Author Topic: Portable MusicBee on two PCs  (Read 6979 times)

musimath

  • Guest
Hello. I use two notebooks. After installing MusicBee in one of them to manage my collection, which is included in several external drives, I noticed the existence of portable MusicBee, with the ability of being ran from an external drive. Then I installed it in an external drive and use it from there with my second PC. Must I uninstall MB from the first PC to use the portable version in this PC from the external drive? I am afraid of having some incompatibility. Thank you.

redwing

  • Guest
From v3.0, portable MB no longer looks at user appdata folder where standard MB installation stores settings, etc. Hence as long as you're using v3, no issue will arise. If you're using v2.5 or prior versions, I'd recommend using only portable version for each machine as there's a slight chance settings could mix up between standard and portable installation.

musimath

  • Guest
Is it possible to download and install portable MB version 3? The download page leads to version 2.5.5808, telling that "the beta version is under active development and is not the current stable version". And "Download is disabled for the beta version". Then?
I intend to use portable version in both machines, and asked for the convenience of uninstalling the already installed version 2.5. I ignore how to do this wiping off all traces of the former installation

redwing

  • Guest
Look at the first forum where v3.0 portable RC is available.

musimath

  • Guest
Thank you, redwing. Sorry, I don't understand: do you mean WAIT for the first forum where v3.0 portable RC is available? What is RC?


musimath

  • Guest
Hello redwing,
Let us see if I understand. I downloades and unzipped MusicBeePortable_3_0_RC1.zip, getting MusicBeePortable_3_0_RC1.exe. I also downloaded MusicBee3_Patched.zip, getting several additional files. I put all files in a folder in the external USB drive where I had MusicBee 2.5 portable. Should I simply run MusicBeePortable_3_0_RC1.exe from there? Must I do something with the MusicBee 2.5 already installed in this external drive?

redwing

  • Guest
Remove 2.5 completely first. And then run RC2.exe (didn't you see RC2 is the latest?) from any folder (don't copy RC2.exe file itself to your external drive). After installation is done, unzip MusicBee3_Patched.zip and overwrite those included files to RC2 folder you just installed.

Sooner or later when RC3 and/or official v3.0 is released, they will only different in skins and localization files. So you only need to update those files. And keep updated with a new MusicBee3_Patched.zip (from the same link) on almost daily basis as it's sort of a nightly build.
Last Edit: April 21, 2016, 07:24:09 PM by redwing

musimath

  • Guest
Thank you redwing. What about the Libraries? I had some hard work to put them in form...

musimath

  • Guest
How I remove MB2.5 "completely"? With Windows uninstall programs?

redwing

  • Guest
@Steven;

What's the recommended way of upgrading from v2.5 to v3 keeping settings and library files? Current instructions on the first post of the RC thread looks outdated and incomplete.

Steven

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it looks correct to me. As stated MB3 makes a copy of the 2.5 settings, so most settings will be carried across to v3 apart from the panel arrangement. The v2.5 remain untouched.
You wont lose any library files as part of the upgrade.
You can delete StartupSettings.ini and MusicBeeSettings.ini from the AppData folder if you have no intention of using v2.5 again but it wont hurt to leave them there

redwing

  • Guest
Thanks for the clarification! But what's not clear (including prior upgrades) is when the user wants to do a clean installation. What settings/library files should be kept and overwritten to the new installation? Would be helpful if you list those file on that first post.

Steven

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still not really understanding what information you are looking for.
If the user want to do a clean install then install MB to a new folder

redwing

  • Guest
When want to do a clean installation while keeping existing settings and library files (database, playlists, etc.)