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Messages - joninge

Pages: 12
1
Ah, found it!  The left sidebar wasn't being displayed at all (I was confusing it with the left _panel_ that lists Album, Artist, Genre, etc.), and I couldn't see any options to switch it on in any of the Preferences screens.  Finally found it by clicking the Configure Layout icon next to the Search box at the top right of the screen; must have missed that somewhere along the way.

Thank you all for your help!  I think I can take it from here.

Best regards

Jon

2
Thanks to both of you for your prompt responses, and patience with my questions.  I hate to sound like the newbie I am, but "computer node"?  I've searched for and read several references to it in this forum, but can't find any way to show it in MB.  "Computer" is checked "on" in the Preferences/Layout 1 screen; if I right click a track and ask it to Search/Display in Computer Node it shows me another view of the album and tracks, but no computer directory tree, which seems to be what other folks are seeing, judging by the thread comments.  Is there some trick to getting it to display?  It sure sounds useful.

3
That's what made sense to me from a naming convention viewpoint, but does MB physically move the files from /Ripped Files into /Music when it imports them into the library?  It doesn't seem like it would need to, as long as it knows where the tracks are.  I'm just not sure why so many albums, almost all of which are indeed ripped from CDs, would be in both locations, physically, which is what File Explorer is telling me.

And I've found at least one album that's in /Ripped, but not /Music.

I suspect I may have no alternative but to physically move all my albums into one directory, go through them and delete all the duplicates, one at a time, rename that directory as /Music and then have MB re-scan it.  But with 2,000+ albums, it's not a prospect I look forward to.  And I'm not sure what MB's library would like like afterwards, as it would presumably have lost the location of every track it formerly knew about.

Jon

4
Got it, thanks.

Any feedback on whether it's normal for the Music directory to have a MusicBee folder among its Album folders, and for that to have a Ripped Files folder containing a duplicate of all the music Albums and Tracks?  After "data restoration" by the tech who replaced the hard drive, I now have (for example) \Users\Jon\Music\10cc\One Night in Paris as well as \Users\Jon\Music\MusicBee\Ripped Files\10cc\One Night in Paris, and so on for pretty much all of my music.  I'm tempted to delete the Ripped Files directory completely, but don't know if MB needs it for anything.

Jon

5
Thanks for the responses.  I set up a new playlist with two albums in it, each with duplicated tracks, and clicked Sort by Path.  MB appeared to do this, separating the tracks into two sets of complete albums, but it didn't display their paths, so I'm not sure which set to delete!  The Playlist Settings option offers to let me "use custom fields for this playlist only" but doesn't give me a list of fields to choose from.  Where do I set these?

6
I've been a very happy MB user for some time, but recently had to replace the hard drive in my computer.  The tech who did it transferred all my MB data to the new drive, but I noticed that in the middle of my Music (album) directories (c:/Users/Jon/Music/10cc, Beatles, Billy Joel, etc.) is a directory labeled MusicBee.  That in turn contains a "Ripped Files" sub-directory which contains another full set of my Music (album) directories and tracks, e.g. c:/Users/Jon/Music/MusicBee/Ripped Files/10cc, Beatles, Billy Joel, etc.  Is this a standard configuration? 
The problem is that now that I've reinstalled MB, every album contains two copies of every track, one in the Music directory and one in the Ripped Files one.  I've tried using the Manage Duplicates tool, but when it displays the duplicate tracks to be managed (which is everything in the library, over 11,000 tracks) it mixes up the directories where it found them.  For example, the Path of the first track on an album is shown as the /Jon/Music/10cc directory (as an example) while its identified Duplicate File is in the/Jon/Music/MusicBee/Ripped Files/10cc directory.  The same is true for the next track, but the third track has the directories reversed; the main Path is shown as the /Ripped Files directory while the Duplicate File is in the Jon/Music one.  The next track is back to the first order, the couple after that are reversed again, and so on in apparently random fashion.
How can I clean this up?  The Duplicates Manager tells me to drag and drop from one side to the other to sort the tracks I want to keep, but I can't do that for every single track in the library.  Help!
Jon

7
Many thanks!  Clearly I have much still to learn about this flexible and powerful program, and need to do more thoughtful reading of the information in the Wiki; I haven't always grasped the impact of some the somewhat terse statements there.
Thank you again for your patience and understanding; they're very much appreciated!
Best regards
Jon

8
Psychoadept, many thanks for your response, which helped me remember that MB is a music cataloging/playback program and not a music management one.  The reason that only some of my albums were affected by this problem goes back to my migration from iTunes, which was notoriously bad at keeping track of its music.  Most albums came across just fine, but many individual tracks had become detached from any album information and were collected into a single "Unknown artist, unknown album" folder.  The albums I've been having trouble with lately were those that I'd re-assembled in MB, editing each track to include its appropriate album/artist/year/track number data.  MB had no problem pulling them into full albums that I can now play, but (of course, because it's not designed to) didn't physically move them into separate folders.  Hence my challenge with the art constantly being overwritten.  Moving each re-created album manually into its own folder should resolve my issue; many thanks for your help!

I do have one minor question, probably of academic interest only;  if MB won't let users change the Cover.jpg file name for the cover art, which is greyed out and non-editable, why is it displayed in a data-entry box?

Thanks again!

Jon

9
Thank you both; these do seem good suggestions, but I'm afraid I'm still confused about the overall issue of album art because of the following:
- I use these settings because I was advised to by an expert on this forum after I had trouble getting images to "stick' with the album shortly after I started using MB.  I could find the appropriate image on the Internet, click OK, and it wouldn't save at all.  Using these settings has worked for me ever since, until I added the recent few albums.
- As above, it's only recently that I've had this write-over problem, and I haven't changed anything about how I use MB.  Up until recently I've been able to find and save album cover pictures and they've stayed put.
- I wondered about the generic "Cover.jpg" default name for the picture, but (a) it's greyed out and not editable, and (b) I assumed (that word!) that the image would be saved in a distinct folder with the music from its album, and so it wouldn't matter if the same name was used each time.
- I looked through File Explorer to find which folder(s) MB uses to store the album art.  I don't know if there are other folders, but the one I found was c:/users/jon/AppData/Local/MusicBee/InternalCache/AlbumCovers/0 through /9.  Each of these 0-9 sub-folders holds a different selection of album covers, in no apparent order, and very many of them have very many duplicates.  There are also several files in each sub-folder of zero size but with file names similar to those with an image; for example, 3CAEBA6E_57493A63.png is an image of the cover of Quincy Jones' "Q's Jook Joint" album, a 130KB file, and next to it is 3F9DF334_5D1CEAE4.png which is a zero-byte file.  Do you know why this might be?  Is there a different folder (such as each album's music folder, which I didn't find yet) that would be more useful?  If so, how do I specify it?

Thanks again for your help!

Jon

10
   I recently added a bunch of new albums to my MB library, then right clicked on each album art placeholder, searched the Internet for each album's cover image and saved it to the album, checking the boxes for "embed the picture in the music file", "link the picture to this music track" and "link to an organized copy of this picture", leaving the default file name as Cover.jpg.  I then scroll down the album art display page to the next ones needing attention and repeat the process for each.  If I then scroll back up to the earlier ones I downloaded and saved, I find that the images have all been changed to the last one I downloaded and saved.
   Example: I find and save the correct cover art for "Architecture and Morality" and "Astral Weeks", then scroll down to "Flesh and Blood" and "The Fox", find and save the correct art for each.  If I scroll back up to "A & M" and "Astral Weeks", the cover art displayed for both is now that for "The Fox".  If I change both back to their correct images, then scroll down, the art for both "Flesh and Blood" and "The Fox" is now that for "Astral Weeks".
   Clearly something isn't "taking" here.  Is there some further step I need to take to make these images stay with their correct albums?
Many thanks!
Jon

11
Bug Reports / Re: Access denied when trying to create New Playlist
« on: June 15, 2020, 10:28:31 PM »
Many thanks, both!  Yes, it was newly-installed BitDefender being over-protective; took me a couple of tries to find the right setting, but all OK now.  Much appreciated!

Jon

12
Bug Reports / Access denied when trying to create New Playlist
« on: June 14, 2020, 04:26:54 PM »
The following error message appears when I try to create a New Playlist.  Any suggestions?

Thank you!

Jon

MusicBee v3.3.7310.31925D  (Win10.0), 14 Jun 2020 8:11:

System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access is denied. [C:\Users\jon\Music\MusicBee\Playlists\Playlist.mbp]
   at #=zCf4VQ_fbhtH95rz2gNmFAbQ=.#=zQpNJpAzXUl5a.#=zu5xWrFY=.#=zVI8Eh4eYxO6d(#=zlkE2wlw28gwaYlXF4g== #=zXJ5hmWc=, FileMode #=zzbgVC5c=, FileAccess #=z3E3e$T4=, FileShare #=zCILa2$Q=, Int32 #=zDPeoaO4=, Boolean #=zmFaAsvwdppoG)
   at #=zs$v0QJMGgz_3qcC8MBYx$3TbhWLM.#=zVI8Eh4eYxO6d(#=zlkE2wlw28gwaYlXF4g== #=zXJ5hmWc=, FileMode #=zzbgVC5c=, FileAccess #=z3E3e$T4=, Int32 #=zDPeoaO4=)
   at #=z2UFdtdloStNYpwV6JA_AIIc=.#=zdX0kzsw=(List`1 #=zekChE4M=)
   at #=z1H0fDEfDv7fc6_k_aB1Doqc=.#=zF6TcF1Dc_7z_AugdzA==.#=zBl6EGXY=(#=z2UFdtdloStNYpwV6JA_AIIc= #=z$kTucqU=, List`1 #=zZS_ueO4im9vp)
   at #=z2UFdtdloStNYpwV6JA_AIIc=..ctor(#=zlkE2wlw28gwaYlXF4g== #=zXJ5hmWc=, #=z07OJ6maWeohhLzh8l1$U_bA= #=zv2909TQ=, List`1 #=zZS_ueO4im9vp)
   at #=zdRddAG2q7x5I$VaZLhRt54nbElrv.#=zkW0du9GPRfua.#=zec0YawxmAneS(#=zVrS6v04= #=zf40YtrA=, #=zlkE2wlw28gwaYlXF4g== #=z5PPut7WSz3II, #=z07OJ6maWeohhLzh8l1$U_bA= #=zv2909TQ=, List`1 #=zZS_ueO4im9vp)
   at #=zdRddAG2q7x5I$VaZLhRt54nbElrv.#=zkW0du9GPRfua.#=zGxsFybygry$oBUNu8w==(#=z07OJ6maWeohhLzh8l1$U_bA= #=zv2909TQ=, String #=zJe1pJ38=, List`1 #=zZS_ueO4im9vp, Boolean #=zQ2z2GVY=)
   at #=zdRddAG2q7x5I$VaZLhRt54nbElrv.#=zup5p_Bf$w6h2(#=z07OJ6maWeohhLzh8l1$U_bA= #=zv2909TQ=, String #=zJe1pJ38=, List`1 #=zZS_ueO4im9vp, Boolean #=zQ2z2GVY=)
   at #=zdRddAG2q7x5I$VaZLhRt54nbElrv.#=zup5p_Bf$w6h2(String #=zJe1pJ38=, List`1 #=zZS_ueO4im9vp, Boolean #=zz0YvDMw=)
   at #=zdRddAG2q7x5I$VaZLhRt54nbElrv.#=zRYIjuK1r3_lHBqT1kg==(String #=zS79KCJI=, List`1 #=zKfZxXi7G3Ue6, Boolean #=zz0YvDMw=)
   at #=zpF23B$r3siZ2C7dWzjXQ85FymCVm.#=zo2LrymA=.#=zDBl3p$o=(ApplicationCommand #=zWfl$KZ0=, Object #=z9HdBsKc=, IList`1 #=zekChE4M=)
   at #=zqwC44R6XRCSaGzIVVMmYK4c=.OnClick(EventArgs #=zS9VYR_E=)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEventInteractive(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEvent(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripDropDown.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

13
Many thanks!  I will certainly try other settings; a Jazz selection with similarity = 25% gave me only the starter artist!  I really appreciate your clarity and patience with this newbie!

14
   You may find this hard to believe, but I've never used last.fm and am completely unfamiliar with it!  So no, I haven't clicked that box so far, as I was concerned that Auto-DJ would pick up tracks from last.fm's universal library, which isn't what I was looking for.  However, after looking at it more closely (and if I understand it correctly) it looks like Auto-DJ will actually just use last.fm's "similarity engine" (to coin a phrase) to pick the next artist and track from my _own_ Library. 
   I just set Auto-DJ up to filter to Genre = Pop/Rock with artists at least 25% similar, and so far it seems to be doing what I need.  Do I have this right?

15
This is what presents when I click on Auto-DJ.  Are these the options you had in mind?
https://i.imgur.com/qeqB3FQ.jpg

Pages: 12