Author Topic: Removing outdated data easily?  (Read 1708 times)

KA1J

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My first post, so hello to the group!

I have a pretty extensive collection of lossless music. Much of it is from live recordings I've edited and I'm adding info with MP3Tag & dbpoweramp's Edit-ID editors. I'm also making corrections frequently to CD/SACD data to organize more consistently. What is happening with MusicBee is the old data keeps remaining even after I make changes and rescan using: tools > Advanced > Rescan All Files.

An example of this is on one of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers LP's: I have 8 TP&TH LPs, I had entered an extra space in one making it "Petty  &" instead of "Petty &" so that showed as a separate TP LP under artist. I went back to the editor, removed the space and rescanned the music folder as above expecting it would find the error and then correct what was displayed, but it did not. the incorrect album persists still but when I try to play it, it does not find it as that album has been renamed in the ID codes.

The only solution I have found is to delete MusicBee and its residual files hidden in the user directory and then re-install MusicBee. I then have it point to the relevant folder, index the 80K some files, and then set up ASIO to have it properly display & play what is there. Kinda time consuming.

Is there something I have missed where I can have it remove "Ghost" files that persist in appearing even though the initial listing was renamed/altered in the ID codes? Having to reinstall must be a draconian approach, any help?

Thanks!

The Incredible Boom Boom

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"...renamed in the ID codes."

What does that mean?

In any case, you can right-click and rescan, rather than having to use the option to rescan all your files.
A number of people, including me, have been having some problems with updating tags within MB, if they're on a network share. This might be what you're experiencing.

Have you set MB to continuously monitor folders?

KA1J

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Hi, & thanks for the reply. Perhaps ID codes is a poor choice of words. I'm talking about changing the metadata information in the music files like the title, band, genre, artist, photo & so on; the ID3v1, ID3v2.3, ID3v2.4 tags to be more precise. When I was using the Tom Petty example, the metadata containing the band's name had an extra space between Petty and the &  on one CD. Because of that typo, all the other Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were grouped with one icon & the one with the typo showed as a single, stand-alone CD. (The two Tom Petty CDs were listed with one icon).

The point being, MusicBee uses the metadata to assign what it sees and my typo made for an incorrect grouping. When I corrected the typo, MusicBee kept the original typo but as I'd corrected the metadata, Musicbee couldn't find the file. My question is how to remove the erroneous file seen on the left hand side of the page so it goes away and properly reflects the corrected metadata CD with the rest in the group.

I'd post a photo showing this but I can't attach one from my screen print, I need a url to do that.

Where do you right click to rescan? On the far left column? I did that and the only rescan option is under "send to" and clicking on that does nothing I can tell. The left column is where the old data persists with the typo that I'm talking about. If I click on the mis-spelled album, it shows the corrected spelling in the center where I can select which tune to play, but that mis-spelled CD is still separate on the left even though I did a full rescan.

I set MB to continuously monitor folders but upon restart, nothing has changed, the misnamed folder is still there and it does not show under the other properly named CDs.

I've probably been too wordy but with no photo to show, I'm doing my best to explain. I need MB to re-sort the info in my music files and then reflect that by correcting the info in the left hand column.

KA1J

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From the lack of answers addressing this, I have to take it there is no built-in method to search the database at will and remove old and non-existent indexes/data of files/locations/names when they have been altered or relocated. This, leaving the only way to address moved files or corrected files being a 100% removal of MusicBee from Windows, including all of its data placed in the Windows "users" tree, followed by re-installation of MusicBee, requiring all prior elective settings to be reset, followed by a scan.

Why does MusicBee not do a fresh scan when one performs a: Tools > Advanced > Rescan? Why does MusicBee persist in keeping outdated information when it no longer exists as it did earlier?

I'm at a loss and if there's an answer to doing a scan which reflects only what is currently there, please let me know how to do this. I've been searching & I haven't found this answer.

Thanks.

sveakul

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This is probably too good to be true, but try Tools->Advanced->Compress Library, which removes entries of files no longer actually present in the library or in playlists.  It may take care of many if not most of the issues you report.

KA1J

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sveakul,

Thanks for that suggestion, I'll give it a try. I just re-installed MusicBee for the umpteenth time as I'm going through all my FLAC files and entering the ID3v1, ID3v2.3, ID3v2.4 tags properly so all my music will reflect the proper data like Genre, album artist; all the tags. I had some mis-spellings I had to correct and it was frustrating to do everything I could to get the old mis-spellings gone, but they persisted. When I'm done editing tonight and have relocated folders from their old, to their new locations, I'll be able to see if that works for me.

Thanks for the reply.

sveakul

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Let us know if it clears things up;  but if you're actually starting from scratch with a whole new library (as opposed to working with the old one) it shouldn't make any difference at this point.  BTW, I'm wondering why you are adding ID3 tags to FLAC files when their native tagging format is Vorbis Comment?

KA1J

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As to the tagging, the two pieces of software I have to set the data are "dBpoweramp: Edit ID-Tag for multiple files, and Mp3Tag. Either can do it alone but using dBpoweramp's Edit makes it easy to assign all the info I use when making a digital copy of a LP, with the exception of naming individual pieces & while it can work for the single copy, I find Mp3Tag is ideal for my needs.

I don't know if either or both of these editors use Vorbis. I can though say Poweramp's Edit allow me to add a remarkable selection of built in tags and also allows me to create custom tags on the fly. None of the tags has ever created an issue in any player I've used, and the internet options for covers/art displayed in Edit is impressive. That said, MusicBee, while not offering as vast a series of internet options on art to embed, is also impressive and embeds the photo 2-3 X faster than Edit does.

I will get back tomorrow after I've made some changes & see how they come out.

Thanks again.

Roby

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Try clicking on the 3 dots on the right of the "Artist" field and check that the values are consistent. Sometimes happens...