Leia Deleted My NFO FIles!
#1
The revised Export function is very confusing compared to the old one. I'm not going into details here, but when I exported my Music library to separate files, all of my existing NFO and fan art images were wiped out. I'm looking at the settings and Overwrite existing files is NOT checked. WTF?

I can probably retrieve them from a "real" backup of the folders that I perform outside of KODI, but it's going to take time and will be somewhat out of date.

So how in the world can I keep this from happening again. More importantly, how can I duplicate the simple "Separate files" option that was in previous versions?
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#2
Kodi does not delete existing files, it will overwrite them with new files if that has been enabled.

I suggest something outside of Kodi has deleted your files.

Have you read the guide for the new music library export... https://kodi.wiki/view/Import-export_library/Music

Moved to music
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#3
I did nothing outside of KODI. I ran Export, then looked to see the results and discovered a problem. I took no other actions.

In previous versions I chose Separate files and KODI would generate the Artist.nfo and Album.nfo and deposit them in the Album/Artist folder along with the actual media (music) file.  That way everything was kept together. Not confusing at all, as everything was kept together. The "No overwrite" setting worked. Simple.

That option apparently is either absent or obscured in the new version. When I chose To Library Folder, I kept getting an error that the Artist Information folder needed to exist. When I read the documentation, it appeared that I needed to either accept the "less confusing" (less confusing to whom?) option of putting them all in one place or to create new folders in every one of my existing Artist folders to duplicate my export process of before. Why did you take away the option of simply maintaining the previous method? As far as I can tell, Export has nothing to do with the actual functioning of KODI, so why not simply provide this option?

Back to my problem. I located the nfo and other files from the Export in another single folder in the same location as the "Single" backup. However, there are files missing. I included other artwork files as well as the artist.jpg and album.jpg in those folders. They are all missing. In the existing Artist/Album folders (the ones with the music files), the nfo file is new, with a different size and date from the previous one. How is that "not deleting"?

I periodically backup all of the contents of my Artist/Album folders (except the actual media files), and well as the Movie files, with a program outside of KODI. The last one was April 1, so I can retrieve the missing files from there. I just added a bunch but haven't made any edits, so I can use the new ones. But I don't trust the Export process any longer, and I will maintain my other backups more rigorously.
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#4
I suggest you read the wiki page.

In reality you have lost nothing. Your library is still intact, so just run the export again. It is really important you read the wiki page.

The music library export works differently to the Video library export. In Music Library, we recommend the Single File Export, and this export has the benefit of saving your song data also- play count, last played etc.

Not much more I can add, as you have not really asked any questions apart for "why" we changed Export.
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Links to : Official:Forum rules (wiki) | Official:Forum rules/Banned add-ons (wiki) | Debug Log (wiki)
Links to : HOW-TO:Create Music Library (wiki) | HOW-TO:Create_Video_Library (wiki)  ||  Artwork (wiki) | Basic controls (wiki) | Import-export library (wiki) | Movie sets (wiki) | Movie universe (wiki) | NFO files (wiki) | Quick start guide (wiki)
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#5
Sure, the old export worked great ... as long as every song in a folder had exactly one album artist, and that artist was identical for all songs in the folder, and all songs with that artist were exactly one layer below a parent folder, and you didn't care about artists that appeared only as song artists or featured artists and not as album artists.  So now you have options but it does take some study to understand them and how best to use them for your situation.  And with "role" artists now you can rich experience for composers, conductors, etc.

Having artist nfo maintained entirely separately from song file location seems to offer the most fool-proof way to ensure you have maximum ability/flexibility to manage artist value-addded info and art.

scott s.
.
maintainer of skin  Aeon MQ5 mods for post-Gotham Kodi releases:
Matrix see: Aeon MQ5 Mod Matrix release thread
Nexus see: Aeon MQ5 Mod Nexus release thread
Aeon MQ 5 skin and addon repo 11.1.0
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#6
Scott's post nicely answers the "why export has changed" question, but it was clearly rhetorical. The OP is obviously upset and feels that something bad happened during export. As the dev with most knowledge of music export I am up for calmly discussing that and trying to help restore your confidence @hurricane51, but meet me half way.

@Karellen is absolutely right Kodi does not delete image or NFO files, however it will overwrite existing files but only if you enable that feature. It is likely that you have not configured export to achive the results thart you wanted, we can help with that. But you talk of missing files, Kodi simply can not have done that as there is no file deletion in the code.

IMO the music library export facility is not a good way to create system backups and never has been. If a full system backup is what you want then simply copy the files from the userdata folder (and of course keep a backup of your media files). The export facility works only on the additional album and artists information and images that you may have scraped from online sources. It provides a way to capture that information and art and hold it locally for subsequent re-use without the need to fetch it remotely again, or repeat any manual edits or image selections that you may have done after scraping.

So let's see if I can understand what you did and what happened. If there is a flaw I want to know about it, but it is also likely that you are confused. In that case understanding what happened can help us improve documentation.
 
(2019-07-02, 07:13)hurricane51 Wrote: In previous versions I chose Separate files and KODI would generate the Artist.nfo and Album.nfo and deposit them in the Album/Artist folder along with the actual media (music) file. That way everything was kept together. Not confusing at all, as everything was kept together. The "No overwrite" setting worked. Simple.

That option apparently is either absent or obscured in the new version. When I chose To Library Folder, I kept getting an error that the Artist Information folder needed to exist. When I read the documentation, it appeared that I needed to either accept the "less confusing" (less confusing to whom?) option of putting them all in one place or to create new folders in every one of my existing Artist folders to duplicate my export process of before. Why did you take away the option of simply maintaining the previous method? As far as I can tell, Export has nothing to do with the actual functioning of KODI, so why not simply provide this option?
Having artist art and NFO files located along with the music files has some fundamental limitations - it can only apply to album artists, and all the music by an artist must be under a folder unique to that artist and only that artist. This means no local art or NFO for artists without albums e.g. guest artists or those on compilations only, and no local art or NFO for album artists on collaborations (albums with more than one album artist). It also means that you can not arrange your music in more diverse sources e.g. putting the wife's music in a separate folder if you have some artists in common.

Arranging your music in a unique artist/album structure on a single music source is very restrictive. There is a lot of music that does not fit easily into that structure, and this has resulted in all kinds of user problems, hence now that Kodi supports a more robust way of arranging artist art and NFO we want to encourage users to switch to using it.

Export "To Library Folders" puts the album NFO and/or art alongside that album's music files, and the artist NFO and/or art in a folder <artistname> within the nominated Artist Information Folder. You do not need to create a folder for each artist, Kodi will do that the first time that you export artists, just a top folder (the "Artist Information Folder") for them to go in.

But let's assume you have one music source and a unique artist/album structure with the artist folders named exactly with the artist name, and still want to export artist art and NFO mixed in with the music files. Setting the "Artist Information Folder" to the top of your artist/album structure and doing a "To Library Folders" type of export with "Album Artists" and "Albums" as items to export will achieve that.

If your album folders are also named exactly as the album name then you could also use "Separate files for each item" export type and pick the top folder of your artist/album structure as the output destination to achieve the same result.

One of the new things in export for v18 is that you can use "Separate files for each item" type of export to test what the output from export will look like safely away from your music folders, NFO and art. So if concerned about what "To Library Folders" will do then try "Separate files for each item" first.
 
(2019-07-02, 07:13)hurricane51 Wrote: Back to my problem. I located the nfo and other files from the Export in another single folder in the same location as the "Single" backup. However, there are files missing. I included other artwork files as well as the artist.jpg and album.jpg in those folders. They are all missing. In the existing Artist/Album folders (the ones with the music files), the nfo file is new, with a different size and date from the previous one. How is that "not deleting"?
Very confused by what you say here. When you say "there are files missing" do you mean that some things you expected to be exported weren't? What type of export did you do? New NFO files implies overwriting was enabled. Export will overwrite when enabled, but does not delete things it is not replacing. Did you miss the "overwrite existing files" check box?
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#7
OK, I've read all the replies which I appreciate. Before I clarify my problems I'd like to make a comment.

I've been using KODI since EDEN. The export has always worked in a specific way, through all the upgrades, so I structured my file system around that. All was good.

The fact that a change was made in the newest release is not the real issue. The fact that a change was made and no effort was made to accommodate longtime users who had used the previous procedure is the real problem. At the risk of offending you all, you are trying to convince me that "the new way is better." I can see the advantages you point out. However, in the end it comes down to taking away a method that has worked for me. And not just me -- all the users who use the Separate folders export. I'm all for providing improvements, but it seems no one asked the question "what about the users who do it the current way?".  The new procedure isn't a simple tweak -- it obsoletes the previous procedure in one stroke. Surely there was a way to maintain that option?

OK, on to my issue. I maintain a set of "master" disks for all my media. So I always have a complete backup of the actual media. These do not contain any metadata or image files, just media. It contains duplicates of all the media files on the KODI "working disks. They are synced promptly when a new file is added or (horrors!) deleted.

I use a Windows backup program called Macrium Reflect to backup all of my computers once a month. Before I backup the KODI system, I first perform an export to a single file (to a separate backup disk) and then export to separate folders. I do this for video and music. I NEVER, EVER, EVER overwrite files. Not once.

When the exports are finished, I run the Reflect backup everything on the system and data drives of my KODI computer, also to a separate disk. This gets me everything on my system.

Every so often (about 3 months) I make a copy of all of the files on my media drives but without the media files. This gives me have separate backups of the image and nfo files of everything. It's nearly an automatic process and only takes a few minutes to run on all of my drives (four 8TB drives).

Now to address some questions about my use of NFO files. First, it would be great if I never needed them. But scraping, as you well know, is not 100% accurate and sometimes the scraped information needs to be edited. Unless someone advises me otherwise, it seems the only way to do this is with an NFO file. And unless I have been led astray, the NFO file needs to reside alongside the media file.
 
On the most recent backup, I chose Separate files for each item, since that's what I had been doing, to generate NFO files. I will take your word that KODI can't delete files, but for many (over 50) of my artists, the artist.nfo file residing in the Artist folder on my media drives was now missing. The artist.nfo files that the export had created had a different date -- the current date -- and a different size from the one on my backup disk. Just an example:

For Art Blakey, the artist.nfo file in the Art Blakey folder (on the media drive) is missing. The version from the export is dated 1-July when I ran the backups. It has a size of .41 KB, and it's really just a stub. My backup from April is 18KB and is filled with a long (way too long) biography, tons of album listings, etc.

Now, I don't know why this happened, but clearly the Export, at the very least, ignored the existing NFO files and created its own. I don't want to spend hours and hours going over why. What I would like to know are three things:

1. Is it possible to add an option for exporting the way it was in previous versions? In other words, generate artist.nfo, album.nfo, folder.jpg and fanart.jpg to the Artist/Album folder on the media drive?
2. Will KODI continue to look into my Artist/Album folder for the NFO, or will it be ignored?
3. Is there a way to export NFO and JPG for a single artist or album without doing the entire library?

As you can tell, I'm pretty bummed out by the change, and I appreciate all the responses.
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#8
@hurricane51 genuinely sorry that you feel "bummed out", and going to choose not to be offended. As the dev that made all the changes to music export if any individual is to blame (or thank come to that) then it is me. Anything you say is in effect directed at me personally, so you may as well be aware of that. I'm also the guy most likely to be able to help.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: The fact that a change was made and no effort was made to accommodate longtime users who had used the previous procedure is the real problem.
... The new procedure isn't a simple tweak -- it obsoletes the previous procedure in one stroke. Surely there was a way to maintain that option?
Yes, that is what I was trying to explain in my previous post. If you want to continue to only have artist nfo files for album artists (and don't have any collaboration albums) sprinkled along with the media files then you can.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: Now to address some questions about my use of NFO files. First, it would be great if I never needed them. But scraping, as you well know, is not 100% accurate and sometimes the scraped information needs to be edited. Unless someone advises me otherwise, it seems the only way to do this is with an NFO file. And unless I have been led astray, the NFO file needs to reside alongside the media file.
Yes adjustments to online scraped artist and album data, or provision of additional data for those that the online sites don't have is made via NFO files. However from v18 onwards the artist.nfo and local art do NOT need to be with the media files.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: On the most recent backup, I chose Separate files for each item, since that's what I had been doing, to generate NFO files. I will take your word that KODI can't delete files, but for many (over 50) of my artists, the artist.nfo file residing in the Artist folder on my media drives was now missing. The artist.nfo files that the export had created had a different date -- the current date -- and a different size from the one on my backup disk.
What you are calling "missing"/"deleted" have actually just been replaced. So the issue is that Kodi overwrote nfo files when you did not want it to do so.

The fact that overwrote when you set it not to do so (do you remember seeing that check box?), and that it didn't export the artist data that you previously had is very odd. I don't understand how that could happen, and have not been able to reproduce it, but if you can give me more to go on I am certainly interested in pursuing it.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: Now, I don't know why this happened, but clearly the Export, at the very least, ignored the existing NFO files and created its own. I don't want to spend hours and hours going over why.
Shame because I would like to discover how it did something so unexpected, but I can't fix what I can't reproduce.

Anyway to answer your questions:
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: 1. Is it possible to add an option for exporting the way it was in previous versions? In other words, generate artist.nfo, album.nfo, folder.jpg and fanart.jpg to the Artist/Album folder on the media drive?
It is already possible to do this with the availlable options.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: 2. Will KODI continue to look into my Artist/Album folder for the NFO, or will it be ignored?
The treatment of album.nfo and art is unchanged. Kodi will continue to pick up artist.nfo and art for album artists from suitable folders above the media files as a fallback  (providing it does not find nfo files for that artist in an artist folder in the nominated Artist Information Folder).

 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: 3. Is there a way to export NFO and JPG for a single artist or album without doing the entire library?
No, there is still no facility to export a single item. It is a feature I have thought about adding, but then decided the changes to export were complex enough (!) without adding item selection to it as well. I guess "Make NFO" could be a button on the info dialog.
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#9
+1 With this issue.
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#10
(2019-07-08, 09:41)DaveBlake Wrote: @hurricane51 genuinely sorry that you feel "bummed out", and going to choose not to be offended. As the dev that made all the changes to music export if any individual is to blame (or thank come to that) then it is me. Anything you say is in effect directed at me personally, so you may as well be aware of that. I'm also the guy most likely to be able to help.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: The fact that a change was made and no effort was made to accommodate longtime users who had used the previous procedure is the real problem.
... The new procedure isn't a simple tweak -- it obsoletes the previous procedure in one stroke. Surely there was a way to maintain that option?
Yes, that is what I was trying to explain in my previous post. If you want to continue to only have artist nfo files for album artists (and don't have any collaboration albums) sprinkled along with the media files then you can.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: Now to address some questions about my use of NFO files. First, it would be great if I never needed them. But scraping, as you well know, is not 100% accurate and sometimes the scraped information needs to be edited. Unless someone advises me otherwise, it seems the only way to do this is with an NFO file. And unless I have been led astray, the NFO file needs to reside alongside the media file.
Yes adjustments to online scraped artist and album data, or provision of additional data for those that the online sites don't have is made via NFO files. However from v18 onwards the artist.nfo and local art do NOT need to be with the media files.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: On the most recent backup, I chose Separate files for each item, since that's what I had been doing, to generate NFO files. I will take your word that KODI can't delete files, but for many (over 50) of my artists, the artist.nfo file residing in the Artist folder on my media drives was now missing. The artist.nfo files that the export had created had a different date -- the current date -- and a different size from the one on my backup disk.
What you are calling "missing"/"deleted" have actually just been replaced. So the issue is that Kodi overwrote nfo files when you did not want it to do so.

The fact that overwrote when you set it not to do so (do you remember seeing that check box?), and that it didn't export the artist data that you previously had is very odd. I don't understand how that could happen, and have not been able to reproduce it, but if you can give me more to go on I am certainly interested in pursuing it.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: Now, I don't know why this happened, but clearly the Export, at the very least, ignored the existing NFO files and created its own. I don't want to spend hours and hours going over why.
Shame because I would like to discover how it did something so unexpected, but I can't fix what I can't reproduce.

Anyway to answer your questions:
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: 1. Is it possible to add an option for exporting the way it was in previous versions? In other words, generate artist.nfo, album.nfo, folder.jpg and fanart.jpg to the Artist/Album folder on the media drive?
It is already possible to do this with the availlable options.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: 2. Will KODI continue to look into my Artist/Album folder for the NFO, or will it be ignored?
The treatment of album.nfo and art is unchanged. Kodi will continue to pick up artist.nfo and art for album artists from suitable folders above the media files as a fallback  (providing it does not find nfo files for that artist in an artist folder in the nominated Artist Information Folder).

 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: 3. Is there a way to export NFO and JPG for a single artist or album without doing the entire library?
No, there is still no facility to export a single item. It is a feature I have thought about adding, but then decided the changes to export were complex enough (!) without adding item selection to it as well. I guess "Make NFO" could be a button on the info dialog.  
Thanks for the detailed reply. All of my music is in a single tree. At the top is the folder "MUSIC". I only have (and only want) a single artist folder per artist. The subfolders below each artist are named exactly the same as the album. I don't care anything about collaborations, etc. Also, every album is tagged by me manually, although I can't see why that would matter.

What you are saying is that I should select Separate files for each item and set the "Music" folder as the Destination folder. Then select Albums, Album artists as items to export. The result should be the artist.nfo and art will be exported to the artist folder (Album artist) and the album.nfo and art to the album subfolders. Is that correct?

I'm sorry, but I've spent 30 years working with computers, and troubleshooting elusive issues (which I used to enjoy) have lost their luster. I'm retired now and more likely to take the attitude "Just work, you damned machine" rather than chase non-recurring issues. So if this works I'll count as another "problem solved" and not worry about what caused it. Which is the advice I give to all my "clients" (friends & relatives) when they ask WHY?
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#11
(2019-07-08, 17:07)hurricane51 Wrote:
(2019-07-08, 09:41)DaveBlake Wrote: @hurricane51 genuinely sorry that you feel "bummed out", and going to choose not to be offended. As the dev that made all the changes to music export if any individual is to blame (or thank come to that) then it is me. Anything you say is in effect directed at me personally, so you may as well be aware of that. I'm also the guy most likely to be able to help.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: The fact that a change was made and no effort was made to accommodate longtime users who had used the previous procedure is the real problem.
... The new procedure isn't a simple tweak -- it obsoletes the previous procedure in one stroke. Surely there was a way to maintain that option?
Yes, that is what I was trying to explain in my previous post. If you want to continue to only have artist nfo files for album artists (and don't have any collaboration albums) sprinkled along with the media files then you can.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: Now to address some questions about my use of NFO files. First, it would be great if I never needed them. But scraping, as you well know, is not 100% accurate and sometimes the scraped information needs to be edited. Unless someone advises me otherwise, it seems the only way to do this is with an NFO file. And unless I have been led astray, the NFO file needs to reside alongside the media file.
Yes adjustments to online scraped artist and album data, or provision of additional data for those that the online sites don't have is made via NFO files. However from v18 onwards the artist.nfo and local art do NOT need to be with the media files.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: On the most recent backup, I chose Separate files for each item, since that's what I had been doing, to generate NFO files. I will take your word that KODI can't delete files, but for many (over 50) of my artists, the artist.nfo file residing in the Artist folder on my media drives was now missing. The artist.nfo files that the export had created had a different date -- the current date -- and a different size from the one on my backup disk.
What you are calling "missing"/"deleted" have actually just been replaced. So the issue is that Kodi overwrote nfo files when you did not want it to do so.

The fact that overwrote when you set it not to do so (do you remember seeing that check box?), and that it didn't export the artist data that you previously had is very odd. I don't understand how that could happen, and have not been able to reproduce it, but if you can give me more to go on I am certainly interested in pursuing it.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: Now, I don't know why this happened, but clearly the Export, at the very least, ignored the existing NFO files and created its own. I don't want to spend hours and hours going over why.
Shame because I would like to discover how it did something so unexpected, but I can't fix what I can't reproduce.

Anyway to answer your questions:
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: 1. Is it possible to add an option for exporting the way it was in previous versions? In other words, generate artist.nfo, album.nfo, folder.jpg and fanart.jpg to the Artist/Album folder on the media drive?
It is already possible to do this with the availlable options.
 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: 2. Will KODI continue to look into my Artist/Album folder for the NFO, or will it be ignored?
The treatment of album.nfo and art is unchanged. Kodi will continue to pick up artist.nfo and art for album artists from suitable folders above the media files as a fallback  (providing it does not find nfo files for that artist in an artist folder in the nominated Artist Information Folder).

 
(2019-07-08, 08:20)hurricane51 Wrote: 3. Is there a way to export NFO and JPG for a single artist or album without doing the entire library?
No, there is still no facility to export a single item. It is a feature I have thought about adding, but then decided the changes to export were complex enough (!) without adding item selection to it as well. I guess "Make NFO" could be a button on the info dialog.   
Thanks for the detailed reply. All of my music is in a single tree. At the top is the folder "MUSIC". I only have (and only want) a single artist folder per artist. The subfolders below each artist are named exactly the same as the album. I don't care anything about collaborations, etc. Also, every album is tagged by me manually, although I can't see why that would matter.

What you are saying is that I should select Separate files for each item and set the "Music" folder as the Destination folder. Then select Albums, Album artists as items to export. The result should be the artist.nfo and art will be exported to the artist folder (Album artist) and the album.nfo and art to the album subfolders. Is that correct?

I'm sorry, but I've spent 30 years working with computers, and troubleshooting elusive issues (which I used to enjoy) have lost their luster. I'm retired now and more likely to take the attitude "Just work, you damned machine" rather than chase non-recurring issues. So if this works I'll count as another "problem solved" and not worry about what caused it. Which is the advice I give to all my "clients" (friends & relatives) when they ask WHY? 
You might not agree with me, but we actually spent a lot of time trying to come up with an improved export that didn't force anyone to redo all their existing workflow, if they didn't want to.  I spend time editing nfo files by hand so I think I get it (most of my music is east Asian, and in particular Korean "trot" genre and the typical audience for that isn't going on line looking for data so the "usual sources" to scrape never return anything.  If you closely follow the prompts and use "library folders" as destination for separate nfo files w/o overwrite you should get results more or less as in Krypton.   (I write more or less because I experienced times when there are 2 album artists sometimes I get the first artist exported in artist.nfo and sometimes the second.  I don't know if it's random or something changed).

Note that there is in Leia also the option to export a pro-forma nfo file for unscraped albums/artists when doing separate nfo file export that you can then edit in the data you want.

At any rate if files got deleted that's not by design and we really need to get that sorted out.

scott s.
.
maintainer of skin  Aeon MQ5 mods for post-Gotham Kodi releases:
Matrix see: Aeon MQ5 Mod Matrix release thread
Nexus see: Aeon MQ5 Mod Nexus release thread
Aeon MQ 5 skin and addon repo 11.1.0
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#12
@hurricane51 there is more than one way to achieve what you want.

Probably the easiest is to set the Artist Information Folder (in Settings > Media > Music) to the folder immediately above all your artist folders, then do a "To Library Folders" type export. Select "Albums, Album Artists" as the items to export and ensure that "Overwrite existing files" is disabled.

Image

For anyone else reading this the success depends upon the simplicity of the music folder layout and folder names, and that the user is only interested in album artists (not guests, those only on compliations or others that contribute to the recording) and have no albums with multiple album artists (where artists in their own right have collaborated), and no album artists with the same name.
 
(2019-07-08, 17:07)hurricane51 Wrote: What you are saying is that I should select Separate files for each item and set the "Music" folder as the Destination folder. Then select Albums, Album artists as items to export. The result should be the artist.nfo and art will be exported to the artist folder (Album artist) and the album.nfo and art to the album subfolders. Is that correct?
Yes, because the artist and album folders are named exactly as in the music file tags that would also achieve what you want. As I said more than one way to achieve the result.
 
~0~

For others reading this thread I will encourage them to consider puting artist art and NFO files somewhere separate from their media files. It allows users to arrange their music in much more diverse (and human friendly) ways, avoids having folders of just artist nfo files and art mix amongst their music (if they have nfor or art for artists other than album artists) and supports art and nfo for all music not just that which can be arranged simply.
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#13
OK, now I'm confused. Should I select Separate file for each item and set the target to "Y:\Music" (the parent for all my music folders\files) or choose Artist Information Folder and set the target to the same location?
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#14
Giving you choices is obviously too much, so I'll pick one.

Set the Artist Information Folder (in Settings > Media > Music) to "Y:\Music", then do a "To Library Folders" type export. Select "Albums, Album Artists" as the items to export and ensure that "Overwrite existing files" is disabled, as shown in screenshot in my previous post..
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#15
(2019-07-11, 15:44)DaveBlake Wrote: Giving you choices is obviously too much, so I'll pick one.

Set the Artist Information Folder (in Settings > Media > Music) to "Y:\Music", then do a "To Library Folders" type export. Select "Albums, Album Artists" as the items to export and ensure that "Overwrite existing files" is disabled, as shown in screenshot in my previous post..

Thanks. I'm OK with choices, but both options were given to provide the same results as in the previous version. That seemed odd, so I wanted to confirm. Again, thanks for helping.
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