[lvr123]

The other day I was about to ask a question about a possible partial Bulk Upload feature(*), when after a test I realized that I could do a Bulk Upload on my entire library and MSP would only upload the new scores and update what had been changed, thanks to the "update songs if a match is found" option.

But actually, this ain't exactly true. MSP has duplicated some files. And I wonder how the "matching" mechanism is working.

This is my case :
In MuseScore, I transcribed some Jazz solo's and exported it as 3 different files :
* A song-Solo-C.pdf (the solo transcribed for C instruments)
* A song-Solo-Eb.pdf (... for Eb instruments)
* A song-Solo-Bb.pdf (... for Bb instruments)

The first time I bulk uploaded those files, MSP created 3 songs:
* A song-Solo-C
* A song-Solo-Eb
* A song-Solo-Bb

As there is no filename parsing feature, I had to modify those entries manually, the "-C", "-Eb", ... from the title, and added the information in the Custom Group (that I've labelled "Transposition").

My songs now look like (with the title formatted as "%TITLE% %CUSTOM_GROUP: [${VALUE}]%")
* A song-Solo
* A song-Solo [Eb]
* A song-Solo [Bb]

Later on, I did a new Bulk upload just to upload a few new stuff I did in other scores.

I realized that the matching did not work as I expected, and that it duplicated all the songs I edited.
* A song-Solo : edited song, from A song-Solo-C.pdf
* A song-Solo-C : re-imported song, for the same file A song-Solo-C.pdf
* A song-Solo [Eb] : edited song, from A song-Solo-Eb.pdf
* A song-Solo-Eb : re-imported song, for the same file A song-Solo-Eb.pdf
* A song-Solo [Bb] : edited song, from A song-Solo-Bb.pdf
* A song-Solo-Bb : re-imported song, for the same file A song-Solo-Bb.pdf

Gosh :huh: My library is messed. Fortunately I took a backup yesterday.

So, the question is:
How does that "matching" option work ?
Is there another alternative to bulk upload without messing the songs for which the title has been edited ?
Even a partial bulk upload as I intended to do originally(*) wouldn't make the trick:

(*) i.e. the possibility to upload only some folders while keeping the deduction of the songs properties from the full folder path.

[Zubersoft]

MobileSheets determines the output location for the file (and the title to use for the song) based on the filename. If that output location contains an existing PDF with the same name, then MobileSheets assumes it should update the existing song. If you rename a song in MobileSheets, this will change the directory used for the file (this was added semi-recently due to user requests that the folders match the song titles). However, that will then break the "update matching song" option if the filename doesn't match the song title. If this is a feature you need to rely on, then I would recommend keeping the file names the same as the song titles and not renaming the song titles. Then everything should match up without issue. Alternatively, if you rename a song, rename the file you will import to match the song title that MobileSheets will generate.

A simpler approach is to go to Settings->Storage and uncheck "Use Subdirectory Per Song". Then there are no longer folder issues and all of your files will just be matched up by name (and the song title is irrelevant). This does require you to uniquely name all of your files though. You also will need to either backup your library and restore it to reassign the folders, or just clear your library and reimport your files (if you aren't worried about losing any important information like annotations).

Mike

[lvr123]

Thanks for the explanation.
I will weight the pros and cons of both methods. 

Making unique filenames is my concern (as long as the filename parsing feature - which I'm really hoping for - is not available).

E.g. I was lately transcribing the Jeremy Steig's version of Hop Scotch  which differs from the original one from Charlie Rouse.
One my OneDrive these are just stored in 2 folders:
Jeremy Steig/Transcription/Hop Scotch.pdf
Charlie Rouse/Transcription/Hop Scotch.pdf

The batch import deduce the composer ("Jeremy Steig", "Charlie Rouse"), the tile ("Hop Scotch") and Source type ("Transposition"). And this is what I want.

I could easily make unique filenames, but that means that the song titles won't be correct/nice any more ("Jeremy Steig--Hop Scotch", "Charlie Rouse--Hop Scotch"). 
And this would require a manual intervention for each imported song :-(
While 90% of my songs don't require (in today's approach) to be manually edited.  A bunch of extra workload.

[Zubersoft]

Then you can consider unchecking the "Create Subdirectory per Song" option. That should get you what you need.

Mike

[lvr123]

Then you can consider unchecking the "Create Subdirectory per Song" option. That should get you what you need.

I just tested this approach thoughtfully.

And actually, this requires to have unique filenames (you mentioned it). 
So the original filenames must get some discriminant to make them unique.
Those filenames become the song titles, therefore, including the discriminant :-(

So all the songs must be edited manually to clean-up their title from the discriminant.

Passed that point, I can modify the files, re-run the Bulk Import, and there are no duplicates. This is a good point. But the fact that I must modify all the song titles manually make this approach less convenient.

I'll be waiting that a "Parse filename" feature be ever implemented.

[Geoff Bacon]

If it helps, there are tools online that can add post fixes to a set of files e.g. a folder of files

Geoff

[lvr123]

If it helps, there are tools online that can add post fixes to a set of files e.g. a folder of files

Geoff

Great. Can you tell me more ?

[Geoff Bacon]

Suggest you google for "add suffix to file names"

Most of the solutions use the Cmd or Powershell prompt; I cou;dn't easily spot the programs that I've previously used (I wrote my own)

If you are paranoid, suggest you copy all the files into a new temporary folder and work on that

Cheers
Geoff

[lvr123]

> If it helps, there are tools online that can add post fixes to a set of files e.g. a folder of files
I misunderstood this. I though you were suggesting tools to alter de MSP titles&co with external tools.

Tweaking the filenames is not an issue for me. The concern is that those "tweaked" filenames will become the song titles. And this is what I don't want. I want the song titles to be the "untweaked" filenames (most of the times).

[Geoff Bacon]

I just add a mnemonic to each name e.g. "_Pub", "_MUJ"
The "_" is a visual reminder that it is not part of the real song name and the 3 letters identify which group.
Not ideal but workable

Also when importing, select the option to "use filename as song name"; if you use "Guess", you get unwanted spaces added e.g. after digits

Geoff