Author Topic: Behaviour when removing a folder from a library  (Read 6729 times)

vivadavid

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Hello everybody,

When you remove a folder from the list of folders that are part of your library, MB interprets that you want to keep having access to all the music contained in this folder; it also interprets, at the same time (which, in my opinion, it’s contradictory), that you simply don’t want MB to update the files contained in this folder.

I’d like to suggest another behaviour: when you remove a folder from the list of folders of your library, MB could interpret that you simply don’t want any music in this folder to be displayed in your library: otherwise, you’d just keep the folder in the list in order to keep it updated.

Please support this request! :-)

psychoadept

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-1.  I think it would cause a lot of confusion.

Perhaps if there were a way to select a folder in Computer view and tell MusicBee to remove its contents from the library?
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Xyzzy

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On one hand, the requested behaviour is the most common (if not the only one) across applications I've come across.
On the other hand, current MB behaviour is OK, once you have learnt it.

I'd say - leave as it is now.

vivadavid

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Hi,

I can see some people have doubts about my request. However, the way I see it, there are basically two behaviours to be taken into account:

1. You want to keep the music from one folder, and of course, you want to keep it updated in case there are future changes, so you leave the folder in the list.
2. You don't want to keep the music from one folder, so you remove the folder from the list and MB doesn't display the contents any more.

Is there a third option whereby you remove one folder because you are absolutely sure you don't want to update the contents any more but, at the same, you want this music to be displayed in the library?

What do you think?

psychoadept

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Which "list of folders" are we talking about?  Monitored folders?  Rescan/Add Files?
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vivadavid

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I'm referring to the list of folders in Rescan/Add Files, but, to be honest, I never fully understood why, if I click on Preferences ==> Library, there's a feature called Monitored Folders. In my case, it's empty.

When I want to update my library, I just click on Rescan and that's all, so there's nothing I really want to monitor.

Bee-liever

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When I want to update my library, I just click on Rescan and that's all, so there's nothing I really want to monitor.

The monitored folders feature is designed to automate that. When you add or update files, they can be automatically added to your library or, sent to the Inbox where you can check all the tag information before adding them to the library
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vivadavid

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I see: thanks for the information! If you have multiple libraries, how do you connect the monitored folder to one of them in particular?

Bee-liever

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each library maintains its own monitored folders settings
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vivadavid

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You're right: I've set a folder for my first library, I've switchd to the other library and the folder wasn't there any more.

In any case, I'd like to know more opinions about my wishlist suggestion.

Zak

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I’d like to suggest another behaviour: when you remove a folder from the list of folders of your library, MB could interpret that you simply don’t want any music in this folder to be displayed in your library: otherwise, you’d just keep the folder in the list in order to keep it updated.
I've been using MusicBee for two years and I actually thought it already worked this way! (but my music has always had the same root folder)

If it were to be changed, you also need to consider which "list" of folders constitutes your library? The "Monitored folders" in the Library preferences is the most logical to me, but you've since stated you never use that. "Rescan/Add files" implies more of a one-off manual update.
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Anti

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> When you remove a folder from the list of folders that are part of your library.
> when you remove a folder from the list of folders of your library.

Your perspective is fundamentally wrong in my opinion!

There is no 'list of folders that are part of your library'. The two tools, 'Rescan/Add files' and 'Monitored folders' are not intended to provide some sort of synchronised relationship between the musicbee database and the Windows file structure. Having to manually maintain a permanent, accurate 'list of folders that are part of your library' negates the whole point of using a database! And trying to use the Rescan dialogue for such a list is, without meaning to be rude, unfathomable.

When you place a path in those tools, you're just saying to musicbee 'Hey, take a look in there for new files will you'. And when you remove a path, you're saying 'Hey, don't look for new files in there today, thanks'.

I literally have no idea why you'd want to go to the trouble of manually maintaining an accurate list of file locations, just so you could occasionally be able to untick a checkbox to perform what is essentially a 'batch-delete by folder' operation.

I'd much rather just use the main interface's multitude of filters, sorts and searches to isolate the file references I want to dismiss from the database. For example, if I wanted to delete all file references within the location: E:\Music, then I would:

· click search icon -> other fields -> URL (which doubles as the local path)
· type e:\music (or a partial match for the location you want to dismiss from the database)
· ctrl-A to select the results
· delete -> choose 'database only' or 'database and computer'

Just out of interest, how many 'locations' do you actually have listed in your 'Rescan' tool?
How often do you need to dismiss a folder/location from your database?

vivadavid

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Hello,

I have two locations listed in my main library and I only remove a folder when I need to do something in particular. I just think that removing a folder from the list should tell MB that the you don't want those albums to be listed in the library any more. Otherwise, I can't think of a reason to remove the folder from the list.

I'm not trying to convince you, though, as you seem to have very strong opinions about it. It looks like people don't agree with me, so I accept it.

Zak

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...I only remove a folder when I need to do something in particular.
Such as?

There's probably another way to achieve the desired result.
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