Author Topic: Editing tags without modifying the files  (Read 17007 times)

MeeMeeMee

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My smart-alec-y wish is that the next 2.1 beta will be out already.


Here you go:
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_1/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip
 :)
Been playing around with this version the past week or so. I know it's not a finished version, it might not even be a beta build as far as I know, so I don't know if this is the appropriate place to share with you my impression of the this feature, so far (or the beta forum, or bugs).

There are a couple of things that are missing, imho:
1. The ability to list all those tracks that has modified tags (out of sync, if you use Media Monkey's term for this feature).
2. Additionally, I'd love to see a feature that will enable me to sync, i.e. manually select files that are out-of-sync and save the tags stored in the data-base back to the files.
Edit Mar 1st: It seems like this feature is already available, as pointed out by redwing: select files you want to save tags to files, go to Main menu> Tools> Tagging Tools> Advanced> Synchronize Tags.

One issue/missing-feature I ran into, and here's how-to recreate it:
1. uncheck "save tags to the music file" under Preferences->Tags(1).
2. change some track's tags (title, album - whatever).
3. Exit MusicBee.
4a. Change some other tag (year, album artist) of the same track using a 3rd-party application, or:
4b. Change the track's last modification time (using Attribute Changer, for example)
Now if you start MusicBee, it'll pick up the tags from the file again, overriding the information in the data-base. Now I need to convince you that it's not always a desirable thing:
Some nasty media players (used by other family) tend to do that and can mess up your tags (that's the 4a scenario).
That's not all. I store my media on a little 2-bay NAS and map the network drive to my PC using CIFS/SMB. I ran into an issue where by accessing the files, sometimes, their last modified time changed. The files themselves didn't change. I compared them to a backup. bit-wise identical. Not sure if it's the SMB server, Windows or some app - but it happened (see here: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=68350)
The (MediaMonkey) solution to it is to have an additional option to ignore changes to the files after they're added to the library.

Hope those makes sense and will be added in the future.

Edit: URL text is indistinguishable from text. See if you can find the two URLs included in my post.
Last Edit: March 01, 2013, 02:45:19 PM by MeeMeeMee
MusicBee 3.5.8516 / Windows 10 (64-bit) / Intel i5-3470 / 8GB RAM
Media on NAS (CIFS share)
20K+ tracks, predominantly FLAC ; converted to mp3 (lame -V 0) when synced to a Cowon D2+
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Get the latest patch: https://getmusicbee.com/patches/

Steven

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to stop MB being updated from external apps, disable "check for updates" in the library preferences

MeeMeeMee

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to stop MB being updated from external apps, disable "check for updates" in the library preferences
Newb mistake, not going over preferences.
Thank you, Steven.
MusicBee 3.5.8516 / Windows 10 (64-bit) / Intel i5-3470 / 8GB RAM
Media on NAS (CIFS share)
20K+ tracks, predominantly FLAC ; converted to mp3 (lame -V 0) when synced to a Cowon D2+
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Get the latest patch: https://getmusicbee.com/patches/

lnminente

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There are a couple of things that are missing, imho:
1. The ability to list all those tracks that has modified tags (out of sync, if you use Media Monkey's term for this feature).
2. Additionally, I'd love to see a feature that will enable me to sync, i.e. manually select files that are out-of-sync and save the tags stored in the data-base back to the files.
Would be nice. BTW i don't have clear how it works currently. If we check again the "save tags to the music file" in Tags (1), the not saved in file tags are saved to the file?

redwing

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BTW i don't have clear how it works currently. If we check again the "save tags to the music file" in Tags (1), the not saved in file tags are saved to the file?

Of course all the tag values with files will be updated.

lnminente

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Thanks Redwing. That's nice, so this night i will sleep well hehe :D

MeeMeeMee

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There's some additional discussion/details of how such a feature that involves not changing files should behave when performing other tasks, such as coverting formats, copying, moving, etc.
Unfortunately I thought it was a bug and started it in the bugs forum, here: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=9057.0

The short of it is goes like so: The current behavior of un-checking "save tags to the music file" under preferences->tags(1) is such that when using the convert format feature it will create the converted files without any tags.
Actually, the way I thought about this whole don't-modify-my-files feature was that MB should treat media files as read-only, which in this case means not saving tags, as the option implies.
But when MB is asked explicitly to create files (i.e. convert from one format to another) I think it should save tags to those files (at creation time). After the files are created, it should treat those files as read-only.
My use-case for using the convert format feature is when convertion flac->mp3 when loading music onto my Cowon D2.

This raises the question of what should happen when copying or moving files?

If you need/are interested in this feature please read about it there and please provide your feedback here, since it's not considered a bug but a related feature.
MusicBee 3.5.8516 / Windows 10 (64-bit) / Intel i5-3470 / 8GB RAM
Media on NAS (CIFS share)
20K+ tracks, predominantly FLAC ; converted to mp3 (lame -V 0) when synced to a Cowon D2+
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Get the latest patch: https://getmusicbee.com/patches/

redwing

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Here's my solution (just tested with MB & MP3tag).

After copying, moving, syncing, converting files, select files you want to save tags to files, go to Main menu> Tools> Tagging Tools> Advanced> Synchronize Tags. Then those files will have the latest tag values from MB's database.

MeeMeeMee

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Here's my solution (just tested with MB & MP3tag).

After copying, moving, syncing, converting files, select files you want to save tags to files, go to Main menu> Tools> Tagging Tools> Advanced> Synchronize Tags. Then those files will have the latest tag values from MB's database.
Didn't see that manual tag tag synchronization was already in there. I'll edit my previous post accordingly. Thank you!

Now that it seems like all the moving pieces are there.
The only thing missing except for getting a list of out-of-sync files is some rule-based system one could configure so that it behaves to one's liking.
Last Edit: March 01, 2013, 02:46:27 PM by MeeMeeMee
MusicBee 3.5.8516 / Windows 10 (64-bit) / Intel i5-3470 / 8GB RAM
Media on NAS (CIFS share)
20K+ tracks, predominantly FLAC ; converted to mp3 (lame -V 0) when synced to a Cowon D2+
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Get the latest patch: https://getmusicbee.com/patches/

redwing

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Personally I'd like to highlight out-of-sync files with highlighting feature. But I'd prefer manual tag synchronization to configuring a rule-based system which could lead to some confusion.

MeeMeeMee

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Personally I'd like to highlight out-of-sync files with highlighting feature. But I'd prefer manual tag synchronization to configuring a rule-based system which could lead to some confusion.
My thoughts regarding this is adding another field one could use to create a filter for displaying out-of-sync (true/false).
(a minute later, after checking such a field still doesn't exist) I think we could both get what we'd hope for since it seems like the rule system is rather similar between these two features (on the surface, at least).

I hope such a field will be added.
MusicBee 3.5.8516 / Windows 10 (64-bit) / Intel i5-3470 / 8GB RAM
Media on NAS (CIFS share)
20K+ tracks, predominantly FLAC ; converted to mp3 (lame -V 0) when synced to a Cowon D2+
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Get the latest patch: https://getmusicbee.com/patches/

redwing

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My thoughts regarding this is adding another field one could use to create a filter for displaying out-of-sync (true/false).

+1 for the idea. It will make it possible to create a filter/playlist/highlight column, etc.

lnminente

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+1 Showing out of sync files would dissipate the possible doubts, like i had before, about how it works.

frogsy

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Has this functionality been modified or removed since last discussed? I'm using the 2.4 beta, portable edition, and I don't see any setting in Tags (1) to not save tags to files. There's a toggle for ratings, but not tags in general...

redwing

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the feature was removed as it wasnt supported properly in all cases and too much effort to make it so