MM opened blank with no files - corrupted INI file - fixed via Windows File History

[MattTown]

Hi,

After years of MM faithfully opening to my 30K library of files, today it opened to a blank screen with no license and no files, much like this post from 2022 titled "My library is gone, everything reset in the app including the license"

I opened a ticket but I wanted to share my experience on the forum too.

My MM installation has been portable forever, with multiple updates of new beta versions successfully installing. There have been no updates to Windows (Win 10, no longer updated) and all of the files are in their usual spot on the drive, as they had been when I closed MM down an hour before.

Based on responses to that earlier post I went looking for the mediamonkey.ini file in my portable installation. What I found is that the mediamonkey.ini file was corrupted - it occupied 45K on disk but showed no characters in notepad. I was able to restore my MM system by using Windows' File History feature to bring the previous copy of the mediamonkey.ini file back from the day before, uncorrupted.

There was nothing exceptional about today's shutdown and reopen process, and I have done exactly that hundreds of times, so I am not aware of any action on my part which would have precipitated a corruption of the ini file. If I had not previously ensured that File History was working, I would now be in a serious world of hurt.

Given the importance of the mediamonkey.ini file to the operation of MM, I suggest some thought to automatic resilience for the detection of a corruption and automatic fallback to a known good copy might be worth attention from the devs. For example:

• Have a current/father/grandfather set of the mediamonkey.ini file;

• If loading the Current version of the mediamonkey.ini fails then try opening with the content in the Father version of the file, and if that fails then try the Grandfather;

• If such action is taken, advise the user (though I don't know what you'd want them to do - submit a helpdesk ticket?)

• On successful open, advance the file set by copying the content of Father over Grandfather, copy content of Current over Father, and save the Current version.

In the absence of MM looking after itself that way, I recommend that MM users ensure that Windows File History is turned on and is monitoring the MM installation folder, particularly if it is portable on an external drive, as mine is.

Cheers

Matt

[Lowlander]

You can use Backup to keep backups of the ini.

[MattTown]

You can use Backup to keep backups of the ini.

Thanks Lowlander.

It took me some time to find the Backup settings under File > Manage Database instead of under Tools > Options > Library, but I now have Settings and Addons selected in there. I am assuming that saving "Settings" will save the mediamonkey.ini file for me, please correct me if wrong.

Cheers
Matt

[Lowlander]

There is no save settings, ini is saved on close of MediaMonkey.

[Rob_S]

I think the question was meant: under the backup database dialog, does one checkmark the "settings" option to ensure that the ini file is saved?? There is no direct indication that this file will be included in the backup and restore.

Actually I was of the untested impression that settings referred to the persistent.json file only, but I do also see the mediamon ket.ini file in my backup as well.

[MattTown]

I think the question was meant: under the backup database dialog, does one checkmark the "settings" option to ensure that the ini file is saved?? There is no direct indication that this file will be included in the backup and restore.

Thanks Rob,

Yes, the forced saving of the ini file to a protected location was at the heart of my question. I further assume that that the backup location is different to the location that the ini file gets saved to on close as stated by Lowlander.

The bigger problem is one of terminology - the devs and the experienced support staff know what all of the MM language means, and so don't detect when the implicit meaning does not match the explicit text.

Cheers

Matt

[MattTown]

MM did it again - corrupted the ini file and opened blank with a license prompt. Windows restore saved the day again.

Given Lowlander's advice I went looking for the ini file that gets saved as part of the backup process. I found it via a Windows brute force search sitting in the Zip file created by the backup process.

I knew to lookup the MM backup interface to find the backup location, and I knew that I could double click on a zip file folder to see the contents. And I would even have be3en able to copy the ini file and paste it into the one location that MM would know to look for it. So, yes, the backup process does save the ini file, but finding it might be a challenge for a non-IT user panicking over the loss of all of their music. And yes I know that's not the case, but it certainly looks like it when it first happens.

[Lowlander]

Backup happens where you set it to backup. You can change it to where it's more memorable for you (I've set mine where I backup other things as well).