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Support => Portable Devices => Topic started by: Fish on November 06, 2024, 11:34:36 PM

Title: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Fish on November 06, 2024, 11:34:36 PM
Hello! i have a ton of playlists on my mp3 player, and all of them for whatever reason, have the (!) on every single song, with no name. so, i use the "locate missing files" tool in tools, and it locates all my songs and i can listen to my playlists. as soon as i unplug my mp3 player, and plug it back into my PC, i have to do this again. its annoying, but it is what it is.

today, suddenly, "locate missing files" no longer works. i go to tools, locate missing files, auto-match. and it loads for a microsecond, then stops. and won't locate any of the songs. rendering all my playlists totally unusable.

what happened?? is there a way i can fix this??
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: phred on November 07, 2024, 12:15:47 AM
It might be that your mp3 player has a different drive letter every time you connect it to Windows.
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Fish on November 07, 2024, 12:30:19 AM
It might be that your mp3 player has a different drive letter every time you connect it to Windows.

Thank you! that was one of the first things I thought too, but nope. its E. not only that, all the "missing" songs are located in E as well. so I know thats not the case... ahh
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Mayibongwe on November 07, 2024, 12:34:34 PM
When you attempt to play those files with the exclamation marks (missing files), do they play?
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Fish on November 08, 2024, 02:14:49 AM
When you attempt to play those files with the exclamation marks (missing files), do they play?

(https://i.ibb.co/1Xgztn7/image.png) (https://imgbb.com/)
host image url (https://imgbb.com/)

no, it gives me this message, then makes me manually find the file on the device. which would take forever to do, considering i have thousands of songs in this state...
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Mayibongwe on November 08, 2024, 04:26:47 AM
So when you say that the drive letter E does not change with every connection, what would have changed on the file path when you reconnect the device?

Where do you then normally point MusicBee to when you use 'locate missing files'?
Is it the same file path displayed on your screenshot?
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Fish on November 08, 2024, 05:18:36 AM
So when you say that the drive letter E does not change with every connection, what would have changed on the file path when you reconnect the device?

Where do you then normally point MusicBee to when you use 'locate missing files'?
Is it the same file path displayed on your screenshot?

when i click "locate missing files" i click "start-auto match" and up until yesterday, it would just automatically find all the files. the file path is the exact same, as far as i can see. the actual song on the device, is identical to the file path shown in the screenshot. so i have no idea why it can't locate them :(
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Mayibongwe on November 08, 2024, 07:14:35 AM
That's an odd duck.
Can you, for the same file shown on your screenshot above, go to the File Explorer and post a screenshot like the one below:
(https://i.imgur.com/cXjKegr.png)
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Fish on November 08, 2024, 07:29:56 AM
(http://<a href=)(https://i.postimg.cc/q7kysz7Y/image.png)

is this correct?
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Fish on November 08, 2024, 07:43:14 AM
(also out of my thousands of songs this had to be the castlevania music huh?? i swear i listen to good music too i promise)
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Mayibongwe on November 08, 2024, 08:40:11 AM
Well, there's the oddity in the duck.

It looks like the file path on your first screenshot (where MusicBee experts to find the song) reads:
E:\Music\Users\kevin\...

Your actual music file is located on:
E:\Users\kevin\...

Consult here for a guide on how to relink your music files to point correctly:
Missing Files: Relink Music File Paths, Locate Missing Files (and Prevention) (https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=41628.0)
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Fish on November 08, 2024, 05:39:33 PM
Well, there's the oddity in the duck.

It looks like the file path on your first screenshot (where MusicBee experts to find the song) reads:
E:\Music\Users\kevin\...

Your actual music file is located on:
E:\Users\kevin\...



thanks so much for the help!! (http://[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://i.postimg.cc/Vk0BBYpc/image.png)[/url][/img]

that does seem to be the problem, unfortunately the solution doesn't work. am i doing something wrong here?

also, if i do this, and just do one folder at a time. it works, until i close music bee. and re-open the program. then all the files are missing again :(

Consult here for a guide on how to relink your music files to point correctly:
Missing Files: Relink Music File Paths, Locate Missing Files (and Prevention) (https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=41628.0)
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Mayibongwe on November 08, 2024, 05:57:26 PM
that does seem to be the problem, unfortunately the solution doesn't work. am i doing something wrong here?
also, if i do this, and just do one folder at a time. it works, until i close music bee. and re-open the program. then all the files are missing again :(
That's not enough information to work with. You need to elaborate on why it didn't work, such as:

When you relink that one folder and reopen MusicBee, what file path is MusicBee now expecting to find a particular song from that folder?
Has MusicBee's expected file path now changed from what you had pointed it to before you closed it?
If nothing has changed on the MusicBee file path before and after closing it, has the windows file path changed after you closed MusicBee?
Have you disconnected and reconnected the device? Have the file paths changed since then?

Please test this using that same song from above so that we easily follow what's changing or remaining constant.
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Fish on November 08, 2024, 06:14:59 PM
(https://i.postimg.cc/XNKpmxph/image.png) (https://postimages.org/)post image online (https://postimages.org/)

alright! just to make sure, is this correct? because doing this dosen't seem to have any effect,
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Mayibongwe on November 08, 2024, 06:25:11 PM
alright! just to make sure, is this correct? because doing this dosen't seem to have any effect,
Yep, that looks correct. All you have to do to troubleshoot this is to take note of:

a) the file path displayed by MusicBee in the properties of the tag editor when the song plays (which one would assume to be E:\Users\kevin\...)
b) the file path displayed by MusicBee when the file is deemed to be missing (which earlier on was E:\Music\Users\kevin\...)

Now that you have relinked the file path or located that particular song, I believe you are saying that it 'gets lost again' when you restart MusicBee and/or reconnect the device, correct?
If so, then you need to relook into the file paths in a. and b. above to see what has changed. Tell us what changes and then we can take it from there.
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Fish on November 08, 2024, 06:37:41 PM
so, if i go in and locate the songs manually, it will work for all the songs in that folder.   (https://i.postimg.cc/qRqz96ZF/image.png) (https://postimages.org/)

(https://i.postimg.cc/L5HRrcX8/image.png) (https://postimages.org/)

all the songs from that folder will be present, but the songs from other folders won't be.

(https://i.postimg.cc/xjK35WMb/image.png) (https://postimages.org/)

when i close music bee, then re-open it, its lost again.

so, when i close music bee, the file path reverts to being music\users instead of users\music
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Mayibongwe on November 08, 2024, 06:50:35 PM
so, when i close music bee, the file path reverts to being music\users instead of users\music
I have no idea why that would happen, but would like to suggest a fresh start:

- Go to file > library > create new library > scan your E:\Users\kevin\Music... folder in
- see if the issue persists (if it does, I'd be of no further assistance unfortunately - this beats me)
- if it doesn't, there's some corruption occurring with the old library.
- note that this means you will lose access to your existing play counts and statistics like that.
- the older library won't get deleted in case you ever need to revert back to it. This is really just a test to see if it's a library-specific issue.
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Fish on November 08, 2024, 07:26:04 PM
hmm, no matter what i seem to do, i can't make a new library on the E drive (my mp3 player) its greyed out no matter what folder i select (https://i.postimg.cc/Bvn2qx5C/image.png) (https://postimages.org/)

Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: tjinc on November 09, 2024, 08:40:52 AM
Am I right in thinking that you are attempting to play a playlist whose music tracks and playlist file (m3u) is located on your mp3 player?

If this is the case then the paths in the m3u file will be set up for the player and not for MusicBee. No matter how many times you relink the files, this will not modify the playlist file on the mp3 player (which is why the links are lost each time you disconnect the player).

My guess is that the playlist files stored on your mp3 player are located in: E:\Music\
A typical entry in an m3u playlist file would be: \<Music Folder>\<Artist>\<Album>\<Track>
MusicBee will interpret the path to file as: E:\Music\<Music Folder>\<Artist>\<Album>\<Track>

As to the solution:
Normally one would build a playlist in MusicBee and sync that to the mp3 player - this would be the best way to go going forward.
Other options would really depend on how your mp3 player can cope with other settings: Moving the playlist files (m3u) to the root E:\ might work for MusicBee (but might well prevent the playlist working on your player). Setting your mp3 player to save playlists with relative file paths would work (but I doubt it would have this functionality).
You could import one of the playlists into MusicBee (File > Playlists > Import Playlist) - you would have to relink the files, but only once, and you could then play the playlist through MusicBee's Playlist tab/node (as long as the player was connected).
Title: Re: locate missing file stopped working?
Post by: Fish on November 10, 2024, 09:57:39 PM
Am I right in thinking that you are attempting to play a playlist whose music tracks and playlist file (m3u) is located on your mp3 player?

If this is the case then the paths in the m3u file will be set up for the player and not for MusicBee. No matter how many times you relink the files, this will not modify the playlist file on the mp3 player (which is why the links are lost each time you disconnect the player).

My guess is that the playlist files stored on your mp3 player are located in: E:\Music\
A typical entry in an m3u playlist file would be: \<Music Folder>\<Artist>\<Album>\<Track>
MusicBee will interpret the path to file as: E:\Music\<Music Folder>\<Artist>\<Album>\<Track>

As to the solution:
Normally one would build a playlist in MusicBee and sync that to the mp3 player - this would be the best way to go going forward.
Other options would really depend on how your mp3 player can cope with other settings: Moving the playlist files (m3u) to the root E:\ might work for MusicBee (but might well prevent the playlist working on your player). Setting your mp3 player to save playlists with relative file paths would work (but I doubt it would have this functionality).
You could import one of the playlists into MusicBee (File > Playlists > Import Playlist) - you would have to relink the files, but only once, and you could then play the playlist through MusicBee's Playlist tab/node (as long as the player was connected).

hello, thank you!! i believe you are probably correct. however, i can't seem to make playlists through music bee on my mp3 player, and if i make them on my pc, and add them to my mp3 player, they also won't work. neither in music bee, or my device.

HOWEVER! i have found a strange work around.

unfortunately, my original problem persists. "locate missing songs" for whatever reason, dosen't work now. even though it has for the better part of a year.

what i have found out though, is if i simply add a song from my main music library on the device (through windows explorer) into a playlist, the playlist saves. and works normally. both on the device, and music bee. exactly as it should.

unfortunately, i do still have to locate all the songs manually, and re-add them one at a time. but knowing the playlist will actually save, and work as intended, has given me the drive to just go through the arduous process of re-adding all my songs.

thank you so much for the help ! i hope this helps anyone in the future who might be having the same problem.