How are songs identified in Music Library?

[clsven]

How are songs identified in Music Library?

Is it

1.) by (exact) file name?

That would mean I could replace a song by another file (with better quality) as long as both have the same file name

Does capitalization (upper/lower case) matter?

or

2.) by (exact) hash value/binary content of a file

That would mean I could rename the file name without loss of entry in Music library

[phred]

MB doesn't use hash values.

Any changes to a file, such as copying a file with the same file name, done from outside MB, such as dragging or copying from Explorer or changing tags, will require you the do a file rescan from within MB. Otherwise MB won't know that anything has changed. If the tags in the 'new' file are not the same as the tags on the 'replaced' file, it will be treated as a new file unless the old file was overwritten. You may see an exclamation point (!) next to a track. Hover over the ! and it will say something like "this file is not in its expected location."

Experiment. Make a copy of the file that is to be replaced and place it somewhere outside of MB's view. Replace the file with the new file and see what happens. You're not going to break anything as long as you only change a file or two. Once you see how it's being handled, and you're satisfied with the results, then you can copy over the  rest of the files.

[psychoadept]

Jinx, phred!

I’ll just add that MusicBee has a replace file command that will retain all the metadata from the old file while replacing it with a new one, even a different format.

[phred]

Jinx, phred!

I agree.

I’ll just add that MusicBee has a replace file command that will retain all the metadata from the old file while replacing it with a new one, even a different format.

Really? I wasn't aware of that. Where is this little wonder?

[psychoadept]

Really? I wasn't aware of that. Where is this little wonder?

Right click, send to, replace file...

[phred]

Right click, send to, replace file...

Ahhh ... Send to > Folder (replace) > [Replace the selected file...] OR [Use the Selected File to Replace another File...]

Thanks.

[clsven]

Any changes to a file, such as copying a file with the same file name, done from outside MB, such as dragging or copying from Explorer or changing tags, will require you the do a file rescan from within MB. Otherwise MB won't know that anything has changed.

At first thank you for the comments.

However your statement that MB won't know that anything has changed is NOT true.

When I drag a *.mp3 file onto a Playlist in MB then MB inserts the new song into the playlist.
BUT when MB inserts (=do) something means that it gets notified about an addition.
And when MB gets notified it could automatically append a file rescan.

Having to trigger it manually every time I drag a new file is tedious and leaves room for improvement :-)

So may I ask you to add an auto-rescan for every dragged file?

Thank you

[phred]

So may I ask you to add an auto-rescan for every dragged file?

First all, neither psychoadept nor I are the developers of MB nor do we have anything to do with the development. We are just users like yourself. Steven is the sole developer.

If you set up folders to be constantly monitored and that -should- pick up the changes on any files placed in that monitored folder. I must admit that I'm not sure how it would be handled if you're adding a file that has the exact filename as the file you're replacing. It may give a warning that a file already exists with that filename. Again, experiment with a file or two -after- you make backups of the original.
Preferences > Library > monitored folders > continuously monitor. And then select the new file action. I also suggest NOT choosing "automatically sweep and organize new files" unless you completely understand what that will do.

[psychoadept]

When I drag a *.mp3 file onto a Playlist in MB then MB inserts the new song into the playlist.
BUT when MB inserts (=do) something means that it gets notified about an addition.

I'm not at all sure what you mean by this, but I would say the same thing as phred. If you want MusicBee to pick up changes automatically, make a monitored folder.

[clsven]

Ok, thank you

Preferences > Library > monitored folders > continuously monitor.

was the key info. Before I only scanned files only at startup