A very frustrated man

[ultrarunner2018]

This is in reference to MusicBee 3.3.7367 on Windows 10 Pro 20H2 (build 19042.1110)
I have my music library located on my PC and use MusicBee to catalog it.
I also have copies of most of the tracks on my Android phone.
I would like to keep track of which tracks I have on the phone and which I do not, so I used one of the custom tags. I renamed this tag 'Phone'.
I put a Y in the tag's value if the track is on the phone, and leave it blank if it is not.

Today I spent about 2 hours updating the values of the Phone tags on tracks in MusicBee.
I have been doing this by selecting multiple tracks of one artist, open the tag editor, and set the value for the custom (phone) tag to Y.
Then I hit Save, and move on to the next group.

I have also been moving some of the .flac files on the PC from one folder to another as I try to create a simplified directory structure. In the past, I have always stored files in folders by album, but since I am using MusicBee to sort out which tracks belong to which album, I am moving the flac files into a single folder for each artist. I never listen to albums anyway, so I just thought I would make my life easier - when I need to search in Explorer for a specific file.

When I make changes to the location of the files, I need to refresh MusicBee. I do this by File > Scan folders for new files.

Is this a bug in MusicBee, or am I violating some sort of rule of file integrity?
I am really frustrated with this now, so am planning to go back to my Access database for keeping my library organized, using MusicBee only for playing the tracks.

Any idea of what I am doing wrong?

Thanks
Ultrarunner

Edit: After posting, I recalled reading in these forums about saving custom tags to MusicBee database only or to permanent metadata in the files.
So I opened preferences and on the Tags(1) tab I see that I have my custom tags set to save to MusicBee database only.
So I chose one of the other options (File Owner) and selected it for the custom tags.
Now these tags no longer disappear if I move the files on the PC.
I assume that saving to MusicBee database only does just that - saves to a special MusicBee file somewhere on my PC (probably in Users/../Appdata.
This when the files are moved, and MusicBee rescans the music folders, these tags are reset.
I assume that by saving to 'File Owner' or any of the other choices in that list, I am saving the data to the file itself, thus it will not be lost if the file is moved.
Is this correct?

Thanks again.
Ultrarunner

[wealstarr]

I've been using MusicBee for some years now but for the life of me custom/virtual tags still elude me.

[frankz]

The unique key MB uses to determine which file is which is the URL (folder location + file name).  When you save tags to the database (your MBL library file), those tags are associated with the file at that URL.

When you move and/or rename files outside of MB, you break the association and MB can no longer find the file associated with the tags you saved to the database.  Those tags are orphaned.  It will also break your playlists, linked (not embedded) artwork, playback statistics, etc.

This is not an issue when you move / rename files from within MB either manually or using one of the myriad organization options.  If your intention is to keep your library master record in MB, then you should do this.  That way everything stays synchronized.

If you save tags to the file, then they are in the metadata of the file and portable.

Not much point in a using a sophisticated music library manager like MB if you're going to manually manage the library outside of the library manager you've chosen.  Pick one method of management and stick with it IMO.

[ultrarunner2018]

Thanks for the info.
I do prefer MB over a database program like MS Access, since I can more easily find and delete duplicates, and play the tracks I have selected.
I only wish MB had an Android app. It would make managing the PC and phone together much easier.