Cache Location

[Speely]

I love the customization of this program, however I noticed that even though I installed it on my D: drive that all the cache for the album covers and other things are on my C: drive in the users folder.  Is there a way that I can change the location of the internal cache from the C: users folder to another drive as I don't like to congest my Op system drive.

Thanks

[boroda]

you can easily do this by installing (and of course using) portable mb. just for the record: uninstalling current mb won't delete any music or library files.

[Speely]

Thanks for the advice, was hoping that some code could be written to allow you to change the cache file location to another drive I am using this on a PC only.  I am not to worried about it as I am just giving this a trial run, however I am spending a lot of time on this program as I seem to like it better than I tunes because of the customization and the ability to clean up and modify my MP3 tags.  Hope the Software Program continues to thrive the programmer has done a great job with this.

[theta_wave]

1) Make sure that MB is not running
2) Move %AppData%\MusicBee\InternalCache to desired location
3) run cmd.exe as admin
4) cd C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\MusicBee
5) mklink /D .\InternalCache "desired_location_path"
6) Open file explorer to %AppData%\MusicBee
7) Right click InternalCache and it should show your desired location next to "Target:", or just double click InternalCache and you should see the files and directories there.

[Speely]

Perfect thanks, I mentioned it in the wishlist to add this option to avoid any problems when upgrading to newer verisons.

[boroda]

actually if you don't uninstall mb, but just upgrade, then you wont have any problems with symbolic links.

[tmprojection]

is there no option in MusicBee itself to change the internal cache? i have mine in dropbox and it constantly changes the MusicBeePortable_3_1\AppData\InternalCache

would be great to change it to a custom folder, im not a programmer so theta_wave explanation is a bit confusing to me haha

[frankz]

theta_wave's explanation is about as clear as it gets.  Those are the steps.  You're moving the data where you want it to be and then making a symbolic link from the location where MB thinks it is to the location where it actually is. 

There are guides with pictures for making symbolic links on the web if that would help, but if you type what theta_wave typed, substituting information from your system, it'll work just fine.

[tmprojection]

can i just get a clarification please?


4) cd C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\MusicBee
this changes the current location you a browsing correct?


5) mklink /D .\InternalCache "desired_location_path"
can you explain what this does?


i would like to move from this:
C:\Users\Tom\Dropbox\DropsyncFiles\music\MusicBeePortable_3_1\AppData\InternalCache


to say this:
C:\Users\Tom\Documents\MusicBee

[frankz]

You would follow theta_wave's steps 1-4 and then type

mklink /D .\InternalCache C:\Users\Tom\Documents\Musicbee

that creates the actual link (mklink means make link) from where MB thinks the files are to where they really are.  The "/D" tells it it's a directory and not a single file (the default).

Now, when you browse to

C:\Users\Tom\Dropbox\DropsyncFiles\music\MusicBeePortable_3_1\AppData\ in file explorer, you'll see that the "InternalCache" folder still appears but with a little arrow in the corner of the icon showing that the data isn't really there but in the new location.  If you click into the folder, you'll be taken to C:\Users\Tom\Documents\Musicbee.  But any programs that go looking for it at C:\Users\Tom\Dropbox\DropsyncFiles\music\MusicBeePortable_3_1\AppData\InternalCache will still be able to find it.

[tmprojection]

thats mental, so good, thanks so much

i assume that if that folder gets deleted or lost, it isnt a big deal and will get recached automatically correct?

[Pauly219]

I have upgraded to Windows 11 and a new SSD drive. The issue has arisen that the internal cache file is on the SSD and is taking up space. Following the steps above i attempted to move the cache to the D drive. However it has recreated itself on the C drive again when restarting MB.

Is there any other way to move the cache to another drive?

[frankz]

If it recreated itself on the C Drive, you didn't follow the steps.

The other way is to install MB portable to another drive so everything including the cache isn't on the C Drive.

[Pauly219]

Hi, thanks for the reply.
I did follow the steps exactly as above. When restarting musicbee it created 2 locations for the internal cache on the C drive.
One in AppData\roaming.. (which is where the target shows as D drive now as i required) but when restarting it created another in AppData\Local... for some reason.

Anyway, i've now installed the portable version.