Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

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trolleybus
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:21 am

Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by trolleybus »

I'm trying to import my music collection into MM5 Gold 5.0.3.2627. It started well. Windows 11 asked me what the default action should be when a music CD is installed so I chose Rip with MediaMonkey. I successfully ripped many CDs to a external drive and then periodically moved then to my NAS using Auto-organize Files.
But progress is getting slower and slower. Auto-rip now rarely happens, even though I've checked the OS settings and it's still supposed to rip to MM. What happens now is I rip one CD, by manually choosing Tools/Rip Audio CD. It works. I repeat the process, and it may work again. But increasingly what happens is one of two things. Either the metadata hasn't been received, so the rip process wants to rip as an unknown album, or the track list for a previous CD appears. Sometimes repeatedly opening and closing the CD drive and/or manually refreshing Explorer (F5) helps, but it's getting worse and worse. As has been reported elsewhere you can't just close and restart MM under Win11 as some processes don't stop, and can't be stopped through Task Manager, so I need to restart to machine. Then I can import another one or two CDs before I have to repeat the process. My import has just about stalled.
One other minor issue: I'm ripping to a folder on the I:\ drive. Occasionally when trying to tag tracks MM complains that a file is missing. What's happened is that the track has been stored using the external drive's name rather than drive letter. So the path is, e.g. [nasbackups]\Mediamonkey\David Bowie ... instead of I:\Mediamonkey\David Bowie ... I need to manually correct the path before MM can tag or move the file.
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by Lowlander »

Try removing cdplayer.ini from %APPDATA%\MediaMonkey5\. Does that stop the old CD info from showing?

Lookups still work fine for me.

Drive name instead of drive letter indicates that Windows changed the driveID. This can be fixed with: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... sign_Drive
trolleybus
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:21 am

Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by trolleybus »

Hi, and thank you for replying.
Removing cdplayer.ini doesn't seem to have helped.
I'm now in this situation:
I placed a CD in the drive. The metadata for all 23 tracks was retrieved successfully and the rip occurred.
I replaced the CD with another, this having just six tracks. MM5 appeared to retrieve the metadata but when the rip dialog was displayed it showed the data for the first six tracks (only) of the prior CD. Removing and reinserting the CD several times has not resolved the situation. If I were to hit OK and allow the rip to occur then MM5 would overwrite six tracks of the previous CD.

Thank you also for your suggestion about the changed drive id. But there's no reason why the driveid should have changed, and this problem is usually affecting just one track of a ripped CD - the other tracks s are all fine.
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by Lowlander »

I have no such issues here with ripping nor with ripping to a NAS (using UNC Path instead of Mapped Drive). Please capture these issues in debug logs (step 4b) and attach the logs to a Support Ticket: https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=86643

This will help a developer analyze why this happens on your setup.
Peke
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Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by Peke »

Hi,
Can you try to start MM5 using Run as Administrator.

also you can use </> editor button to paste cdplayer.ini content (should not be too big) so that we can analyze?
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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trolleybus
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:21 am

Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by trolleybus »

Thanks for all the replies so far.

Allowing cdplayer.ini to be rebuilt worked, for a while. I've carried on trying to import CDs now, on and off, for many days and have almost completed the task. What seems the most reliable way of working for me is:
  • Rip a CD and (auto-)eject it
  • With the focus in MM5 refresh the listing (F5)
  • Insert the next CD
  • Leave the focus on MM5 until it's retrieved the next set of metadata and begun the rip
This isn't fool-proof but is working more often than not.

I suspect there are two things going on. First, musicbrainz sometimes fails to return a result even though it has the data. Sometimes trying the same disk later works when it failed earlier. Maybe MM or musicbrainz times out? (as an aside, if more than one match is detected then a screen is displayed asking which match to use (usually regional versions of otherwise identical disks). By this time MM has already displayed the popup matching the tracks on the CD with the proposed tracks on disk, meaning that unless you cancel and restart the rip you get a bunch of unknown CDs).

I think a bigger problem is Windows 11. I often find that Explorer windows don't refresh when the content of the things it's displaying alters. Maybe MM is sometimes simply unaware that a new CD has been inserted because Windows hasn't told it?
BTW, I've had occasions when the CD drive in the folders tree in MM seems to be seeing a different disk than MM does when I try to retrieve metadata or rip.
svillardi
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed May 10, 2017 7:55 pm

Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by svillardi »

I'm having the same issue as the OP.

How do you rebuild the cdplayer.ini? I changed the extension on it to test and now it's not finding the CDs metadata.
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by Lowlander »

Renaming cdplayer.ini has no affect on CD lookup. Which Build (Help > About) of MediaMonkey are you using and is it unable to locate CD metadata for all CD's or some?
svillardi
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed May 10, 2017 7:55 pm

Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by svillardi »

I'm using 5.0.4.2690.

What has been happening is that every CD at first seems to pull up the same one album at first. My workaround is to shut MM5 and then restart it but this isn't ideal, obviously. Then it found the CD, most of the time.

I found this thread which described the problem pretty accurately and thought I would rename the cdplayer.ini file, but it didn't help. I renamed it back, but it doesn't seem to be finding anything in the MusicBrainz DB now. I only had 2 CDs to rip, which I was able to rip using iTunes for now, so it might be coincidental. Not sure.
Peke
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Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by Peke »

Hi,
Hmmm, interesting I have not seen any issues on ripping CDs for long time, maybe I am getting old like my CDs, but retest few today and no issues.

Can you please let us know which CD you are searching for, that MM do not recognize?
svillardi wrote: Mon Mar 06, 2023 9:42 pm doesn't seem to be finding anything in the MusicBrainz DB now
Note: iTunes uses Gracenote CDDB (they bought CDDB 22 years ago) and MM can't use it free and even we introduce ne wfee we still can't use it due the fact MM would not be allowed to use any other metadata sources except them legally. So we are off without them, but searches mat be outdated and sometimes even incomplete.
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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svillardi
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed May 10, 2017 7:55 pm

Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by svillardi »

So let me rephrase the issue:

I pop a CD into my drive
MM5 searches and retrieves the metadata for a completely different (but the SAME every time) previously ripped CD, no matter how many tracks there are.
I have tried ejecting and reinserting the CD and I get an error about not being able to contact/internet issues/something like this (don't have it handy)
Workaround: I close and re open MM5
MM finds the correct CD.
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by Lowlander »

That should've been fixed with removing cdplayer.ini.

Are these commercial produced CDs? Can you please capture in 2 separate debug logs (step 4b) the initial bad lookup, and then the correct lookup after a MediaMonkey restart and attach them to a Support Ticket: viewtopic.php?t=86643
svillardi
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed May 10, 2017 7:55 pm

Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by svillardi »

Yes, these are regular, commercial purchased CD's, not copies or MP3 disks, etc.

I tried removing the cdplayer.ini file, but then I couldn't get any metadata to populate. So I renamed the file back.

Before I go through the debugging process, should I try deleting a disc which has already been found and ripped and try again? What is supposed to be in the cdplayer.ini file anyway? I opened it and saw info about recently ripped CDs and the "evil one" which keeps repeating.

I mean EVERY album can't be by Madonna, or CAN it? :)
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Increasing difficulty ripping CDs

Post by Lowlander »

It has information on previously ripped CDs, which is why removing it would prevent the last one from being shown again. With no (or empty) cdplayer.ini the metadata lookup needs to happen.

The best would be to reproduce this with a CD you haven't inserted before, so all the other variables stay the same.
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