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Questions / Re: How to backup/restore ('portable' installation)?
« on: March 31, 2024, 11:08:27 AM »
Sorry for the late reply. Thanks very much for that. The first link gave me all the information I needed.
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2
Questions / How to backup/restore ('portable' installation)?
« on: March 25, 2024, 02:37:00 PM »
Hi all. I recently installed MusicBee on my computer, using the 'portable' installation. I now want to carry out regular backups of my computer so that in case of catastrophe, I can quickly restore MusicBee in-full. Is there a guide to what files I need to backup, and how to eventually restore from these backup files?
To be clear, my MusicBee contains many of the following that I would like to be able to backup/restore:
* Individual songs (usually mp3 files).
* Various podcast subscriptions. Each subscription contains several podcast episodes. Each episode contains various pieces of metadata, e.g. rating value, grouping value, etc.
* Bookmarks.
Thanks in advance. Sorry if this has been asked before.
To be clear, my MusicBee contains many of the following that I would like to be able to backup/restore:
* Individual songs (usually mp3 files).
* Various podcast subscriptions. Each subscription contains several podcast episodes. Each episode contains various pieces of metadata, e.g. rating value, grouping value, etc.
* Bookmarks.
Thanks in advance. Sorry if this has been asked before.
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Questions / Re: How to migrate podcast eps to new computer if subscription link is unreachable?
« on: December 30, 2023, 01:19:22 PM »
Great thanks!
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Questions / Re: How to migrate podcast eps to new computer if subscription link is unreachable?
« on: December 30, 2023, 11:36:53 AM »
OK gotcha. Yes, there's no full start-to-finish automated way to migrate.
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Questions / Re: How to migrate podcast eps to new computer if subscription link is unreachable?
« on: December 30, 2023, 11:10:00 AM »
> doesn't matter if MB is portable or installer on computer-B. what matters is if absolute paths to podcast files are the same on A and B.
I carried out a test of each installation method on COMPTUER-B (installer or portable), and I experience a slight difference. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something though, or doing something wrong.
* Installer method: I copied the bookmarks.dat file from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B, opened MusicBee-->Bookmarks, and it displayed all 50 rows of bookmarks. For each, the link to the source podcast file was broken. To resolve that for a bookmark I could double click the bookmark, then make a few clicks to locate the new path to the podcast file. If I had to do this to migrate each of my 50 bookmarks, that would be fine.
* Portable method: I copied bookmarks.dat to COMPUTER-B, into the same folder that houses the MusicBee installation (in my case, %APPDATA%/Music\MusicBee). I then opened MusicBee-->Bookmarks, and there were zero bookmarks displayed. It seems like I cannot migrate any bookmarks at all. If so, I would have to manually re-make all 50 bookmarks on COMPUTER-B. I think that would be fine with me too though.
But maybe I've done something wrong with the Portable method.
I carried out a test of each installation method on COMPTUER-B (installer or portable), and I experience a slight difference. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something though, or doing something wrong.
* Installer method: I copied the bookmarks.dat file from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B, opened MusicBee-->Bookmarks, and it displayed all 50 rows of bookmarks. For each, the link to the source podcast file was broken. To resolve that for a bookmark I could double click the bookmark, then make a few clicks to locate the new path to the podcast file. If I had to do this to migrate each of my 50 bookmarks, that would be fine.
* Portable method: I copied bookmarks.dat to COMPUTER-B, into the same folder that houses the MusicBee installation (in my case, %APPDATA%/Music\MusicBee). I then opened MusicBee-->Bookmarks, and there were zero bookmarks displayed. It seems like I cannot migrate any bookmarks at all. If so, I would have to manually re-make all 50 bookmarks on COMPUTER-B. I think that would be fine with me too though.
But maybe I've done something wrong with the Portable method.
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Questions / Re: How to migrate podcast eps to new computer if subscription link is unreachable?
« on: December 30, 2023, 10:52:40 AM »
Thanks for all that. Let me just be sure I'm understanding.
> So, for the time being, I haven't got any automated solution to propose for the bookmarks.
So if MusicBee on COMPUTER-B is installed using the portable version, there is no way to migrate the bookmarks from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B. The only option would be to manually re-make each bookmark on COMPUTER-B. Am I understanding correctly? I'm not trying to complain or be snarky--just want to make sure I'm understanding before taking the next step :-)
In my case, I have ~50 bookmarks. Manually re-making them wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Alternatively, using the installed version on COMPUTER-B instead of the portable version could be viable as well. So I have options that work for me. Thanks for your help!
> So, for the time being, I haven't got any automated solution to propose for the bookmarks.
So if MusicBee on COMPUTER-B is installed using the portable version, there is no way to migrate the bookmarks from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B. The only option would be to manually re-make each bookmark on COMPUTER-B. Am I understanding correctly? I'm not trying to complain or be snarky--just want to make sure I'm understanding before taking the next step :-)
In my case, I have ~50 bookmarks. Manually re-making them wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Alternatively, using the installed version on COMPUTER-B instead of the portable version could be viable as well. So I have options that work for me. Thanks for your help!
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Questions / Re: How to migrate podcast eps to new computer if subscription link is unreachable?
« on: December 30, 2023, 05:14:45 AM »
OK thanks. That should be enough for me to get started.
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Questions / Re: How to migrate podcast eps to new computer if subscription link is unreachable?
« on: December 30, 2023, 03:36:10 AM »
Great thanks. I will try to do this using the portable installation then. Is there a guide/tutorial to migrating my muisc/podcasts from an Installer installation to a Portable installation (on a different computer)? I don't immediately see in the support section.
Earlier someone mentioned,
> That's a very difficult question which was supposed to have one simple answer (to copy the old folders to the same path on the new machine).
In my case, the new computer (with the Portable installation) will not have the same folder path as the old computer (i.e. the one with the Installer installation).
Earlier someone mentioned,
> That's a very difficult question which was supposed to have one simple answer (to copy the old folders to the same path on the new machine).
In my case, the new computer (with the Portable installation) will not have the same folder path as the old computer (i.e. the one with the Installer installation).
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Questions / Re: How to migrate podcast eps to new computer if subscription link is unreachable?
« on: December 30, 2023, 02:40:43 AM »
OK thanks to both. I didn't realize that the portable version could be a viable option for me in this case. From the name I guess I assumed it was for a use case other than mine. So let me pause here and look into the option of going that route.
So there are only two installation options: the installed version and portable version. And the difference between the two is only in how the files are installed--there is now difference in the features available to me as an end user, or how those features are used. Am I understanding that correctly?
As a fall back, it sounds like the approach offered by @tjinc, which installs the podcast episodes to the 'Unknown Subscription' folder, could be viable.
So there are only two installation options: the installed version and portable version. And the difference between the two is only in how the files are installed--there is now difference in the features available to me as an end user, or how those features are used. Am I understanding that correctly?
As a fall back, it sounds like the approach offered by @tjinc, which installs the podcast episodes to the 'Unknown Subscription' folder, could be viable.
10
Questions / How to migrate podcast eps to new computer if subscription link is unreachable?
« on: December 26, 2023, 09:30:37 AM »
TL;DR How do I migrate podcast episodes from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B, if the RSS URL of the subscription is no longer reachable?
Hi all. To give some background, years ago I installed MusicBee on COMPUTER-A. At that time I added several different podcast subscriptions, using their RSS URLs. Over the years I downloaded new episodes into MusicBee, and added meta data to them (star ratings, grouping values, etc). Eventually the subscription for one stopped (call it PODCAST-A), i.e. the maintainers stopped adding new episodes and the RSS URL eventually became unreachable. But in MusicBee, the subscription remained visible and the episodes I downloaded remained playable.
My question: On COMPUTER-B I have now installed MusicBee fresh. Apart from PODCAST-A, I plan to migrate the podcast episodes by first creating the subscription on COMPUTER-B, then copying and pasting episodes from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B. But what are my options towards migrating the episodes from PODCAST-A (and their meta data)? When I try to create a new podcast subscription in MusicBee on COMPUTER-B, it fails, saying the URL is unreachable.
Thanks in advance.
Hi all. To give some background, years ago I installed MusicBee on COMPUTER-A. At that time I added several different podcast subscriptions, using their RSS URLs. Over the years I downloaded new episodes into MusicBee, and added meta data to them (star ratings, grouping values, etc). Eventually the subscription for one stopped (call it PODCAST-A), i.e. the maintainers stopped adding new episodes and the RSS URL eventually became unreachable. But in MusicBee, the subscription remained visible and the episodes I downloaded remained playable.
My question: On COMPUTER-B I have now installed MusicBee fresh. Apart from PODCAST-A, I plan to migrate the podcast episodes by first creating the subscription on COMPUTER-B, then copying and pasting episodes from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B. But what are my options towards migrating the episodes from PODCAST-A (and their meta data)? When I try to create a new podcast subscription in MusicBee on COMPUTER-B, it fails, saying the URL is unreachable.
Thanks in advance.
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Questions / Re: How to migrate bookmarks from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B?
« on: December 24, 2023, 01:36:26 AM »
>> There, try replacing:
>> (your user profile path)\Music\MusicBee\Podcasts
>> by:
>> D:\cag\media\music\Podcasts\
OK thanks for that. So is that to say, at some point in the past, on COMPUTER-A, I must have carried out such a chnage of folders? Is there any actual record that I did this, or a field in the MusicBee preferences that indicates this folder was been changed? On COMPUTER-A I don't see that anywhere. Just curious for the future.
>> if you have a D: drive on computer B, of course
GOOD CATCH :-D In this case, I actually don't have a D drive on COMPUTER-B--I hadn't noticed until now. And I don't know if creating one for this purpose would be worth it in this case. So in light of that, I think I"ll probably just stick to the manual steps required when migrating bookmarks. But it was a good learning exercise, and I'm glad I have a viable solution. Thanks very much for your help there.
>> (your user profile path)\Music\MusicBee\Podcasts
>> by:
>> D:\cag\media\music\Podcasts\
OK thanks for that. So is that to say, at some point in the past, on COMPUTER-A, I must have carried out such a chnage of folders? Is there any actual record that I did this, or a field in the MusicBee preferences that indicates this folder was been changed? On COMPUTER-A I don't see that anywhere. Just curious for the future.
>> if you have a D: drive on computer B, of course
GOOD CATCH :-D In this case, I actually don't have a D drive on COMPUTER-B--I hadn't noticed until now. And I don't know if creating one for this purpose would be worth it in this case. So in light of that, I think I"ll probably just stick to the manual steps required when migrating bookmarks. But it was a good learning exercise, and I'm glad I have a viable solution. Thanks very much for your help there.
12
Questions / Re: How to migrate bookmarks from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B?
« on: December 23, 2023, 11:52:53 AM »
Thanks for the reply.
> The first thing that comes to my mind: is the path to your Podcast folder exactly the same on both machines?
No it's not. Let me try to run some tests to see if ensuring the same folder structure will help alleviate this issue.
But on that note, can I ask a related question about that process?
On COMPUTER-A I have several different podcast subscriptions. Each different subscription has a sub-folder in a folder named Podcasts, and as you saw this folder is in a custom location: D:\cag\media\music\Podcasts\ When I add a new podcast, a new sub-folder is automatically created in this Podcasts folder. How can I reproduce this behavior on COMPUTER-B? On COMPUTER-B, new podcasts are added to %USERPROFILE%\Music\MusicBee\Podcasts.
Here is what I've checked:
* On COMPUTER-A, none of the podcast subscriptions have the option 'override default folder for downloaded podcast files' ticked. So somehow I convinced MusicBee that this custom location was the default folder for new podcasts.
* On COMPUTER-A, in Preferencess-->Library-->Monitored Folders there is one path: D:\cag\media\music\ I ensured this was also done on COMPUTER-B. But after, new podcasts were still added to only %USERPROFILE%\Music\MusicBee\Podcasts.
> The first thing that comes to my mind: is the path to your Podcast folder exactly the same on both machines?
No it's not. Let me try to run some tests to see if ensuring the same folder structure will help alleviate this issue.
But on that note, can I ask a related question about that process?
On COMPUTER-A I have several different podcast subscriptions. Each different subscription has a sub-folder in a folder named Podcasts, and as you saw this folder is in a custom location: D:\cag\media\music\Podcasts\ When I add a new podcast, a new sub-folder is automatically created in this Podcasts folder. How can I reproduce this behavior on COMPUTER-B? On COMPUTER-B, new podcasts are added to %USERPROFILE%\Music\MusicBee\Podcasts.
Here is what I've checked:
* On COMPUTER-A, none of the podcast subscriptions have the option 'override default folder for downloaded podcast files' ticked. So somehow I convinced MusicBee that this custom location was the default folder for new podcasts.
* On COMPUTER-A, in Preferencess-->Library-->Monitored Folders there is one path: D:\cag\media\music\ I ensured this was also done on COMPUTER-B. But after, new podcasts were still added to only %USERPROFILE%\Music\MusicBee\Podcasts.
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Questions / Re: How to migrate bookmarks from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B?
« on: December 23, 2023, 02:00:50 AM »
Thanks very much to both of you. @karbock I've given your instructions a try for one single bookmark. I was able to accomplish what I want, thanks very much. That should be sufficient for me.
In case you're curious though, in my exercise, after I carried out the migration steps, I still had to carry out some manual steps before I could play the bookmark on COMPUTER-B. I'll describe below.
Issue: Note that on COMPUTER-A I have ~50 bookmarks created from different podcast episodes. After I copied one podcast episode and bookmarks.dat to COMPUTER-A, I then opened the Bookmarks tab in MusicBee on COMPUTER-B. There were ~50 rows, just as on COMPUTER-A--which is expected. But in every row, the value in the following columns was blank: Artist, Title, Album, Commen--only an exclamation point icon was displayed in the far left column . Those values are not blank in COMPUTER-A MusicBee. Luckily the values int he Start and End columns were displayed correctly, which allowed me to correlate a row to its correct podcast episode (see screenshot here). This is expected for most, since currently, all rows except one correspond to bookmarks created from podcast episodes I have not yet migrated to COMPUTER-B. But this was also the case for the bookmark attached to the podcast episode I had already migrated to COMPUTER-B.
Resolution: To resolve this, using the Start/End values, I located the row containing my desired podcast, then double click it. MusicBee then said it could not locate the source file and asked me to locate it (screenshot). Once I did that, the row then displayed all the missing column values. I could then double click the row to play tthe bookmark. Of note though, at that point, the values in the Start/End columns stopped displaying. When I re-started MusicBee, they returned.
I'm not telling you that as a demand that you fix it. I can and will move forward with the steps you've given me. I'm telling you about this issue because you sound like you might be a developer, or someone else interested in knowing about this behavior.
Thanks very much for the help from both of you.
In case you're curious though, in my exercise, after I carried out the migration steps, I still had to carry out some manual steps before I could play the bookmark on COMPUTER-B. I'll describe below.
Issue: Note that on COMPUTER-A I have ~50 bookmarks created from different podcast episodes. After I copied one podcast episode and bookmarks.dat to COMPUTER-A, I then opened the Bookmarks tab in MusicBee on COMPUTER-B. There were ~50 rows, just as on COMPUTER-A--which is expected. But in every row, the value in the following columns was blank: Artist, Title, Album, Commen--only an exclamation point icon was displayed in the far left column . Those values are not blank in COMPUTER-A MusicBee. Luckily the values int he Start and End columns were displayed correctly, which allowed me to correlate a row to its correct podcast episode (see screenshot here). This is expected for most, since currently, all rows except one correspond to bookmarks created from podcast episodes I have not yet migrated to COMPUTER-B. But this was also the case for the bookmark attached to the podcast episode I had already migrated to COMPUTER-B.
Resolution: To resolve this, using the Start/End values, I located the row containing my desired podcast, then double click it. MusicBee then said it could not locate the source file and asked me to locate it (screenshot). Once I did that, the row then displayed all the missing column values. I could then double click the row to play tthe bookmark. Of note though, at that point, the values in the Start/End columns stopped displaying. When I re-started MusicBee, they returned.
I'm not telling you that as a demand that you fix it. I can and will move forward with the steps you've given me. I'm telling you about this issue because you sound like you might be a developer, or someone else interested in knowing about this behavior.
Thanks very much for the help from both of you.
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Questions / Re: How to migrate bookmarks from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B?
« on: December 22, 2023, 03:01:20 PM »
Hi @karbock,
Thanks very much for the reply. I had a look at that post. I still have a few questions if you don't mind.
To describe my situation, I have MusicBee installed on COMPUTER-A, with podcasts and bookmarks. I have now installed MusicBee fresh on COMPUTER-B, and have not copied any files from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B. When I open MusicBee on COMPUTER-B there is absolutely nothing to play right now--it is completely blank.
At this point, are the instructions saying I can simply copy the bookmarks index (i.e. %APPDATA%\MusicBee\bookmarks.dat) from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B, and after the bookmarks will immediately become available for play on COMPUTER-B?
To remind you, these bookmarks were all created from podcast episodes that are also in MusicBee on COMPUTER-A. Does that mean the podcast episodes need to first be added to MusicBee on COMPUTER-B? Or are there even more steps that need to be taken before I can play the bookmarks on COMPUTER-B?
Thanks! :-)
Thanks very much for the reply. I had a look at that post. I still have a few questions if you don't mind.
To describe my situation, I have MusicBee installed on COMPUTER-A, with podcasts and bookmarks. I have now installed MusicBee fresh on COMPUTER-B, and have not copied any files from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B. When I open MusicBee on COMPUTER-B there is absolutely nothing to play right now--it is completely blank.
At this point, are the instructions saying I can simply copy the bookmarks index (i.e. %APPDATA%\MusicBee\bookmarks.dat) from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B, and after the bookmarks will immediately become available for play on COMPUTER-B?
To remind you, these bookmarks were all created from podcast episodes that are also in MusicBee on COMPUTER-A. Does that mean the podcast episodes need to first be added to MusicBee on COMPUTER-B? Or are there even more steps that need to be taken before I can play the bookmarks on COMPUTER-B?
Thanks! :-)
15
Questions / How to migrate bookmarks from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B?
« on: December 21, 2023, 11:23:00 AM »
Hi all. I have two Windows computers. On COMPUTER-A I've added many podcasts, and from several I've created several bookmarks which I can view/play from the MusicBee bookmarks tab (screenshot). On COMPUTER-B I have installed MusicBee fresh. It contains no music, podcasts, or bookmarks. What are my options for migrating the MusicBee bookmarks from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B?
In this case, my plan to migrate the podcasts from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B is to carry out a more manual migration. I don't plan to migrate by backing up MusicBee on COMPUTER-A and restoring to COMPUTER-B. I tried that a few months ago and there were many prohibitive issues, so I'm planning to migrate the podcasts by simply copying the files from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B, then adding them to the correct folder on COMPUTER-B so MusicBee recognizes them.
Thanks in advance.
In this case, my plan to migrate the podcasts from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B is to carry out a more manual migration. I don't plan to migrate by backing up MusicBee on COMPUTER-A and restoring to COMPUTER-B. I tried that a few months ago and there were many prohibitive issues, so I'm planning to migrate the podcasts by simply copying the files from COMPUTER-A to COMPUTER-B, then adding them to the correct folder on COMPUTER-B so MusicBee recognizes them.
Thanks in advance.