Smart way to replace mp3-files by FLAC-files

[EGOlein]

Hi everyone,

I have two archives: One is used and contains mostly mp3 files. The other one is more an archive with the same files in flac format.

Now I want to replace the mp3 files with the flac files. I know that I can replace them one by one if I remove the mp3 files and search for it in MusicBee. But this is an awful work with 11k files and error-prone. Is there a smarter way how I can replace those files in bigger groups?

Thanks
Stefan

[hiccup]

Are the filenames identical between the mp3 and flac versions?

[vincent kars]

Tools > Managing duplicates?

[frankz]

I went through the process over the past year or two, using the Additional Tagging Tools plugin to copy the tags that were important to me (Date Added / Last Played / Play Count, etc) and manually replacing the files in playlists, artist by artist, album by album.  It is not fun.  I do not think there is an easier way.

[EGOlein]

Are the filenames identical between the mp3 and flac versions?

Yes, besides few files with long names the most files have the same name.

Tools > Managing duplicates?

How can that help me? Could you please explain.

I went through the process over the past year or two, using the Additional Tagging Tools plugin to copy the tags that were important to me (Date Added / Last Played / Play Count, etc) and manually replacing the files in playlists, artist by artist, album by album.  It is not fun.  I do not think there is an easier way.

I use mp3tag to copy tags to the flac files. And I agree manually replacing the files of large music collection is not fun and takes years. That's why I am looking for a smarter way to do it.

[frankz]

I use mp3tag to copy tags to the flac files. And I agree manually replacing the files of large music collection is not fun and takes years. That's why I am looking for a smarter way to do it.

I should have been more precise, I think. I tagged all of my FLACs fresh with Picard because my mp3 tags were all over the place as far as quality, and then I used the ATT plugin to copy the library data from old to new so I didn't lose my play / add history or ratings and also used it to copy Title, Display Artist, Album and Album Artist old to new because I didn't want to lose sync with what I had been scrobbling.

As I said, I don't think there's a smarter way - MB doesn't have the tools to perform this kind of wholesale switch AFAIK.

[hiccup]

Are the filenames identical between the mp3 and flac versions?

Yes, besides few files with long names the most files have the same name.

Then you could take a file-based approach to solve it.
Use a duplicate file finder for Windows. Make it find all files with duplicate file names (excluding the extension), and have it delete the smaller file sizes.
Then let MusicBee rescan the folder(s) to its library.

This is of course only an option if you don't care much about more dynamic and personal library metadata information such as play history, scrobbles, etc. (like me)

[frankz]

This is of course only an option if you don't care much about more dynamic and personal library metadata information such as play history, scrobbles, etc. (like me)

...or playlist membership.  You'd have to rebuild each playlist.

[hiccup]

This is of course only an option if you don't care much about more dynamic and personal library metadata information such as play history, scrobbles, etc. (like me)

...or playlist membership.  You'd have to rebuild each playlist.

Ah yes, that's true. This would really be a clean-slate approach.

[EGOlein]

This is of course only an option if you don't care much about more dynamic and personal library metadata information such as play history, scrobbles, etc. (like me)

I care about those (meta)data - otherwise I would just add the flac-files to the library and delete the mp3-files (similar as you said). But I want to replace them.

[hiccup]

I care about those (meta)data - otherwise I would just add the flac-files to the library and delete the mp3-files (similar as you said). But I want to replace them.

Then forget about my suggestion, and follow frankz' and vincent kars' suggestions.

[EGOlein]

Hi,

thanks for trying to help me. I have started to replace the mp3 files manually. This will take weeks and months but it seems to be the only way. I have some other problems but will start a new thread for this.

Thanks again.
Stefan

[frankz]

This will take weeks and months but it seems to be the only way.

Years in my experience. 

[wombleywoo]

If anyone is interested, I have created a crowdfunding campaign to pay a developer to make a plugin which automates this process!

https://gofund.me/38c41b2e

[EGOlein]

Hi I have done it. Months of boring work but now all my flac-files are included.