Is there a way to sort like I would a record collection?

[Trusso11783]

I just installed MB, my first ever music library software. I must have OCD.  I always sorted my albums in alphabetical order, just like the record stores did. So, it would look like ABBA, America, Beatles, Bee Gees, Cars, etc. Of course, each album by every artist would be sorted by release date. So, Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Days Night, etc, is this even a possibility in Music Bee? If so, how would the be sorted? How about the bEatles that could have 4 releases in a single year?

[phred]

Right-click on the word 'Albums' in the upper left of the main panel > Sort by > Album Artist \ Year \ Album

[Trusso11783]

Thanks for the quick reply and solution. Worked but it looks like I got a lot of tagging to d9

[psychoadept]

Thanks for the quick reply and solution. Worked but it looks like I got a lot of tagging to d9

I suggest you explore the wiki a little, there's a pretty thorough page on tagging. The auto-tag by album feature may be helpful for you.

How about the bEatles that could have 4 releases in a single year?

If you have the full release date, month day and year (or even month and year, probably), this should take care of itself. If you find that's still not doing the trick, try using the Sort Album tag (Sorting tab of the Tag Editor) to manually order anything that's not coming out right.

[Trusso11783]

I am having an issue that I cannot figure out. I have a folder called Survivor with a subfolder called Greatest Hits. If you look at the details of the file in Windows properties, it all looks correct. For instance:

Name                                     #      Title                                      Contributing Artists               Album
01.Survivor-Eye Of The Tiger     1   Eye Of The Eye                        Survivor                               Greatest Hits

all songs after that are in the same format up to song 12. However, in MB, there is an album called "Greatest Hits"  the songs are in the following order: 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11.  Track 12 are listed under a completely different "Greatest Hits"  album, only there is no track #. How could this happen when every song is tagged correctly and identically other than the song title and track number?

Once the songs are in MB, do I edit the tags in MB or do I do it in Windows Explorer and then MB updates the tags?

[phred]

Once the songs are in MB, do I edit the tags in MB or do I do it in Windows Explorer and then MB updates the tags?

Any changes made outside of MB will not be picked up by MB unless you manually rescan the files. Not that it can't be done, but you're creating an extra step. It's best to make all changes with MB.

Also note the computer node in the left sidebar. You can use that to drag and drop files, albums, etc. just as you would with a file explorer. The beauty of that is that MB knows what you're doing and where the files are going. Again, if you do that from outside MB, you've got to rescan the files.

[Trusso11783]

Good to know. I have 10 volumes of Time Life 70s Rock. 1970 through 1979. Every album shows up except 1971,1972 and 1973 are missing in MB but are all there in Explorer. I noticed that the titles and artist were missing in the tags of 1971 so I made it look exactly like 1970. However MB never saw that change, even when I refreshed. I prefer fixing tags in Windows Explorer so that the main file is not incorrect for future use.

What I find odd is that some NOW that’s what I call music are showing up correctly yet I will have 20 separate albums of NOW vlo 64 each with only one song. I guess this must all go back to the tagging because the folders and file names are all in the same format.

[psychoadept]

I noticed that the titles and artist were missing in the tags of 1971 so I made it look exactly like 1970. However MB never saw that change, even when I refreshed. I prefer fixing tags in Windows Explorer so that the main file is not incorrect for future use.

Did you make these changes in Windows Explorer? And then did you refresh the main panel, or did you actually rescan the files? (Right click > send to > file rescan)

As phred says, it's better to make the changes within MusicBee. The only time you do tagging in MusicBee that might get out of sync with the file is if you have a custom tag that saves to the database only, or if the file you're tagging is currently playing and therefore locked (in which case MusicBee will update it as soon as it's released).

If you want MusicBee to pick up on changes made by another program, though, you should probably make your music folder a monitored folder in Library Preferences, with the continuously monitor option. Then MusicBee will actually watch for changes and try to update in real time.

What I find odd is that some NOW that’s what I call music are showing up correctly yet I will have 20 separate albums of NOW vlo 64 each with only one song. I guess this must all go back to the tagging because the folders and file names are all in the same format.

I think this FAQ will help you narrow down the issue: https://musicbee.fandom.com/wiki/FAQ#Why_are_tracks_from_the_same_album_shown_separately_in_my_library.3F

[Trusso11783]

I only have one folder, which is my music folder. So, you are saying that if I change the files properties in Windows Explorer, it should update in MB at some point? I figured out why some compilations are intact and others list each song individually. It is the artist field in the tag editor.the compilations that are correct all have VA as an artist.

[phred]

If you have (for example) a twelve track compilation album, each track by a different artist, and only have the <Artist> tag filled in, MB will show the album as twelve albums. You should use 'Various Artists' as the <Album Artist>. If you don't, MB assumes <Album Artist> is the same as <Artist>. Therefore it shows as twelve albums.

I only have one folder, which is my music folder. So, you are saying that if I change the files properties in Windows Explorer, it should update in MB at some point?

Only if you make the folder(s) a monitored folder. Otherwise you have to manually rescan.

[Zak]

I just installed MB, my first ever music library software.
...
I prefer fixing tags in Windows Explorer so that the main file is not incorrect for future use.

No offence, but this makes me think you're not entirely across how music library software and tagging works.

MusicBee is showing you the same files and the same information as Explorer. The idea that Windows is keeping a "main file" that is then read by other programs is incorrect and thinking about it that way will only lead to confusion and wasted time.

It will probably be a better use of your early time to make a copy of a handful of albums to use as a test.
Add them to a new MusicBee library and dive in and start updating the tags and playing with the different views and tools to see what you can do.
Lots of new users have the same questions while starting out for the first time, so a forum search will probably show existing answers.
Compilation albums in particular (with titles like "Greatest Hits" etc.) have their own quirks and there are dozens of previous threads about how to tag them correctly.

And you haven't said how many files you have, but if your plan is to retag them all using the Properties dialog in Windows Explorer, you don't have OCD. You're a masochist.
MusicBee is designed to manage your music library as efficiently as possible - use it for that and you will be much happier.

[Trusso11783]

Not offended at all. I work I. It for 25 years. I just don’t understand the way this works. I have one MUSIC folder. Each artist has its own sub folder. Each of their albums have there own folder too to keep things organized. I assumed that if I corrected the file properties in Explorer, MB would read it. There were responses above that said MB would not see the changes unless I rescan the library folder.

If I change the info in MB, does it write the info to the file itself, as in the updated MB info will show in Explorer? If so, that is great. If not, it won’t help me because if I ever decide to switch software, I will need to go through all of this again, which I want to avoid.

Thanks for the post.

[psychoadept]

If I change the info in MB, does it write the info to the file itself, as in the updated MB info will show in Explorer?

Yes. The only exception is if you have custom tags that are set to be saved to the database only.  Date added and play count data are also saved in the database, unless you go to some effort to set it up to save them to the file.

[Trusso11783]

So here is something interesting. I removed my Compilation folder from the Music folder. Then I opened MB, the compilations were still listed though I couldn’t play them. Then I did a rescan and I noticed that the amount of files being scanned (26,000) is the same despite the fact that the Compilation folder contains 4475 files. So, it should only show 22,000 files. Anyway, I finished rescanning all files and still all of my compilations are still in the library. How do I get these compilations out of my library?

[psychoadept]

Can you still play the compilation tracks? Does your library report the same 26,000 files (just the total tracks in the library, not on scanning)?