Best practice media libaries and search

You have a question or need an advice about how to do something? Ask it here!
Post Reply
friso
Posts: 173
Joined: 10 Apr 2012 10:05
Best practice media libaries and search

Post by friso »

Hello

This is an issue that i have a long time now. Therfore the question is simple. What is the best practice setup for a complete library of your music. I noticed frequently that new added songs are not displayed when i so a search in the search window. Also after a reload or refresh they are not there.
I have added a medialibrary "music" in there are all my subdirectories with all audio tracks. So it should be working. Recursive is olso enabled, so it wil search in subdirectories.

Question is: How do i setup proppfrexx so it always finds all tracks, also the new added ones.

Thanx
Friso
User avatar
radio42
Site Admin
Posts: 8295
Joined: 05 Apr 2012 16:26
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Contact:
Re: Best practice media libaries and search

Post by radio42 »

I don't know how you have setup your media libs, but...
form what you are saying it sounds like you have specified something into the field called "Auto. Playlist Path" (in the general settings, section 'Folders/Libraries').
Note, that the "Auto. Playlist Path" does NOT specify a media library (see the help button for details)!
Instead this specifies a directory which contains playlist files, for which media libraries should automatically be created (playlist based only). Certain supported playlist files (.pfp, .m3u, .m3u8, .pls) within this directory are automatically loaded as individual media libraries. If you leave this entry empty you might manage your media libraries manually by using the „Additional Media Libraries...“ button.

As such, if you want to specify one folder as a media library, leave the "Auto. Playlist Path" empty! And click on the 'Additional Media Libraries...' button.
There you might specify a folder-based media library!

In the 'additional' Media Libraries dialog you can manage all your media libs individually.
E.g. click on the 'Add Folder' button:
This adds a folder whose audio files (incl. all audio files in all sub-directories) should be added as a new media library to your media library collection.

Now note, that media libs are NOT refreshed automatically by default.
You MUST invoke either a 'Reload' or a 'Rescan' individually.

Difference between 'Reload' and 'Rescan'...

Reload:
Refreshes the selected media libraries (reloads the library content).
Folder based Media Library: If you use the 'Cache Library (_synced_.pfp)' option, this only reloads that synced file - but does NOT scan for new files!
Note: This will also only (re)read meta data if modified.

Rescan:
File or Database based Media Library: Revalidates all existing media entries in that library, if newer TAG data is available and (re)read that TAG data.
Folder based Media Library: Scans for new or modified files within the folder incl. all sub-folders (and adds them as needed) and (re)reads TAG data if newer.
Note that new/modified .pfmd meta data files are not considered during a rescan.

So if you are adding new files to a folder-based media lib - a 'Rescan' would be needed in order to 'see' those new files!

You can do this either automatically, e.g.:
- use the 'Library Automation Option' in the general settings (and make sure to check 'Rescan Libraries')
- or check the 'Auto Watch' option for a certain folder-based media lib (which automatically rescans the folder at startup)
- or use the control-command 'MAIN_RESCAN_LIBRARY'
- additionally you might check the option 'Rescan at Startup' for folder-based media libs
Or you can do it manually whenever needed:
- Just click on the 'Rescan' button the the Media Library management dialog.

Summary:
When using folder-based media libs, I would suggest the following:
a) leave the "Auto. Playlist Path" empty
b) use the 'Additional Media Libraries...' button to add them
c) when you are often adding or changing many files to such folder do NOT use the 'Auto Watch' feature (which is better suited for only few changes), instead
d) check the 'Cache Library (_synced_.pfp)' option
e) check the 'Rescan at Startup' option
f) use the 'Library Automation Option' (with 'Rescan Libraries' checked) to e.g. reload and rescan all libraries every X hours
friso
Posts: 173
Joined: 10 Apr 2012 10:05
Re: Best practice media libaries and search

Post by friso »

Bernd

Thanx for the quick response.
I did all you described, but when i use the find expression builder, a lot of "hits" that should be displayed are not displayed.
For example i tried it with "Artist" filled with "Coldplay" set to contains, and "Album" filled with "Mylo" set to contains, you should expect it displays all artists with the name Coldplay that are on an albumtitle that contains Mylo.

But it isn't displayed. By check i know that the tag's are correct written to the flac tracks.
By entering just "Coldplay" in the find bar, you do see the correct tracks, but also a lot more.

[edit]
I discovered, when i just search on coldplay, and all the results are displayed once, including their meta tags, i can run a search in find expression builder, and the they are displayed correctly. It looks like the tags have to be displayed once, before you can search for them in the expression builder.
That's a strange behaviour.


Can you explain what i am doing wrong here?

thanx
Friso
friso
Posts: 173
Joined: 10 Apr 2012 10:05
Re: Best practice media libaries and search

Post by friso »

Bernd

I will check this out tonight.
Thanx
User avatar
radio42
Site Admin
Posts: 8295
Joined: 05 Apr 2012 16:26
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Contact:
Re: Best practice media libaries and search

Post by radio42 »

When do you exactly perform the 'Find'? Is it right after a 'Rescan'?
Note, that a rescan will read-in the TAG data asynchroniously in the background for newly found tracks resp. for entries having its TAG data changed.
So that might take a while depending on how many tracks are effected. A notification popup window will inform you once the complete rescan is completed - but the TAG data reading might still be in progress in the background - whihc can be checked by clicking on the red busy indicator at the very left-bottom of the main window.

In addition you might specify the 'Force TAG reading for missing Meta Data' within the Find window options to ensure, that TAG data is being read-in while the search, if anything is missing.
friso
Posts: 173
Joined: 10 Apr 2012 10:05
Re: Best practice media libaries and search

Post by friso »

Bernd

I just tested it all. But conclusion is that the find feature isn't working ok for me. The best results i get is when i enable Force tag reading. But this takes way to much time to complete. When i want to use this in a live show, you understand that you will not be happy yo use this settings.
Also i did a rescan, a reload and waited for the red button to get grey, but with the normal settings most of the songs are not listed after a search.

I just don't trust the search results in find screen. Can you please test it, and maybe make it better. Maybe with a feature that stores the meta data from the songs so the search will be a lot quicker.

Thanx
Friso
friso
Posts: 173
Joined: 10 Apr 2012 10:05
Re: Best practice media libaries and search

Post by friso »

Bernd

Again an update from yesterday.
It looks like, when i do a refresh behind the auto playlist path (reload) nothing happens, but when i open the library management and do a refresh, after a while the search is ok.

Now the question is: Is it possible to add the same button there is for reload all libraries for the refresh all libraries?
That would solve my issues.

Thanx
Friso
friso
Posts: 173
Joined: 10 Apr 2012 10:05
Re: Best practice media libaries and search

Post by friso »

Bernd

Ok, it's clear to me. I wil test te several options. It was not a big problem, but just an question. But the tips you give me, are enough :)

Thanx
Friso
User avatar
radio42
Site Admin
Posts: 8295
Joined: 05 Apr 2012 16:26
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Contact:
Re: Best practice media libaries and search

Post by radio42 »

I am not sure, if that is really what you want resp. what most users want....

The 'Rescan/Reload' button in the general config behind the "Auto. Playlist Path" field does the following:
a) it scans the given 'Auto. Playlist Path' for newly playlist files - which will then be added as new media libraries
b) it performs a 'Reload' of ALL used/configured media libraries (including any additional media libraries)
If in step b) a 'Rescan' would be performed, this would result in a quite long running rescan of ALL media librtaries which might lead to heavy I/O load!

Also note, that modified media libraries are NOT saved prior to this (when a 'Reload' is performed)!
Meaning, if you have e.g. already modified a media library and reload it - these changes will get lost - as a relaod effectively reloads the media library ;-)

Note, that the 'Rescan' does different things on different types of media libraries:
1) On playlist- or database-based media libraries it reloads the library and then it rescans and (re)reads all modified meta data (TAG)
2) On folder-based media libraries it rescans the folder for new, deleted or modified files and (re)reads all meta data (TAG) for those changed entries
In additon a 'Rescan' always saves any changes to a media library prior to the rescan.

I also don't see a real reason for changing that behaviour of the mentioned button, as you can still invoke the desired action directly from the 'Media Library Management'!
I.e.:
- from within the main menu or the 'Scheduler' ribbon tab - click on the 'Libraries - Media Libraries' button
- select the media libs you would like to rescan (multi-selection is supported here)
- and click on the 'Rescan' button
This way you can precisely define what libs to rescan (if even wanted you might select all libraries here).

In addition you might use the control-command 'MAIN_RESCAN_LIBRARY' to either rescan all or a single media library.
E.g. you can assign this command to one of the 50 available User-Command buttons - for a single click action!

Post Reply