[SOLVED] Library can't recognize disc 2

[TroubleClef]

I have a double album and when I rip disc 2 into MMW it disappears from the library. I see it in explorer in the correct directory right next to disc 1, but MMW won't find it. Immediately after ripping disc 2 the last time, it appeared in MMW but as soon as I added artwork, poofff. Gone.

I may be partly to blame, initially disc 1 wasn't labeled as such so before ripping disc 2 I added the disc 1 designation to the album name. I don't recall how I did that so not sure if that somehow confused the library. Still, disc 1 remains so I don't understand why disc 2 isn't recognized.

I've tried adding the file path disc 2 through the "locate moved/missing file" function with no results. I've re-scanned the entire library, still no results. What gives?

Thanks for suggestions!

[Lowlander]

Try using Entire Library > Location (enable under File > Manage Collections) to make sure it isn't in the Library.

[TroubleClef]

Wow, there it is. Its a little hard to understand the structure, things seem to appear in multiple places. But I think I can see part of what happened, I think I moved the folder after ripping it to the wrong location initially and somehow maybe the library is still looking for it in that location? What next? How do I know what to move or remove?

Thanks!

[Lowlander]

Any other Collection than Entire Library is a filtered view of your media. So for media to show it must match the Filter. Sub-nodes other than Location depend on tags, so for files to show where expected the tags must be in order.

All Collections look at the same Library of your media. They just provide different Filters on that Library. So if it doesn't show in Music it merely means it doesn't match its Criteria.

[MMFrLife]

When you were looking for it and couldn't find it, did you try simple search to see if it would come up?

[TroubleClef]

I didn't think to use the search function. And I see now that it does show up in the media tree under music, but it doesn't show up in the main frame of the window where you can view albums with art etc (sorry, still trying to learn the language here). When I said it would appear after ripping, but then disappear, that's where I was looking, so I guess I'm still not sure why that happened or how to get it back. Since you mentioned the tags though, I notice for some reason it doesn't have a genre associated with it so maybe that's why?

I have to admit that media tree still confuses the heck out of me so I normally have it turned off. Every sub folder has "all" where you can see the whole library, and then it seems there's variations on album, artist, and album artist... Further in, it looks like each album has several different locations under the same album artist. I still don't know how to keep it all straight. In fact just monkeying around with that has somehow reshuffled the main display I had finally set up with the columns and fields I was comfortable with. Why would all that suddenly change? Confusing!

Anyway, thanks for the help, I learn a little more each time so any other suggestions are welcomed!

[MMFrLife]

but it doesn't show up in the main frame of the window where you can view albums with art etc (sorry, still trying to learn the language here). When I said it would appear after ripping, but then disappear, that's where I was looking, so I guess I'm still not sure why that happened or how to get it back.

Regardless of what view is present, you have to "do something" to get it to show. I'm not sure how "wherever you were looking" it just appeared and
then disappeared. But, if you rip it in with that view showing and then just look at that view for it to appear, it won't. You have to either search for
it (simple or advanced) or find it in the tree to call it up into view. If you use the tree and scan it in, and already have it on a node that is the correct location,
you can try clicking on a different node real quick and click back (refresh) to see if it appears.

[Lowlander]

The All folder shows the content of the selected folder and all its sub-folders and can be disabled under Tools > Options > Appearance.

Album is the Albums name. For Artist there are 3 tree node options available. Artist, Album Artist and Artist & Album Artist. You can choose which you want to use (File > Manage Collections). Artist are the Artists performing the Track, Album Artist is the Artist the Album is associated with.

An Album is considered an Album by MediaMonkey when files have the same Album and the same Album Artist values.

Nodes in the Media Tree like Artist, Album and Genre rely on tags and thus only if your files are tagged properly will the files show where expected. Location on the other hand uses the physical folder structure on your PC.

[TroubleClef]

OK thank you for the explanations, very much appreciated. I think I'm starting to see the bigger picture, particularly with the options for the nodes in the tree. I axed the "all" node and I think I'll do the same with the combined Artist & Album Artist node in favor of just Album Artist... I guess its personal choice but its not intuitive for me to combine those categories.

One follow up question at this point, for some reason the tracks on the cd in question are shown out of order. Track 01 is the last one on the list even though as far as i can tell the file names and track numbers are all correct. Any suggestions about that?

[AlanH]

HI
If I understand right you are using the details view, to sort by Track number just click on top of the column, you can also sort by multiple columns by holding Ctrl when you click on the next column. I find the useful when I'm sort by artist name then track name.

[MMFrLife]

If all Album Artist entries for each track in an album are exactly the same and all Album entries for each track in an album are exactly the same and
track #s are correct, then you should be able to just sort on Album Artist. If you have a mult-disc and the track order is original to each disc (each starting with "1")
you'll also need to have disc# filled accordingly.

[TroubleClef]

Ok Thanks that helped. Turns out track 1 was the only track with an entry in the "disc # " field in the properties window. I didn't think to look at the individual tracks for that property because somehow properties for the whole album showed an entry in that field ...

Anyway, now the album won't accept artwork. I add it, hit OK, then it disappears. Any ideas?

I don't know how I managed to screw up this rip so badly, all the other ones have gone fine. Thanks for the help!

[Lowlander]

Do the files still play? Could they be read-only? Did you select Apply to all files on Album?

[TroubleClef]

Ok the national nightmare is over and you're helping me learn a lot from my mistakes!. The questions about the files playing or being read only led me to realize the music files no longer existed. After having re-ripped the disc a few times trying to get it to work I must have deleted it.

Which leads me to yet another question, even though it looked like the data existed as we confirmed it with the media tree, I obviously didn't do those deletes properly so I'm guessing that left some data in the library. So in the future how do I know when I'm editing files that don't actually exist? And is there a way to clean these sorts ghost files from, the library?

[Lowlander]

The Files to Edit > Dead Links sub-node in the Media Tree will show the deleted files. If you use MediaMonkey to delete them the problem shouldn't exist in the first place.