New forum member and database question(s)

[John Paul]

Hey everyone.  New to MusicBee and really liking it.  Beats the heck out of wmp and mediaape.
I've been ripping the heck out of my cd collection, but the database never gets any bigger that 7.1 gb and the library backup might as well be 0.  What's going on and how does the db size increase, and exactly how does it get saved?

Thanks,
JP

[sveakul]

Welcome to the forum!  The MusicBee library "database" is just one file, MusicBeeLibrary.mbl, and all it contains are locational references to the files and tag-related information.  The music files themselves are still wherever you had/saved them to when you added them to the library;  the locations/names may have changed depending on if you chose to activate the auto-organize features of MusicBee.

The actual "size" of MusicBeeLibrary.mbl may be inflated by extra space added to speed up internal changes without needing to re-grow the file each time, and also by orphaned file entries that no longer correspond to a MB playlist or library entry.  You can prune these out as well as unneeded space by invoking Tools->Advanced->Compress Library.

[John Paul]

Thanks for that info.  it clears up alot.  Yea, I just got so far in the Ripped Riles Folder, about 18gb right now.  So, can I leave them as is, as a library, or do I need to create a playlist?  Or does it matter?
Thanks
JP

[sveakul]

You can leave the files there.  I assume you ripped them with "add to library" checked.  If you wanted to physically move them now you would need to use the MusicBee "Computer" interface (left sidebar) to do so, so the library can auto-update their new location.

If they are already in the library, you don't NEED to create a playlist, you can play and sort them right from the "Music" library interface.  You'll probably want to create a few playlists though as time goes on given the size of your collection.

[phred]

Just note that MusicBeeLibrary.mbl should never be 7gb. Unless you're referring to your music collection. As sveakul said, the MB library is just one file. I'm closing in on 40,000 tracks totaling about 366gb and my database file (MusicBeeLibrary.mbl) is 18.58mb.