Moving MediaMonkey to a new computer/Change Drive

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Introduction

If you want to move MediaMonkey to a new computer, but want to retain your MediaMonkey Library, follow these steps. If these steps are followed correctly, all information that is maintained in the MediaMonkey Library will be retained, including Play History, Play Counts, Dates Added, Playlists and all other fields within MediaMonkey. This guide applies to changing computers and reinstalling Windows.

The key is that MediaMonkey uses driveID to find your media files and not drive letter. This helps when using external drives which may have different drive letters when reconnecting. However when you swap drives or reinstall Windows your drive will have a different driveID requiring the updating of MediaMonkey to point to the new drive.

If you're moving/copying a MediaMonkey Library to a new PC follow steps 1-6. If you're just replacing the drive your media files are stored on you'll just need step 5. If you're reinstalling Windows you can start at step 3, but make sure the MediaMonkey database file and media files are not removed (back them up first if they will be lost).

It's recommended to migrate to the same version of MediaMonkey as the one you're migrating from.

Alternative options

1. To just move files, but not the MediaMonkey installation itself, to a different hard drive (internal or external) or a network location you can use MediaMonkey to move the files. In that case this guide doesn't apply.
2. If instead you wish to move the files outside MediaMonkey, but not the MediaMonkey installation itself, you can use Folder Monitoring on both the old and new folder or skip ahead to the change driveID section.
3. If you just want to move all your Playlists over you can use File > Export > Export All Playlists in MediaMonkey 5/2024 (or Tools > Scripts > Export All Playlists in MediaMonkey 4). Do make sure that the Path of your media files hasn't changed as Playlists contain this Path and a correct Path is required to be able to import Playlists. On the other installation of MediaMonkey you can run File > Add/Rescan Files and have it scan the location with the Playlists to import them.

Step 1: Preparation

Before performing the migration, make sure that on the new PC that you don't have Folder Monitoring enabled (if MediaMonkey is already installed) before you finish Step 5 as otherwise you will have duplicates in your Library.

Optional steps

• Update the MediaMonkey you're migrating from to the same version you're migrating to. Migrating to the same version can make the migration smoother.
• Fix DB / Tag Mismatches for the media files before transferring them:
• Maintain the Library, you can do a quick optimize or do a full rebuild before migrating.

Step 2: Move your media files

Next you need to move (or copy) your media files to their new location. You can do this using File Explorer, any backup software to move the files through the network, or by using an external drive to move files between computers. We recommend using whatever method is the most convenient for you.
The easiest transition is where you don't change the folder/filename structure of your files. They can be moved to a different hard drive letter as MediaMonkey uses driveID instead. For example it's easiest to move from C:\Music to C:\Music or E:\Music, but not from C:\Music to C:\My Music.

If your media files are on a network location and you only need to move MediaMonkey you don't need to move your media files and can skip this step.

Step 3: Starting the new MediaMonkey install

Install (it's recommended you install the same version of MediaMonkey you're migrating from) and run MediaMonkey on your new PC. When you start MediaMonkey on the new PC make sure you don't do any scanning of Media Files (including no Folder Monitoring) (you'll end up with duplicates) before updating the driveID in Step 5. You can now enter your License. The first run of MediaMonkey will create the database file which you'll replace in step 4.

Step 4: Copying your database

The next step is to copy your original database to your new PC. The key component you'll need from your old install is the MediaMonkey database file. It contains metadata about your files including metadata not saved to the files and Play History, it also contains your Playlists, Podcast Subscriptions, Devices for Synchronization, DLNA setup as well as some other settings. Make sure you have a copy of the database file so you can go back to it if something doesn't go quite right in the next steps.

To transfer the database file to the new PC on MediaMonkey 5/2024:

1. Backup the database file on the old PC
2. Copy the database file backed up copy to the new PC
3. Restore the database file on the new PC

Alternative

• Manual copying of the database file (required for MediaMonkey 4 and older)
  1. Find your database in Windows Explorer. For its location see: mm5.db/mm.db location (Note that you will have to enable viewing of hidden Files and Folders in File Explorer to find the MediaMonkey database file).
     • Verify the Date modified and Size attributes of the database file to confirm you're copying the correct copy.
     • You can search in File Explorer for the database file name. Make sure you include hidden files in your search.
  2. Copy the database file and place it in the appropriate location on the new PC.
• If you have a Portable Install you can move the whole portable installation folder to the new PC. This will also keep your settings and Addons intact on the new PC.

Optional items

Optional items (not recommended/for advanced users only), some settings in these files are system specific, to copy would be:

• MediaMonkey.ini, which contains many MediaMonkey settings (make sure to disable Folder Monitoring first or copy it after completing step 5 first). [Contains Paths settings which may have changed on the new PC]
• persistent.json, which contains most layout/Skin settings [Contains monitor/resolution specific settings which may have changed on the new PC]
• Scripts folder, which contains most of the installed Addons [Some Addons may have files outside this folder]
• Registry info: @ HKey_Current_ User\Software\Mediamonkey [May contain system specific settings]

Verify Library

Optionally, you can verify if your MediaMonkey Library transferred correctly by running MediaMonkey (do not do any scanning) and browse your Library including Playlists. The media files will show greyed out (unless they were on a non-mapped network location), Step 5 will fix this.

Step 5: Updating the database to point to the correct drive (change driveID)

Next you'll have to modify the database to point to the new drive instead of the old one. This is not needed for files stored in a network location AND accessed via UNC Path in MediaMonkey (Mapped drives do need updating).

• On MediaMonkey 5/MediaMonkey 2024
  • Use the build-in manually re-assign drive method if the file Paths (other than drive letter) are unchanged.
  • Use Locate Moved/Missing Files instead if the Paths on the drive have changed.

• On MediaMonkey 4
  • Use the third party Update Location of Files in Database addon. It can fix the changed drive ID as well as changed base folder for your files.
    • Download and double-click the Addon to install it. Follow the instructions in the Forum on how to use it.
  • If you have MediaMonkey Gold, you can also use the Locate Moved/Missing Files function:
    1. Select all the greyed out tracks (if the files are on a drive no longer accessible by this installation you won't find them under Dead Links).
    2. Click File > Locate moved/missing tracks
       This will attempt to find tracks on the new drive that match the file size AND timestamp, or track metadata in the database. Make sure you verify the matches it suggest as incorrect matches will result in the wrong metadata for your files.
• On MediaMonkey 3 and older install this script to your new PC:
  1. To install the script, first shut down MM. Next, copy the contents in the 'Code:' box at the link provided into notepad. Save the file as 'MM_HDDSerial.vbs' (without the quotes) in your C:\Program Files\MediaMonkey\Scripts folder. Next, within that same folder, find 'Scripts.ini'. Open this file with notepad and copy the following lines and paste them onto the end of the file, then save.
  2. Copy these lines into Scripts.ini:
     [HDDSerial]
     FileName=MM_HDDSerial.vbs
     ProcName=Change_HDD_Serial
     Order=99
     DisplayName=Move Device Content
     Description=Corrects broken links after exchanged hard drive
     Language=VBScript
     ScriptType=0
  3. Now you're ready to run the script. Open MM (if you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, right click on the MM icon and choose "Run as administrator" even if your Windows user account has administrative rights) and run the script at Tools > Scripts > Move Device Content. If you receive any errors or the script doesn't appear under Tools > Scripts, check that you have installed the script correctly, and/or try restarting MM.
     Running the script will change the drive-ID within the MediaMonkey database to recognize your new drive, and all your database information will be retained. If you can play your music from MM, and tracks do not grey out, then you have successfully moved your MM installation to a new computer.

Alternatively, if only the drive changed for your media files you could change the DriveID in Windows from the new to the old DriveID. More Information on how to change Volume Serial number can be found Here (for advanced users).

Step 6: Test if it works

Once step 5 is completed, test out whether it worked by double-clicking a file in your library to see if it plays.

Troubleshooting

• Duplicates in Library, this likely means that files were scanned before Step 5. Sorting on Added you should be able to remove the new duplicate copies or restart steps at Step 4 with a copy of the original database.
• Empty Library, this likely means that Step 4 wasn't completed correctly (restart steps at Step 4):
  • Step 4 was not done at all
  • The wrong database file was copied from the old install
  • The old database file was put in the wrong place
• Playlists missing, this likely means that Step 4 wasn't completed correctly and files were scanned. Restart steps at Step 4.
• Greyed out media files, this likely means that Step 5 wasn't completed correctly. Restart steps at Step 5.

Last steps

1. You need to confirm the scan settings so scanning happens to your needs.
2. You can enable Folder Monitoring if you wish to use it.
3. You can do your first scan for media files, if you have new media files to add to your MediaMonkey Library.

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