MediaMonkey forum

terrypin wrote: Anyone: Where do I find the options dialog for Backup 6 please? I see nothing under Options or Extensions. I still don't know what output folder it's using, so that I can check if I have any backups. Also, how long should a backup of 7800 tracks take? I've just closed MM (to check that the error message still appears), but after 5 mins the HD activity (but low CPU resource) has still not finished.

Tools > Scripts

Thanks. When I first tried that yesterday I got a weird error message about 16-bit blah blah DOS command blah NT system file blah not allowed. So I cancelled out hurriedly.

I've now tried again and it got me to the settings dialog I've been looking for, thanks.

Isn't that an odd route to the options menu? Shouldn't Tools > Scripts be for running the scripts? There's also Tools > Extensions, which actually shows an Options button - but it's greyed out for most, and Backup isn't on the list anyway. I'd have thought the most logical place was with all the other options, under Tools > Options, i.e. with a Scripts section in there.

Now that I have the dialog, I'd appreciate advice on its contents please. This is what it looks like to start with:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/401 ... -BU7-3.jpg
Doesn't that combination of those two settings imply that it will start by deleting my c: drive files?! That isn't currently happening now, although it got scarily close to it previously as I've described. But could that bizarre default of C: for the Output Path be responsible for the lengthy disc churning I'm now getting.

For the time being I'm de-activting Backup by renaming it to Backup.vbs.bak.

I've made some progress.

With these new settings
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/MM-BU7.jpg
I attempted to run the backup, and answered Yes to the first two messages
"Output path currently contains 29Mb which could be deleted. Do you wish to continue?"
(could? Or 'will'? When would it ever not be deleted? Or have I misunderstood 'clean up'?)

and

"You have chosen to automatically backup at shutdown. Do you wish to backup now?"
But then I got this show-stopper which has me stumped:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/MM-BU8.jpg

What does that mean? Of course the output folder already exists, I was asked to specify it! How else could it work? And the script is set to clean it up (delete all its content is my interpretation) before saving the new backup. So what's the obstacle please?

Also, I don't understand those options about overwriting and deleting. When not checked (the default), surely the new backup is effectively overwriting anyway, because it deletes the old one and saves the new.

terrypin wrote:(could? Or 'will'? When would it ever not be deleted? Or have I misunderstood 'clean up'?)

Some people want to save previous states of their files.

Why so slow exporting playlists?

(My previous post was becoming more like a thread. I'll try to keep them to individual points or topics from now on.)

In the Backup settings, if I enable 'Export M3Us' the backup time jumps from a second to about a minute! That's for only 15 playlists. Explorer takes a fraction of a second to copy those same 15 text files (total 5 MB) to another folder.

Is that incredibly slow performance seen by others, or must I look for another issue with my setup?

Settings
By enabling the extra option shown here I'm now able to get the required results. (Although I still don't understand why that Overwrite action is needed as well as the Cleanup.)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/MM-BU9.jpg

terrypin wrote:Why so slow exporting playlists?

Is that incredibly slow performance seen by others, or must I look for another issue with my setup?

I think I can answer my own question. Looks like it was due to an old script version interfering with Backup 6. I installed the latest BackupPlaylists script and backups including playlists are now fast.

I'm glad you're making progress, but sorry that I'm late to the conversation. I can say that the reason there are both the overwrite and cleanup options are a double check so that people don't accidentally delete stuff. It tries to make it really clear that your output path should be a unique path used only for backing up by the script, and nothing something like "C:\".

trixmoto wrote:I'm glad you're making progress, but sorry that I'm late to the conversation. I can say that the reason there are both the overwrite and cleanup options are a double check so that people don't accidentally delete stuff. It tries to make it really clear that your output path should be a unique path used only for backing up by the script, and nothing something like "C:\".

Thanks, it's good to get your help on these script topics. Following my upgrade from v3 to v4 I've made a bit of a mess of scrambling old and new, and trying to learn some basics as I go along. (See also my post in the Help section today about Scripts v Extensions.)

Did you see my post up-thread, page 88: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 05#p408505
Here's a paste:
trixmoto: I'm no programmer or scripter but I'll happily help any forensic work under your direction.

I've stared at Backup.vbs, ABackup.vbs and ABackup2.vbs in my text editor looking for clues in vain. Note that all my old version scripts have now been deleted or copied to a folder I used while trying to sort out all the old and new VBS files (all with same names), K:\Copy of all MM Scripts.

Maybe we'll never know exactly what caused my near disaster. But the crucial thing is that I had no warning at all. So maybe whichever script(s) initiate 'cleanups' need considering for extra coding? Perhaps to identify the first deletion taking place in 'critical' locations such as C: or \My Documents? Possibly force a stop and a visual/audio warning before proceeding, or something along those lines?

Well I think this is a symptom of managing to get your settings confused. The way the script works is that it runs the backup manually the first time, with the settings, and you get all of the warning popups. Then if you've chosen any of the automatic options, they continue to run with the same settings, but no warnings. This means that you should get all of the warnings, including asking whether you really want to delete "C:\" which includes ###Gb of data, when you run it manually the first time.

I get this obscure error message when I close MM:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/401 ... Eror-1.jpg

FWIW, line 328 of that script file is:
Call fso.CopyFile(fil.Path,m3up,True)

Presumably it's related to Backup 6.0, so perhaps this should be moved there, although it seems very quiet.

terrypin wrote:I get this obscure error message when I close MM:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/401 ... Eror-1.jpg

FWIW, line 328 of that script file is:
Call fso.CopyFile(fil.Path,m3up,True)

Presumably it's related to Backup 6.0, so perhaps this should be moved there, although it seems very quiet.

Its a permissions issue, it means you haven't installed the script properly or you are running MM without necessary permissions for how the script is installed (eg installed for all users but you are not running MM as admin).

Thanks nohitter, I'll investigate along those lines tomorrow and maybe try re-installing. It's odd though, because:
1. I've previously been able to close and get a successful backup with no errors.
2. I re-installed all my scripts using All Users and this is the only one that has now started giving me an error.

I uninstalled Backup 6 and re-installed, this time as a single user, not All Users.

But apart from the different location, I still get the same error on closing MM.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/401 ... rror-2.jpg

Hoping for further suggestions (including possibly from author). I am still getting this error (accompanied by the standard Windows 'crash' sound) at every close. And of course no backups.

Interestingly, I can get a backup without the error if, before closing MM, I alternatively use Tools > Scripts > Backup, and respond to the various pop-up questions.