Show Posts
1
Bug Reports / Moving New Playlist to Subfolder Changes Media File Path within Playlist
« on: May 26, 2020, 10:32:35 PM »
I posted on this last year, but the thread kind of fizzled. I just upgraded to 3.3.767 P and I'm still experiencing the same issue, so I'm gonna try again. I will be as specific and articulate as possible.
I have MusicBee portable installed on a network drive, so I can run it from various computers, and other than this particular issue with playlists, it works flawlessly. It took me a while to get all the preferences set up so making changes from any computer (any running instance of MusicBee) correctly updates the database in such a way that nothing breaks (i.e. MusicBee still runs correctly no matter which computer I run it from). All the media paths start from the network source (\\NETWORK\music) and function identically no matter which computer I run MusicBee from.
For the explanation of the issue, I'm going to start with my file structure...
All my music is within a folder on the NAS called "music".
Within the "music" directory I have a directory called "_UTILITY".
Within "_UTILITY" is a directory called "MusicBee".
Within the "MusicBee" folder is a directory called "PORTABLE". This is where MusicBee portable lives on my NAS (and where I run any MusicBee Portable update executables), and where I always run MusicBee from, no matter which computer I'm using.
I also have a directory called "PLAYLISTS" set up to hold all my playlists in "\\NETWORK\music\PLAYLISTS".
I have my media catalog set up for ease of syncing with various devices (and also ease of shuffling within certain categories), thus I have various PLAYLIST FOLDERS set up within MusicBee: Single Artists, Single Albums, Lounge Music, Classical, Jazz, etc.
When you create a playlist within MusicBee, you can only create a NEW playlist at the top of the Playlist Folder hierarchy. In other words, when you select a bunch of songs and then right-click and select "Add To Playlist," you are given the option to add to the sub-folders and the playlists within those sub-folders, but <New Playlist> is not an option within the sub-folders. Thus, any new list, no matter which Playlist Folder it's going to end up in, must be created in the "top" Playlist Folder.
When you create the playlist, the file structure of all the songs is correct.
However, when you drag and drop the folder into its appropriate Playlist Folder (i.e. Single Album), the media file path changes to include "Playlist" in the file path.
So, when the playlist is created, MusicBee access the media file via:
"\\NETWORK\music\Beck\Mellow Gold\08 Beercan.flac"
But when I drag that playlist into the Playlist Folder called Single Albums, the file path of the media in the playlist changes to:
"\\NETWORK\music\PLAYLISTS\Beck\Mellow Gold\08 Beercan.flac"
Obviously that's not where the media lives, and I don't know why PLAYLISTS is being added to the file path.
This happens regardless of whether or not "use relative file paths" is ticked in Preferences>Library>Playlists.
This has been a nuisance for more than a year. The work around is to simply use the Tools>Locate Missing Files location once I move the Playlist to it's appropriate Playlist folder, but obviously that's a real pain in the keester to have to re-associate all the media files every time you create a playlist.
After some time, I realized I could create a new (empty) playlist in a sub-folder(right-click a Playlist Subfolder, select "New>New Playlist"), then send songs from the library there (into an already created sub-folder playlist), but this is still a work around and requires settings up the empty playlist manually before placing songs in it vs. being able to just create a new playlist on the fly from selected songs in the library.
Hopefully I have been clear in relaying this issue, and hopefully there is a solution to be found, because other than this, MusicBee Portable has been a great solution to being able to play music from a Network Source via any computer I'm using (and MusicBee Portable is the only player I've been able to successfully configure in this way --and I've tried quite a few!).
Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer.
...
I have MusicBee portable installed on a network drive, so I can run it from various computers, and other than this particular issue with playlists, it works flawlessly. It took me a while to get all the preferences set up so making changes from any computer (any running instance of MusicBee) correctly updates the database in such a way that nothing breaks (i.e. MusicBee still runs correctly no matter which computer I run it from). All the media paths start from the network source (\\NETWORK\music) and function identically no matter which computer I run MusicBee from.
For the explanation of the issue, I'm going to start with my file structure...
All my music is within a folder on the NAS called "music".
Within the "music" directory I have a directory called "_UTILITY".
Within "_UTILITY" is a directory called "MusicBee".
Within the "MusicBee" folder is a directory called "PORTABLE". This is where MusicBee portable lives on my NAS (and where I run any MusicBee Portable update executables), and where I always run MusicBee from, no matter which computer I'm using.
I also have a directory called "PLAYLISTS" set up to hold all my playlists in "\\NETWORK\music\PLAYLISTS".
I have my media catalog set up for ease of syncing with various devices (and also ease of shuffling within certain categories), thus I have various PLAYLIST FOLDERS set up within MusicBee: Single Artists, Single Albums, Lounge Music, Classical, Jazz, etc.
When you create a playlist within MusicBee, you can only create a NEW playlist at the top of the Playlist Folder hierarchy. In other words, when you select a bunch of songs and then right-click and select "Add To Playlist," you are given the option to add to the sub-folders and the playlists within those sub-folders, but <New Playlist> is not an option within the sub-folders. Thus, any new list, no matter which Playlist Folder it's going to end up in, must be created in the "top" Playlist Folder.
When you create the playlist, the file structure of all the songs is correct.
However, when you drag and drop the folder into its appropriate Playlist Folder (i.e. Single Album), the media file path changes to include "Playlist" in the file path.
So, when the playlist is created, MusicBee access the media file via:
"\\NETWORK\music\Beck\Mellow Gold\08 Beercan.flac"
But when I drag that playlist into the Playlist Folder called Single Albums, the file path of the media in the playlist changes to:
"\\NETWORK\music\PLAYLISTS\Beck\Mellow Gold\08 Beercan.flac"
Obviously that's not where the media lives, and I don't know why PLAYLISTS is being added to the file path.
This happens regardless of whether or not "use relative file paths" is ticked in Preferences>Library>Playlists.
This has been a nuisance for more than a year. The work around is to simply use the Tools>Locate Missing Files location once I move the Playlist to it's appropriate Playlist folder, but obviously that's a real pain in the keester to have to re-associate all the media files every time you create a playlist.
After some time, I realized I could create a new (empty) playlist in a sub-folder(right-click a Playlist Subfolder, select "New>New Playlist"), then send songs from the library there (into an already created sub-folder playlist), but this is still a work around and requires settings up the empty playlist manually before placing songs in it vs. being able to just create a new playlist on the fly from selected songs in the library.
Hopefully I have been clear in relaying this issue, and hopefully there is a solution to be found, because other than this, MusicBee Portable has been a great solution to being able to play music from a Network Source via any computer I'm using (and MusicBee Portable is the only player I've been able to successfully configure in this way --and I've tried quite a few!).
Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer.
...