Questions about Date-Added - AlbumArtist - DB size

[pderwael]

Hi there,

This is the 1st attempt I'm making to seriously test drive MM5 (5.0.0.2288 portbale)
At first glance (after the shock caused by the new colors scheme is gone), I have a few worries, from which the first 2 are real showstoppers:

• 1) Functionality: DB migration
  Over 20+ years, I have accumulated quite a large library where the date added is of crucial importance for me
  I've let MM5 scan a subset of my lib and obviously, as date-added is set to today, I'm losing the initial information
  Being no SQL-whatever DB freak, I'm unable to update the MM5 DB from the info stored in the MM4 DB
  The obvious question is: will there be any form of DB migration foreseen in future released MM5 versions?

• 2) Functionality: Multi-artists albums
  It seems the AlbumArtist field is gone
  This brings the next obvious question: how do we handle multi-artists albums (eg for thematic compilations)???

• 3) DB size
  I'm also worried about the DB size...
  My current MM4 DB size is 1.76GB for 75000 albums and the MM5 DB size is 1.59GB for only 136 albums
  Considering the 1/550 ratio, if I let MM5 scan the whole lib, I can expect the DB size to reach something like 880GB
  Please tell me I'm making a simple calculation mistake...

Thanks!

[Barry4679]

I am not from MM, but have some knowledge about these issues.

At first glance (after the shock caused by the new colors scheme is gone)

• 1) Functionality: DB migration
  Over 20+ years, I have accumulated quite a large library where the date added is of crucial importance for me
  I've let MM5 scan a subset of my lib and obviously, as date-added is set to today, I'm losing the initial information
  Being no SQL-whatever DB freak, I'm unable to update the MM5 DB from the info stored in the MM4 DB
  The obvious question is: will there be any form of DB migration foreseen in future released MM5 versions?

If you install a fresh copy of MM5 on a PC which has an installation of MM4, it will offer to import data and settings from MM4.
The same thing happens if you force MM5 to create a fresh database ... ie you delete the existing MM5.db file, and then start MM5.
If you say yes, this will retain your Date Added values.
If no, you will get an empty database, and when you (re)scan in your files you will Date Added = today.

• 2) Functionality: Multi-artists albums
  It seems the AlbumArtist field is gone
  This brings the next obvious question: how do we handle multi-artists albums (eg for thematic compilations)???

The AlbumArtist tag is still there ... except they hide it by default (for some inexplicable reason) when they create a fresh database.
Go to Tools|Options|Library|Collections&Views to toggle on visibility of this subnode for each of your collections.
Or its visibility will be retained if you import your settings from MM4.

• 3) DB size
  I'm also worried about the DB size...
  My current MM4 DB size is 1.76GB for 75000 albums and the MM5 DB size is 1.59GB for only 136 albums
  Considering the 1/550 ratio, if I let MM5 scan the whole lib, I can expect the DB size to reach something like 880GB
  Please tell me I'm making a simple calculation mistake...

You are making a calculation mistake

My MM4 & MM5 databases are of similar sizes.

[pderwael]

Hi Barry,

Migrating the DB & setting was not THAT easy: it took me a while and a few uninstall-delete/reinstall cycles before I figured out that the difficulty was due to the fact that I moved my MM.DB to a non standard location to facilitate my automated backup

Finally, the DB has been migrated and I managed to get the information and layout I wanted
Thanks a bunch for your advices!!

By the way: about the DB size, this is a typical case when I appreciate making a mistake


Now I can access the data, my next question is how do I get the metadata out of MM?
On MM4, I'm running a weekly custom report to export the metadata to a CSV and then to get it in Excel
The purpose of this is to check for inconsistencies (duplicated albums with different dates, incorrect use of lower/uppercase, same artist with different genres...) and to run some stats
I understood addons for MM4 are no longer compatible on MM5, so is there an simple way to export the metadata to CSV?

[Barry4679]

Migrating the DB & setting was not THAT easy: it took me a while and a few uninstall-delete/reinstall cycles before I figured out that the difficulty was due to the fact that I moved my MM.DB to a non standard location to facilitate my automated backup

'
I know that it is not easy.
I have been, and remain, critical about the unfriendliness of he MM installer, and also the upgrade procedure and documentation.

BTW MM should be able to handle importation of MM4 data from a custom database location. ... Maybe they will want to look at what went wrong for you.

On MM4, I'm running a weekly custom report to export the metadata to a CSV and then to get it in Excel
The purpose of this is to check for inconsistencies (duplicated albums with different dates, incorrect use of lower/uppercase, same artist with different genres...) and to run some stats
I understood addons for MM4 are no longer compatible on MM5, so is there an simple way to export the metadata to CSV?

You are not seeing this? ... Are you on the latest version? Should be 2286.

[pderwael]

You are not seeing this? ... Are you on the latest version? Should be 2286.

Not quite: the "File list" options are greyed out
And I'm on 5.0.0.2288 (it seems you're not on the latest version )

[Ludek]

Are you saying that MM5 2288 did not offer you to import database and settings from MM4 ?

How you installed MM4 as portable or standard install ?
If MM4 is installed as portable then MM5 can import its settings only when there is shortcut to MM4.exe on your desktop. Otherwise MM5 would need to search whole your computer for MM4.exe

Could you try to install 2288 portable to another folder and before the first launch run DbgView and catch the first MM5 start in debug log (item 4b here: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=86643 )

[pderwael]

Are you saying that MM5 2288 did not offer you to import database and settings from MM4 ?

Well partially... the content of the DB has been copied over to MM5, but none of the settings
I managed to get my favorites views back thanks to Barry

How you installed MM4 as portable or standard install ?
If MM4 is installed as portable then MM5 can import its settings only when there is shortcut to MM4.exe on your desktop. Otherwise MM5 would need to search whole your computer for MM4.exe

These are MM4 and MM5 standard installs

Could you try to install 2288 portable to another folder and before the first launch run DbgView and catch the first MM5 start in debug log (item 4b here: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=86643 )

Done. The log is here:
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/202307 ... 258/b0f222

Thanks!

[Barry4679]

Not quite: the "File list" options are greyed out
And I'm on 5.0.0.2288 (it seems you're not on the latest version )

The report options are activated once you select which tracks you want included.

Thanks for telling me about the new version. I hadn't noticed

[pderwael]

The report options are activated once you select which tracks you want included.

Ok, I was not aware of that, thanks for the hint!

Actually, on MM4, I'm not using the built-in reports because they do not provide the field AlbumArtist nor DateAdded
To cope with this, I'm using a very flexible custom report produced in 2014 by Rik Lewis (alias Trixmoto)

I have just noticed these 2 fields are not in the built-in reports from MM5 either... that is a real showstopper...

[Lowlander]

Reports can be scripted, thus users can modify the default reports through scripting to create reports that fit their own personal needs. At least until some creates a customizable Report Addon. The included reports are samples of what is possible with MediaMonkey.

[Ludek]

These are MM4 and MM5 standard installs

Could you try to install 2288 portable to another folder and before the first launch run DbgView and catch the first MM5 start in debug log (item 4b here: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=86643 )

Done. The log is here:
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/202307 ... 258/b0f222

Thanks!

Analyzing your log I see that MM5 did not find the MediaMonkey.ini in its standard location
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\MediaMonkey\MediaMonkey.ini
It only found the install folder in
C:\Program Files (x86)\MediaMonkey\
but there is no /Portable/ subfolder including MediaMonkey.ini

Could you search your computer where your MediaMonkey.ini from MM4 could be? Or run MM4 with DbgView started before so that I can see where your MediaMonkey.ini is?

Thanks!

[pderwael]

Analyzing your log I see that MM5 did not find the MediaMonkey.ini in its standard location
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\MediaMonkey\MediaMonkey.ini
It only found the install folder in
C:\Program Files (x86)\MediaMonkey\
but there is no /Portable/ subfolder including MediaMonkey.ini

Could you search your computer where your MediaMonkey.ini from MM4 could be? Or run MM4 with DbgView started before so that I can see where your MediaMonkey.ini is?

Thanks!

That is weird, because my ini file is exactly where it should be: C:\Users\patri\AppData\Roaming\MediaMonkey\MediaMonkey.ini
Screen shot here: https://we.tl/t-hZRMw21gEy

Maybe due to the non-standard DB location ?????

[pderwael]

Reports can be scripted, thus users can modify the default reports through scripting to create reports that fit their own personal needs. At least until some creates a customizable Report Addon. The included reports are samples of what is possible with MediaMonkey.

That is a real PITA...

This does not leave me many options: get rid of MM5 until a suitable report is produced (and then go again through the install/conversion/customization steps)
Alternatively, I could maintain the 2 versions, but that would mean manually replicating in MM5 every activity from MM4, which implies the need of some mechanism to keep the 2 instances in sync
Maybe a DB delete/conversion when a new MM5 gets released...
I'm not sure I want to do this, especially as I have no idea when (nor even if) a suitable report gets developed

Thanks anyway!

[Ludek]

That is weird, because my ini file is exactly where it should be: C:\Users\patri\AppData\Roaming\MediaMonkey\MediaMonkey.ini
Screen shot here: https://we.tl/t-hZRMw21gEy

Maybe due to the non-standard DB location ?????

There really still was an issue, fixed as https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=17233

Thanks!