A few questions from a new MM FAN and customer

[bloomer]

This was a really interesting adventure (though I feel sorry for the victims!). I wonder if anyone can suggest a solution for this setup idea:

* using music file library on a network drive, either as mapped drive or UNC network place on PC-XP3. (terribly slow for tag updates, especially with OGG files over SMB)

* attaching same drive via USB to same PC in order to do routine tag maintenance/library updates/whatever (honestly, the difference for OGG tag updates is 2mins vs 2secs between SMB and USB, at least on my system)

Can it be done? I fear that the difference in file paths between the two connection types would make this impossible in the DB?

[rovingcowboy]

get a different ogg. encoder. mine is only using ogg and i have them on 5 different internal hds on raid card. it takes a few seconds to update my tags no matter how big the hd is and how far on the hd the song is.

really its updated as fast as i can click the okay button.

so maybe your ogg encoder is messed up from say what we use to call bit rot?

[bloomer]

get a different ogg. encoder. mine is only using ogg and i have them on 5 different internal hds on raid card. it takes a few seconds to update my tags no matter how big the hd is and how far on the hd the song is.

Hi rovingcowboy. No, this is a problem specific to SMB networked drives as far as I understand it -- your internal HD scenario is completely different and will work beautifully (I'm jealous). There are known problems with some file handling over networks under Windows -- MM rewrites the whole file when updating tags in my OGGs and this takes 1-2mins over the network (but just seconds for local files).

[rovingcowboy]

okay i thought that might be it but not too good on networks my self.

yep that raid system i got. is what i've had for the last 10 years, it was in the windows 98 computer and is eide system.
i was lucky to find one of only two mb's still giving a complete edie system combined with an ata system. and it had just enough pci slots for the cards i needed. only trouble now is i have two controllers for ata drives but my full tower case is full i got places way at the top for two cdrom's or dvd drives but not enough hardware to bolt to the side of hd's to make them fit the wider bay. and plus how long can an sata gray cable / red wire's be? could the fit to the top of the tower?
aw but then i got a usb external drive i use so i have them backed up. if i need be i'll go back to the cdroms for back up and use that external for more space. that would make 7 drives in the one system.

[beg]

Hi,

thx for all the infos and hints about the usage of one external hd with different computers! It's good to know that this works fine like that as long as it is limited to the use of one external hd.

Since this seems to be one of the lastest and most sophisticated threads about MM.dbs to be used on different computers, I'd like to ask for recent findouts for a different situation as well as I did already long time ago without a really good working solution. What to do if I can not use only one external hd with MM, music and mm.db on different computers, but I need to have multiple instances of music and mm.db. As far as I know there is still no satisfiying solution for that szenario?!

I have my music on a file server to be used within my home-network. Besides of that I need part of that music on an external hd, or a laptop for DJing. It still gets a little bit more complicated since I am using a custom folder structur in order to organize big parts of my music like that one for DJing and rough genres like classic, jazz, pop which makes mm-synching a problem.

This is the only thing which worked perfectly with itunes. If you copy music and library/database to different computers but with same folderstructure you just told the driveletter to be used and continue working. It's a pitty this is not working the same way with MM, but it's a pain in the ass doing this with MM.. I am a convinced MM-gold user and DJing with it, but there needs to be a better solution for this setup.

Any new ideas for that?

thx,
B

[Rednroll]

Since this seems to be one of the lastest and most sophisticated threads about MM.dbs to be used on different computers, I'd like to ask for recent findouts for a different situation as well as I did already long time ago without a really good working solution. What to do if I can not use only one external hd with MM, music and mm.db on different computers, but I need to have multiple instances of music and mm.db. As far as I know there is still no satisfiying solution for that szenario?!

I'm not exactly clear on the problem you are describing. But my advice from what you are describing would be to use more than one external HDD and set each of them up like I previously posted. I bought my wife an external HDD and I set it up exactly like I have posted. I can run the MM from her external HDD and it users her own MM.DB file, her MediaMonkey.ini and her library of music. I can run her MM on any of the same computers that I run my MM on. Thus, there are more than one MM database, and different music libraries but are run on the same PCs and any changes I make to my library using my external HDD does not effect hers and vice-versa.

I'm not sure if this addresses your problem but it gives you multiple instances of music and more than one MM database like you described. You could even create separate partitions on the same HDD or just have 2 separate MM install folders and have each one point to different MM.db files if you wanted to use just a single HDD.

[beg]

Hi Rednroll,

thx for reply, but I am afraid it does not help in my case. I can not use an external HDD since my music is stored on a high end RAID system within the file server. I do not want to replace that high end system by any external hd conected to the fileserver via USB..

Still I need that music and that mm.db also on a hd and/or on a laptop for mobile usage like DJing in different venues.

regards,
B

[Lowlander]

I'd suggest to keep a local DB on the laptop. Scan the music in from the File Server and use right click, Send To > Virtual CD for selected tracks you want to take on the road with you. MediaMonkey sees the File Server and Virtual CD copy as one and the same, which makes it easier to manage.

If you need to manage playlists/play data between different databases there are scripts that can take care of this in the Addons forum.

[beg]

The virtual disk option was suggest before. This does not work for me since it's a lot of music I need to take with me (~32000 songs) and I organize/use them with a huge number of playlists (hundreds), which I need on the fileserver as well as on the laptop.

What I do now is this:
1. I synchronize the music folder on fileserver and laptop with an external synch-programm (that one I need for DJ-ing).
2. I copy the mm.db from fileserver to the laptop. (in order to have all the playlists..)
3. Use the Search for lost/missing files function of MM to correct the driveletter/directory in the paths of the database.

It takes an hour each time, but works.

But I am afraid to go to other way back in order to get new created playlists during work on the laptop back to the fileserver. Because I transfer only a part of the music on the laptop/external HD. And I would prefer a more simple and faster way to do this..

regards,
B

[Lowlander]

Virtual CD works like sync (and you can change the folder to any location) and the Restore PlayHistory/DateAdded/Playlists script: http://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic. ... FPlaylists script syncs the playlists.

[Peke]

Beg,
Here is how I do it:
0. MM.DB is always on Local HDD
1. I disabled auto tag when editing properties
2. Use Virtual CD like Lowlander say
3. Update edit properties/tags/playlists/... Only do not do Auto-Organize
4. Every month or so when I edited enough tags (I Only work with files in My virtual CD) I select them and do Tag sync overnight while sleeping

in 99% of cases proces is done when I woke up. and than do the same for next set of tracks.

[Rednroll]

Hi Rednroll,

thx for reply, but I am afraid it does not help in my case. I can not use an external HDD since my music is stored on a high end RAID system within the file server. I do not want to replace that high end system by any external hd conected to the fileserver via USB..

Still I need that music and that mm.db also on a hd and/or on a laptop for mobile usage like DJing in different venues.

regards,
B

Sorry, I'm not familiar with the obstacles associated with using networked hard drives.

Here's some general information that I have learned and maybe you can use this info to solve your problem.

1. MediaMonkey.ini File:
The MediaMonkey.ini file keeps track of all your preference settings and it also has the ability to define the location of where to look for the MM.DB file. So things like your screen layout, your last views before you shut down MM, and any settings in the Options>Preferences menu get saved in the MediaMonkey.ini file.

To define the location of the MM.DB (database file) Here is the format of the line you need to ADD to the MediaMonkey.ini file to tell MM where to look for the database file.

Example:
DBName=T:\MediaMonkey\All Users\Application Data\MediaMonkey\MM.DB
Format:
DBName=Drive Letter:\Drive Path\FileName.DB

If you want MM to look at a network drive for the database file, then I imagine you need to enter the network path. I'm not sure what you have to do, or if it's possible if the network drive needs a login/password to access it.

The thing to be careful about is that the MediaMonkey.exe seems to be programmed to look at multiple locations on your Hard drives for the MediaMonkey.ini file. I'm not sure where it looks 1st, then 2nd...etc. So be sure to make sure ALL other instances are deleted off of your PC to ensure it is running the correct MediaMonkey.ini file when you 1st start up MediaMonkey.exe. It helps to do an Windows "advanced" file search on "MediaMonkey.ini" and make sure to "Show hidden files". I found out the hard way that MM, will create "hidden" instances of the MediaMonkey.ini file. It seems to me the "Last" place MM looks for the MediaMonkey.ini is in it's own install directory. So that's where I keep my MediaMonkey.ini file. So it will always run that INI file as long as no other MediaMonkey.ini are located in other directories on the Windows install HDD, like the specific user folders they some times bury themselves in.(ie "\All Users", "\MyDocuments"..etc.)

So that's what I mentioned earlier is that you could actually have 2 MM install folders on the same HDD and put a separate MediaMonkey.ini file in each separate install folder, so you could have each MediaMonkey.exe access different database files on the same PC....same HDD...etc. by defining the location of the MM.DB file in the separate MediaMonkey.ini files. Where MM looks for the MM.DB (database) file is not called out by default in the INI file, so you have to ADD a line to the INI file.

2. MM.DB (The Database File.)
This file stores the location of your music files, your "Library"and ANY changes to your music files you do "within" MM. So if you ADD music files this information gets updated in the DB. So if you add music files on one PC to your library, they will show up in the "library" node in MM, but if you open a different DB file on another PC these files will not automatically show up even though they may physically be on a particular HDD because that "library" information has not been updated with that particular information. So if you EVER have to "move" music files to different HDD's it's always best to move them by using the MM Explorer view and not "Windows" explorer, since the MM DB file will not keep track of the changes you make outside of MM. Now with that said....there is a "preference" setting within MM where you can set it to automatically "scan" certain defined folders. So when you 1st run MM, MM will "rescan" those defined folders and then update the DB file with any changes they may have occurred.

The MM.DB file also contains the playlists that show up in the Playlist node. One thing that I like to do is to create a playlist with nothing in it called "Test_Playlist" on one PC. Then to ensure MM is truly looking at that same MM.DB database file, I make sure that particular Playlist shows up on the other PC I'm running MM on. Same Playlist view=Same Database.


3. The Windows Registry.
As far as I can tell, the only thing that MM looks for on a particular PC in regards to the Windows Registry is the MM registration info. So if you enter your MM "GOLD" key, that information will be saved into that particular PC's Windows Registry. So as long as you enter that info in once on a particular PC, MM will start up in the "Gold" version....no matter which MediaMonkey.exe you run on that particular PC. If that information isn't written to the Windows Registry, then MM will start in the non gold version mode.