Any ideas for keeping a record of deleted tracks?

[JohnMBrooks]

So I was just doing some music catalog housekeeping and deleting some tracks, and thought that it's a pity that once I delete a track, I don't have any way of knowing or remembering that I ever had that track in the first place. To be clear, I don't think there's any viable or scalable solution for this, but I thought it might be worth asking just in case anyone has tackled this before.

Example "Problem":
Say there's an album of which I really like one song (hit single), but kinda hate the rest. I'll tend to keep that one song and delete the rest of the album. Now let's say ten years pass, and I listen to that one song, see it's the only song from that album I have, forget I deleted the rest because I didn't like 'em, and then decide I should give the rest of the album a try supposing I'd like them as much as the one song I do have... only to find out once more that I don't like them, delete them, and the cycle repeats itself once more a decade later... ad infinitum. Having used MediaMonkey for well over a decade, there have been plenty of times I've already been in that position, wondering if I ever heard the rest of the album, forget to rip the rest of an album or lost the files accidentally.

Hypothetical Solution:
It would be nice to have a way to be able keep a log or record of sorts for deleted tracks. Only basic metadata, not the track itself. The main way I'd like to interface with it is when I search for an album or track, being able to see an entry as deleted (below local search results) as opposed to not seeing anything and not knowing I ever had a local copy of it. It kinda reminds me to how my password manager effectively archives entries instead of outright deleting them (Not a perfect example, I know, those entries only take a few bytes of space and can be irreplaceable), and shows them as a separate category of item below search results when you search for the corresponding term.

Problems with the solution:
With the issue of duplicate tracks, misnamed tracks that are deleted, etc, keeping a record of all deleted tracks is liable to create as many problems as it may potentially solve. No doubt such a log or archive would get filled up with auditory kipple over time. Likely the best way to address this is a checkbox option when deleting the track. Perhaps this alone makes clear that this falls into 'Plugin' territory.

Anyway, just thought I might ask in case anyone has thought about the same issue before. I don't really expect a solution, but who knows, I've been surprised before. Or if anyone has their own alternate system for addressing this, I'm all ears. If not, no problem, it isn't the biggest of issues to begin with, even if I'm always looking for better ways to manage the collection. I was just curious.

[Lowlander]

If you delete files outside of MediaMonkey they remain in the Library and become Dead Links.

Instead I suggest either moving files you don't like to a separate location and through Collections Filter what is shown or use Rating and Filter on that using Collections. The files will remain available when you want to use them again, while you have the ability to hide them from the Collection.

[JohnMBrooks]

Thanks for the response, Lowlander.

I have no interest in keeping tracks I don't actually intend to ever listen to, both for hard drive space reasons and simply to avoid having files for no reason. All I'd like to keep is a text entry of basic metadata like title, album and such. On the other hand, the 'Dead Links' feature has a very legitimate use of its own that isn't worth messing with. Trying to maintain deleted files as 'Dead Links' is unlikely to be viable over time or even a good idea. It would just mix up moved tracks with "deleted" tracks, and the former is a much more valuable feature. But it is thinking outside the box, so I can appreciate that.

Regarding Collections Filter, that isn't really a feature of MediaMonkey Gold I've ever made systematic use of (I understand Collections as the items in the Media Tree). It would be a great way to categorize that sort of thing, but I imagine as-is it wouldn't work well with deleted files as it isn't intended for that.

I didn't really expect there to be any solution and it is anything but a critical issue. I was just curious about asking, so I'm not really worried if there's no practical way to do so. It's just a pity, but a minor one.

[Lowlander]

No, if you don't want to keep the files nor want to keep them as Dead Links you're out of options.

[JohnMBrooks]

I suspected that would be the case. I also suspect that this isn't something there's mass interest in, so I guess I'll leave it be. Oh well.

Thanks for the insight. Have a good one.

[Erwin Hanzl]

Hello John,

Virtual-CD
https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index. ... 26_CDs/4.0

Adding CDs to the Library (without ripping)
https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index. ... ibrary/4.0

[Lowlander]

Note that Virtual CD has been discontinued in MediaMonkey 5.

[Erwin Hanzl]

Sorry Lowlander, but for me there is ONE reason NOT to switch to MM5: NO VBScripting
I myself have written 11 scripts that make it very easy for me to manage.

[JohnMBrooks]

Virtual-CD ... Adding CDs to the Library (without ripping)

I've never used the Virtual CD feature in the past, so I'm not terribly familiar with them. That said, skimming over those links, one gets the impression that they are supposed to be added from physical CDs and not digital files already in the library. I've seen that I can drag tracks to the virtual library and it duplicates the track there, but if I delete the original track from my 'Music Collection', (Delete from Library/Delete from Library and Computer), it simultaneously deletes the other entry from the Virtual Library. For that to somewhat work, I'd have to delete it manually outside of MM, which would lead to a missing track, and that method wouldn't be sustainable in the long run.

That said, it was a good idea. But besides its own problem, if it's being discontinued than it doesn't look like a long-term solution anyway.

Pity this isn't something anyone else seems to care about. Conceptually it could be as simple as a .csv with metadata values that gets queried and the option to add or not files when they are deleted. The main problem with this sort of thing is that I'm the first to recognize this isn't an important issue, so I'm not so interested in it that I'd be willing to invest high effort on an ongoing basis or do it some hack way. If there's a good way to do it, great, if not, it's likely not worth the effort.

[ZvezdanD]

The Event Logger add-on allows logging of deleted tracks to .csv file (and many other MM events like OnStartUp, OnPlay, OnTrackConverted...). It works only in MM2-4.