Author Topic: Change folder names without it impacting playlists  (Read 2636 times)

Fivda

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I have a lot of playlists i use, saved in MBP format. But that comes with a problem, cause whenever i change a file or folder to a different name or something, it won't be able to detect the file in playlists anymore, cause it'll keep looking for the original filename of the file in question in it. That's not a problem whenever i'm tagging however, since usually, I just need to use the FIle Organiser to move files around or use the Send>To option. Editting through the computer node to rename a folder has also been enough so far cause in general i just need to edit one specific folder, so it's not a problem.

But now I feel like and want to edit a LOT of folder names because i've changed my naming conventions for album folder names.
Previously, i've been doing "(YEAR) Album Name - Artist Name" but now I feel like adding catalog numbers, in such fashion: "(YEAR.MONTH.DAY) [CAT] Album Name - Artist Name".
I guess there's a way to autorename through musicbee based on tags, but the thing is that I don't necessarily input such informations in mytags, such as the full release date (month & day), or sometimes i simply do not want to use the classic formula. Ideally I'd just like to do it all manually, rather than having to edit 3000+ worth of albums data to add a custom tag to sort it all or something.

So basically what i'm asking for, if it's possible, is if there's a way to use windows explorer to edit folder names as I want to, without it breaking all of my playlists...? I'm not sure i'm making this clear cause at this point it's kind of my own problem but i'd be glad to know if there's an easy way to do it simply through windows explorer without ruining the filepaths of the tracks in my playlists or something.

psychoadept

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If you're going to go to the trouble of organizing the files using info like catalog numbers, you may as well save it to the file and let MusicBee do the organizing for you automatically. It wouldn't be any more work than renaming the folders manually, and I don't know of an easy way to relocate the files once you've done that type of renaming externally. If you don't feel like any of the built-in tags could be repurposed for this, you have 16 custom tag slots available. And if your files ever get moved by accident, you'll have the info available to reorganize them easily.
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Fivda

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If you're going to go to the trouble of organizing the files using info like catalog numbers, you may as well save it to the file and let MusicBee do the organizing for you automatically. It wouldn't be any more work than renaming the folders manually, and I don't know of an easy way to relocate the files once you've done that type of renaming externally. If you don't feel like any of the built-in tags could be repurposed for this, you have 16 custom tag slots available. And if your files ever get moved by accident, you'll have the info available to reorganize them easily.
Well i do have the catalog numbers saved in a custom tag. But when it comes to the release date i want it to specify the month and day in the folder name, but with the way i've got my albums tagged when it comes to the year... I just put the year. I only leave the month and day to the folders. And I'm not sure how i feel about adding a full release date to all of numerous albums just for the sake of folder structures, cause i do have at least 30% of my library which is sorted the way i want it to already, I mainly need to rename folders that date from before I changed the way i rename my folders.

psychoadept

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I'm not sure how i feel about adding a full release date to all of numerous albums just for the sake of folder structures

I don't understand why this is an obstacle. There's an original date tag you could put the full date in, or you could put it in a custom tag. Or even just the part of the date that isn't a year. You don't have to change the year tag if you don't want to.
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Fivda

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I'm not sure how i feel about adding a full release date to all of numerous albums just for the sake of folder structures

I don't understand why this is an obstacle. There's an original date tag you could put the full date in, or you could put it in a custom tag. Or even just the part of the date that isn't a year. You don't have to change the year tag if you don't want to.
Guess so, it's just that adding that information doesn't seem to be any less work than by manually doing it on the explorer, if not even more...
And there are also some exceptions where i don't necessarily want to follow that one folder naming standard as well. But admitedly, if i'd do it, how'd i make it so that musicbee may autorename folders following that one pattern?

psychoadept

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It sounds like you're going to have to do something manually, no matter what. If nothing else, you can create a custom folder string in MusicBee for your less formulaic entries. Combined with a virtual tag, this could be really powerful. Something to the effect of "if <custom folder string>, <custom folder string>, else <formatted date> [<catalog #>] <album> - <artist>". (Obviously that would have to be rewritten in actual MusicBee formulas.)

And you'll be saving yourself all the work of relinking playlists. Features like "relink music file paths" only help if the file movement is very simple, like changing the root folder of a whole folder tree.
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Fivda

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It sounds like you're going to have to do something manually, no matter what. If nothing else, you can create a custom folder string in MusicBee for your less formulaic entries. Combined with a virtual tag, this could be really powerful. Something to the effect of "if <custom folder string>, <custom folder string>, else <formatted date> [<catalog #>] <album> - <artist>". (Obviously that would have to be rewritten in actual MusicBee formulas.)

And you'll be saving yourself all the work of relinking playlists. Features like "relink music file paths" only help if the file movement is very simple, like changing the root folder of a whole folder tree.

Hm, in that case, what are the steps i should do to make it so the folders get renamed in such fashion? "(YYYY.MM.DD) [CAT] <AlbumName> - <AlbumArtistName>"
and if there are no catalog number indication, i'd like it to simply show "(YYYY.MM.DD) <AlbumName> - <AlbumArtistName>"

For reference, YYYY.MM.DD would be custom tag 11, and catalog would be custom tag 1.

I'm also wondering if it'd be possible to indicate a filename char mapping, like there is with the file organizer?

psychoadept

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I haven't had time to follow up yet, but this might help you: https://musicbee.fandom.com/wiki/Functions
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