Author Topic: MusicBee Emergency  (Read 1214 times)

virtus

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If you have a music collection you took hours to organize - you'll feel this pain and understand why I call it an emergency.

I dragged my music folder, which had my music sorted by genre and sub-genre - into the Music tab on the program (PC).  I thought this would simply tell the program where it is.  Not hijack my music to place it in a MusicBee folder, and as well delete my file system.

I am hoping, before I get too upset, there is a way to recover this as most of my music; some sorted by album, is now all in one giant folder.

I know it might seem ungrateful to complain about something I got for free (I just started using it clearly) but not streaming music implies some sort of independance; and I don't think the program should be moving the files.  I realize now I should have gone to preferences.

Help, please anyone as I hoping this will not be a sad week.

frankz

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I'm having trouble figuring out what you dragged, where you dragged it from, where you dragged it to, what you expected to happen and what actually did happen. What's more helpful than paragraphs describing how upset your are why you're upset would be descriptions of what you actually did and what actually happened. Screenshots also help.

It sounds like you took a folder on your PC and dragged it onto the musicbee window.  Is this the case?  Was this from Windows Explorer or from within MusicBee? Where are your music files now on your PC? You say they were "hijacked" (although you dragged them from where they were to somewhere else) and later you say your file system was "deleted."  Then you say you see your music in a "giant folder."  Where are you seeing this folder? Is this an actual directory in your file system that you're seeing in Windows Explorer or is it just a heading in MusicBee?

MusicBee doesn't create a music folder called MusicBee.  MusicBee doesn't move files unless you confirm that you want them moved. It doesn't auto-organize unless you affirmatively set up auto-organization.

Clear descriptions of steps and the results of those steps will help us figure out what happened.
Last Edit: July 24, 2019, 01:09:07 AM by frankz

psychoadept

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Hi, welcome to the forum! I hope we can help.

As frankz says, this isn't expected behavior for MusicBee. There are no organization settings turned on when you install MusicBee.

The one thing I can think of that might have created the result you describe is if, instead of dragging the files into the Music Library  node at the top of the left sidebar, you dragged them to a folder in the Computer node. Or if you were viewing a computer folder when you dragged them to the main panel in MusicBee.

If that was the case, the good news is that, provided your files are tagged, you can easily use MusicBee to reorganize them. Just right click on any group of selected files and use send to > organized folder. Then you'll be able to adjust the template to organize them however you want. (Definitely do a small batch first to make sure you're getting what you expect)
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virtus

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Been awhile since I have been able to get back to this but I am very grateful for the replies.  :)

Quote
I'm having trouble figuring out what you dragged, where you dragged it from, where you dragged it to, what you expected to happen and what actually did happen. What's more helpful than paragraphs describing how upset your are why you're upset would be descriptions of what you actually did and what actually happened. Screenshots also help.

You are right about that!

Quote
It sounds like you took a folder on your PC and dragged it onto the musicbee window.  Is this the case?  Was this from Windows Explorer or from within MusicBee? Where are your music files now on your PC? You say they were "hijacked" (although you dragged them from where they were to somewhere else) and later you say your file system was "deleted."  Then you say you see your music in a "giant folder."  Where are you seeing this folder? Is this an actual directory in your file system that you're seeing in Windows Explorer or is it just a heading in MusicBee?

I dragged my music collection from my WIN10 PC (explorer) which had many folders and sub-folders, into the MUSIC tab of MusicBee.  I did not realize that was a shortcut/command to take the files and physically move them into the WIN10 allocated Music folder (which every PC has), not only moving my collection but deleting the file system.  This is not behavior I'd expect from a desktop program.   I know now I should have clicked on the + sign and used the shortcuts on the left; but the Music tab seemed like the place to start.

If you need screen shots I can provide but I don't think they will help describe it better.  But totally willing if you can help restore my file system.

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f that was the case, the good news is that, provided your files are tagged, you can easily use MusicBee to reorganize them. Just right click on any group of selected files and use send to > organized folder. Then you'll be able to adjust the template to organize them however you want. (Definitely do a small batch first to make sure you're getting what you expect)

I did not update the metatags for my music, that was on the to do list. 

So what I am looking for now is, to find out what Musicbee did with that file system and if it can be restored, before I embark upon redoing it all. 

Cheers

Freddy Barker

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So what I am looking for now is, to find out what Musicbee did with that file system and if it can be restored, before I embark upon redoing it all. 

I take it you didn't make a backup of all your music / files / folders before venturing out?
Or did you?
Maybe you have a good copy on a backup drive, cloud service or Google Music perhaps?

It's probably going to be a real pain for anyone to figure out what's moved  or copied to where without having access to your PC..

Freddy

frankz

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I dragged my music collection from my WIN10 PC (explorer) which had many folders and sub-folders, into the MUSIC tab of MusicBee.  I did not realize that was a shortcut/command to take the files and physically move them into the WIN10 allocated Music folder (which every PC has), not only moving my collection but deleting the file system.  This is not behavior I'd expect from a desktop program.

Doing what you described would not have moved your music files anywhere (unless you specifically set MusicBee up to do that before hand under Edit->Edit Preferences->Library...music library...auto-organize media files).    

The Music node in Windows Explorer is not an actual folder on your system. It coaltes all the places on your drive where music already sits under one heading.

I know now I should have clicked on the + sign and used the shortcuts on the left; but the Music tab seemed like the place to start.
No, that's not the way to import music.

The way to import music is to go to File->Scan Folders For New Files and then point MB to where your music is.

So what I am looking for now is, to find out what Musicbee did with that file system and if it can be restored, before I embark upon redoing it all.
I'm not sure why you keep saying "File System" in this context.  It doesn't mean what you think it means, and confuses the issue for people who assume that you're using it in the correct way.

If you only did what you described, I'd expect your music files to be exactly where they started.  

If you go into your MB library in Tracks view and add the "Path" field to "Select Displayed Fields" by right-clicking the column headers,it will show you where each file is on your drive.
Last Edit: August 26, 2019, 10:55:40 PM by frankz

virtus

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Quote
As frankz says, this isn't expected behavior for MusicBee. There are no organization settings turned on when you install MusicBee.

The one thing I can think of that might have created the result you describe is if, instead of dragging the files into the Music Library  node at the top of the left sidebar, you dragged them to a folder in the Computer node. Or if you were viewing a computer folder when you dragged them to the main panel in MusicBee.

If that was the case, the good news is that, provided your files are tagged, you can easily use MusicBee to reorganize them. Just right click on any group of selected files and use send to > organized folder. Then you'll be able to adjust the template to organize them however you want. (Definitely do a small batch first to make sure you're getting what you expect)

Thanks for the response :)

I am not sure what the Computer node is; but I did drag it into a Tab named "music".  I did not expect my files to be physically removed from their folders and thrown into the Windows Music Folder; I expected a simple file mapping into MusicBee.

After reading Franz's last entry, I have decided to recreate it and screen shot it.  I was able to repeat it (it removes the Windows file folder completely after moving the mp3 files).

Screen shot 1
Test for Music Bee folder with a few MP3's in it

Screen shot 2
Files already exist as per aforementioned drag and drop


Screen shot 3
Test folder disappears.  Musicbee erases it but cuts and pastes the mp3 only into the System Music Folder (every Win10 Machine has)


psychoadept

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Yes, based on the columns shown in your screenshots you are using the computer node rather than MusicBee's Music library. You'll need to display your left navigator (mouse over the left side of the screen, then use the pin button when it pops up) to verify
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Steven

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To add to what psychoadept said, you would only get prompted like that (2nd screenshot) if drag/dropping into a computer node - I expect you have the "Music" folder selected in the Computer node, and not the Music Library.
MusicBee will move files to the computer node folder you drop them into.

virtus

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To add to what psychoadept said, you would only get prompted like that (2nd screenshot) if drag/dropping into a computer node - I expect you have the "Music" folder selected in the Computer node, and not the Music Library.
MusicBee will move files to the computer node folder you drop them into.

Hi guys,

I am a little...perturbed that the MusicBee app has that level of access to my system and was able to do that.   BUT...all of you trying to help must mean the software has a lot to offer and perhaps it's a feature some would want.  Luckily I do have an older backup so I figure I will just export the file names to excel from both the backup and the new giant folder and do an Access compare to see the differences.  Anyways, thanks for your help, you didn't have to, and you did.  That is more than enough for me.  Cheers :)