MM4 Auto-Organize Issue

[teapot]

Since upgrading to MM4 Gold (Lifetime), Auto-Organize in the background no longer works when new tracks are added to the Library. The tracks are added, but left in the original temporary location. Background volume leveling is working, but I have to manually run Auto-Organize Files to get the newly added tracks moved to their permanent location and the now empty temporary folder deleted. Since it works when run manually, I must have a valid mask set up. I have the Automatically Organize files and Delete emptied folders boxes checked. I've tried every combination of checking and unchecking both Auto-Organize in the background and volume leveling in the background. I searched the forum, but didn't find anything on this specific issue so it doesn't seem to be a widespread problem. Where do I start to solve this ?

[Lowlander]

Most likely something is wrong in your Auto-Organize rules. Make sure the files match the criteria to be organized.

[teapot]

As I stated in my original post, I do have the Auto-Organize Files box in Options checked and I had already tried unchecking then rechecking it to see if it would then start working. If the Auto-Organize rule I have set works exactly as expected in manual mode, why wouldn't it also work in background mode ? The exact same single rule worked fine in both modes in MM3 Gold.

[nohitter151]

As I stated in my original post, I do have the Auto-Organize Files box in Options checked and I had already tried unchecking then rechecking it to see if it would then start working. If the Auto-Organize rule I have set works exactly as expected in manual mode, why wouldn't it also work in background mode ? The exact same single rule worked fine in both modes in MM3 Gold.

I think you misunderstood what Lowlander suggested. He isn't saying that your rule is bad, but he's saying that the criteria tracks have to match in order to have the rule applied might be set incorrectly.

I can confirm that auto-organize is working fine for me in MM4.

[teapot]

The rule I have defined is quite simple.
Directory: F:\Music\
File Format: <Artist>\<Album>\<Title>
New music tracks are temporarily stored in F:\New Music\... with varying sub-directory structures and names.

I'm pretty familiar with MM as I've been using it almost daily for nearly 6 years from MM2 to the latest version of MM4 Gold Lifetime. I understand that if my rule uses Artist, Album and Title as the criteria, that tracks need this information in the Library in order to be Auto-Organized. However, even if they don't have all this information, they should still Auto-Organize as soon as I edit the track and add these fields. In my case, no matter how the track comes in, with all the necessary fields already in the tag, or is edited to add it, MM4 never Auto-Organizes the new tracks until I manually Auto-Organize them.

The change in behavior started the moment that I upgraded from MM3 Gold to MM4 Gold. I've just lived with it for the last few weeks because I've been too busy to deal with it. I assumed that it wasn't a widespread problem as searches of the forum didn't turn up any relevant results for MM4. I've eliminated that it was due to conflicting rules and unchecked Options. I've carefully tested using multiple copies of the exact same tracks with the criteria fields already in track tags stored in various directories. Now I need other ideas for where to look. Because of the change in the DB in MM4, I didn't keep a copy of MM3 around for regression testing.

[Lowlander]

That's the rule part which defines how files will be organized. There is also a Criteria part which defines which files will be organized. In other words you can setup a Auto-Organize rule for a subset of your Library. Double click the rule you setup to make sure the correct Collection, Genre or Playlists is selected that includes the new files.

[nohitter151]

The rule I have defined is quite simple.

You are not understanding. See below:

[Devineme]

Maybe caught another issue I will try to summarize as briefly as possible.

1) Auto organize rules in the details view context menu are separate from auto organize rules in the options dialog.

Minor Issue - once you define a rule in the context menu, there is no easy way of deleting it. (That I know of..)
Why important - because as users re-define rules and apply refined organization, the new rules get mixed in with the old rules and a
confusing mess emerges. There should be a way deleting old rules from this context menu OR use one central place (options dialog) to define
rules and make available in context menu.


Major Issue - If you have identical auto organize rules defined in the both the context menu AND the auto organize section of
the options dialog; A problem arises if the directory's name differs in case or capitalization even though the name is the same.

Example ..
Your rule in the context menu and auto organize options dialog = X:\Net Audio\<Type>\<Artist>\<Album>\<Artist> - <Title> - <Track#>

MM fills in "<Type>" with "AudioBook" as predefined in the program.
The physical directory is named "Audiobook".
When you go to use the Context menu to organize selected tracks with identical rule, it displays tracks in yellow because of the
case difference in AudioBook (the program variable) and Audiobook (the directory name).

Why important - Number of reasons but the big one is -> Longer scan times due to unneeded AND unwanted filename renaming.
The user may not even know this is occuring because after the scan everything seems to be in place as it is in place until you
you use the context menu -> auto organize rules, again.

Maybe I'm missing something...

[Lowlander]

You can remove Auto-Organize Files rules from the MediaMonkey.ini. The problem with capitalization has been mentioned before and is due to Windows not being aware of capitalization (ie. it treats a lower case letter the sames as an upper case letter).