When using Arange Audio, source file(s) are deleted

[schmidj]

I just set up the Batch Converter with a profile using (only) the Arrange Audio DSP to correct the filenames in a big bunch of files ripped using the ripper with a profile with a stupid typo that went unnoticed in the naming string. Arrange audio with the corrected naming string fixed the filenames. But what bothers me is that it deleted the original files (that had the error in the file names). The uncorrected and corrected names are different, so this isn't a case of overwriting (the box for which in the Arrange Audio profile is unchecked). This is deleting the files that were the source files for the converter when using that profile.

Given the potential for more errors making things worse or causing the converted files to get "lost" somewhere, I'd rather have the option to leave the unconverted files alone, I'd prefer to manually delete them once I'm sure the conversions came out correctly. From a long history of seeing batch operations that deleted the source go awry and create disasters of one type or another (I've been in the IT business since the days of Fortran in the 1960s) I prefer them to be as non-destructive as possible. To the point where if the Arrange Audio function can't be changed to not delete the source, I'll end up copying the erroneous source files somewhere so I've still got them until I'm 200 percent sure the conversion is working correctly.

Am I missing something, is there already somewhere to have this DSP leave the unconverted source files as well as generate the new corrected generated files? (which to my mind should be the default.) Or can I make this a high priority wish list item?

Thanks

John

[Spoon-]

Arrange Audio is an encoder not DSP effect. It simply renames the files. What was the typo which caused issues?

[schmidj]

The typo is rather stupid and in reality not significant except to my somewhat compulsive obsessive brain, My main music library sits on a QNAP server, mostly FLAC, a bit of mp3 or m4a when I couldn't find any better quality copy of something I wanted. Mostly ripped CDs but also downloaded music and stuff I've digitized from records and (ugg) cassettes. Most of the CDs that were ripped were done on a desktop computer in my computer room. All the FLAC rips generate folders and files, one folder per disc, foldername of the "album artist, a space, a dash, another space and the album title. The tracks, all in that folder are formatted the track number, a space, a dash, another space the artist name, another space, dash, space then the track name, There is an if statement to use Various Artists as the album name if none was provided, and the artist name and/or the track name are subject to truncation if they are too long. Nothing special there, Multiple disc entries are handled as a separate entry for each disc.

There are things I might do differently if I started over but given that I have well over 10,000 folders and something like 135,000 total tracks, I'm not going there.

The stupid case that I just discovered: I have a laptop that I travel with that also has a copy of DBPA on it, with what I thought was an identical naming string. I was just visiting my brother and ripped somewhat around 100 (used) CDs which he had acquired recently. Those rips are temporarily stored on the laptop's drive and now that I'm are home, are about to be copied onto the master directory on the QNAP. But it caught my eye that there was an extra space between the first dash and the artist's name on every track file. Oops, how did that happen? Well, the copy of the naming string in the profile in the ripper (but only on the laptop, not on the desktop that I usually rip at home with) had an extra space after that dash. I've corrected that. But I was concerned with a method to correctly remove the extra space in the ripped files and any I might have previously ripped using that laptop that are now on the QNAP.

From all that I can see, and I've given it a lot of thought, the extra space never causes an issue. It doesn't add a space to the beginning of the artist's name, in any reasonable action I might do with the files in the future. It doesn't mess up any of my players, all of which use the tags to select a track; they don't care what the filename is. So I guess it comes down to my somewhat CO brain.

However, now that I've found the encoder, it actually is useful when naming files for tracks which came from downloads, digitized LPs, etc. I've usually tagged them in mp3tag and used their convert function to create a filename for each track. But I've had to manually name the directory and crop the filenames if they are too long, as is often the case with classical music. Now I can use the batch converter with Arrange Audio to create the directory and filenames, Faster and less prone to error. But used for that, I really don't want to lose the file with the original filename (usually a "work" filename created when I digitized or downloaded the media. I want to create a set of duplicate (audio wise) set of files in a directory to put in my master QNAP directory.

So, it would be really nice if there was an option in the arrange audio encoder which would create a duplicate of the file before renaming it. Yes, I can do that manually but I'm afraid I'll forget and lose my original work copy.

Thanks for reading this far too long tale of my carelessness but possibly also a simpler way of dealing with naming stuff I've digitized or downloaded.

John

[Spoon-]

An extra space would not delete the files. The function call is a move call, it is not possible for move to delete files.

on Linux a file starting with ‘.’ Is hidden from view, there might be other oddities on Linux where files are hidden with different names.