Author Topic: most 'robust' MB configuration?  (Read 758 times)

Fabio

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Hello everyone, I would like to have some advice from expert users on robust MB configurations. I have been using MB portable for many years now. I keep all my music on an external HD, which also contains MB portable, and I move across Windows laptops. At times files get corrupted in the HD and I lose MB config/library/playlist settings. For the purpose of this post, let’s ignore what the cause of the file corruption may be (whether it depends on MB or other factors). I would like to explore what MB configuration may provide the best compromise between portability (all files stored on the same device) vs robustness (reducing the likelihood of losing config/library/playlist settings). I am considering these options
1)   MB portable + music file on an HD (what I use now)
2)   MB (not portable) installed on each laptop + MB config/library/playlist settings and music on external HD
3)   MB (not portable) and MB config/library/playlist settings installed on each laptop + music on external HD. (This would mean that I would have to move config/library/playlist settings between laptops manually, I suppose)
Additional info: I have ~1 terabyte of music which I group into 7-8 libraries
Any advice?

Mayibongwe

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#2 and #3 honestly don't sound feasible to me.
I doubt 2 is even possible to begin with. But even if it was, I'm not so sure how it would alleviate the problems you are facing with #1.

For the purpose of this post, let’s ignore what the cause of the file corruption may be (whether it depends on MB or other factors).
Sorry, couldn't help it...a little comment here:
Maybe it's just in my experience, but depending on how one handles external hard drives, they are prone to frequent temporary disconnects.
And I believe that small period of disconnection is enough to cause that data loss or corruption.

Would this kind of setup be possible for you to experiment with? https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=36915.0
Favourite song at the moment:   Decode by Paramore

Fabio

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thank you for the link. i think it could address the issue. The problem in my case is that i occasionally DJ, and i use one of these laptops for it which i am afraid may complicates things significantly. 

Your comment about external hard drives is fair and it is likely it is the ultimate cause of my problem, but i don't know what i am doing wrong. i am religiously ejecting the drive or shutting down the laptop before physically disconnecting it. what else could i be doing wrong?

Zak

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Your #2 option isn't possible, because MusicBee3Settings.ini is saved in your AppData folder which can't be on a separate drive to the program.
(Unless you want to start looking at setting up linked files or other workarounds that aren't worth the hassle)

I would recommend a variation on your #3 option:

* A portable installation of MusicBee on each laptop.
* Your music, library file (i.e. MusicBee database) and playlists on the external drive.

A portable installation makes it easier to keep track of where things are, and the only tradeoff I can think of is that you might not be able to set up file associations for MusicBee in Windows.
It's usually easier to update to new versions too.

You should set each laptop to assign the same drive letter to your external drive each time it is plugged in.
A quick Google search will show instructions on how to do that.

The other reason for moving MusicBee from the external drive is that although you haven't said what type of drive your music is on, if it's over 1TB I'll assume it's mechanical.
The MusicBee interface will be much more responsive if it can read cached album and artist images from a built-in SSD, which your laptops are presumably new enough to have.
It probably won't make a difference where the actual library file is stored, so you could keep that on the same drive as your music for portability and to keep track of play counts etc. across your different laptops.

Though as you've already said, this will require finding some way to replicate other program settings across the different installations if you don't want to update them manually.
But another nice thing about using a portable installation is that you can set one up the way you like it, and then just copy the whole program folder to each of your other laptops.

You can set each copy of MusicBee to use the same playlists folder on your external drive so you don't have to sync them across different installations.
Check Use relative file paths in the Library settings to make them device agnostic.


FWIW, I've been using MusicBee for over a decade, often from a portable mechanical hard drive as in your #1 option, and never had any problems with a corrupted database or settings.
Maybe I've been lucky?
Bee excellent to each other...

Roby

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A word of advice, activate Safely Remove from the control panel, i.e. disable the cache. MB is very robust, I use it on an external USB 3 HD and have never had any problems.
Also check that the HD has no problems, e.g. with Crystal Disk Info.

Fabio

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thank you Zak and Roby. Zak, i think your variation on the original option 2 in the way to go. I will implement it. I had not thought about installing the portable versions on the laptop2, but i can see the rationale and the convenience.

Roby, could you please clarify what you mean by "activate Safely Remove from the control panel, i.e. disable the cache". is this different from simply ejecting the device? i am googling it right now but i can't find it
 

Roby

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Roby, could you please clarify what you mean by "activate Safely Remove from the control panel, i.e. disable the cache". is this different from simply ejecting the device? i am googling it right now but i can't find it
 

Panel Control > Hardware and Sound >System Properties
Clic on External USB Device > Property > Criteria
Set on Quick Removal.
So in case of a crash I would not lose any data.
Again. Check the cable, sometimes they fail and can cause the HD to crash.


The Incredible Boom Boom

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At times files get corrupted in the HD and I lose MB config/library/playlist settings. For the purpose of this post, let’s ignore what the cause of the file corruption may be (whether it depends on MB or other factors).

I run MusicBee portable on three laptops.
Each instance has several folders symlinked to my server's "transport" drive, which contains the "main" instance of MB.
I could use this "main" instance (which is where the other three come from) to listen on my desktop if I so desired. All this...
...allows me to open MusicBee on all three computers, in three different resolutions, without needing to move or copy any files.

My setup necessitates the complexity, as I have a number of terabytes of music, do not use external drives and prefer MusicBee over my phone or over file serving softwares.
However, I don't think complexity is what your use case calls for, so if I were you, I would simply figure out the cause of your random corruption. It could be as simple as your hard drive beginning to go bad.

Zak

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FWIW, this week I made some changes to a heap of views on my 'main' (portable) version of MusicBee on my home PC.
Rather than replicate them in the (portable) copy of MusicBee on my work laptop, I just replaced the entire MusicBee folder, edited the library path in my MusicBee3Settings.ini file*, and everything worked with no issues.

* Even that bit is unnecessary - If MusicBee can't find the previous library it will prompt you to select one.
Bee excellent to each other...

phred

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Exactly why the Portable version is the way to go. In addition to a number of other reasons.
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

tangotonyb

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I have a setup using the portable MusicBee.

On my Desktop - MusicBee application, library and the music files are all stored on a local HDD loaded as Drive E. If you only have one drive you can configure a mapped drive to achieve the same.

So for example you may have everything under C:\Music: C:\Music\MusicBee, C:\Music\MusicBeeLibrary, C:\Music\MusicFiles
Create a mapped drive E which points to C:\Music
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-map-local-folder-as-drive-with-letter-in-windows


I sync the contents of C:\Music to a removable drive for when I want to play music from my laptop. When you plug the drive into the laptop, configure the drive letter to be E - you only need do this once and it will always be E whenever you attach that drive in future.

As far as the laptop is concerned, all the file paths are exactly the same as they are on my desktop, so I can just open the MusicBee app and have everything work.