Some kind of auto-locate feature for a playlist that's missing all its songs?

[Bacchus]

So I recently migrated my OS to a new SSD, and stashed all my old files on the previous drive. I was expecting this to cause MusicBee to lose track of all my songs, so I reset the library to the new Music folder. MusicBee has successfully found and imported all my songs, but my playlists are a mess. Basically, I was able to get MuiscBee to recognize the playlist files in the new location, so it has the tracklists for the playlists, but doesn't know where the actual song files for those tracks are. Right now I've been manually pressing play on each song, then showing MB where the actual file is when it says it doesn't know. I was wondering if there's a quicker way to do it? Some way to get MB to look through the new music folder and match things up?

[Bacchus]

The weirdest part is that when I play a song in the playlist that MB says is missing, the dialogue box that comes up asking if I want to locate it has the new location of my music library in it.
Example: "The source file for 'Example Song' could not be found. Would you like to locate it? D(the new location for my music library):\Music\Example Song\Example Artist"

The D: location it lists after asking me to locate the file is the correct location for the file, so I'm not sure why it's asking me to locate it again?

[Bacchus]

I should qualify my reply up there by saying the example I gave is one folder off, I guess? My files are in D:\Music\Music, whereas MB just says D:\Music

[phred]

Use a text editor to edit the playlist files to account for the new path. Notepad++ can do a bulk search and replace, but make sure you test it first to make sure it's working as expected.

[frankz]

EDIT TO ADD: If it's just the references in your playlists, then phred's suggestion is the correct way.

IF THE LIBRARY REFERENCES ARE WRONG you can use File->Library->Relink Music File Paths to point all the references to D:\Music in your library to D:\Music\Music

Where MB thinks they are goes to the left, where they actually are goes to the right.

[Bacchus]

I tried phred's method, but so far I haven't gotten any results. Please forgive me, I've never used Notepad++
I manually replaced the text for a couple of songs in the M3U file in the text editor, from '\Music\Example Artist\Example Song' to 'D:\Music\Music\Example Artist\Example Song' but the few songs I tried that with still aren't linking properly in the imported test playlist I made. I get the feeling I'm not doing the Notepad++ side of this correctly?

[Bacchus]

With the test playlist I made, which is based off a copy of the original M3U file that I edited (all my original M3U files are untouched until I know what I'm doing) trying to play a song now gives me the "Source file could not be found" message, but underneath that part the file path is now "D:\Music\Playlists\Playlists\Playlists\D\Music\MusicD\Music\Example Song" which makes me think I've definitely messed something up in Notepad++

[The Incredible Boom Boom]

Can't you just select the tracks in your playlists and then Tools -> Locate missing files?

[Bacchus]

Can't you just select the tracks in your playlists and then Tools -> Locate missing files?

Nope, nothing happens with the auto search function of this, which means I'd be doing it file-by-file anyway

[Bacchus]

Use a text editor to edit the playlist files to account for the new path. Notepad++ can do a bulk search and replace, but make sure you test it first to make sure it's working as expected.

I was wondering if my tests using the M3U files instead of the MBP files was why it wasn't working, so I popped one of the MBP files into Notepad++ and tried editing just the first few songs, but no dice. When I'm editing the MBP file as opposed to an M3U file it's one loooooong line of text, instead of having a new row for each song.

[frankz]

MPB files are not raw text and are not editable as text.

Have you even tried the Relink Music File Paths suggestion I made earlier?  Are the files referenced correctly in your library?

Either way, whatever's meant to happen will happen!

[Bacchus]

MPB files are not raw text and are not editable as text.

Have you even tried the Relink Music File Paths suggestion I made earlier?  Are the files referenced correctly in your library?

Either way, whatever's meant to happen will happen!

Yes I tried that, had no noticeable effect. My library's songs are all properly linked and playing fine, it just can't figure out where those same songs are within playlists I'm trying to import from playlist files.

[frankz]

Have you tried editing the playlists to point to the correct location before importing them?  If it's a simple text replacement it shouldn't be too complicated a task.

In Notepad++

CTRL+H

Find What: D:\Music
Replace with: D:\Music\Music
Replace All

Of course, if some of them already say D:\Music\Music you're going to wind up with some messed up entries and you're going to have to account for that. Maybe first a replacement from D:\Music\Music to D:\Music to get everything in the same state, and then the final replacement.  Logic it out.

The other option, maybe the easier one, is to move your music files from D:\Music\Music to D:\Music (with the rest of the structure in tact) from within Musicbee, and that way your library and your playlists will agree.

I'll admit to being very curious as to why,  when setting up your new system with all options available to you, you chose to put your music files one folder level deeper than they were one the old system.  Why not just put them in D:\Music from the start.  Not that it matters now, of course.  I"m just curious.

All the best!

[Bacchus]

Have you tried editing the playlists to point to the correct location before importing them?  If it's a simple text replacement it shouldn't be too complicated a task.

In Notepad++

CTRL+H

Find What: D:\Music
Replace with: D:\Music\Music
Replace All

Of course, if some of them already say D:\Music\Music you're going to wind up with some messed up entries and you're going to have to account for that. Maybe first a replacement from D:\Music\Music to D:\Music to get everything in the same state, and then the final replacement.  Logic it out.

The other option, maybe the easier one, is to move your music files from D:\Music\Music to D:\Music (with the rest of the structure in tact) from within Musicbee, and that way your library and your playlists will agree.

All the best!

Thank you so much for all your help here. I'm thinking of trying the second suggestion first, if it really is simpler. Just wanna make sure I'm getting what you're saying.
Do you mean I should highlight all the songs in my library within the MusicBee window, and drag them into the file explorer window to the D:\Music location?
Again, really appreciate the help, I fiddle with my PC way too much for someone who barely gets how it works.

[frankz]

Have you tried editing the playlists to point to the correct location before importing them?  If it's a simple text replacement it shouldn't be too complicated a task.

In Notepad++

CTRL+H

Find What: D:\Music
Replace with: D:\Music\Music
Replace All

Of course, if some of them already say D:\Music\Music you're going to wind up with some messed up entries and you're going to have to account for that. Maybe first a replacement from D:\Music\Music to D:\Music to get everything in the same state, and then the final replacement.  Logic it out.

The other option, maybe the easier one, is to move your music files from D:\Music\Music to D:\Music (with the rest of the structure in tact) from within Musicbee, and that way your library and your playlists will agree.

All the best!

Thank you so much for all your help here. I'm thinking of trying the second suggestion first, if it really is simpler. Just wanna make sure I'm getting what you're saying.
Do you mean I should highlight all the songs in my library within the MusicBee window, and drag them into the file explorer window to the D:\Music location?
Again, really appreciate the help, I fiddle with my PC way too much for someone who barely gets how it works.

I'm saying you should, from within musicbee, take all of the folders and move them up one level to the root of D:\Music.

I think you can probably accomplish this through the organization using D:\Music as a root folder and <Folder Name>\<Filename> as a template but don't quote me on that because it's very late here and I don't have time to test anything. Maybe preview using that and see if it gives the desired result of keeping everything else in tact.  It may just give you another level of folders.

I don't use dragging and dropping so maybe someone who does can advise whether it would work.

Whatever you do, don't do everything at once.  Test, check, test, small sample, etc.