Help Needed to Move Library AND Organize/Consolidate Physical Files

[Shepherd Jim]

Hi all -

My MB library is installed on my small SSD C:\ drive (C:\Users\Owner\Music\MusicBee\) and I would like to move it to the larger, regular "spinning" hard drive (D:\Music\MusicBee Library\)

AND, at the same time, if possible and recommended, I would like to "collect" all of the actual song/track files into an organized folder on the D:\. I have been using the default naming template (<Album Artist>\<Album>\<Disc-Track#> <Title>) so am hoping that things might work as per the MB Wiki: "...will create a folder for each artist and a subfolder for each album, then name the files with the track # and title".

Note: my actual, physical song/track files are scattered all over my drive. I will be most happy if I am able to create copies of all the files in the new, physical, organized folder ...leaving the original files in the folders for they currently reside.

Jim

[psychoadept]

Have you tried selecting all files, right clicking, and using Send To > Copy > Copy to Organized Folder?

[Smudger]

On this subject, is there a way to not only choose the root drive, but get MB to organise specific folders. As my music is catalogues as in E:/ M's/ Artists with the albums being names as in "Madness - Divine Madness" but would much prefer MB auto organisation as in <Album Artist>\<Album>\<Disc-Track#> <Title>

But having such a huge collection this would take time so by one alphabetical category at a time would be good.

Steve

[frankz]

On this subject, is there a way to not only choose the root drive, but get MB to organise specific folders. As my music is catalogues as in E:/ M's/ Artists with the albums being names as in "Madness - Divine Madness" but would much prefer MB auto organisation as in <Album Artist>\<Album>\<Disc-Track#> <Title>

But having such a huge collection this would take time so by one alphabetical category at a time would be good.

Steve

If I'm understanding correctly, you'd just view your library sorted by Album Artist, select all the tracks with artists that start with a certain letter, right click Send to->Folder (Move)->Move Files to Organized Folder.  Set your template.  Run it.  Move on to the next letter. 

[captain_paranoia]

But having such a huge collection this would take time...

So? Just leave the PC to get on with it. You don;t have to intervene.

It DOES require all your music to have accurate metadata from which to construct the path and filenames...

[Smudger]

If I'm understanding correctly, you'd just view your library sorted by Album Artist, select all the tracks with artists that start with a certain letter, right click Send to->Folder (Move)->Move Files to Organized Folder.  Set your template.  Run it.  Move on to the next letter.

And hereby lies a problem as my music is divided over 2 external hard drives

Steve

[psychoadept]

And hereby lies a problem as my music is divided over 2 external hard drives

Steve

Why is that a problem?  MusicBee handles multiple drives in organization.

[Smudger]

thanking you once again for all your help.

[Shepherd Jim]

Have you tried selecting all files, right clicking, and using Send To > Copy > Copy to Organized Folder?

Okay pyschoadept! I am sort of glad your suggestion results in what I'm thinking is a two-step process.

I did exactly as you suggested. After creating an empty folder "D:\Music\MusicBee Library\" on my hard hard drive I opened MB and copied all files/tracks to that folder.

Okay, now what? MusicBee's library database is still pointing to the old, original tracks/files wherever they reside. I now want to accomplish two things:

1) have MB point to the new centralized collection of copied file/tracks just created in "D:\Music\MusicBee Library\"
2) MOVE the MB library database (including contained folders: "Artist Pictures", "Playlists", "Podcasts" and "Ripped Files") from the SSD C:\ drive to the hard D:\ drive. I will welcome suggestions, cautions and recommendations as to where to locate the library. My first thought was to put it in the same folder ("D:\Music\MusicBee Library") which contains all the actual music files ...second thought: feeling probably a bad idea.

As always, thanks for all the help! Jim

[frankz]

2) MOVE the MB library database (including contained folders: "Artist Pictures", "Playlists", "Podcasts" and "Ripped Files") from the SSD C:\ drive to the hard D:\ drive. I will welcome suggestions, cautions and recommendations as to where to locate the library. My first thought was to put it in the same folder ("D:\Music\MusicBee Library") which contains all the actual music files ...second thought: feeling probably a bad idea.

As always, thanks for all the help! Jim

No offense, but you can actually search Google and see if something has been asked and answered 50 or 1000 times before creating a post about it.  Basic functionality has generally been pretty thoroughly gone over.

[psychoadept]

1) have MB point to the new centralized collection of copied file/tracks just created in "D:\Music\MusicBee Library\"

You should be able to use Remap Music Folders for this, although since you say your files weren't in a single location to begin with, you might need to run it more than once for each source folder.

[Shepherd Jim]

frankz and pyschoadept - thank you both for sticking with me.

frankz: I'm pretty sure if I now move the MB library in "Preferences", the library in its new location will still point to the "original" unorganized song/files, NOT to all the newly copied files in the nice new, organized collection I created yesterday in the single folder "D:\Music\MusicBee Library\"

pyschoadept: Yes, my music is scattered ALL OVER my drives ...in at least a dozen folders and sub folders. Years of letting iTunes have its way as music was moved from computer to computer has created chaos. There are songs purchased from iTunes and Amazon, downloaded from websites, received as email attachments ...you name it. This is THE reason I wanted MB to gather them all together and collect them in a single folder. The "copy to" (vs. "move to") was perfect as I will find it useful to have "original files" that are not involved with the library.

I hesitate to begin the re-mapping process ...worried I won't be able to find the "original" locations of all the files in the current library.

Can I re-do the copying process I did yesterday, but this time update the library so that it winds up pointing to the newly created/copied songs/tracks/files? I could then move the Library from the C:\ to the D:\ drive?

Jim

[frankz]

If you want to move the files as referenced in your library, you will need to move them (not copy them) to the new drive.  Copying literally just creates a copy.

Your other option to use the newly organized versions as the basis of a library is to create a new library and scan your new folder in and just leave your history with your old library behind.

I'm not sure why you'd want to gum up your SSD with old versions of files you're not going to use any more.  What I would do if I wanted to preserve the originals is use the copy command to copy the files (or move the copy I've already just made) to some other media (a thumb drive or DVD-R or BDR or external drive that can sit in a closet until I needed it) and then move the files that I'm going to use in MusicBee from within my library using the move command.

Hope this helps.  Site is unusable from Internal Server Errors so I'm going to take a break until that issue is worked out.

[psychoadept]

psychoadept: Yes, my music is scattered ALL OVER my drives ...in at least a dozen folders and sub folders. Years of letting iTunes have its way as music was moved from computer to computer has created chaos. There are songs purchased from iTunes and Amazon, downloaded from websites, received as email attachments ...you name it. This is THE reason I wanted MB to gather them all together and collect them in a single folder. The "copy to" (vs. "move to") was perfect as I will find it useful to have "original files" that are not involved with the library.

I hesitate to begin the re-mapping process ...worried I won't be able to find the "original" locations of all the files in the current library.

I suggest giving remap a try.  It should identify many of the folders for you (just be sure you're on the latest patch).

[Shepherd Jim]

Okay ...I think I'm happy.

It was not a pretty process. I moved the old MB library from the SSD C:\ drive to the physical, spinning D:\ using Preferences/Library/Move Library. Of course, it was still pointing to the music files in their original locations: sub-folders scattered all over both the drives.

I then created a new library on the D:\ and had it import all the fresh song files MB had copied to a new folder on the D:\

I took some time to compare the physical files and folders in two "library folders". I'll have questions down the road about the "\Ripped Files\" and "\Artist Pictures\" folders.  I then went under the covers and deleted the old library.

So! I now have a pristine library in its own folder on the hard hard D:\. And, it points to my music files which are collected in sub-folders within a new single folder also on the D:\

I have begun polishing the organization and tagging of the new MB files.

Thanks to all for your assistance and support.

Jim