Playlist Sync Issue - Folder Tree

[runicen]

So, a bit of background:

For ease in sorting and knowing what to back up vs. what I still have CDs I could re-rip in the event of data loss, my library is spread across a few directories:

-FLAC Music
-FLAC Purchased
-MP3 Music

You get the idea.  Within these, the tree structure is Artist\Year - Album\Artist - ## - Track.flac or whatever the extension happens to be.

I use a pair of playlists to sync files to a pair of MicroSD cards that are used in a Fiio portable player.  The sync is set to maintain the file and folder naming conventions.

Up until relatively recently (past month or two), files in library folders ignored those initial "format" folders and everything starting with the artist folder was synced to the microSD cards I use in my Fiio player.  all artist folders were commingled regardless of which library folder they were located in.

More recently, the sync has included those format folders, which is a pain as I use the file navigator on my Fiio as my primary mode of navigation AND some artists have albums in multiple formats, so where I previously had everything by a given artist lumped together, now things are spread out. 

In the past, this behavior would only occur if something NOT present in a library folder was picked up in a scan and added to the sync playlists I use to keep things simple. 

I've checked my settings and found nothing obvious to cause the change, so I'm left to assume it occurred with an update.  I have tried using the naming template to address this, but the year convention in my folders incorporates months where multiple releases in a given year took place and the template seems to cut off the year at 4 digits, so it defeats that organizational strategy.  Is there something I can change in terms of settings to fix the sync with file structure maintained OR to use the template without having the problem with chronological sort?

Thanks in advance for any input here.  Love the program and, all told, this is a minor inconvenience, but I'd still like to fix it - if possible.

[boroda]

there are 2 year tags for naming temlates in mb: <year> and <year (yyyy)>. 1st one will preserve full release date if it is entered as *full* date in 'year' tag in tag editor.

[runicen]

there are 2 year tags for naming temlates in mb: <year> and <year (yyyy)>. 1st one will preserve full release date if it is entered as *full* date in 'year' tag in tag editor.

When you say "if it is entered as *full* date," does that mean it requires a format of yyyy-mm-dd or will it simply reproduce whatever is in the field (i.e. if the format is yyyy-mm)?

Thanks for pointing out the distinction between the two tags either way.  That definitely gives me something to work with.

[boroda]

you can enter *any* string in tag 'year'. <year> naming template tag will reproduce exact string. <year (yyyy)> will try to parse this string and try to extract just year. but you enter not arbitrary string, but some meaningful date (yyyy-mm-dd or mm/dd/yyyy or dd.mm.yyyy etc.), <year (yyyy)> will perfectly extract year part of date.

[runicen]

you can enter *any* string in tag 'year'. <year> naming template tag will reproduce exact string. <year (yyyy)> will try to parse this string and try to extract just year. but you enter not arbitrary string, but some meaningful date (yyyy-mm-dd or mm/dd/yyyy or dd.mm.yyyy etc.), <year (yyyy)> will perfectly extract year part of date.

Excellent!  Just tested this and it resolves my issue.  Would prefer not needing to rename to sync, but if it's got to happen, this is an excellent compromise solution (and I'm the one with the oddball library organization).

Thanks for the assistance.

Oh, and for anyone who finds this thread having the same or a similar issue, be sure to check through the ENTIRE list to tags.  They're not strictly alphabetical, which is how I missed the separate "year" tag vs. the "year (yyyy)" tag.