How do I sync my Explorer music files with my MC9 Library

chaso:

First off, don't worry so much. We were all new once, believe me. And many of us are still finding new things to do w/MC9.

So, flame free zone ok?

First off, I think what your saying is that your music is spread out all over the place on your computer and you want it 1)organized neatly into folders and sub-folders and 2)named by some naming convention.

Well, fear not. There's a solution w/in MC9. Just make sure you've got all the properties (tags) on your songs in MC9 cleaned up. Then follow the instructions in the 5th post (by me) in this thread (http://ipodlounge.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4253).

I think that's what you want to do.

Let us know if you still have questions...

Adam

Hi Adam~~ I went to the link that you referred me to and I think either I am missing something or not giving you enough information. I originally started my retagging/reorganizing project after reading the post that you had helped Yez with that contained the same information. Up until that point things were great in MC9(and still are) but what I was unhappy with and wanted to change was the variety of naming ?templetes? that I had in Explorer. here are some of the examples of the filenames that I had. (I used the same filename for the example)

Beatles-Abbey Road-Because
or
Abbey Road-Because
or
01-Beatles-Abbey Road-Because
or
01-Abbey Road-Because
or
01-Because
or ......... just
Track 01 (some of the first CDs that I ripped and did not tag using yadb)

I know this looks like it is a mess.......... but all the files from the CDs were there and there were no duplicates(in MC9 or Explorer)...............just different templates/rules(in Explorer only)......and I don?t know how that happened....I wish I did. I think it was because when I first got MC9 it was still in beta and it crashed on me about 4 or 5 times and I had to reinstall it that many times and the naming settings must have gotten changed somehow in the process.
So after carefully reading your instructions and following them I took on the chore of trying to organize Explorer(which might have been my mistake...... you tell me)
The first thing that I did was to tag all of my untagged songs and to cleanup all the empty properties that I could.
Next I did the following (cut/pasted from your link)

6. Hightlight all the songs, right-click select Library Tools>Rename Files from Properties.

7. In the dialog box that comes up, enter your Base Directory (your My Music folder), then select the Directory Rule you want (like "Artist\Album"), then select the naming convention you want (like "Artist - Album - Track# - Track Name.mp3"). Make sure you check both the Directory Rule and File Name rule checkboxes and click OK.
MC9 will rename (effectively moving) the files from your shared music directory to the My Music directory. It will create the Artist\Album directories for you (only if needed).

Okay......... I did all that and went back into Explorer. All of my songs are now tagged correctly and all with the same template/rule..... The only problem now in Explorer was that I now had duplicate files and some extra folders. I am sending a screenshot that will show you what I have. A couple of things that I want you to notice is that all of the duplicate files(I know they are dups because none of them have been rated yet) have a yellow icon and all the original files have blue icons....... Go figure? Also notice that in the Beatles directory I have one folder that is named Beatles 1 and one named The Beatles 1 .............it is not like this in MC9. In MC9 there is just one folder named Beatles one because I changed the properties of that folder to read just ?Beatles?. This occurs in other artist folders also(i.e. Dave Mathews Band/The Dave Mathews Band) Could it be that I am getting a bleedover from an older database from a previous install?

I just got this post from the MC9 Interact Forum.............. gonna try this to see if it works......... Sounds like it might. I will let you know. Wish me luck!

1) Select all your music files
2) Use the LIBRARY TOOLS > RENAME FILES FROM PROPERTIES.. command
3) Check DIRECTORIES
4) Enter a BASE PATH ( should be in a different folder from your music files)
EXAMPLE: If you save your music in "D:\My Documents\My Music" ENTER "D:\Music Temp" (Remember to save your files in the same drive so it will be faster)
5) Enter your RULE for your folders
6) Press enter
Check the newly created folder to verify that all your files are there...goto your music folder and verify that these are files that can be deleted...delete the files then move every thing back

Well, that is about all the information I have at the moment. If you see anything that might help, let me know.
Thanx again
Chasoscar

chaso:

Well, glad to hear your getting better treatment here. Just don't let Chris (Dmt1) know your asking these questions. He's ruthless. :D

I think I know your problem. Your MC9 library has references to old files in it.

Try this...

Click on File>Library>Update Library. Make sure to check the option to "Delete files which don't exist" (or something like that). It won't delete anything, just entries in the MC9 database.

Try that, then see what the "explorer view" looks like.

Adam

Coscar,

That's how KingSparta always talks. He's an odd bird sometimes, hehe.