music library - main folders organization

[urfausto]

wait a second! i can't even think of moving/copying folders because i have in many cases some files which are not actually managed by mb such as artworks, pdfs, etc. so i'm really fine with actual folder structure and won't mind about names of the folders.

Just use the "also move remaining non-media files" option and those files should move with the rest of the album

oh right.

what happens when u have some albums which are multiple cds in one folder and multiple cds in separated folders? i guess that's my greatest problem, that folders can be quite messy but all songs of all albums are every and each in their respective folder or at least so should be.

[psychoadept]

I suggest monitoring what happens with one or two of those and adapting accordingly. And have backups in case something goes haywire.

[urfausto]

k, thanks again.

[Foliant]

A lot of this you'll have to figure out based on your own preferences. I'll just recommend that you not over think file organization. MusicBee can handle things like genre "folders" internally, with a column browser or filters or whatever makes sense to you.

For files, do something that's easy to maintain, easy to navigate, and doesn't take a lot of manual input. The default album artist/album/track is a good start. I add first letter folders to keep things from getting too cluttered, except for compilations and soundtracks which get their own folders based on their unique album artist value (set automatically by Picard). Single tracks go in the root album artist folder (an exception based on Track Count = 1). If you're using the album-per-folder option, you could just as easily put them in a "Singles" folder or something like that. MusicBee would then treat them as one group.

If it's really important to you to use genre in the file structure, think about how you organize them as physical media. Maybe you could use a custom tag like "album genre" to make multi-genre albums easier to handle. (You might also be able to do this with a virtual tag, setting a different
value based on album artist for compilations.)

My organization template uses a fair number of exceptions and virtual tags to handle special cases, but generally once an album is run through Picard and organized, it never moves again no matter what I retag or reorganize in MusicBee.

please tell me what needs to be written in the organization template so that I also have performers in
folders by letters of the alphabet, and inside Artist - album - title?

[frankz]

please tell me what needs to be written in the organization template so that I also have performers in
folders by letters of the alphabet, and inside Artist - album - title?

https://musicbee.fandom.com/wiki/Functions#Left_.2F_Right

[Foliant]

please tell me what needs to be written in the organization template so that I also have performers in
folders by letters of the alphabet, and inside Artist - album - title?

https://musicbee.fandom.com/wiki/Functions#Left_.2F_Right

Thank you, very helpful! I have one more question:

given structure, grouped by first letter
$ Group (<Artist>, 1) \ <Artist> \ <Artist> - <Year> - <Album> \ <Track No.> <Name> is used for me only for one category of the genre.
For everyone else, I would like to use without grouping <Artist> \ <Artist> - <Year> - <Album> \ <Track #> <Name>.

That is, I select an album - send - move to an organized folder - select the desired genre category, but at the top, in the line "template for specifying names and files", there is always the first template (with grouping). And every time, no matter what category of genre (folder) I choose, everything is ordered with grouping. Is there a way in which I could set an exception for multiple folders along the path of their location, so that MB knows when to group and when not? The current exclusions in the organizer window only work for moved files.

[frankz]

Thank you, very helpful! I have one more question:

given structure, grouped by first letter
$ Group (<Artist>, 1) \ <Artist> \ <Artist> - <Year> - <Album> \ <Track No.> <Name> is used for me only for one category of the genre.
For everyone else, I would like to use without grouping <Artist> \ <Artist> - <Year> - <Album> \ <Track #> <Name>.

That is, I select an album - send - move to an organized folder - select the desired genre category, but at the top, in the line "template for specifying names and files", there is always the first template (with grouping). And every time, no matter what category of genre (folder) I choose, everything is ordered with grouping. Is there a way in which I could set an exception for multiple folders along the path of their location, so that MB knows when to group and when not? The current exclusions in the organizer window only work for moved files.

I'm going to make a suggestion here, and please don't take this the wrong way.

It may be that what you want to do is too complicated for you to achieve with the limited skill set you have at this early stage in your use of MusicBee.  And, rather than focusing on getting it done by asking for someone to guide you through every single step of the process, it would be more beneficial to you in the long run to focus on increasing your skill set by reading the available materials and doing things manually in the meantime.  Reading about the different functions and tools and experimenting with them until you are able to develop your own methods for achieving your goals.

In other words, right now you're probably better off leaving your files arranged as they are now, and gradually folder by folder or as you add new files and learn more about MusicBee, working out a process.  It will go a lot better that way versus having us come up with a wholesale solution that you can immediately apply to all of your files.

I still don't use automatic organization because I have so many "edge cases" that would require exceptions to the rules that it would basically make them not rules.  I've got a series of "Move to Organized Folder" templates, and even so every once in a while it comes up that one of those isn't right and I have to do something new.  It's just the way life is that sometimes it's easier in the end to do things manually to get them the way you want them.

[Foliant]

OK, I understand your hints, I ask too many questions that have no answers. However, I read the old threads before asking a question.

[frankz]

OK, I understand your hints, I ask too many questions that have no answers. However, I read the old threads before asking a question.

It's not that you ask so many questions.  Questions are fine. The problem is that these issues are very specific to you and your process, and that it is ultimately for you to decide what the best process and procedure is for this complicated folder organization system you seem to be set on keeping.

At some point you have to decide whether doing this automatically is more important to you or whether maintaining this very specialized and specific method of file organization is more important to you and act accordingly. I don't think you can do both.

You don't need all these levels of folders with MusicBee. In MusicBee, you click a Genre Category or Genre and all of the matching songs are there regardless of what folder they're in. They can all be in one giant folder. It doesn't matter.  I'll never understand why people open the most functional and powerful library manager on the planet and immediately want to use it to maintain a rigid system of file-system folder management. Of course, it can do that too, because it can do practically everything.  But, if you want to do that, it's going to be a lot of work.  It's up to you to decide if maintaining your folder structure is worth that amount of work.

Just some friendly advice from someone who used to think I'd lose track of all my files if they weren't named Artist - Album - TrackNo - Title until I unlocked the true power of MusicBee.

[Foliant]

it's just about fears and habits. Habit is nothing, I have already abandoned many nested genres. But there is a concern that after placing all the files in one folder, I will not be able to find anything without musicbee.

Another problem is tags. I have 40,000 tracks (not all of them I need, I plan to rethink my methods of collecting music and get rid of what is not fun) but a smaller part of them with tags. This is a very long job. Even if you use MusicBee tools or other tagging services, it is very long, because there are a lot of wrong genre tags on MusicBrain, Discogos. Everything needs to be manually entered, I browse my 2 main sites, where I get information about tags.

On top of that, this tag confusion in MusicBee is splitting the same album apart. It is very uncomfortable. See when the album Album 1 contains tracks from 3-10, and elsewhere the remaining 1-2 tracks.
The advantage of storing in one folder is that it doesn't matter what subgenre the artist has. If he's in progressive metal, then he has something to do with it for sure.

[frankz]

Like I said, cling to how you have things and that's fine. MB will deal with your files wherever they are just fine.  It'll read in everything you tell it to and present it as you desire.

But it's going to be very difficult to get it done automatically going forward if that's your goal.  That's the thing you're going to have to trial-and-error and work at.

[hiccup]

On top of that, this tag confusion in MusicBee is splitting the same album apart.

++2 for the responses Frankz has given in this thread.

To add to all that wisdom… it's very simple to prevent albums getting split up, and it is amazing to me how many users still seem to struggle with it:
Look at: Preferences > Sorting/Grouping > Grouping > 'the following fields define an album'.
All you have to do is make sure the songs in your albums have the same <Album Artist> and <Album> tag. Then your albums will not be split up.

The only complication (and perhaps the reason why users struggle with it so often) can be that MusicBee will display an Album Artist even when the tag in reality is empty.
So that could mislead you to think you have set your Album Artist tags, while in reality they are empty and they need some attention.
(nobody so far has been able to explain to me why it is useful that MusicBee does this)

[Foliant]

Look at: Preferences > Sorting/Grouping > Grouping > 'the following fields define an album'.

thanks, I understand you. The problem is that not all tracks on an album contain the same information. I noticed that somewhere the year is not marked, somewhere the name of the album is missing. All this can be fixed if I had 100 albums, not thousands
Therefore, the file manager helps out from year to year. After all, it doesn't matter what tag, all the tracks on the album are in one place.

But it's time to change your habits, because MB is really fantastic!

[hiccup]

The problem is that not all tracks on an album contain the same information.

This is a way to display all tracks that have an <Album> tag but not an <Album Artist> tag. (even when MB is misleadingly suggesting that tag is present)

Create a virtual tag 'No Album Artist'

Code

$IsNull(<Album>,,$IsNull(<Album Artist>,no album artist,))

Then in the left navigator panel create a filter:

[Foliant]

The problem is that not all tracks on an album contain the same information.

This is a way to display all tracks that have an <Album> tag but not an <Album Artist> tag. (even when MB is misleadingly suggesting that tag is present)

Create a virtual tag 'No Album Artist'

Code

$IsNull(<Album>,,$IsNull(<Album Artist>,no album artist,))

Then in the left navigator panel create a filter:

Thank You!