Black Exclaimation Marks And total Confusion Setting Up MusicBee i

[Screenthemes]

Hi,

Hoping some can help me on the forum. From the off, I'm not tech-savvy and have for many years used
an iTunes player. Have come to MusicBee on recommendation and whilst its great software I am struggling to
make sense of a number of issues relating to tagging, storage and the fact my music collection seems to
play but in the 'Playlist' section every track has a black exclamation mark next to it, and
when hovering a mouse over it, I'm informed that the track(s) are missing. Each individual track plays
but I have to click on the following track for the album to continue. Clearly, I'm doing
something seriously wrong.

I am utterly confused, and have in honesty received a number of brusque, impatient, bordering on tech-arrogant
replies to previous questions and enquiries for help.

Guys, I just want to make sense of what I am doing. Not get treated like a 'thick school child' who can't do
his maths homework.

In total I have uploaded 198, 715 files, some 1787.6GB from one WD book and four Toshiba separate hard drives.


I am also getting the return of unwanted duplicate albums, and previously deleted/removed files, so a brief rundown as
to how I prevent this from happening each time I boot up MusicBee would be great, and how I can successfully deal
 with the foreboding black exclamation marks.

many thanks,

Best wishes,

Screenthemes

[hiccup]

Welcome to the forum Screenthemes.
When you are self-admittedly not the most tech-savvy guy around, it may have been a bad decision to jump in and immediately add your (close to) 200.000 tracks to MusicBee.

If you can revert the situation, I would suggest to start again by using a clean portable installation of MusicBee.
Create one or more test folders on different locations that you intend to use for your music files, and only add a selection of copies of your actual music files to them.

Then start importing and experimenting, and pay very good attention to everything that happens using the different features and when changing settings.
That's probably the best step-by-step way to learn and understand MusicBee's working and features.
As soon as something 'strange' happens then, it will probably be very easy to find the answer on the forum.

Perhaps somebody else is willing to answer your current questions, but the chances are the answers are already available somewhere on the forum, and because you kind of jumped in without a solid understanding it will be difficult to pinpoint what exactly happened and how to help you solve it.

[frankz]

Beware, hiccup.  It would appear that telling someone it's a good idea to spend some time learning how to use the program before continuing is "blunt and condescending."

[Screenthemes]

Mr Editor.

I am reading and learning as I go. I'm not expecting miracles, just a little assistance.

There's a word for a brittle individual like you.

****

Yours sincerely,

Etc, etc.

[hiccup]

@Steven: please remove my 'editor' status a.s.a.p?
(it's leading to some confusion  )

Guys, can we keep (or inject) some humour and relativity here?
This is just a hobby and an interest we seem to share?

[frankz]

Guys, can we keep (or inject) some humour and relativity here?
This is just a hobby and an interest we seem to share?

Maybe that was her attempt at humor?

[sveakul]

If you can revert the situation, I would suggest to start again by using a clean portable installation of MusicBee.
Create one or more test folders on different locations that you intend to use for your music files, and only add a selection of copies of your actual music files to them.
Then start importing and experimenting, and pay very good attention to everything that happens using the different features and when changing settings.

Absolutely the best advice at this point.  And with the Portable version, reverting back to a "good" state after an "uh-oh" is as easy as copying back the backup folder you should make at each stage.