Thousands of files listed as "Unknown" and "May Be Corrupted" but play fine.

[musicmafia]

Hi Everybody! As you can see, I have a large collection of @ 184K tracks, mostly Flac. I got all my sections and columns the way I like thanks to folks here in the forums. But this one thing is bugging me.

Under artists column, 15,787 are listed as UNKNOWN and they also say UNKNOWN BITRATE (although I checked the file properties and bitrates are listed there).

When I hover over the exclamation symbol, most say that the file "May Be Corrupted." (I also check the tags and the tags are fine).

But when I right click and locate the same file in Windows file explorer (or navigate within MB to the track) and hit PLAY, it plays in MB just fine!

Any idea what's going on or how I can get over 15K files to stop displaying as Unknown?  

[Zak]

Not without seeing one.
Upload a few of the files to a free online sharing site and post a link.

[sveakul]

The "artist names" that start with "._01" point to some kind of major artist tag issue that probably expands into [Unknown].

By checking "file properties" and tags are you referring to using Windows Explorer, or MusicBee's own tagging tools?

Also, one would assume you have done a "Rescan all files" operation first?

Zak gave the best suggestion but if you can't do that post screenshots of what the problem files look like when opened into MusicBee's Tag Inspector.

[Steven]

Display the file url in the main panel Tracks view or open one file in the tag editor and get the url from the properties tab.
Then check the file in windows explorer. I expect you will find its a sub-folder of the real files and has a 0 byte file for every real file in the parent folder

[Zak]

Display the file url in the main panel Tracks view or open one file in the tag editor and get the url from the properties tab.
Then check the file in windows explorer. I expect you will find its a sub-folder of the real files and has a 0 byte file for every real file in the parent folder

Alternatively, right-click > Search > Locate in Windows Explorer to see the original file.

[musicmafia]

Thanks for all the suggestions and support! I just ran the "rescan all files" and it now says I have about 2000 less total tracks but 2000 more "unknown" tracks.

I will now see if I can figure out how to post some of the other items mentioned. Thanks again.

[musicmafia]

Display the file url in the main panel Tracks view or open one file in the tag editor and get the url from the properties tab.
Then check the file in windows explorer. I expect you will find its a sub-folder of the real files and has a 0 byte file for every real file in the parent folder

Alternatively, right-click > Search > Locate in Windows Explorer to see the original file.

This?

[musicmafia]

This is one of the 17K files displaying as Unknown Bitrate in MB:

[musicmafia]

I finally figured out how to open the file in MB  Editor and the first panel shows nothing in the Tags tab. When I click the Tag Inspector tag, it says Unexpected Error Occurred and says "File is not a Flac file" although it shows as Flac in File Explorer and the file plays fine (if I click to play it anywhere except from the Unknown section).

[musicmafia]

Here's another example. MB Tag Inspector gives same error messages as above.

Another weird thing is in MB it says the file name is "._05..." and in File Explorer it is just "05"

Hope this helps solve the mystery?

[musicmafia]

As requested, here is a link to 3 of the sample files:

https://www.transfernow.net/dl/20231219egxS1eYh

Thanks again!

[frankz]

Clearly ._05 and 05 are not the same file.  I think you need to do a "Show Hidden Files" and you'll have your answer.

[musicmafia]

Clearly ._05 and 05 are not the same file.  I think you need to do a "Show Hidden Files" and you'll have your answer.

Wow!  Yes, when I clicked "hidden files" the folder has a duplicate set of grayed out hidden files. What the heck are all those hidden files? So, I have 17,000 of these hidden files? How do I get rid of them? At 10 songs per album, that would be roughly 1700 separate album folders. PLEASE tell me there's an easy way to deal with this?

[frankz]

I don't know how you created these files.

I suppose you could do a search of the drive for ._*.* and see what comes up (hidden files on of course).  I'm not telling you to delete them all at once.  Never do anything to 17000 files at once.

[Zak]

So, I have 17,000 of these hidden files? How do I get rid of them? At 10 songs per album, that would be roughly 1700 separate album folders. PLEASE tell me there's an easy way to deal with this?

It will depend on how strict MusicBee is with handling files it can't play, but because it does at least know about them you might be able to Right-click > Delete them from within MusicBee itself.

What the heck are all those hidden files?

Those files are created to store metadata in macOS. Has your drive ever been plugged into a Mac perchance?