it also was confused on some as well. That Wiki-link provided a lot of good to knows. The link to 'Update Location of Files' script hit the spot for me as what I've been doing is mainly re-pathing a bunch of "isolated" files that needed some intensive tag editing in a work directory.

My biggest problem was/is the fact that I'll include a lot of those from the work folder in a playlist. The other problem is that about at least 30% had butchered filenames to begin with.

Like I said, the playlists weren't of a crucial nature but I thought it curious as far as the impact on them. I just realize how dynamically dependent their contents were on the DB as opposed to being a bit more static.

Thanks again, Lowlander - very helpful!
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by Lowlander »

I'd suggest to do any file management withing MediaMonkey so that you don't run into Dead Links (missing files) in the first place. Located Moved/Missing should work okay on moved files in MediaMonkey 4, but may fail when files have been renamed or deleted.
wutzin
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:18 am

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by wutzin »

Hi,

don't worry, you can still restore all of your playlists - if you have a backup of a previous library file.

Your problem is this: You rescanned your files, so MM created NEW database entries for all the files located in a new place - and you already deleted the OLD files which were assigned to a playlist from your library.

This can however be fixed.

You need to download and install this script: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =2&t=42085

Then you run it (Tools-Scripts-Restore/Synchronize Database), tell it where your backup library database is.

Then, you need to give it a bit of time - it will look at all songs in your current database and see if it can match them to songs in your old backup database - they should only differ in the location, but the tags/filenames etc should be identical. This script is smart as shit, and will even look at song length, file size etc etc to make sure it matches the right files.

Then you can tell it to put the new files (in your current library) into the same playlists as the old files were. Presto, done!

Oh, and if this script helped you out, you should consider donating a few euros to the guy who is maintaining this very important script... (I did - saved me weeks of work)
Cienega32
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 4:33 pm

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by Cienega32 »

That sounds like a nice approach but, in retrospect, I don't think it would fit the bill for me. My problem is with a complete renaming of the file name and all associated tags that bear no resemblance to anything related to the tune. Much like the 'search&find' function, I think my editing & clean-up work would defeat the purpose of that approach. It isn't so much finding the tune once it's been moved as much as the info for the tune bears no similarity to the original info. The alt.binaries NewsGroups were very sloppy in the late 90s...

The flow of the playlist(s) and some hint words/tags found in the original naming/tagging convention usually would jog my memory as to what the tune actually was.

Now, an automatic, editable backup of all existing playlists prior to a rescan/rebuild of a related database as a part of that particular MM function... :wink:
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by Lowlander »

Exporting Playlists can be done automatically with: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... d+playlist
Cienega32
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 4:33 pm

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by Cienega32 »

That looks rather interesting and does reduce the need for me to be smarter than a small bag of rocks...

I'll give that a look in the next week or so. Still a bunch more to clean so that will be a good opportunity to road test that script for my needs. Sounds like it could help.

Thanks for the link!
tobbbie
Posts: 51
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:01 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by tobbbie »

Sadly I seem to have run in a similar situation and now all my playlists are empty.

If I recall right, it happened in the context of my try to use MM as media-server (also for videos). So I had added the video file extensions to the MM library, got a new top level node "videos" and tried out what I wanted to know. Sadly it did not work as I thought (you don't serve plain .ts files - not even without re-encoding) - and I then removed the whole "video" node form the library. In this context it seemed to me that the whole library was rebuilt (including audio) - and so the playlists were emptied.
I checked if the option listed in the thread earlier here (tools->options->library:"remove unavailable items") was checked - but it was NOT. I had however checked "remove unused attributes".

Anyhow - now my play-lists are empty. Not a big thing for many of them, but there are 2 that I use for syncing to my mobile device. This means that the playlist is present on the device - however representing the folder structure/naming generated on the device - and not in the library on the PC.
I tried to import that playlist to MM - which works as a label only - but it shows it as empty as none of the files can be accessed on PC. So I wonder how I can get MM to "batch" find back the music in the playlists in the library. The "file->locate moved/missing files" does not work here as they are not seen (greyed) in the imported playlist.

Is there hope for me to avoid re-creating these playlists manually?
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by Lowlander »

If files on Playlists get removed from the Library the Playlists will be emptied. If Playlists are imported pointing to non-existing files the Playlists will import empty.

If you didn't export Playlists, didn't backup the database, device exported Playlists aren't easily edited to match PC file location there is no recovery other than manual recreation. (I'm uncertain if MMA > MMW Playlist sync will work with emptied (and since rescanned) database)
tobbbie
Posts: 51
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:01 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by tobbbie »

Thanks for your continued support and expertise. Sadly I then have to re-create the list from the copy I have for the device. It is possible and it will not take days (some ~hour) to do that - but it seems I have no choice.

Since you mention MMA(ndroid):
Will you remember the playlist position when leaving the list (you did not when I last tested it)? So when re-entering the PL it will start from where I left off (in that list)? This could even be sync'ed between MMA and MMW - if supported.
This is a key-feature for me (common on Apple iPod I was told) - as I organize my private "channels" in such playlists (one for Pop Music, another (few) for Classical music and even another for a mix of podcasts). As I switch between these "channels" I don't want to restart from the begin of each playlist but resume where I left off. It seems very uncommon to do that (there is only "Just Playlists" on Android which supports it) but I cannot switch to another player until this is supported.
trackoholic

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by trackoholic »

Same problem, however I did install a new hard drive and then copied the folders to the new drive, now all my playlists are toast. I was considering purchasing Gold today but this issue is so annoying that I'm going to hold off until they come up with a way to make moving the files from drive to drive easier, simplified, there should be a way of making this happen without the mayhem. I've actually never had this issue with ITunes or Windows Media Player which I assume function in a similar data driven fashion. A simple re-scan in those two programs and your back in business, not so with Media Monkey.
Peke
Posts: 17446
Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2003 7:21 pm
Location: Earth
Contact:

Re: Playlists empty! Call for petition: YES, THIS IS A _BUG_

Post by Peke »

Hi,
The only way it could happen if you imported playlists to MMW and files were not in MMW library so when you moved them paths to files were inaccessible or you moved files and Cleared MMW library which also clears playlists.

NOTE: When you move files outside MMW adn you try to play any file from MMW library that you moved it will become grayed which then you need to Locate as moved (File -> Locate moved Missing tracks).

The easiest way to move tracks arround is to use MMW directly eg. Right click on file(s) -> Auto Organize and set destination/Organize parameters.
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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