[cwwozniak]

My father-in-law really loves MusicMatch Jukebox (ver 10.00.4033) on his old computer running Windows XP Home. He tried the latest Yahoo Jukebox replacement on his new notebook PC running Vista Home Premium. He really does not like the Yahoo software features (or the lack thereof).

I was able to help him install MusicMatch ver. 10.00.4033 on the the new notebook even though Vista raised a stink during installation about it being incompatible. Overcoming compatibility issues may be minor compared to his bigger problem. Is there any way to easily transfer the MusicMatch library database, default.mdb, and all linked music files to the new PC so that the links still work? Both computers are on a home LAN.

His MusicMatch library consists solely of several hundred ripped CDs scattered in a few different folders on the old PC's hard drive. He has had to manually enter track lists for many of them.

[stantley]

There are several ways to do it. The MM database is C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Musicmatch\MIM\Database\Default.mdb in XP, but MM development stopped before Vista came out so moving the database might be problematic. You could try replacing the new empty Default.mdb on Vista with the old Default.mdb. You could also try replacing the whole C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Musicmatch folder. The problem with doing it that way is the file locations on the database will be wrong. MM has an option called 'Repair Broken Links' which should fix it up but it will prompt you for each album and if he has a lot of music it could take a long time to run.

An easier way to do it is to put the music files on the new pc in one folder, then drag-and-drop the whole folder into the empty library. The library database will be rebuilt from the Mp3 tag data. If the files were properly tagged on the old machine then he shouldn't have to re-enter anything. However there will be some database fields lost:

Custom 1
Custom 2
Custom 3
Play Count
Date Last Played
Date Last Modified
Date Added to Library
Date Last Burned
Last Burned To

If he doesn't care about the data in those fields or if the data could be easily recreated, then he should be OK.

Another file that you could copy over from the old pc is C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Musicmatch\Jukebox\CurrUserSpec.xml. That contains the 'Custom Library Views' that he might have created.

[cwwozniak]

Hi stantley. Thank you for the words of encouragement that the task does not sound impossible.

Originally Posted by stantley

The problem with doing it that way is the file locations on the database will be wrong. MM has an option called 'Repair Broken Links' which should fix it up but it will prompt you for each album and if he has a lot of music it could take a long time to run.

An easier way to do it is to put the music files on the new pc in one folder, then drag-and-drop the whole folder into the empty library. The library database will be rebuilt from the Mp3 tag data. If the files were properly tagged on the old machine then he shouldn't have to re-enter anything. However there will be some database fields lost:

Custom 1
Custom 2
Custom 3
Play Count
Date Last Played
Date Last Modified
Date Added to Library
Date Last Burned
Last Burned To

If he doesn't care about the data in those fields or if the data could be easily recreated, then he should be OK.

He said that the only unique or custom item that he changed was that he edited the track Genre data in MM to show the slot number of the original disc in the CD changer (Its some Sony unit that can hold 400 discs). I am going to assume that MM changed the Genre data in the individual MP3 file tags as well as in the Default.mdb file on the old computer. In that case, I would go along with your suggestion of just copying the all of the mp3 files to a single folder on the new computer and rebuilding the database. He ran the Vista file transfer wizard a while ago (an overnight process) to copy files from the old computer. I will need to see if it copied all of the music files from all locations on the old PC and where it put them on the new one.

Originally Posted by stantley

Another file that you could copy over from the old pc is C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Musicmatch\Jukebox\CurrUserSpec.xml. That contains the 'Custom Library Views' that he might have created.

I may try that if I still have my sanity after helping him with rebuilding the library itself.

[cwwozniak]

I was able to finally convince him that he could copy the mp3 files to the empty MM Music folder on the new computer and that MM would rebuild the database file without loosing his customized tag data. He seemed confused by the fact that the same data could exist in both the MM database and in the MP3 file tags and when he edited the information in MM that it would update the tags in the actual MP3 file.

Trying to make sure he copies all of the MP3 music files to the new computer is going to be keeping him busy for a while. He has three "My Music" folders at different places on the old PC's hard drive and it looks there are some duplicates between and within the same folders. Some of the duplicates may be before and after versions of when he cleaned up and customized the tags.

[stantley]

Originally Posted by cwwozniak

the same data could exist in both the MM database and in the MP3 file tags and when he edited the information in MM that it would update the tags in the actual MP3 file.

Yes, that's how it works. Most of the time MM gets the data from the database since it's much faster and just accesses the tags when doing an update.

He could have the folders on the new PC the same as the old, but it's probably a good time to do some cleanup and weed out the duplicates. The only reason I suggested using one folder is that you can find the number of files in the folder and if it matches the number of tracks in the MM library you know all of your files are in the library.

One of them data integrity things

[cwwozniak]

Originally Posted by stantley

One of them data integrity things

That may be his biggest problem to resolve. I think the old computer may actually be his third or fourth computer running MM. His "migration" from one PC to the next may have consisted of importing the DDF library file in the new program but copying the actual MP3 files to a different directory than what the new MM installation was expecting. Instead of correcting the broken links, he may have just rebuilt a new library and added files in the new location. The current library on the old computer may show the same song four times with three of them being reported as having broken links. Those links may be for the computer he had 6 years ago.

In some cases, all links were reported as broken but a file search for the reported missing file name found it in some other folder on the drive.

[cwwozniak]

Not really solved but I gave up trying to explain to the man his options for minimizing the amount of correction work he will need to do to get his transferred MP3 files working correctly with the new installation of MusicMatch on the new computer. No matter what I suggested (let MM build a new library based on how the files are stored in the new computer or use the existing MM database file and manually correct each reported broken link), his reply was that he didn't want to do it because he did not want to manually retype all of the information. I told him that I was fairly sure that he would loose little or no track data and the file links would be correct with the first method. I then added that if he did not like my suggestions, he was on his own and I did not want to hear one more word from him about MusicMatch problems.

[stantley]

I guess he doesn't grasp the idea of Mp3 tags, that all of the artist-album information is contained in the Mp3 file itself. Maybe if he installed MM, put in one track as a test and saw that he didn't have to re-type anything, he might be convinced. But there's not much you can do if he doesn't even want to try.

BTW cwwozniak, on a different subject, did you ever see the old sci-fi movie Forbidden Planet?

[cwwozniak]

Originally Posted by stantley

I guess he doesn't grasp the idea of Mp3 tags, that all of the artist-album information is contained in the Mp3 file itself. Maybe if he installed MM, put in one track as a test and saw that he didn't have to re-type anything, he might be convinced. But there's not much you can do if he doesn't even want to try.

One of his first questions when I tried to explain MP3 tags also containing the same data as the database was,. "If it really is in the tags, then why does Music Match need a database with the same information?" I was ready to use the "F" word as added punctuation when I answered, "So that when you want MM to list all of your Bing * Crosby songs, it doesn't have to search through five * thousand MP3 files scattered across every * directory on the * hard drive." I held my tongue and gave him a civil answer.

We did install MM on the new computer and I did copy over one of his smaller "My Music" Folders. I then had MM add that folder to its library. He took one look at the new library listing and complained the MM screwed up because it duplicated many of the song titles but had different tag data. It didn't matter that I then showed him that he did actually have duplicate MP3 files of the same songs that had creation dates a few minutes apart and the newer versions showed different (his preferred) tags in Windows Explorer.

Originally Posted by stantley

BTW cwwozniak, on a different subject, did you ever see the old sci-fi movie Forbidden Planet?

Too young to see the theatrical release but saw it at a young age for the first time as a late night movie on TV. I also have it on DVD. And yes, that is Robbie as my avatar.

[stantley]

It sounds like you need to explain to him about another computer concept, Garbage In - Garbage Out.

Originally Posted by cwwozniak

Too young to see the theatrical release but saw it at a young age for the first time as a late night movie on TV.

Yes, same with me, it was one of my favorite sci-fi movies when I was a kid. I thought Robbie the robot was pretty cool, probably the first robot movie star. He also had a bunch of bit parts in various movies and TV shows.