Rescanning Folder

[bigdaddy801]

My library is (for me) rather large with 93,931 music files.

I have to rescan my music drive every time I open the program before the selected file(s) will play. I get a screen that says "Files are not found in location".

If I rescan the drive will it add everything again as a duplicate, and/or correct the issue?

I have spent the past five years trying to love MediaMonkey and deal with the eternal freezes and crashes, but alas, that marriage is kaput! I'm loving Musicbee bigtime!

[sveakul]

Have you been using MusicBee for a while?  When did this start happening?  Was the folder(s) containing your music ever actually "added to library" by a MusicBee command?  If so, have you changed the drive or the folder name/location of your music since adding it?

First thing I would do is use Tools->Advanced->Compress Library.  This will remove from the library database file anything that is not present/properly linked in what MB now considers to be your library.  What does your library look like after that?  If it doesn't include all your files, re-add them via establishing a monitored folder or by File->Add Files to Library.

[bigdaddy801]

I downloaded the program three days ago. It took two days for it to scan everything. I will do as you suggest and get back with the results! Thank you!

[psychoadept]

My drive always has to wake up before MusicBee can do anything with it. Can you get away with just rescanning the specific files you're working with?

[sveakul]

It took two days for it to scan everything. I will do as you suggest and get back with the results! Thank you!

"Something's wrong, here" like the guy said after seeing Coors stacked on the floor OUTSIDE the cooler.  NO WAY it should take "two days" to scan 100,000 files.  Add to my suggestions, exclude/whitelist all your music folders and every MusicBee folder in any antivirus application(s) you are using.  BTW, what OS are you using, and is your music on a remote/networked drive?

[bigdaddy801]

OS is windows 10 (yuck) and the drive is an outboard HDD (@5600) attached to a USB hub with the hub attached to a 2.2 USB input on my tower. My music is basically all FLAC at max compression. During the scan, I got multiple "read-only" messages that I answered "retry" to. My music is all in separate folders (artist/album/genre) on my K:/ drive. I have that drive (K:/) listed as the folder to monitor continuously in preferences. I have checked my antivirus and that is not an issue but I thank you for pointing that out as I hadn't checked that until your suggestion.

[frankz]

Do you really need continuous monitoring?  This setup seems like the doomsday scenario for continuous monitoring.  It's literally the worst-of-all-worlds for speed.

There's no way it's more convenient to have to relocate all of your files all the time than it would be to rescan manually only when you need to.

[bigdaddy801]

Sir, If I'm understanding your input I should uncheck continuous monitoring correct?

[frankz]

That's right. If you're going to have giant, heavily compressed files on a slow drive on a slow bus, then you shouldn't continuously monitor OR scan on startup IMO.  

Your best course of action would be to put files that you want to add to your library in a separate folder and then manually scan that when you want to add the files and then auto-organize the files to their ultimate location.  That way you're not scanning 100,000 files from a slow drive on a slow interface just to find 10-12 new files every time you want to add an album to your library.

[bigdaddy801]

Thank you for your reply. So if I'm understanding you correctly, I should move the individual music folders into another folder, for the sake of argument called "music", and not to use the drive letter (K:/). Then scan that folder?  Do you have any suggestions on how I can auto-organize my library? I'm not the brightest candle on the cake sometimes and any suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

[frankz]

No, that's not what I'm saying at all.

Let's look at this another way.  If you music is already on the K drive and music from this drive is already in your MusicBee library, why do you need to auto-organize, monitor or scan at all?  MusicBee has already scanned your music into its library database.  It's there, in the library already.  Don't do any of these things.

If you want to ADD music, put the new files in drive C or D or whatever local drive you have in a specific folder, and then File->Scan Folders for New Files and point that tool to your chosen folder.  This will add these new files to your inbox.  Then, at that point, organize them to the K drive and add them to your library.

But you normally do not need to scan, monitor or otherwise auto-organize files that are already in your library for any reason. I do not understand what your purpose is in doing this.

[psychoadept]

Just to back up what frankz says, I have a backup library on a slow network drive, and I don't do any monitoring. When I add new files, I scan only the folder that the new files are in. If I have to make changes to files that are there, I rescan those specific files.

Also, I don't embed artwork on that drive because while the storage space isn't a big deal on a 4TB drive, the extra time it takes to read and update files is a pain in the butt.

[bigdaddy801]

OK gentleman I misunderstood the instructions. I think I have a handle on what you're both saying. Thank you both for taking the time and energy to get me squared away. I have a habit of making people's heads explode from overthinking   things! Sorry, and once again thanks!

[Zak]

That's right. If you're going to have giant, heavily compressed files on a slow drive on a slow bus, then you shouldn't continuously monitor OR scan on startup IMO.  

Your best course of action would be to put files that you want to add to your library in a separate folder and then manually scan that when you want to add the files and then auto-organize the files to their ultimate location.  That way you're not scanning 100,000 files from a slow drive on a slow interface just to find 10-12 new files every time you want to add an album to your library.

I disagree with this, because that's not how Continuously monitor works.

It isn't constantly checking files to know when something has changed.
Instead, MusicBee asks Windows to tell it when a file or folder is updated.
It isn't so much watching every file, as it is listening for only those few that change.

Obviously, there will be some difference in responsiveness if you use another program to retag hundreds of files at a time, because at some point MusicBee still has to read them to get the new information. But for normal use, when you're occasionally updating an album or two at a time, continuous monitoring works just as well on an external USB drive as it will on an M.2 drive.

There can sometimes be issues with continuous monitoring on non-local drives (e.g. mapped network or NAS drives), but that's due to limitations in the Windows file-monitoring API, not MusicBee. And they usually mean monitoring doesn't work at all, not that it works inefficiently.


For Scan on startup though (or the equivalent On startup check for updated or missing files), MusicBee does have to check each file to find what has changed. But it's very fast and happens in the background, so I still wouldn't dismiss it as an option for automatically keeping a library up to date.
I use this on my work PC, where I access my 100,000+ track music library from an external Seagate drive. On startup, MusicBee will scan the library and report back on changes within 5 minutes or so.

[frankz]

So why is it taking him two days to scan 100,000 files, and why does he need to relocate his files every time he starts the program then, Zak?