Duplicates & .asx files

[Blinghound]

Hello all,

I am slightly confused about the redirecting aspect of the .asx files option in the duplicates manager.

For example, if I have 3 identical songs from compilation/EPs/studio albums, and I use the duplicate manager to replace 2 of the 3 songs with .asx songs, when I play any of the 3 songs, do the playcounts get added up together, or do they virtually remain seperate tracks in the library only sharing the same audio file?

Thanks in advance

[Steven]

each file will be treated as an individual file in terms of tags and playcount - the asx files that replace the duplicates act like they are the original file, except for pointing to the remaining physical file for playback.

[Enrique]

Hi!

Please, how does MB decide which files are going to stay and which ones are to be converted to ASX files?

I guessed bitrate, but it doesn´t always match.

Thank you

[redwing]

I think it follows lossless > lossy, m4a > mp3, high > low bitrate for same type order.

[Enrique]

Thank you redwing.

My guess was that it worked the way you describe. Unfortunately is doesn't, I was replacing some Beatles songs for their 24bit version (higher bitrate) and it worked exactly the opposite way. It was staying with the lower bitrate song and replacing the 24bit flac file for a asx file.

[redwing]

My guess was that it worked the way you describe. Unfortunately is doesn't, I was replacing some Beatles songs for their 24bit version (higher bitrate) and it worked exactly the opposite way. It was staying with the lower bitrate song and replacing the 24bit flac file for a asx file.

And what type was the other one? I just tried with 24bit flac and a lower bitrate flac file, and it worked fine.

[Enrique]

The other one was a standard rip from a CD (16bit 44,100 Hz)   much lower bitrate than the 24bit release

[redwing]

Try it with v3.0 and if it doesn't work, post a bug report.

[Enrique]

Thank you!  I'll do that.

[kidjedi]

So... I just used the find duplicates feature, as I have updated some older mp3 files to flac.  I only unticked "keep file" from three files and selected the "replace with reference to the kept file" option so my playlists would remain intact.  I just wanted to do a test and "see what happens" (and be safe about it) before using the feature to alter more files.

However, almost every mp3 and flac file in my 25,000 plus media library has been replaced with an asx file (not just files that were duplicates and listed in the Duplicates Manager).  When I open those asx files in notepad to see what filepath they reference, they simply reference the same folder they are in.

Is my entire media library tanked?

I'm not freaking out yet.

Yet.

[kidjedi]

So luckily it wasn't my whole media library, but running a search on my main music media folder for *.asx in windows explorer returns 2,102 files.  That's two thousand files that were deleted and replaced by asx files which now reference absolutely nothing.

Thoughts?

[psychoadept]

The deleted files should at least be in your recycle bin.  Beyond that I'm no help, sorry.  I think Bee-liever our resident expert on .asx files.

[phred]

I'm not so sure MB converted the files. There is no .asx file converter option in MB preference. The option to include one does not exist.

If it possible that you used Windows Media Player before or during your search for duplicates. From what I can find online, .asx files are created by WMP as a pointer to the true location of the media file.

As psychoadept suggests, check your windows recycle bin. And then do some goggle searches for .asx. Windows Media Player has been known to mess up tags so it wouldn't surprise me for it to be the culprit here.

[kidjedi]

I think it's pretty clear that the "replace with reference to the kept file" option creates a file to direct all previous versions of the file to the single file you've selected.  Is this not done with the asx files?  Regarding Windows Media Player... I don't use it.

The media files are on a NAS, so I am not able to simply check the recycle bin.  And unfortunately a program like Recova is no good across a network, even if your drive is mapped.

Luckily I run semi-regular backups, so I've got most everything backed up (except some of the newer FLAC rips), but restoring everything is going to be a pain and time not well spent.

[Bee-liever]

I'm not so sure MB converted the files. There is no .asx file converter option in MB preference. The option to include one does not exist.

Sorry phred, but the Duplicates Manager does have the ability to convert extra files to the ASX format.

That's what the "replace with reference to the kept file" option does.
It creates an ASX file that links to the kept file, but keeps all the tags from the other file.  So if you have a file that is same for a single, album and anthology box set, you only have to keep the one file to play, but the different info for the other versions are kept in the .asx file and used by MB when played.

@ kidjedi
Without knowing what settings you were using to filter your duplicates, its hard to know what went wrong.  As you can see from the image i posted, MB is showing 2 versions of Sweet Dreams, but they are not really duplicates.  If you could hover over the path you would see that one is a live version and the other is the original album version.  These are only showing as I deliberately only used title to search for duplicates.
As for your original files before being converted to ASX, I think that MB does permanently delete them.  Check one of those ASX files, and you may just have to edit the path to the kept file.