As mentioned there are currently 2 methods available that can serve the purpose in limited situations. You can either use the Virtual CD for managing one copy of the songs. This allows you to maintain a local copy of networked drives or a backup of files while MediaMonkey treats them as one and the same. You can sync to any location on your PC using the USB_Mass plugin for syncing which allows for syncing files while converting the.
The following is a proposal based on this topic and elaborates more on this. It solves many scenarios that different users might have for needing a copy of the original songs. Main concerns that need to be addressed are automation of copying files and maintaining consistent tags across copies. And as such I propose the following:
Split the current Virtual CD functionality into 2 parts:
Virtual CD would be used exclusively for copying content of CD's and maintaining a relationship with the original CD (already implemented).
Virtual Copy would be used to maintain copies of songs in the library (Sync-Cache or Shadow-Library). I propose that the Virtual Copy has the following capabilities:
- Allow multiple Virtual Copies
- Rule based auto Virtual Copies
- Rule to define which tracks are added to the Virtual Copy with ability to select filter and playlists (like sync profile)
- Rule to define what conversion should be applied to Virtual Copy (like sync profile)
- Rule to define mask used to store tracks
- Rule to define max size the Virtual Copy can used (can be absolute max size or by defining how much free space should be left on hard drive)
- Allow tag switching for Virtual Copy (this has been proposed for the Sync Profile as well and is useful for tag incompatible software/hardware)
- Custom Analyze Volume level to be stored in tags or auto-apply Level Volume (latter like sync profile)
- Define rule for deletion or prompt on deletion what to do with Virtual Copies
- Original and Virtual Copies will be presented like one and the same (like Virtual CD)
- Auto-Maintain tags synced across original/copies and option to manually sync tags to all copies (apply tag switch rules)
- Auto-Copy to Virtual Copy (like Auto-Organize)
- Scheduled copy to Virtual Copy (like backup software)
- Allow Virtual Copy locations to be offline (currently MediaMonkey will complain if Virtual CD location is inaccessible)
Playback
Add option to define which copy (original/Virtual Copy) should be used for playback or even better a preference order that MediaMonkey uses until it finds an accessible copy.
Sync
- Add option to define Virtual Copy as tracks to be synced.
- Add intelligent auto-selection of original/Virtual Copy to prevent unnecessary conversion.
- Add manual selection of which original/Virtual Copy should be used as source files for sync
Auto-Playlist/Advanced Search
- Add option to define location (original/Virtual Copy) as rule (not to be confused with path)
- Add preference order (original/Virtual Copy) for use in combination with status = available.
Benefits
- Allows to maintain library on network and maintain local copy for when not on network
- Allow to keep a cache for files used to sync so conversion is not required when syncing, which is useful for those who often change which tracks are synced
- Allows to keep a copy of library for those devices on the network that don't support certain file types, have problems with tags or require lower bitrate for smooth playback
- Maintain backups from within MediaMonkey (only protects against drive failures if copy is on different drive and doesn't protect against mistakes made inside MediaMonkey).
- and others
I think that this covers the concerns that have been raised in this topic related to keeping copies of songs and automates the process so it's seamless to the user, what do you think?