Author Topic: Locate Missing Files by Folder  (Read 3980 times)

ihavnoclue

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 50
I have sometimes renamed a folder containing an album when I realized that it was named incorrectly (containing a typo, etc), when Musicbee starts it will see that these files don't exist anymore, but there is no simple way to tell it to look in the new folder. Instead I have to locate the tracks one by one or delete them and readd the files, hoping I don't lose information. Is there or could there be a way to just locate the new folder containing all the tracks?

Pingaware

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1110
I've requested this before because I thought it made sense at the time. However, I found out that there's actually a way to use MB to fix file-naming errors like this without resorting to having to relocate each individual files. As no one told me, I'll tell you now.

If you've got to change the name of a folder, then the best thing to do is to select all the tracks that are in that folder in your library. Then you right click, go to Send To>Folder (Move) and select either Folder or Organised Folder. What this does is move all the files and delete the old empty folder at the end.

If you've got to change the name of a file, then select the track and hit shift and enter. If the track title or number differs from the file name, you can click on Rename at the top of the tag editor, and MB will rename the file for you.

Both of these processes preserve the references to the files in your library correctly. Hope that is all comprehensible and helpful!
Bold words in my posts are links unless expressly stated otherwise.

ihavnoclue

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 50
Thanks! Did not know about that first item, that will definitely be useful.

Zak

  • Global Moderator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2450
I have sometimes renamed a folder containing an album when I realized that it was named incorrectly (containing a typo, etc), when Musicbee starts it will see that these files don't exist anymore, but there is no simple way to tell it to look in the new folder. Instead I have to locate the tracks one by one or delete them and readd the files, hoping I don't lose information. Is there or could there be a way to just locate the new folder containing all the tracks?
It sounds like you're renaming the folder in Windows Explorer. You should rename the folder in the Computer node in the left-hand panel in MusicBee itself. This will automatically update the track locations in the MB database and also any playlists that refer to those files.
Bee excellent to each other...

Anti

  • Member
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 952
Is there any good reason why the OP doesn't have auto-organisation enabled?

Zak

  • Global Moderator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2450
Is there any good reason why the OP doesn't have auto-organisation enabled?
Here's three pages worth of good reasons:

http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=11172.0

Unless you have a consistent approach to naming all of your files, it isn't always suitable. I would never use it because I'd spend more time making sure my files were given the right name and correcting errors than just naming them myself in the first place.
Bee excellent to each other...