Question about MMC->Arrange

[Erunama]

I recently picked up a new harddrive. It's actually a hand-me-down, but it's 8GB, and is the perfect size to house my music. Now the question is, how to easily move over all of my music.

Since I use the MMC extensively, with track preferences and tagging, I was looking to take advantage of it's Arrange Music feature. But I have two questions/concerns before I do that:

1. Since song preferences are not stored in the ID tag, will they be saved when the music is moved to a different folder? This really isn't a big deal, but it would be nice if they were saved.
2. I have almost 100 playlists (99 right now) in the root of my music folder, with seperate folders for each artist. Upon opening up a couple playlists in a text editor, I saw that the tracks were specified with the exact location, not relative to the folder it's in. I want to know if the MMC arrange feature will also move these playlists, and whether or not they will still work once moved.

#2 is the biggie for me. If dBpowerAMP cannot do this, can someone mention a program to help me do it? I don't feel like editing 100 playlists or creating them from scratch again.

Thanks!

[Spoon]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

You might try (not using arrange because of the playlists and I cannot be sure the folders created would be the same...), save your music collection to a new one (or back it up), then move the files over to the new drive with explorer, then load MMC and select Collection >> Music Collection >> Locate missing files (as long as all the files have unique names you are ok).

[Spoons]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

yes it would be nice if some how playlists can stay associated with the files when they are moved.

but in the mean time with some lateral thinking you should be able to do this with MMC no problems. i will experiment and see what happens.

i just have to re-boot into windows again, doh!! (razgo wishes for dap/mmc linux port :teufel8: )

[Erunama]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

Spoon: Interesting idea. Sounds like an easier way to make sure your files end up exactly as you want them. But it doesn't address the playlist problems. The playlists, for example, will still be looking for music in C:\Music\, whereas I just moved them to F:\.

Razgo: Thanks for looking into it for me. I'll be eagerly awaiting your findings :D

[Spoons]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

well this is very interesting to say the least! is dap/MMC really magical?


i did some teesting with playlists and found if you copy the playlists over as well to the new drive everything will stay the same.

where do you keep your playlists?

example: if your music files are all in a folder called "music" and your 99 playlist's are in a folder called "my play lists", you just copy the folder and playlist over to the new drive location.

it found all the music when i did it this way. however if i puit my playlist in a different location then sure it won't the music files. but you simply tell MMC to highlite all missing files and then click locate missing files and point to where your music files are now, and that's it.

did you try this already? i mean you are going to "copy" the music files over not delete the source?

it really does work and you don't loose the playlist.

however long term idea is to dispense with the need for playlist's and just use MMC music collection filing system. it is much more intuitive and powerfull compared to playlists.

[Spoons]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

i forgot to mention just in case your not familiar. you just click the drop down arrow in MMC/add music on the top left and then click add playlist entries.

[Erunama]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

Thanks for the investigative work, Razgo. I'll give it a shot later, being careful to not delete the source.

My playlists are all kept in the 'My Music' folder, and all of my MP3 files are kept in subfolders underneath according to the artist.

And just to let you know, I do use the MMC. In fact, I use it much more than my playlists. The only reason I have the playlists is because whenever I feel like listening to a particular album, it's easier to open up Windows explorer and double-click the playlist than it is to get the CD out (I have most of my CD's on my computer) or to scroll through the MMC and pick out the album songs.

[Spoons]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

ok well Spoon's post seems to say the same thing. i left out you need to create a new music collection file.

out of curiosity create a folder called "My Music' folder" on the destination drive where your putting all your music files too, and copy your playlist's .pls files over into theat folder.

basically your creating a mirror image of the structure you already have only on the new drive.

[Spoons]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

actually when i open up a .pls file it doesn't seem to look for the drive letter like you said.

an example of my playlist inside:

[playlist]
File1=John Farnham Seemed Like a Good Idea (at The Time) .flac
Title1=John Farnham - Seemed Like a Good Idea (at The Time)
Length1=259
File2=John Farnham Talent For Fame .flac
Title2=John Farnham - Talent For Fame
Length2=279
File3=John Farnham When All Else Fails .flac
Title3=John Farnham - When All Else Fails
Length3=293
File4=John Farnham What You Don't Know .flac
Title4=John Farnham - What You Don't Know
Length4=198
File5=John Farnham Treated This Way .flac
Title5=John Farnham - Treated This Way
Length5=251
File6=John Farnham The Reasons Why .flac
Title6=John Farnham - The Reasons Why
Length6=223
File7=John Farnham So Long in Love .flac
Title7=John Farnham - So Long in Love
Length7=275
File8=John Farnham Talk of The Town .flac
Title8=John Farnham - Talk of The Town
Length8=222
NumberOfEntries=8
Version=2

it must just look for the structure?

[Spoons]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

in all honesty i don't think you will loose one playlist.

well ? have you tried it yet? lol, can't wait for the result :D

[Erunama]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

Ok, I did it! I copied over all the files manually, then directed the MMC to the new location to find the mssing files. Everything seems to have worked.

Regarding the playlists: all of them look good except for one (well, I've only found one so far... too lazy to look through all of them). It kept the old directory location in it. Assuming that these files are on the rare side, I won't have trouble fixing those couple of playlists.

Thanks for your detailed help and suggestions, Razgo! You and Spoon help make this software so awesome to have and use.

[Spoons]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

phew! another happy customer

well i'm just glad it worked for the most part. and i learn't something new too. so what go's around comes around.

[Spoon]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

Most playlists if on the same drive do not have the drive details, so they can be moved.

[Spoons]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

well that's handy to know before making/creating playlists.

[Erunama]

Re: Question about MMC->Arrange

Thanks again, guys! I think I'll be picking another hard drive tomorrow (an 80GB, because of a really good deal at CompUSA), so I'll get to try moving all of my music again.

Spoon: That's really cool to know about playlists. I'm still wondering why the one playlist (and maybe a couple more) had drive details in it. I am almost positive that I ripped it with Music Converter and Power Pack (to automatically create the playlist), though I could be wrong.