Beloved MM... corrupts the Database. Can I still trust Ventis and buy MM5?

[KharskiGold2]

Hello,
long term user here. First of all - thanks. Still today, I see nothing quite MM on the market - a folder based collection manager with some tools and scripts.

The complaint - MM regularily, since ever, I believe, messes up my tags. 10h of hours of work lost. Sometimes... it even more drastically corrupts my Database... which is the worse thing you can do to a(n amateur) DJ. Now being an ex-dev, I have the impression that MM4 was coded... rather poorly, probably with a lot of history behind it. I will try to give you some examples of what exactly goes wrong but the bottom line is... I cannot trust MediaMonkey. The right thing would be to switch, however since MediaMonkey 5 is out... maybe I can upgrade to it.

The question Can I somehow check my set-up for anything wrong, as to prevent
> MediaMonkey from loosing tag information or
> sometimes having Database/SQL query errors
> other wierd things like bad timestamps

and nearly more importantly (since the active dev version is MM5..), can I safely upgrade to MM5 and be quite sure I won't have these problems anymore? The ONLY particularities I have (and it wasn't always the case) is that my Windows is sitting on a (Parallels) vm on Mac. MediaMonkey is installed in Portable mode, and the Audio files are mapped (from Mac, Windows sees them as a network drive, not a local one). Sometimes, I fudge up my Parallels config and basically the maps get shifted. So before Windows saw Z:/Audio/.... and then sees Z:/otherFolder and Y:/Audio. Of course the music is then unfindable, that's normal. Of course I revert to the correct/initial mapping config with just Z:/Audio .

Symptoms in first comment, if I get to that. At the same time the most important ones were exposed above, and I don't want to waste your time trying to fix MM4... I rather want to acknowledge the problem (or tell me no, MM does not work with network drives/your config is at fault), and know if I can safely migrate to MM5 or if I have to fix/check something before.


Thanks,
The Kharski

[Lowlander]

You may want to change database robustness: https://www.mediamonkey.com/support/kno ... obustness/

I'd recommend updating to MMW5 as that's where any troubleshooting of this would need to happen (actually on the latest 2024 beta).

[Peke]

Hi,

if I can safely migrate to MM5 or if I have to fix/check something before.

May ask you to open support ticket as there is a way to do a non destructive test run on MM5/2024 and see if it resolves issues you have.
As MM uses SQLite local DB it is very strange that you get so much SQL query errors I would rather look for a problem somewhere else (I have 20 Years old MM library and it is not observing such constant issues. Well there was bugs but not something backup restore after code fix solve). Can you pleas eopen support ticket so that we can attack it more aggressively?

[KharskiGold2]

Hi,

if I can safely migrate to MM5 or if I have to fix/check something before.

May ask you to open support ticket as there is a way to do a non destructive test run on MM5/2024 and see if it resolves issues you have.
As MM uses SQLite local DB it is very strange that you get so much SQL query errors I would rather look for a problem somewhere else (I have 20 Years old MM library and it is not observing such constant issues. Well there was bugs but not something backup restore after code fix solve). Can you pleas eopen support ticket so that we can attack it more aggressively?

Hi,
very sorry for the late reply. Yes I can open a ticket, but so I have to migrate to MM5 from MM 4 Portable first or not? I'd prefer not to if possible for now. I've managed to restabilize the library it seems. As for the tags loss, I'll put the different use cases in the ticket but I think saving tags to files always helps. Then I have wierd stuff like tag loss when I move a folder inside MM itself, and in the library view not explorer.

Yeah the SQL errors don't happen often thank god and I honestly can't remember if problems started appearing when I used MM on Parallels VM or not.. I switched to Mac years and years ago.

[Peke]

Hi,
you can import MM4 portable library into MM2024 portable apron first start, so nothing will be lost and then use MM2024 portable for testing before you do anything.

It is safe test enviroment as your now working DB will not be touched.

[KharskiGold2]

So.
I discovered I was using a cracked version of MM4, although I do have a MM 4 Gold lifetime license. Maybe that's a factor. I started upgrading to a trial of 5, then to the latest 4 since I only have a 4 licence. In both cases I stopped, because this is what I saw. What.. is.a Portable. install. doing. referencing. these files.

I am white of rage. Years of deception. Years of loosing progress and having to retag everything. I really can't take it anymore and don't understand how I have till now. I guess I always thought the VM was faulty.

https://ibb.co/f9VcNSX. <- space added cause I can't post links cause 2024 is calling.

One of the last thorns in my heel.. please help or at least any idea why it's using Windows Virtual Store on a Windows 7?? And in Portable mode. This is such a pain you cannot even imagine. I lost DB info AGAIN (and this time I saved all file tags with ctrl-S which normally saves the day). Now that I see this seperate DB, yeah I get there are suprises like these. Windows. All I did was copy the MM4 folder (portable mode, whole folder including Portable) somewhere else (to "uninstall" it), tried puting MM4 latest / MM5 in it's place (with a different folder name just to be sure, naming it MediaMonkey 4 (before it was 'MediaMonkey'). Now I copied it back to use it a bit (after deleting all other attempts). and the DB is (super randomly) reset to old version/screwed.

TY.

[Peke]

Hi,

please help or at least any idea why it's using Windows Virtual Store on a Windows 7?? And in Portable mode.

This is known issue with Windows 7, MS Virual Store should not be used for legal digitally signed applications like mediamonkey. It is false detect and makes more problems than it fixes. Point of Virtual store is to open apps in Virtual, limited, controlled enviroment that do not have full system access, but fooling app that it is started normally. That means Windows controls what app can access, save to HDD and according to its notion delete app files.

The Result is that you copy Store files especially MM.DB and MediaMonkey.ini that stores MediaMonkey settings. Problem arises that Virtual store is faulty on Windows 7 and sometimes it success to redirect files to virtual store, but sometimes not which results in behavior you observe. Solution is to copy files from Virtual store folders to right/normal folders and clean/delete virtual store folders.

Personally I disabled Virtual Store in Windows 7 completely each time after windows install as it makes Windows much more responsive and more stable. Simply Virtual Store in Windows 7 was tooo much buggy useful even I like the idea of virtual container.

There are free Virtualization apps that work much better than Virtual store.
https://portableapps.com/development
or
https://carlcheo.com/portable-app-creators

[KharskiGold2]

Hi,

please help or at least any idea why it's using Windows Virtual Store on a Windows 7?? And in Portable mode.

This is known issue with Windows 7, MS Virual Store should not be used for legal digitally signed applications like mediamonkey. It is false detect and makes more problems than it fixes. Point of Virtual store is to open apps in Virtual, limited, controlled enviroment that do not have full system access, but fooling app that it is started normally. That means Windows controls what app can access, save to HDD and according to its notion delete app files.

The Result is that you copy Store files especially MM.DB and MediaMonkey.ini that stores MediaMonkey settings. Problem arises that Virtual store is faulty on Windows 7 and sometimes it success to redirect files to virtual store, but sometimes not which results in behavior you observe. Solution is to copy files from Virtual store folders to right/normal folders and clean/delete virtual store folders.

Personally I disabled Virtual Store in Windows 7 completely each time after windows install as it makes Windows much more responsive and more stable. Simply Virtual Store in Windows 7 was tooo much buggy useful even I like the idea of virtual container.

There are free Virtualization apps that work much better than Virtual store.
https://portableapps.com/development
or
https://carlcheo.com/portable-app-creators

Thanks for that!!

I'd like a MediaMonkey staff answer though, because I mean, nobody is supposed to know that. I guess I'll submit that ticket finally to deal with this properly. I will try your solution, but unless again manually redoing the DB losses, I need to figure out how to merge the two databases together. I was a dev so if it's just an sqlite DB merge I could figure it out, but I'm not completely sure how my DB was distributed between the one in Portable and the one in VirtualStore.

A priori the new MM4 one just had a small DB in virtual storage, and the original MM4 install a bigger one. Strangely though, when I "re-installed" the original MM4 with same pathname, the DB was incomplete. There may be not 100% good analysis form my end here.

[Lowlander]

That was a MediaMonkey staff answer from Peke.

[Peke]

Hi,
Replied in Ticket, you missed small fact that you are on MAC using MM thru Parallels.

Lets fix this and report back here so that we also help someone else.