Author Topic: Help identifying missing files  (Read 8639 times)

tstenz

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The other day I noticed that a few files from my library were missing. There didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to which files those were, so I created a new library with the same source folder and it turns out I'm missing 0.6 GB worth of files. I then tried to figure out some way to get MB to identify which files in my initial library could not be played (which is theoretically 0.6 GB worth), but I must have messed up with the Remap Music Folders tool because now I can't play anything from my initial library. The new library, with the exception of being short the missing files, works fine. That doesn't really make sense to me because the current path given by Remap Music Folders is identical between the two libraries.

I guess my questions are these, in order of importance:

1) Is there a way to compare libraries so I can identify which files are not in my newly created library?
2) How can I see what file path MB is using to look for a given file in my library? And if I can fix that, is there an alternate way I can answer question 1 by identifying which files cannot be found in my initial library?
3) Does anyone have any idea what could have caused some of my files to apparently disappear? Like I said, the few I've identified already don't make sense. I have a 40+ track album that is all different artists entirely missing, except for a single song that is there. I hadn't been messing around with reorganization until I noticed this issue.

Thanks!
Last Edit: December 21, 2017, 04:04:27 PM by tstenz

redwing

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One thing you could try is go to library settings and tick export iTunes formatted xml file.
Do that for both libraries and then compare the two xml files.
If you search with title/artist tag in those xml files, it will also answer your question #2.
Then you might have a better idea about what happened.

tstenz

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I'm not sure I understand; compare the two XML files how?

redwing

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I'm not sure I understand; compare the two XML files how?

I don't know but I would search it first what works best in your situation.

tstenz

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Based on the size of the library, I'm not sure any sort of manual comparison is feasible.

If there's no simpler way to compare libraries, is there something that can identify which tracks cannot be played from my initial library without me having to play them all individually and record which ones have a problem? That would require me to fix whatever mapping issue that entire library currently has, but it seems doable.

frankz

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Maybe something like this Online comparison tool:
https://www.corefiling.com/opensource/xmldiff/

Or this software:
https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/versions/19.1/ug-editor/topics/file-comparison.html

Would help? (I've never used either of these and cannot recommend them specifically, but I have used similar packages in the past to find differences between two files)

It still won't be easy.  Once it goes off the rails on one file, everything below will be different, so you'd have to cut the line (missing file) from the "good" document and paste it to a new document ("missing files") to sync them up again, and then go searching for the next instance of a difference and then repeat.  But it may work for you.
Last Edit: December 21, 2017, 05:22:35 PM by frankz

tstenz

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OK, I guess that's better than whatever current method I have available.

How about this: how can I figure out where my library is pointing and why it can't locate any of the files that aren't missing?

frankz

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Not sure what you're asking here.  If you right click on an entry in the library and select the "Properties" tab, it should tell you where it thinks the file should be.

Have you exported your library as XML as suggested earlier? If you export to an XML file, it should give an absolute path for each file according to the data in the library.  If there's something glaringly wrong with the mapping, that would probably be the easiest way to catch it.

tstenz

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OK, thanks.

So remapping the folder apparently requires the files to have the exact same folder structure because it keeps adding folders to wherever I point it. Is there another way to locate the correct directory?

frankz

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Remapping doesn't do anything to any folders within your file system, adding removing or otherwise.  It tells MusicBee to look in a different place for your files than the place listed in the library for them. 

For example, if you had all of your music files in D:\Music and established a library and then you wholesale moved all of your music files to F:\Music\Transferred, you would remap D:\Music to F:\Music\Transferred.  It works like a whole-library path text substitution.  It doesn't alter anything.

tstenz

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I don't mean it's physically adding folders, I mean it's adding folders to the file path.

I originally imported my library from iTunes, so the file path was roughly C:\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media. I moved all files to C:\Music\MusicBee and remapped my library to that location (and the correct path shows in the Remap window now), but MusicBee is expecting to see those files at C:\Music\MusicBee\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media, and that folder has never existed in that location.

frankz

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Are you typing the remapping or selecting it using the [...] button? I'd try using the [...] to select the new path.  I remember it being quirky in some way. 

How far out from all of this importing, etc are you time-wise?  Is it possible to open the XML that iTunes exported (the one that you originally used to import into Musicbee) in a text editor, search and replace the old path for the new path right in that XML file, and then reimport the modified XML with the correct paths as a totally new, clean library?  You could avoid all the remapping weirdness that way.

Of course, if you've made a lot of changes since then that's not a great solution.

redwing

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I originally imported my library from iTunes, so the file path was roughly C:\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media. I moved all files to C:\Music\MusicBee and remapped my library to that location (and the correct path shows in the Remap window now), but MusicBee is expecting to see those files at C:\Music\MusicBee\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media, and that folder has never existed in that location.

If you add Path column to the main panel, does it show "C:\Music\MusicBee\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\" for all files?
Then try remapping music files from "C:\Music\MusicBee\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\" to "C:\Music\MusicBee\" (without quote).

frankz

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Ah! Another thing you can do is to export your current MusicBee library as an XML file (Edit->Preferences->Library and check "export the library as an iTunes formatted XML File") and then close MB, edit that XML file in a text editor to correct the path, and then import that corrected file as a new clean library.  That will catch changes you made since you left iTunes.

That's if you want to completely avoid the remapping weirdness.
Last Edit: December 22, 2017, 07:27:30 PM by frankz

tstenz

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If you add Path column to the main panel, does it show "C:\Music\MusicBee\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\" for all files?

How is this done?