Author Topic: Portable MusicBee on two PCs  (Read 6985 times)

Steven

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 34313
If you want to keep the existing settings and library files when just run the v3 portable installer, or if you prefer unzip the patch file zip and run MusicBee.exe which will upgrade the settings file.
But thats obvious, so i am still not sure what you are hoping i will say thats not already been said.
I really dont have time to read through this thread trying to figure out where you are coming from with this

musimath

  • Guest
Hi redwing and Steven. What I intend to do is to install MB3 PORTABLE in the same external USB Drive where I have my library. Now I have MB2.5 portable in a MusicBee folder in this drive. I ignore where is the library.

Speaker4thaDead

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 9
Hi redwing and Steven. What I intend to do is to install MB3 PORTABLE in the same external USB Drive where I have my library. Now I have MB2.5 portable in a MusicBee folder in this drive. I ignore where is the library.

Hi musimath, I don't know specifics about the portable version, but I did just recently update from MB2.5 to 3 and I sync across 2 different computers.  Unless for some reason the updater for portable works differently (I would be amazed if it did) you should be able to just update MB using the updater and all your preferences will stay the same, except for panel arrangements like Steven already said.  If you're worried about it just make a copy of your files, update, and see if your preferences are still there.

On another note, I don't know if this would work for you, but I just have my music files in a dropbox folder which automatically updates and have local installations of MusicBee on both computers.  One is the "main" computer where I change any settings or playlist information and I then periodically backup and update the other computer.  Tag changes can be done on either device that are saved to the music file itself.

musimath

  • Guest
Hi Speaker4thaDead. Thank you. Many things remain obscure for me. Where are the files? Say, for instance, the Library and preferences files, in installed and in portable versions. Which are these files? To backup them just in case some goes wrong.
Which is the file you call "the updater"? MusicBeePortable_3_0_RC2.exe?

Regarding the use of DropBox, I not always have Internet access, and I have many large high resolution flac files in my USB drive. I intend to use this external drive to run MB in any computer without needing to install the program.

psychoadept

  • Global Moderator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10691
Hi Speaker4thaDead. Thank you. Many things remain obscure for me. Where are the files? Say, for instance, the Library and preferences files, in installed and in portable versions. Which are these files? To backup them just in case some goes wrong.

This page may help you: http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Backup_%26_Restore
MusicBee Wiki
Use & improve MusicBee's documentation!

Latest beta patch (3.5)
(Unzip and overwrite existing program files)

Speaker4thaDead

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 9
The portable version should have all files in the same directory (that's why it's portable).  I don't know that much about it though, since I don't use it.

The normal version of MusicBee keeps files in 3 spots (I'm assuming windows here):

Settings in "C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Roaming\MusicBee"  (note that appdata is a hidden folder, an easy way to access it is to go to run and type "%appdata%")
Library in "C:\Users\<your username>\Music\MusicBeeLibrary"
Installation in "C:\Program Files\MusicBee" (it might be in Program Files (x86), I don't have mine installed in the default location so I'm not sure).

I'm guessing the portable version just keeps all 3 of these in the same spot, on your external drive.

musimath

  • Guest
I also thought that the portable version should have ALL files in the same directory, but I worked on the library yesterday (April 20) and the ONLY files in the external HD with this date are:
MusicBeeSettings.ini       79KB
StartupSettings.ini            1KB
Downloads.dat                  0KB
MusicBeeSettings.bak     79KB
DialogStateSettings.ini     1KB
ActivityLog.dat                 8KB
I doubt all information is there.

musimath

  • Guest
I opened with Notepad MusicBeeSettings.bak, one of the two "big" files in the list, and I found nothing related to the library.

boroda

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 4595
portable mb just stores all files from "C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Roaming\MusicBee" in "MusicBee\AppData" folder. it doesn't concern library file. library file should be stored in the same path on both computers (or you can switch libraries on different computers).

musimath

  • Guest
Thank you everybody. I will try to clarify the question.
Let me sumarize the situation: I have two PCs, say PC1 and PC2, both with Windows 8.1. In PC1 I installed MusicBee 2.5, and in an external USB drive MusicBee 2.5 Portable, to be used mainly with PC2.

In PC1, the program is installed in C:\MusicBee. There is a second MusicBee folder in:
C:\Users\GH\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\QuickLaunch\Music and Audio\Audio
There is not other MusicBee folder in PC1.

In the external USB drive MusicBee 2.5 is installed in F:\MusicBee, and there is no other MusicBee folder in F:

I have a quite large collection of albums in external USB drives, organized in folders and sub folders. After installing MusicBee in PC1 I realized that there exists a portable version, and I decided to install Portable MusicBee in the external drive(s), to use it mainly with PC2, but perhaps with both PCs. In both cases I begin to scan some (not all) of the folders in the external drive (there are many folders), and after that I have a considerable task puting in order many errors (duplicate albums, tracks which belong to album A that appear in album B, and so on). I think that many of these corrections are made in the individual file's tags, but some data must also be in some MusicBee file, because when I run MB only the Library containing the scanned folders appear. Say: when I run in PC1 the installed MB I find only the folders I scanned with this MB, but when I run (always in PC1) the portable MB I find only the folders I scanned with portable MB.
Which are these MB files and where are they?

THE PROBLEM: I want to install Portable MB3 in the external USB drive without losing the work done. Should I install it in the same MusicBee folder where I installed Portable MB2.5?

musimath

  • Guest
Hi everybody. Sorry for my dummy questions. I am the kind of people who reads the manual before connecting the stuff.
Finally I installed MB3 in F:\MusicBee3 and study the question directly. I got the answers I needed.
Thank you everybody!