Author Topic: Replace or Flag 'Hidden Duplicates' in Custom Playlists  (Read 1275 times)

kingjon

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Scenario:

I have track x in a custom playlist (track x is an mp3)

Later I add track y, which is a FLAC version of track x

I use MB's Manage Duplicates to hide track x from my Music library, leaving track y in place

Result >> track x disappears from the Music & Music Explorer views but is still present in the playlist

Result I would like to see  ;) >>

track x is replaced in the playlist with track y
OR
track x is left in the playlist but somehow flagged as hidden (so I can go in and manually update the playlist to point to track y)

Is it possible..?

Thank you!

Jon

psychoadept

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The "hide as duplicate" feature actually just moves a track to the inbox instead of the library, which as you've discovered has no effect on playlists (with the exception of auto playlists sourced from the music library)

The easiest way to replace all occurrences of a track in playlists is to use the send to > replace command, which gives you the option to replace a file with the selected file or replace the selected file with some other file.

However, this literally replaces the original file. The old file is sent to the recycle bin and all file properties, playlists, etc are transferred to the new file, which is also moved to the location of the old file. So if you want to keep both copies you'll need a different solution.
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kingjon

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Hi, thanks for the quick reply!

Actually, the 'hide duplicates' option doesn't send anything to the Inbox, it just hides it from the Library view and it appears in the 'duplicates marked as hidden' panel in the Duplicates Manager Dialog box.  At least that's my experience using v3.3.7261 and doing this many times in the last few days ;-)

Thanks for the suggestion of using 'Send To > Replace' but I don't want to get rid of my mp3 files, I just want MB to only show me the FLAC equivalent if there is one, and I'd like that to happen in my playlists as well as the Library.

Does this make sense now and do you think it could be possible...?

Thanks

Jon

psychoadept

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It's not possible exactly as you've described. There are some workarounds you could try.

For instance, I try to generate most of my playlists from tags. You could try making a custom tag, and for each track you want in that playlist tag it with an appropriate word/phrase. You can do this for whole playlists at once if you use the tag inspector, that way it won't overwrite tags you've already entered.

Then, if you copy tags from the existing tracks when you add the new version, it will automatically appear in the playlist. You would still need to go in at some point to remove the old tracks (or add file type to the playlist criteria, then you could have the FLAC version and the MP3 version)

Takes a little more work on the front end, but in the long run should be easier than replacing every track by hand.
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kingjon

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Hi, thanks again for trying to help

Re your suggestion of generating playlists from tags, I don't think that would work for me as all of mine are 'hand-curated', i.e. I select individual tracks to put together, rather than some theme or something based on a genre or any other tags.  And anyway, my request is more about ongoing maintenance of existing playlists (I have many!), than making new ones.

I guess I assumed that the 'hide duplicate' feature was somehow flagging the hidden tracks with some attribute in the MB library XML that could then be used to at least highlight them in any existing playlist.

Can I assume from what you've said that there isn't actually any technical connection between playlists and the MB library and in fact playlists contain references to the actual files, rather than the MB library item?  If so then that would explain why what I'm asking for is not feasible, at least not without completely reworking how playlists work ;-)

psychoadept

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I can't tell you a while lot about the technical side if it. Definitely M3U playlists are strictly text files that contain the exact file path of the tracks, including file extension. For MusicBee's MBP playlists, I'm not sure what all is happening in the file except that it allows more custom settings in MusicBee.

Regarding this, though:

Re your suggestion of generating playlists from tags, I don't think that would work for me as all of mine are 'hand-curated', i.e. I select individual tracks to put together, rather than some theme or something based on a genre or any other tags.  And anyway, my request is more about ongoing maintenance of existing playlists (I have many!), than making new ones.

This is exactly what my suggestion would help with. Rather than "curating" by adding tracks to a playlist, you would curate by adding a custom tag to the track, which MusicBee would then use to assign it to the playlist.

This allows 100% transferability between files, because all you have to do is copy the tags from your original file to the new one and the playlist will be updated (you can copy in bulk using the Additional Tagging & reporting tools plugin). Like I said, if you add file type to the playlist criteria, then you won't even have to worry about removing the mp3s. You can either have a second FLAC playlist or convert the original.

This will make ongoing maintenance much easier on you because once it's set up you don't have to mess with the playlists, they'll take care of themselves. And you can always export them to static playlists as needed.

For example, in my library I have a custom tag called Playlist Filters. The values I use include "Dance" (songs I like to dance to), "Bond" (James Bond themes), "Poem" (songs based on poems), "Local" (local artists), and "Wing by Wing" (a playlist from my cousin's wedding).
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kingjon

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I have about 80 playlists with anywhere between 15 and 150 tracks in each.  Individually tagging each track isn't going to be a great option for me although it's one to consider for making playlists in future.

Thinking of other possible solutions to my little duplicate problem...

If I were to create a playlist containing all of my hidden duplicates, is there some way to cross-reference that playlist against all my other playlists, i.e. to have MB tell me which tracks that appear in me hidden duplicates playlist also appear in some other playlist?

I appreciate your help and I promise I'll give up and stop asking stuff after this ;-)

psychoadept

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I think you're missing some of what I'm saying. You can easily apply a tag to all files in a playlist at once using the Tag Inspector, without disturbing any other tags that may already exist in that field.  80 playlists is a pain in the butt, but not nearly as much as individually editing hundreds or thousands of tracks.
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