Author Topic: Checkbox for excluding/ignoring tracks  (Read 6779 times)

helgatheviking

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I don't know exactly what to call this feature, but it is about the only thing that I like about iTunes compared to other music players.  I keep trying to dump iTunes but I can't find any other player that lets me leave songs in the library and in playlists but never play them if they are unchecked.  maybe that seems illogical, why not just delete them from playlists?, but i like knowing i have the song should i care to listen to it, and for 'completeness'.  however when i am just listening on shuffle i don't want particular songs to be played. 

maybe this screenshot will make more sense:



i'd love to see those checkboxes in the first column be implemented.

Adson

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I think this is already achievable via ratings and playlists.

The easier way would be the suggested checkbox.

+1

A.

Anti

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The 'ban' flag does what you wish. There are three main ways to flag tracks as 'banned':

Shift-click the love icon on the player interface.
OR
Edit -> settings -> exclude from playback -> full ban (or shuffle ban)
OR
Expose the 'love' field in a column, and shift-click the column next to the track you want to ban

The latter method is almost exactly like the iTunes checkbox you have illustrated. Banned tracks in static playlists are added to the Now Playing List, but have the 'skip' icon automatically placed beside them. Note that if you also manually send a banned track to the Now Playing List, it will still skip the track unless it is the only one in the NPL (or unless a banned track is first in the list - not sure if that's a bug or intended behaviour).

You can temporarily 'unskip' tracks in the Now Playing List (with the right-click menu) without removing the ban.

Bans also work for autoplaylists and AutoDJ, but in this event they are not added to the list at all (as opposed to added and skipped, as above).

The advantage of using ban instead of star rating (or similar fields) is that no exception rules are required in your playlists.

Tip: I have an 'administration' autoplaylist which lists all banned tracks; sometimes it's is helpful to see them all in one list.
Last Edit: January 16, 2012, 04:44:14 PM by Anti

helgatheviking

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brilliant!!  i never would have found that on my own.  i think shift-click to ban is a little weird, but i can get used to that.  thanks much and keep rockin'

Anti

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> i think shift-click to ban is a little weird, but i can get used to that.

It's because the last.FM 'love' flag came first, and the 'ban' flag was a user request added later.
Steven's trying to balance new features against keeping the interface clutter to a minimum.
If you hover over the love button on the player, there is a message stating what shift-click does, so it's not completely hidden.

Hopefully in the future some volunteers in the forum may be able to formally document musicbee's features.
At the moment, one of the best things to do is to read through the changes described in the 'weekly beta' forum.

helgatheviking

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i guess as a non-user of last.fm i didn't even know what the love column was and it wasn't enabled by default anyway.  i provide support in another forum so i know all about depending on volunteers for formal docu!  ahh well.  thank you again for helping me out.  i am pretty pumped as i think i've finally found my itunes replacement.

robertkjr3d

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As a newer user of Musicbee, that is also used to Itunes-Checkboxes, I've found this forum item.  
However, what I'm curious about and a little upset about is that:
If musicbee doesn't have the checkbox like itunes? Ok  We need to use the rating/love ban system.  I got that, sure.  No problem.

But when Importing from Itunes then, why didn't it take the unchecked data, and have those songs come over as 'Banned'?

What happened to me is I started playing my catalog of music with musicbee.  And it started playing music I've 'unchecked' years ago.

Other than that, the import worked nicely.  The layout is mostly been what I'm used to. 
This is what I would add to a 'Wishlist'.  Let me know if this needs to be a separate item.
Last Edit: January 23, 2021, 12:24:03 PM by robertkjr3d

psychoadept

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For what it's worth, this is very out of date, although I think the ban setting is probably still the best way to achieve the exact effect you're looking for.  MusicBee has the check box column, you just have to do a little more configuration with it than in iTunes. I use tick/untick combined with filters and auto playlists to manage what plays and gets synced, etc.

I have no idea whether the ticked/unticked status is available in the iTunes library xml, but if it is I guess asking for it to be included makes sense. But it's still not going to work exactly like it does in iTunes. You'd have to do something like make a playlist of all the unticked files and then set them to banned.
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robertkjr3d

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For what it's worth, this is very out of date, although I think the ban setting is probably still the best way to achieve the exact effect you're looking for.  MusicBee has the check box column, you just have to do a little more configuration with it than in iTunes. I use tick/untick combined with filters and auto playlists to manage what plays and gets synced, etc.

I have no idea whether the ticked/unticked status is available in the iTunes library xml, but if it is I guess asking for it to be included makes sense. But it's still not going to work exactly like it does in iTunes. You'd have to do something like make a playlist of all the unticked files and then set them to banned.

 <dict>
 <key>Track ID</key><integer>1592</integer>
 <key>Size</key><integer>439121</integer>
 <key>Total Time</key><integer>61872</integer>
 <key>Track Number</key><integer>23</integer>
 <key>Year</key><integer>2010</integer>
 <key>Date Modified</key><date>2011-10-31T21:59:15Z</date>
 <key>Date Added</key><date>2012-10-16T02:06:25Z</date>
 <key>Bit Rate</key><integer>48</integer>
 <key>Sample Rate</key><integer>24000</integer>
 <key>Play Count</key><integer>2</integer>
 <key>Play Date</key><integer>3455432967</integer>
 <key>Play Date UTC</key><date>2013-06-30T14:29:27Z</date>
 <key>Artwork Count</key><integer>1</integer>
 <key>Persistent ID</key><string>DF256A474B841359</string>
<key>Disabled</key><true/>
 <key>Track Type</key><string>File</string>
 <key>File Folder Count</key><integer>-1</integer>
 <key>Library Folder Count</key><integer>-1</integer>
                        ...

This is a piece of the itunes... xml... The 'disabled' means 'unchecked' it would be rather simple to assign as 'banned'.
As I said, I have no problem with the idea, of using the 'Ban' concept.  The problem I'm referring to is the original 'Importing' music from Itunes.  And that is exactly the 'Wishlist' question from the original person here from long-ago.

What musicbee did do: Was bring over Itunes Ratings:
         <key>Rating</key><integer>80</integer>
         <key>Rating Computed</key><true/>
That is 4 stars.  You make it sound difficult to find the 'disable' key and call it 'banned'.

So now I got years of music... and have to refigure out what's supposed to be 'unchecked'... oh wait 'banned'.  

But it would be easier, to just reimport... with the software able to 'ban it for me'.
Last Edit: January 26, 2021, 04:53:55 PM by robertkjr3d

pregunontrack

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For what it's worth, this is very out of date, although I think the ban setting is probably still the best way to achieve the exact effect you're looking for.  MusicBee has the check box column, you just have to do a little more configuration with it than in iTunes. I use tick/untick combined with filters and auto playlists to manage what plays and gets synced, etc.

I have no idea whether the ticked/unticked status is available in the iTunes library xml, but if it is I guess asking for it to be included makes sense. But it's still not going to work exactly like it does in iTunes. You'd have to do something like make a playlist of all the unticked files and then set them to banned.

Can you tell me where do i tick the songs? And what extra configuration I have to do to be able to use these ticked songs as the one to be shuffle only also the ones I want to export to Android or be copied?

psychoadept

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Can you tell me where do i tick the songs? And what extra configuration I have to do to be able to use these ticked songs as the one to be shuffle only also the ones I want to export to Android or be copied?

You can add the column in Set Displayed Fields (in Tracks or Album & Tracks view). For configuration, just create a playlist or filter based on ticked/unticked status. Then you can use that for playback or syncing.
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sveakul

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Can you tell me where do i tick the songs?

Right-click the Header menu, choose "Set Displayed Fields;"  drag the check-mark in "Other Fields" over to the Selected Fields column: