Hi, I'm relatively new to foobar2000 and whilst it's been difficult, and quite a learning curve, I'm beinning to like it.

But I don't like the fact that you can't have one sure fire safe database/playlist somewhere. It's so easy to accidently delete half the database... and it's an inconvenience. A real big one!

Basically I just don't want to be just able to delete, move, edit, cut, shred, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.... any file in one of the playlists, unless I really wanted to. ie, For one playlist (preferably the one called Database View) I don't want to do easy editing, just so that I don't accidently press the delete key and lose half the db in one foul swoop.

With such a large collection of music, I now have to set the computer up to run overnight to rload my music... the only consolation I suppose, is the fact I have all the information saved to the id3 tags of the files.

Alternatively, can I run something that just adds files from a diretory to the database BUT ONLY IF THE FILE IS NOT ALREADY IN THE DATABASE?

I know I can "add a directory" and then "Remove duplicates" but I am talking about a large database. Instead, I would like something like "Rescann Tree/Directory" or whatever.

Another option for when you might accidentally mess up the playlist is to use "Playlist/Undo". If you have foo_utils installed, then you even get multiple levels of undo/redo.

Another comment, if you have the database enabled, you shouldn't need to be reloading all the files from their directory. The information (all the tags, etc.) should already be stored in foobar's database file, and should be accessible using a plugin like album_list or dbsearch. The database will hold information about songs, even after those songs are deleted from your playlists (unless you remove dead entries).

Regarding the issue of protecting the playlist from being edited, i'm in the same boat myself. I assume the original poster has a very large collection like myself, and it's a nightmare to rebuild playlists and prune databases; all of which is necessary as foobar seems to slow down considerably once the playlist gets over 25-30 thousand items, especially when popping up the search box or tabbing up and down.

Maybe as most 'power users' seem to use columns_ui, maybe that component should have a 'lock playlist' option? You can hide the menus anyway and apart from the keyboard shortcuts it'd be foolproof-ish.

I'm hearing you. It's exactly how it is! But don't tell me about the 25-30K files... I'm only at between 15-20K and it's already a PITA to load up. Can take up to 20 secs on a bad day!That is exactly what we need. Maybe that could be suggested in the appropriate forum - I have to admit, I'm a little lost in here!I prefer foo-proofish! (or should that be foo_proofish!)

I do have foo_utils installed, but I can't find anywhere that give me an option to 'playlist/undo'. Where am I not looking. I was hoping there would be listed in the keyboard shortcut area, but it's not. Under the shortcut items I only have the following actions I can add:
Ok, it took me about 3 look thrus to find it, but I have. LOL

And so now I have assigned the keyboard shortcut CTRL+DELETE and this is perfect. I stuff up and bump/hit the DELETE key and just repress it with CTRL. and a CTRL+INSERT for when I go too far! Thanks for the pointer gfngfngf!
This one is interesting, so I did some experimenting and found that (as I originally thought) the database view IS actually a playlist form of the database. And by using the database explorer and clicking on 'All Music' it gets repopulated. Which is good. Well, actually, clicking anywhere in database explorer repopulates the database view with the desired output.

Also, if you add stuff to the database view and use the database explorer, if the items area already in the database, it's not reshown, ie, I copied some files in the database view and sent them back to the database view... repopulated using the database explorer (by clicking on 'by album' and then back on all music, and the ones I've added are not there cause they already exist in the database, ie they only appear once.

For the next test I added files to a play list that are already in the datbase:

I did this by looking at an artist in database view (in this case an Artist I will call 'X') and I have 19 entries. I used windows explorer and went to the X directory and dragged the files from windows explorer into the playlist. They were immediately added to the playlist in question and the playlist count was increased by 19.

However, upon using the database explorer, and touching another category (in this case 'by album') and then back to all music, the database count was reduced to the true size. AND there are only 19 entries where there should only be 19 entries.

So after I have bored you all with my experiments, I am now going to just drop selected folders into the database and rebuld the missing files... I just don't know why they weren't imported in the first case.

But on your "removing dead entries" comment, I didn't do any experiments there, but I assumed that would actually remove dead entries from the database itself, not necessarily the other way around (as I think you have suggested, removing entires from the database that don't exist in a playlist)

Sorry if I sound stoopid, I assure you I am not... Having been acustomed to winamp for so many years, this is just a little different.