Arrange Audio deletes original files when certain characters in tags (e.g. é à ç)

[all2ofme]

Starting to get my head around the Arrange Audio codec (useful!), but have noticed a pretty serious bug that deletes original files if a tag that will be used in the filename has certain sorts of characters. Pretty much anything not in the English alphabet, in my experience.

Example scenario:
File name: Bonjour (Live in Paris).flac
Track name: Bonjour (Live a Paris)

...will be handled perfectly - Arrange Audio will update the filename as you'd expect:
New track name: Bonjour (Live a Paris).flac

When you have less common (to English speakers, at least) characters, it goes to pieces:
File name: Bonjour (Live in Paris)
Track name: Bonjour (Live à Paris) (or Comme des Garçons, or Hello André etc.)

...will mean that the original FLAC file will be deleted entirely, and Arrange Audio will show an error. Cross your fingers that the original is on a backup somewhere

Hope that makes sense.

FWIW this is on macOS 10.15.5, on an APFS partition, running the newest dBPoweramp software.

[PeterP]

Re: Arrange Audio deletes original files when certain characters in tags (e.g. é à ç)

Thanks for the bug report.

I don't seem to be able to recreate this on my development machine (macOS 10.15.5 + AppFS too) so there must be some more factors to this than just the specific characters.

Which exact version of dBpoweramp are you running? Is it the latest R17.1 beta ?

What exact error messages does it generate?

Are you trying to move files to another volume or just renaming them within the same volume?

Note that in R17, Arrange Audio started respecting filename character substitution rules (which it did not in R16 and older), but I don't see how this could lead to file deletion.

[all2ofme]

Re: Arrange Audio deletes original files when certain characters in tags (e.g. é à ç)

Hi Peter,

Sorry for the long delay after my original post.

I've just done a few more tests, and with R17 I either no longer have the problem or haven't managed to trigger it again. I've just given it a good go, though!

FWIW - and in case this helps piece things together - I was renaming files within the same volume. Annoyingly, I'm not 100% sure if I've updated dBpoweramp since I had the problem. I'm using R17 (not 17.1) at the moment, either way.

Also, while I don't have a screenshot, the error message was a "file not found" or similar. As if the initial process found the file (é.flac), queued it up for Arrange Audio to do its renaming thing, then couldn't rescue it from some temporary buffer because it couldn't find it using the same name. Different character encodings, p'raps - looking for e.flac instead. A guess, anyway.

Happy it hasn't happened again, anyway - will up my confidence in pointing the tool at a broader range of files!

Actually, this reminds me - with an earlier version I had problems ripping, too. Ripping a disc with an Album Artist of: Bonnie "Prince" Billy caused all sorts of problems. Empty folders, files with an extension of "._" Haven't noticed it since, so perhaps it's the same sort of change that has helped there too.

[all2ofme]

Re: Arrange Audio deletes original files when certain characters in tags (e.g. é à ç)

I've found another issue with the Arrange Audio plugin. Similar(ish), so I'm posting it here too.

Steps to reproduce:
1) Tag album name with initial characters of "..." (My example was "...och stora havet")
2) Run Arrange Audio.
3) Arrange Audio completes with no stated errors, but the album folder and the files within it are deleted without notice. I assume the same would be true with an artist name that starts with the same "..." but I've not tried it.

It's fantastic that these things get fixed so quickly, but it's worrying that they rely on the user *noticing* that something has happened, and having backed up beforehand.

Hoping this is another one that can be nipped in the bud!

[PeterP]

Re: Arrange Audio deletes original files when certain characters in tags (e.g. é à ç)

Thanks for the report!
Your files are not gone - Mac OS Finder considers files and folders whose names start with dots to be hidden. You can still reach the folder via Terminal and rename it to something visible.
Go to the parent folder:

cd <parent folder name>

View contents including hidden files:

ls -la

Rename the bad folder to something without the dots:

mv "... offending title" "offending title"

It was an oversight on my side that such scenario is allowed, it will be addressed shortly. You cannot actually delete any files this way - only hide them.

[PeterP]

Re: Arrange Audio deletes original files when certain characters in tags (e.g. é à ç)

Addressed in beta 4-

https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?45470-dBpoweramp-R17-2-for-Mac-beta

It's fantastic that these things get fixed so quickly, but it's worrying that they rely on the user *noticing* that something has happened, and having backed up beforehand.

We do our best, but we can't test every possible usage scenario of our software. This behavior was perfectly fine on Windows and caused harmful effects on Mac.
I'd like to emphasize on the fact that no files were physically deleted. I carefully audited Arrange Audio code immediately after reading your initial report and saw no possibility of actual deletion - the worst it could possibly do was moving to some hard-to-find location.

[PeterP]

Re: Arrange Audio deletes original files when certain characters in tags (e.g. é à ç)

UPDATE
You can have Finder show hidden files - pressing Cmd+Shift+. toggles hidden file display.

[all2ofme]

Re: Arrange Audio deletes original files when certain characters in tags (e.g. é à ç)

We do our best, but we can't test every possible usage scenario of our software.

Totally understood, and I'm sorry I was such a little snotnose

Thanks for the detailed follow-up!