MusicBee's "hidden" features

[redwing]

Backup library

MB is equipped with a native backup feature that helps users to store in a safe place their settings files and music files in library for a data loss or unexpected system failures.

After clicking on the menu (File> Backup Library), the user needs to choose a source folder and its backup folder for each line before execution.



It would be a good idea to backup your music, audiobook, video files in addition to the default settings files. The entire MusicBee program folder too could be added to keep copies of album artworks, artist pictures, skins and theater mode views of your collection.

MB's backup is incremental backup, meaning it only updates modified files, plus deleting non-existent files and empty folders and adding new files, instead of completely rewriting everything. Once the first backup is done, therefore, it won't take much time to backup from the second time unless a great portion of the library have been modified. After each backup is done, the content of the backup folders should exactly reflect the current state of each source folder.

Notes:
1. MB library folders and files (playlists, podcasts, library database files, etc.) are not included in the default "MB Settings folder". If you want to backup those too, you have to include them manually.
2. Do not use this feature with existing folders for a test. All files in the target folder that are not present in the source folder will be deleted.

[musicmafia]

Flat layout Player
------------------------
MB's player has two kinds of layout - standard and flat. To activate flat layout that has a simpler look, go to Edit> Preferences> Layout> Player controls panel, and tick "use flat layout," which requires a restart.

looked for this but couldn't find "flat" layout, only some options for classic layout...

[psychoadept]

looked for this but couldn't find "flat" layout, only some options for classic layout...

standard and flat are now classic and modern

[redwing]

Flat layout Player
------------------------
MB's player has two kinds of layout - standard and flat. To activate flat layout that has a simpler look, go to Edit> Preferences> Layout> Player controls panel, and tick "use flat layout," which requires a restart.

looked for this but couldn't find "flat" layout, only some options for classic layout...

Now the entry was updated.

[redwing]

Create a New Playlist by Drag-n-Drop

You can create a new playlist simply by dragging selected tracks to the header of playlist node in left navigator. You can drag tracks and albums from any layouts of the main panel. This works for dragging a folder from computer node in left navigator and from Windows Explorer outside of MB as well, and, in this case, the new playlist will be named after the folder name.

[redwing]

Filtering Order

MB's equipped with various panels to filter tracks for easier browsing and access to tracks based on your tags. The order of filtering goes from Library filters (left navigator)> Library Explorer> Column Browser> Thumbnail Browser. So when you're using Column Browser, you could use Library Explorer as its first column and Thumbnail Browser as its last column without having to adjust column numbers and sort order of Column Browser.

Note: From v3.0 on, vertical column browser and thumbnail browser are switchable and follow left-to-right filtering order.

[redwing]

Identify tracks with no "Album Artist" value

If there's no Album Artist tag with a track, MB shows Artist value instead for its Album Artist field. If you want to identify tracks with no Album Artist value, create a library filter or auto-playlist with the rule of <"Album Artist" "has no value">. Note that virtual tags won't lend any help for this purpose since <Album Artist> field in virtual tags is immediately filled with <Artist> value when the value is not present.

[redwing]

Remove duplicate entries from a playlist

Often your playlist ends up containing multiple entries of the same file due to manual dragging of multiple files from various sources. Then, right click on the playlist from left navigator and run List> Remove Duplicates command.



It will remove all duplicate entries from the playlist.

[redwing]

How to adjust synchronized lyrics to be in sync with audio

Often your synced lyrics is out of sync with the audio of your music file since there are various versions available for the same song. In such case you can easily adjust synchronized lyrics timestamp by setting offset value. Adding "[offset:-3000]"(without a quote) at the beginning of the synced lyrics would shift down 3000 milliseconds for all timestamp of the lyrics. Likewise, adding "[offset:+5200]" would shift up 5200 milliseconds for displaying lyrics while MB is playing the track.

[redwing]

Grouping/Genre Category/Genre Icons for Music Explorer & Thumbnail Browser

You can use custom grouping icons for Music Explorer & thumbnail browser using your own pictures. Just copy your image and right-click on an icon and use "Paste Artwork" command.

For the next v3.2 update i have added support for loading icons for: Grouping; Genre and Genre Category in the music explorer filter panel and header. The images should be square and at least 125px in size, but will be cropped to a circle in the header bar

As part of doing this, the custom Artwork location now defaults to:
- [root music folder]\MusicBee\Artwork\Artist Pictures
- [root music folder]\MusicBee\Artwork\Artist Pictures\Thumb
- [root music folder]\MusicBee\Artwork\Grouping Icons
- [root music folder]\MusicBee\Artwork\Soundtrack Pictures

There was support for genre icons in the thumb browser that used to look in [musicbee installation folder]\icons\Genre.
Those icons have been moved to:
- [root music folder]\MusicBee\Artwork\Grouping Icons

The artist and soundtrack folders are only reorganised if you are using default settings and will be reorganised automatically. You can still override the locations for artist pictures and soundtrack pictures in the Tags(1) preferences

Some stock icon sets created or recommended by forum users:
http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=11160.0
http://rornet.com/Music%20Genres.zip
http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?m=pool&w=908425%40N22&q=rock
http://myssynen.deviantart.com/art/Music-genre-images-71751056

[Moshi_]

Thanks for the last one, redwing!! It's really what I needed!!

[Pingaware]

Mini Player Shortcut

To quickly switch to the mini player, double click very close to the edges of the main player bar. This should immediately turn the mini-player on.

It's already posted in Reply #12.

I thought it might be! Just didn't bother to check. Ah well, I'll delete it then. Thanks for letting me know redwing.

[psychoadept]

Even if Google is disabled in Artwork search, you can still click on Google in the artwork search window and see up to 15 images.  It will apply your minimum size filter, so you can force it to only find high res images.

[redwing]

Quickly Preview Multiple Tracks

Track Previewer plugin (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=12997.0) allows you to only play the starting portion and/or the ending portion of multiple tracks. With this, you can briefly browse new albums before listening to the whole tracks or check audio quality of newly converted tracks. Also, this can be used to auto-retrieve and save artwork and lyrics for new tracks.

[redwing]

Remove Dead Links in Playlist

If certain tracks in a static playlist no longer exist in the library, MB displays them as dead links with blue exclamation mark. You can remove all those dead links in the playlist by right click on the playlist> List> Remove dead links.