Music Collection Issues

Thanks for that it worked perfectly

Also disappointed that the edit page for metadata is gone. No more editing track numbers or other mp3 metadata, all I cando is rename songs or albums, a giant step backwards from v1. Is there a secret "Advanced Options" page, or did the Zune team just say "screw it, let them go back to using twelve apps to manage their music"? Never thought I'd need MediaMonkey.

Let me qualify this be adding I'm a MSFT MVP (MOSS) who's accustomed to new UIs, and generally it's an improvement, but right now this one feels like they've tied one arm behind my back and hired a guy to kick me in the nuts every time I add a live concert or personal recording into the library.

Cheers,
-Eli.

After trying the alleged "fix"several times, I think I know what happened to my files.

When I ran the upgrade the very first time I had the "Automatically update album art and media information" box checked. I thought, "hey, when I used V1 it went out to the Internet, found the information or not, and didn't mess anything up - it'll work the same way now - right"? 

Wrong!!!

This is what did the dirty deed. All of my old files that did not have complete metadata are screwed up.

Zune software should not automatically overwrite anything in the metadata in the individual files - ever!! Do you hear that Microsoft?? Leave my files alone! Create a seperate update database that Zune can use to display what YOU think the updated data is but do not ever write into my original files unless you ask permission to do so on a file-by-file basis!

You could pop up a prompt "differences were found in the metadata, review and update now?" or something similar.

So, it seems that I have a major task ahead of me to go back and un-do what the new software did to hundreds of my old MP3 files that didn't have complete data in them.

I suspect that there is an error in the update process whereby it does not clear out what it had in some of the fields from previous files. It re-uses the data from a previous file and this is how the wrong data got onto those files that had no data in the fields that were being updated. Major database programming error!!!

Clear the deck completely before working on a new set of data Microsoft! Remember "garbage collection" from the early days????

This is database management 101 stuff!! I would fire the programmer who did this today if I was his manager.

So, I expect that the only way I will get my files back to the way they were is to spend hours of my time going through all of them and then reloading them all into the Zune software again.

Since some people have had success with this experience, I suspect that I will eventually be able to fix all my files.

So much for time to relax during my Thanksgiving break.

-Bob

 

 pstuhl wrote:

Like others I have done the fix, it hasn't cleared up the issues I have had with the update what fix is going to be done, and when can we expect it??  And why can't it be an easy drag and drop to the correct artist folder to correct these issues or even if that won't correct these issues make that feature availible as it makes it easy when you can drag mistakes that were made to the correct artist folder.

Sadly, the "official" fix is far from a panacea.  One thing I was able to do after the new software whacked my library on my XP laptop was to just select and delete every song from the library (I also selected for Zune to NOT add any missing song info during install).  Then, I closed the program, reopened it, and selected to "recover previously deleted" songs.  The entire library was rebuilt perfectly.

I wish I had thought to try that fix when I did my first install on my Vista laptop :(  Instead, I tried the official fix several times, to no avail, and had to resort to re-tagging every corrupted song.  Seven hours of joy....

Now that it's all squared away, though, I'm loving the new firmware, and the software is growing on me as well.

If you need to correct something you don't see in LIST mode, right-click any of the column headers, and then select "Choose columns."  Now select whatever column(s) you want to be able to see for editing.  Don't forget there's the song's artist, but also the album artist may be different.

 

As far as rebuilding your metadata, I found that using WMP11 as far easier than he new Zune, as you can batch-edit files with it.

I just got 2 new 30 gig Brown zune's today and I followed the directions and ran the cd first and updated the software and then updated the firmware on the zune.  The problem I am having is that the software keeps syncing using folders that I have not selected.  I made my own c:\Zune folder with sub folders such as Music, Video, Pictures and those folders are the only ones I have selected.  Why does it keep looking in other folders when syncing?  Those folders I made are the only ones that it's supposed to look at when syncing.  I deleted the entire collection and had hoped that it would only look for the mp3's in my Music folder but, it's finding other stuff and also more than what's in my Video folder.  Help

I have looked and looked.  If you could simply drag and drop files onto the zune it'd be a piece of cake.

Like others I have done the fix, it hasn't cleared up the issues I have had with the update what fix is going to be done, and when can we expect it??  And why can't it be an easy drag and drop to the correct artist folder to correct these issues or even if that won't correct these issues make that feature availible as it makes it easy when you can drag mistakes that were made to the correct artist folder.

I have whole albums getting put under the wrong Artist. The software doesn't even let you fix it. How can I rebuild my collection to see the correct metadata? Will removing the folder and then readding work?

Any help would be great

yeah, I'm having the same problem where I cannot change the information for my individual albums. The only way I figured out changes my entire artists name for all the albums under that name. Do you know of any way how to change the individual albums artist?

I would definitely appreciate it if you get back to me.

Thx...

Is there anyway I can remove this version of the software and go back to the old.  My library is all messed up, I can't get some songs on there that were there before and got deleted during the update.  And I don't like the look of it at all.  I want the software gone, how can I do that.  Also, I would like an email from someone, not have to search a message board, any way to do that???????

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Right now the way I feel about Zune, it SUCKS and I wish I had bought an iPod instead!!!!!

None of the "fixes" have worked for me. All my music is a jumbled mess. Every time I conect my device it tries to sync even though I have the option to let me choose checked. When it syncs all it wants to do is remove items, which I then don't seem to have in my collection either. Some of my albums were borrowed at some point and I really couldn't say who from anymore. Somehow many of my files are suddenly now corrupted on my computer so I can't reload them. As near as I can tell I am completely screwed. Now I feel like I have a 250.00 paper weight. So glad I bought it.

I've had a strange occurance in the Zune software (who hasn't :-\).  It goes something like this

1)  I have a bunch of "Various Artists" albums in Zune, with the Artists field filled out as the artist of the song (as it should be)
2)  Auto-fill information is disabled
3)  I dock and sync the Zune.  Songs transfer to Zune without incident.  Works "the way it should"
4)  Undock Zune and enjoy for a period of time
5)  Redock Zune, and this causes the Zune software to sync (normal). and to compulsively overwrite all Artists fields with "Various Artists" where Album Artist is defined as such, which makes my collection look like this : http://krhainos.tk/zunehate.JPG

There's nothing you can do aside from hopelessly watch the tags become useless.  DO NOT PANIC.  DO NOT CLOSE ZUNE.  Cancel the sync and remove the Zune at once, before the collection on your Zune gets just as damaged.  I realize it's a partial sync with a bunch of broken data, but the fix is as follows :

Do not reattach your Zune yet.

6)  Once Zune is done ruining the database, go to List view, and select all songs that have their Artists field renamed to "Various Artists" and Delete them.
7)  Settings -> Restore files previously deleted frm collection [Restore]
8)  Zune will rebuild the database using correct ID3/tagged information and let it finish.  Thankfully, Zune only ruins the database; and not the embedded metadata.
9)  Redock and sync Zune.  Zune will now overrwite the ruined data from the partial sync earlier in step 5.  Both Zune collection and your portable should have correct information.

This seems to be intermittent.  I can't find any rhyme or reason why it does this.  However, I've repeated this about six to seven times now, and it works every time.

Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!

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-K