Auto Organize doesn't delete empty folders [1933]

[PetrCBR]

Hi NightSTORM.

Haven't you opened this folder in windows explorer or similar file browser ?

[Guest]

Hi NightSTORM.

Haven't you opened this folder in windows explorer or similar file browser ?

Hi PetrCBR,

I'm assuming you mean opened explorer to either check that the folders are empty, or had it open and possibly caused explorer to lock down the folder preventing monkey from deleting the folder?

On the first assumption, yes, I checked the folders using windows explorer, and there is nothing at all. On the second, no, I kept it closed (To get to the mentioned folder that monkey couldn't delete, I do the Start->Run, type in the path monkey is moaning about and hit enter).

If my assumptions are off, please correct me.

Thanks.

[PetrCBR]

Based on your previous post it looks like any process have locked this folder so MM can't delete it.

[Guest]

Different guest here. Same thing happens on my end.

No process is monitoring the folder in question at the time of the proposed deletion, not even system restore or anti-virus, as I have restore off and a-v set to skip the harddrive the music is on.

I've checked the folders for contents after I was alerted to them not being deleted due to lack of permission. I wrote them down and verfied after MM was done starting up and scanning, so there was no interference from me during the scan at all.

[Guest]

I'm still experiencing issues with this. I've verified all processes potentially monitoring the folder are disabled.

Theoretically, the only process using the folder at the time of trying to delete it is Monkey itself. :/

[Guest]

Yet another guest with the same problem

I also added a bunch of compilations to the Monkey's db. It automatically created various folders in the form of:

music\Album 1 - Artist 1\
music\Album 1 - Artist 2\
music\Album 1 - Artist 3\
...

I then also changed the Album Artist of this Album to "VA" so that the Monkey should be supposed to delete the remaining foders, as I've also turned on the 'delete empty folders' feature. After a restart of the monkey one out of two possible things happen:

1) The monkey tries to delete every empty folder and throws an error message for each folder, as it can't delete them.
or
2) The monkey doesn't care about the empty folders at all.

In case of 1) I am pretty convinced that the monkey prevents itself from deleting the folder, as it has created the folder in the first place (when importing the compitlations to the db) and neither an application nor myself have touched the folder (I didn't even open in the Explorer) since then. Another example why I'm convinced is that I use an 'Import'-Folder where I put all my new stuff and leave it to the monkey to move it from there. I had to create a "not-an-empty-folder.txt" to let MM think that the folder is not empty and therefore it doesn't try to delete it (otherwise it also throws an error). This Import folder is basically just an additional folder which is monitored by MM.

In case of 2) I'm of the opinion that the monkey doesn't realise the change as it usually compares the 'last modified'-date to identify changes. As there haven't been any changes to the empty folders, the monkey just neglects them.

I really don't know wheter I'm totally wrong and I would like to leave the decision up to you (rusty?). I just wanted to explain this problem a bit more in detail here and hope that this could give someone a hint to the solution of this problem.

Thanks. Hope we figure this out...


PS: Otherwise I completely love MM

[arnova]

Same problem here (or at least simular):

Whenever I ie. rename a directory outside(!) MM (ie. via Windows Explorer) and tell MM to rescan the library, the new folder-name appears (this is of course ok) but (even) after performing "Maintain library" (with remove empty albums enabled) the old folder name (which doesn't exist anymore as a directory) still appears in the Library->Location

[TheAncient]

I had similar problems and resolved them as follows:
- Using Windows Exploder, I searched my MP3 directory for all .jpg files and deleted them. (Those files are added by Windows Media Player)
- Next, I used a program called "Empty Folder Nuker" to delete all folders (which now are truly empty).
- Third I used MM to re-scan the MP3 folder and to locate and remove any missing tracks.
- Finally, if MM still shows any directories that are empty (there really shouldn't be any but I still found a few) simply remove them from the library.
Doing the occasional Library Maintanance doesn't hurt either.

[thecongressman]

I'm experiencing the same problem with XP, using the latest beta release (1166) and file monitor.

This is what happens to me. If I make the folder, MM won't delete the folder if MM deletes the content. If MM creates the folder, it will delete the folder. However, if MM created a album (but not artist) folder and I delete the contents via MM, it won't delete the folder. However, MM will delete folders if I make minor changes provided MM created the folder.

Let me give you a few different examples.

Example #1. The least of my problems. Let's say I create a folder called "Beatles" and add an album. MM realizes my error when I add the album (presuming it was pre-tagged correctly) and moves the album into "THE Beatles." I then get the popup that MM cannot automatically delete the folder. I'm ok with that, because it gives me the heads up and I can go manually delete the folder.

Example #2. Getting worse. Say I add an album in a newly created folder called "Beatles." I manually re-tag the album to "THE Beatles" and MM will not automatically delete the "Beatles" folder, and does not give a warning (by the way, all appropriate boxes are checked for MM to auto delete folders.)

Example #3. What really pisses me off. MM will create and delete folders like crazy IF MM creates them. However, suppose I download an album from torrents (SHOCK) and I dump it into an artist folder. MM auto adds it, creating an album folder (same as above). I listen to it, and decide I don't like it for whatever reason. If I delete all of the tracks, MM will not delete the album folder. I've only noticed this if I already have other albums by the same artist in the same artist folder. I have to manually delete the empty folder.

I'm not saving album artwork, and there aren't any hidden files. It seems MM will auto delete only if MM created the folder, and won't even do that if I delete the album completely from MM.

Help me.

Byron

[rovingcowboy]

- Error "Cannot delete {folder path}. Access is denied. The file may be in use or may not have access rights."

i recently got this error also and found it was for a song that was still in the players scrolling title, i changed songs and then got the folder unlocked, so that is telling me there might be some file using that folders path still in the ram, which might be locking it? maybe it was using the ablum art in the folder.?

i also got some strange errors in mm 2.5.5 with its auto organizer it would not move files to the new folder location.
found out the files were already there, but it would not change the list's data for those files.
that was caused by the same album title already being in that new folder location, so when i tried to redo the album it messed up. i went in to windows explorer and moved the new files to that location. they did not show up in the new add list but they show up in the automatic genere made list.

so could this also be causing the error in mm 3. as in it being an unknown and unfixed mm 2 error?

[tgriff9020]

I am having the same issue, and it seems that this is happening with all folders created either by MM or Manually. Auto Organize seems to be doing everything else it is setup to do, except for deleting the old folder be it a manual folder created or MM created. What I have noticed is that when looking at the old folder after MM has moved all files is that it appears to still have some hidden files embedded in a manually created folder (show hidden files is turned on), but in a MM created its says folder is empty, but still is not deleting the folder, but not getting that access denied error from MM created folder (yet) Hope this helps

I am using the latest MM RC6.

[arnova]

Is there any update on this issue? Are the developers looking into it?

It really is the *last* (really) annoying issue in MM3. By now there should be enough info (in this thread) for them to reproduce the problem and fix it, I hope. It would be really nice if this could be fixed before MM3.0.3 gets released....

[TheAncient]

I just did a major reorganization of my library and found that in cases where MediaMonkey was unable to delete directories, there were usually still files left in those directories.
These files do not show inside MediaMonkey since they are not MEDIA files.
Usually I ran into files like
.NFO files: Files that provide information about a specific collection or album, track listings, Codec information etc.
.TXT files: Files that provide information about a specific collection or album, track listings, Codec information etc.. Download information eg. "Downloaded from xxx" or "Ripped by XYZ"
.JPG files: usually album art of some sort. In my case, often added by Windows media player.
In other words: MediaMokey is doing exactly what it was designed to do: It DOES delete empty folders but it cannot delete folders that still have content.
(If you are moving ALL media files from one folder to another, it will even offer to move those "associated" non-media files - but if you are "taking a folder apart" e.g. distributing all media files within a "greatest hits" folder to their respective "genre" folders, MM does not know where to move those non-media files to)
Bottom line: I am not sure we are dealing with a bonafide "bug" here.

[arnova]

I just did a major reorganization of my library and found that in cases where MediaMonkey was unable to delete directories, there were usually still files left in those directories.
These files do not show inside MediaMonkey since they are not MEDIA files.
Usually I ran into files like
.NFO files: Files that provide information about a specific collection or album, track listings, Codec information etc.
.TXT files: Files that provide information about a specific collection or album, track listings, Codec information etc.. Download information eg. "Downloaded from xxx" or "Ripped by XYZ"
.JPG files: usually album art of some sort. In my case, often added by Windows media player.
In other words: MediaMokey is doing exactly what it was designed to do: It DOES delete empty folders but it cannot delete folders that still have content.
(If you are moving ALL media files from one folder to another, it will even offer to move those "associated" non-media files - but if you are "taking a folder apart" e.g. distributing all media files within a "greatest hits" folder to their respective "genre" folders, MM does not know where to move those non-media files to)
Bottom line: I am not sure we are dealing with a bonafide "bug" here.

I'm 100% certain that this is not the reason causing this issue. Actually we are referring to directories still shown by MM (in Library\Location) which don't exist anymore AT ALL....

[monkey hi fi]

that was in the old mm2.4 version. try checking from 3 years ago in the forum for not deleting folders on location node?

there was an answer then could be the same answer now?
i know i did have to remove one and i did it by just deleting it from the node. not adviseable to do it that way. it will give you a heartattack. it removed it but i thought this computer was going to be toasted. so look and see if there is any other answers for it.

roving cowboy / keith hall / monkey hi fi