[REQ] Replacing a file in the library (transfering metadata from track to track)

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ed.j
Posts: 201
Joined: Thu May 19, 2011 1:44 pm

[REQ] Replacing a file in the library (transfering metadata from track to track)

Post by ed.j »

Every now and again I want to replace a file - say the original download has become corrupted and I've re-downloaded it, or I've bought a CD to rip in higher quality than some terrible vinyl rip years ago.

If this happens, it is a slightly tedious process to replace the file(s), essentially copying all the tags from old to new and making sure they're in the same playlists:::

It would be great if there were a way to do this automatically, and have the file "updated" rather than replaced. This would be great for many obvious reasons...
Rob_S
Posts: 879
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:53 pm

Re: [REQUEST] Replacing a file in the library

Post by Rob_S »

MP3 tag pro can do it, but it does sound complicated, and obviously won't import album art

https://www.maniactools.com/soft/mp3tag ... file.shtml

If we could have a way of copying an entire row of tags to our clipboard, and pasting to the next row, then it would be just a matter of naming your new files so they show up just underneath the old ones, and copy paste one row at a time, that would work for a few files at a time.

I think otherwise batch copying tags from one set of files to another might be a challenge for an addon developer :)
Using 5.1 LATEST alpha or beta build on Windows 10, HP laptop, managing 13k tracks
Barry4679
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Re: [REQUEST] Replacing a file in the library

Post by Barry4679 »

If you replace track files, MM5 will not notice unless you have the Add/Rescan Schedule option set to one of the "start-up" or "continuously" options.

After you have replaced the files, you can select them in MM and press Ctrl+S (or EditTags>UpdateTags from the right click
or Edit menu). That should push your db tags down into the replacement tracks.
Want a dark skin for MM5? This is the one that works best for me .. elegant, compact & clear.
drakinite
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Re: [REQUEST] Replacing a file in the library

Post by drakinite »

Rob_S wrote: Sat Dec 11, 2021 7:36 pm If we could have a way of copying an entire row of tags to our clipboard, and pasting to the next row, then it would be just a matter of naming your new files so they show up just underneath the old ones, and copy paste one row at a time, that would work for a few files at a time.

I think otherwise batch copying tags from one set of files to another might be a challenge for an addon developer :)
I believe that copying & pasting tags is a feature of Advanced Duplicate Find & Fix, which of course is not yet available for MediaMonkey 5. The author is tough to get in touch with, so I don't know the status of whether it's in progress or not. If you need the feature in the meantime, you could keep MM4 installed for when you need to do that metadata replacement, and use MM5 otherwise.
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Student electrical-computer engineer, web programmer, part-time MediaMonkey developer, full-time MediaMonkey enthusiast
I uploaded many addons to MM's addon page, but not all of those were created by me. "By drakinite, Submitted by drakinite" means I made it on my own time. "By Ventis Media, Inc., Submitted by drakinite" means it may have been made by me or another MediaMonkey developer, so instead of crediting/thanking me, please thank the team. You can still ask me for support on any of our addons.
Andre_H
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Re: [REQUEST] Replacing a file in the library

Post by Andre_H »

ed.j wrote: Sat Dec 11, 2021 5:43 pm essentially copying all the tags from old to new and making sure they're in the same playlists::: PITA
I agree with "there should be an (easy) integrated way".

Workaround, If format stays the same (MP3 to MP3): read "track old" and "track new" into Mp3Tag. Copy and Paste the whole tag (including any embedded Pictures), then replace the File.

It's still some manuall work to go, but never had any hazzle within MMW, it recognize the new file to the database entry, re-reads bitrate etc, but holds playcounter and all those "Database only" information.
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Friedrich
Posts: 176
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Re: [REQUEST] Replacing a file in the library

Post by Friedrich »

drakinite wrote: Sat Dec 11, 2021 11:54 pm I believe that copying & pasting tags is a feature of Advanced Duplicate Find & Fix
Yes, it is. It provides two entries in the context menu for a selected track: "Copy metadata" and "Paste metadata". Hitting "Paste metadata" on a single or multiple selected tracks opens a options window, where the desired tags to be pasted can be chosen.
Very useful for retagging single or multiple tracks like whole albums (excluding title and track number in that case..) or whatever.
I think that is exactly the function the thread opener is asking for.
Very desirable indeed.
The thread title is a bit of a misnomer.
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drakinite
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Re: [REQUEST] Replacing a file in the library

Post by drakinite »

I suppose it would also be much simpler and faster if we make an addon *just* with the copy & paste metadata feature. We can then add to it later if we need to. I wish I could get in touch with Bex. I'll try again and see if he replies.
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Student electrical-computer engineer, web programmer, part-time MediaMonkey developer, full-time MediaMonkey enthusiast
I uploaded many addons to MM's addon page, but not all of those were created by me. "By drakinite, Submitted by drakinite" means I made it on my own time. "By Ventis Media, Inc., Submitted by drakinite" means it may have been made by me or another MediaMonkey developer, so instead of crediting/thanking me, please thank the team. You can still ask me for support on any of our addons.
Rob_S
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Re: [REQUEST] Replacing a file in the library

Post by Rob_S »

I hope you succeed, that would be a great option to have.
Using 5.1 LATEST alpha or beta build on Windows 10, HP laptop, managing 13k tracks
tbm72
Posts: 363
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Re: [REQ] Replacing a file in the library (transfering metadata from track to track)

Post by tbm72 »

I replace tracks quite often in my library if I have for example a version with a higher bitrate or a remastered version of an old track. The way I do it is like this and it retains all existing data, play counts etc as well as keeping the track in any existing playlists.

1) Make sure the new track has exactly the same filename as the old one
2) Copy and paste it into the same location as the existing track, overwriting the old version
3) If the track you've replaced is part of an album, highlight all the tracks from that album in MM
4) Right click, go to properties and refresh the artwork (and tick 'apply to all selected')

The process of updating the artwork also has the bonus of writing back all existing tags, genre, play counts etc. to the new file. You'll also need to add/rescan the album in order for MM to see the new bitrate but this is the way I've been updating existing files for a while.
Lowlander
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Re: [REQ] Replacing a file in the library (transfering metadata from track to track)

Post by Lowlander »

That only works if the extension hasn't changed. Often with upgrading the quality of files the extension changes as user upgrade from a lossy (like MP3) format to a lossless (like FLAC) format. Advanced Duplicate Find & Fix in MediaMonkey 4 was able to then copy metadata, replace on Playlists and remove old copies for a whole Album.
tbm72
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Location: UK

Re: [REQ] Replacing a file in the library (transfering metadata from track to track)

Post by tbm72 »

Sure, my method only works on like-for-like file formats. But I assume if you wanted to update tags when switching from mp3 to flac you could also right-click the file properties in MM5 and change the filename field from '01_track_name.mp3' to '01_track_name.flac' and that would force the same tag changes to the file? (I haven't tried that myself but don't see why it wouldn't work).

I'm sure it would be better to have a MM5 version of Advanced Duplicate Find & Fix but this might serve as a workaround in the meantime.
tbessie
Posts: 405
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 3:50 am

Copying track tags from one set of files to another, possible?

Post by tbessie »

So Back In The Day(tm), I ripped my entire CD collection (not using MediaMonkey) to FLAC.

I then spent a really long time with MediaMonkey, tagging everything as FLAC, and then converted all the FLAC to MP3 to be smaller for putting on portable devices.

Some time after this, the MM folks reported a bug with their FLAC library, where every time a FLAC file was saved, it chopped a byte or two off the front of the audio data of the file.

They eventually fixed it, but not until I had already tagged all the FLAC files, probably saving them dozens of times each. This would have resulted in anywhere from 10-50 bytes chopped off the front of my FLAC files.

Not a big deal, but I have wanted, since then, to do a project where I re-rip all the CDs to FLAC, and then copy - en-masse - all the tags from the old FLAC files to the new FLAC files.

Does anyone have any good ideas on how to accomplish this? I don't want to have to copy tags one by one, file by file. I also don't want to have to copy them one-by-one even if the per-file process is automated.

Instead, I want to say "For each of these albums here, copy across all tags into the matching files over there". Something along those lines. The specifics of how I'd match them up is yet to be determined.

So... anyone have any suggestions?

- Tim
drakinite
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Re: [REQ] Replacing a file in the library (transfering metadata from track to track)

Post by drakinite »

If you still have MediaMonkey 4 installed, you can do that currently with Advanced Duplicate Find & Fix: https://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/brow ... -find-fix/
Right click on a track or list of tracks, and you can click "Copy Metadata" and "Paste Metadata" as appropriate.

Without word from the author on whether he's going to bring ADF&F to MM5, I'm starting work on a "metadata manipulator" addon which brings that capability to the new MediaMonkey, but it's still in its early stages.
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Student electrical-computer engineer, web programmer, part-time MediaMonkey developer, full-time MediaMonkey enthusiast
I uploaded many addons to MM's addon page, but not all of those were created by me. "By drakinite, Submitted by drakinite" means I made it on my own time. "By Ventis Media, Inc., Submitted by drakinite" means it may have been made by me or another MediaMonkey developer, so instead of crediting/thanking me, please thank the team. You can still ask me for support on any of our addons.
tbessie
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Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 3:50 am

Re: [REQ] Replacing a file in the library (transfering metadata from track to track)

Post by tbessie »

drakinite wrote: Wed Mar 09, 2022 11:09 am If you still have MediaMonkey 4 installed, you can do that currently with Advanced Duplicate Find & Fix: https://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/brow ... -find-fix/
Right click on a track or list of tracks, and you can click "Copy Metadata" and "Paste Metadata" as appropriate.

Without word from the author on whether he's going to bring ADF&F to MM5, I'm starting work on a "metadata manipulator" addon which brings that capability to the new MediaMonkey, but it's still in its early stages.
Thanks! I guess my question was moved into this thread. :-)

I actually haven't moved to MM5 yet, as I want to use MM4 to do a bit of mainenance before that, but had hoped that ability to do what I want might have been added to MM5 already. I guess it hasn't.

I have all of that developer's plugins; I think he said he wasn't going to port them to MM5 (for some technical or political reason, I can't recall which), which would be a shame, since they are great plugins!

Good luck on your own plugin - I'll keep on eye on any posts you make about that.

Since I'm a developer, maybe I should start writing my own - not that I don't already have enough development work at my job, of course. ;-)

- Tim
drakinite
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Re: [REQ] Replacing a file in the library (transfering metadata from track to track)

Post by drakinite »

tbessie wrote: Wed Mar 09, 2022 3:04 pm Since I'm a developer, maybe I should start writing my own - not that I don't already have enough development work at my job, of course. ;-)

- Tim
If you're interested, then by all means give it a shot! We've got an introductory document here, which is hopefully approachable enough: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/Gettin ... d_(Addons) and a more complete API reference here: https://www.mediamonkey.com/docs/api/ Personally as a JS developer, I found MM5 relatively easy to examine, since all the UI code is right in the install folder for you to see. I had a lot of fun in the summer of 2020 poking through that code :grin:

I think the majority of MM addons came from individual users who wanted a way to automate things that they found tedious, and then built them into general tools when it turned out that others had the same need.
Image
Student electrical-computer engineer, web programmer, part-time MediaMonkey developer, full-time MediaMonkey enthusiast
I uploaded many addons to MM's addon page, but not all of those were created by me. "By drakinite, Submitted by drakinite" means I made it on my own time. "By Ventis Media, Inc., Submitted by drakinite" means it may have been made by me or another MediaMonkey developer, so instead of crediting/thanking me, please thank the team. You can still ask me for support on any of our addons.
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