Hello!!

So far I'm using the playback stats and custom info components, that store everything in a separate DB, not in tags.
They work fine and all. But what happens if tomorrow I change PCs and let's pretend I switch HDs and all, and now the same library is located in F:\Music not in W:\Musicccccccc?????
I made a little experiment but obviously all statistics are lost!!! Because obviously there is nothing on W:\Musicccccccc anymore...

Isn't there any way to tell the media library that the same, exact files are now located in another parent path?
Or basically this is a matter of "move your music somewhere else and you lose all the info stored in the DB, there is nothing to do about it, that's life".

Also there is obviously the matter of how playback stats and custom info components interact with the media library (i.e this last one could update accordingly but the others not to be so smart and be referencing the old path in their databases).

Well, is there anything that can be done? I heard a mod saying something about "using the appropriate functions for moving files in the library" but I don't know what he's talking about!

Thanks!!!

go to

file > preferences > advanced > tagging > mp3 > tick Force Preferred tag writing scheme...

that should do the trick, well I know there used to be an option, not sure if its changed with the latest version of playback statistics

4nt1, thanks for your time, but you see, that's exactly what I don't want. More tags.
That's the reason I liked the playback stats component as well as the custom info one.

I know tags would be the best for portability reasons and all, but a separate DB does the trick for me, and this is how I want it.

If you use Foobar's "File Operations" to move the files, then the stats are maintained.

i.e. select all the files in F:\my music and use

File Operations>Move

to move them to W:\my music

nightfishing thanks, that seems to be it.
However I find a little problem with that approach. It seems to actually perform the move action on the real files but not just the "virtual" media lib files...

So if I had my music in H:\Music but now its in C:\Music and H: is no longer a valid unit on another PC then it doesn't work...

Obviously there is a raw stupid i-hate-it solution, and that would be creating dummy 0 kb files based on the real ones, map that path to H:, move the dummy files to the current location (C:), then replace them with the real ones (provided I renamed C:\Music to something else before).

Well I guess if there is nothing else to be done I'll have my "stupid" approach in mind, though I wish there was a way to do it in foobar...

Thanks again!

------------------EDIT

Well... after messing up a dummy folder (luckily I didn't tried it on the real thing!), it seems the Move functionality is not really smart so to say... it moved all of my files from a structured file tree to the root of the destination folder. That sucks, no other way to say it.
Then I see there are "filters" but those incredibly are predefined, like "album / artist" and stuff like that... where is the filter "don't touch anything, copy the exact folder structure" ??? Guess there is none unfortunately and if your folder structure doesn't comply with what foobar wants it to, then you're out of luck. A bad approach in my humble opinion.

I think after all I'm gonna have to modify manually "database.fpl" (apps data folder) because there is no other way around :\
That means probably modifying manually "PlaybackStatistics.dat" and "custominfo_sqlite.db" for both components.

Who would have thought such a simple thing like changing the root folder of a library could be such a tremendous effort :\

The way I do it is create a partition on the new computer to match the drive letter of the existing media library and then move the ACTUAL files with Foobar to where I want them to be.

The key is that the new setup has to be the same as the old setup the FIRST time you run foobar on the new box.

Alternatively, you could move the files on the old box to match the path they will be in on the new box.

Needless to say, the easiest way to do it is to setup the new computer to match the paths of the old one!

Thanks for your time once again nightfishing.

It seems while I was editing my previous post you replied, unfortunately seems like IPB doesn't warn you of that.

This is it:



As you can see Im forced to use filters (why not simply moving to the exact same location!!!).

So, if I had

H:\Music\Rooney - [2007] Calling The World\*.mp3

And I need to transfer that and everything else to

W:\Moosic\

There is no pattern whose result is

W:\Moosic\Rooney - [2007] Calling The World\*.mp3

As their possible outputs are

W:\Moosic\Rooney\*.mp3
W:\Moosic\Calling The World\*.mp3
W:\Moosic\Rooney - Calling The World\*.mp3
W:\Moosic\Rooney - 2007 - Calling The World\*.mp3
W:\Moosic\Rooney - (2007) Calling The World\*.mp3
W:\Moosic\Rooney - Calling The World (2007)\*.mp3
W:\Moosic\Rooney\Calling The World\*.mp3
W:\Moosic\Rooney\2007 - Calling The World\*.mp3
W:\Moosic\Rooney\(2007) Calling The World\*.mp3
W:\Moosic\Rooney\Calling The World (2007)\*.mp3

This is just an example. Some are similar but none produces the exact folder structure on the "old" path.

There is no way around it except by manually modifying the DBs right?


-------------- EDIT

Bah! Such a n00b.
I can actually change the filters. I don't like the fact that I HAVE to use them (instead of simply using the current structure!) but since I have my own standard I can roll it in a filter and make foobar have a smoke of that.

As you say, it's easier if the old path is the same as the new path, but I think at least this crappy using-filters solution should do.

Thanks

Audio,

I am not sure what the screenshot you used represents. The Move dialog I am talking about should look like this:

http://www.halfbakedschemes.com/test/rename.jpg

I have the option of creating any naming pattern I would like. The only thing "I" do not how to do is use the "[" character. There may be a way, but I do not how to do it.


------------EDIT

I saw your edit after I posted :-)

Hehehe yeah, actually it was in front of my eyes.

To be honest this shouldn't bother me so much. After all I already decided my naming standard when started tagging and this can be reproduced with a filter, just that I wish there was some sort of modify option that would just walk the library array and change the path, trivial task



I'm sure I could even modify foobar's source for this, but what's the point anyway, this is one of these "use once in a millennium" options anyway

I guess I should be happy, that I found a solution at least

--------------EDIT

Doesn't work though. Media is not updated, nor the databases.

Bah. I think I'll just map whatever to Z: or something and that way no matter the name or the nesting level, foobar will always find it in plain Z:\*!!!
Easiest solution without too much tampering around.