Author Topic: Removing track from library only sometimes deletes from playlists  (Read 2794 times)

bigdenver

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As the topic says.  Deleting a track or album leaves behind the entries for those items in the playlists - sometimes!  Sometimes it will remove them.  It's a royal pain as I'm updating my library to FLAC album by album.  I can select the entire album and either "remove from library" or "remove and delete from filesystem".  It will remove the items from the main music library, but playlists will retain the tracks, even though they are removed from the main library and deleted form the disk.

Adding them back in results in "already exists", forcing me to go through all 47 playlists and manually remove the already removed items.  Running latest beta.

phred

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Someone posted a very similar report just a few days ago, but I can't find it at this moment. Apply the latest patch (assuming you're not using the Store version) as I think Steven addressed this issue. See my signature.
Last Edit: May 05, 2021, 01:05:31 PM by phred
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

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sveakul

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Tools->Advanced->Compress Library may also help in this situation.  Removes entries in the *.mbl that no longer link to anything in the library or playlists.

Steven

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Unless you can give me specific steps where I am able to reproduce the issue, I wont be able to help. I am certainly not seeing any way for that to happen from looking at the code and I cant recall anyone else making this claim.

phred

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I cant recall anyone else making this claim.
That would certainly explain why I couldn't find what I -thought- I had seen recently.   :-(
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

----------
The FAQ
The Wiki
Posting screenshots is here
Searching the forum with Google is  here


bigdenver

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If I pull up a track in the main library view, and select "Delete", then select "Delete form library only", it is gone and deleted from the library.  It still remains in the playlists, as if the playlist didn't update with the removal.

I do not believe this happens when deleting from filesystem (I'm not 100% sure if that has happened), but happens almost every time when only deleting from library.  I ran a library compression, but it didn't help.

FYI, I can recreate by adding a deleted item back into the library after it fails to remove from the playlist.  Even after re-adding to the library and deleting again, the item will still remain in the playlist(s).  I made a video of this happening.  I did this procedure several times, and it just won't remove the track from the playlist.

I hope this video helps to convey what is going on:

https://youtu.be/RJZOQeuuJUs

frankz

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What format is your playlist in?  Is it an imported M3U (etc) or a native MB MBP file?


bigdenver

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I can confirm that selecting to delete from both library and filesystem seems to remove it from all playlists.  The option to remove from library only does not update the playlists.
Last Edit: May 04, 2021, 10:22:13 PM by bigdenver

Steven

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I can confirm that selecting to delete from both library and filesystem seems to remove it from all playlists.  The option to remove from library only does not update the playlists.
i am now quite confused as to what the issue you are reporting is. This is exactly as I expect MusicBee to behave ie. for physically deleted files, to remove them from any MB playlist, and for files removed only from the library but still present on the computer, to leave them in the playlist

frankz

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LOL - yes. I missed that OP changed it up halfway through.

Quote
I can select the entire album and either "remove from library" or "remove and delete from filesystem".  It will remove the items from the main music library, but playlists will retain the tracks, even though they are removed from the main library and deleted form the disk.
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I do not believe this happens when deleting from filesystem

bigdenver

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I can confirm that selecting to delete from both library and filesystem seems to remove it from all playlists.  The option to remove from library only does not update the playlists.
i am now quite confused as to what the issue you are reporting is. This is exactly as I expect MusicBee to behave ie. for physically deleted files, to remove them from any MB playlist, and for files removed only from the library but still present on the computer, to leave them in the playlist

Steven,

  Thanks for the quick response.  I would expect that a file deleted from the library is just that... deleted from the entire library.  The playlist should follow and also remove the track, as it's no longer part of the collection.  Whether it remains on the disk or not seems irrelevant as you have said you no longer want that track in your library at all, but you should still be able to leave it on the hard drive for possible later re-addition and to keep the album as a whole on the hard drive. 

  There are many cases where there are duplicated tracks that may or may not be different (album vs. "greatest hits", radio edits, etc.).  A use case would be where I had only the greatest hits album in my library for a long time, then I got the actual album that some of those tracks appeared on.  Several of those old greatest hits tracks were radio edits, and are now scattered across several playlists. I wish to now "upgrade" those tracks to the album versions.

  After I import the new album, l  delete the old duplicates from the main library so as to not pollute the library with them.  Since they are part of the album on the hard drive, I don't want to physically delete them, just not have them available in the library anymore.  Now I have to go and manually clean all of my playlists of these tracks also?  That's cumbersome when you have more than 20 of them.

  For me, the expected behavior is that when a track is removed from the library, that change should also propagate to any other appearance of that track within MB, such as playlists.  If you are saying that it is designed that way, I will discontinue this thread.  I love MB, but this particular operation goes against functionality in all other music management applications I have used, such as iTunes, MediaMonkey, Twonky, etc.  If that's just the way it is, I'll work around it.

@frankz: I didn't mean to throw off the chain.  I edited my post to reflect the most recent information of the issue, as it became more clear what was really going on.  As there had been no replies yet, I felt it was safe to do so.  Going forward, I will just add additional comments instead of making edits.

Thank you for your hard work on this application and the super fast support responses.  You guys are awesome!

frankz

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I would expect that a file deleted from the library is just that... deleted from the entire library.  The playlist should follow and also remove the track, as it's no longer part of the collection.
I do not agree with this.  Rather than expecting the program to adjust to your specific process, I think you should adjust your process to match the way you now know the program works.  We all spend time managing our playlists and libraries, and sometimes it's cumbersome because that's what hobbies sometimes are.  

I think it is an irregular use to want to keep files around even though you don't want to actually use them for anything besides a sense of album completeness but also simultaneously not care whether that completeness carries over to your library manager.  It's usually one or the other.  You either usually want to totally get rid of them, or you want to see in your library manager that they exist.

bigdenver

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I would expect that a file deleted from the library is just that... deleted from the entire library.  The playlist should follow and also remove the track, as it's no longer part of the collection.
I think you should adjust your process to match the way you now know the program works.  We all spend time managing our playlists and libraries, and sometimes it's cumbersome because that's what hobbies sometimes are. 

That's why I said " If that's just the way it is, I'll work around it.".  I still feel that having the option, perhaps in the delete dialogue, for "Delete from library and playlists" would be a nice feature.  Hobbies don't have to necessarily be cumbersome, when the code can easily help with some of the more mundane tasks.  Either way, it's just something I'll deal with.  It's not the end of the world and certainly not a huge issue, and I don't love MB any less for not having this ability.    Thanks for your reply.