[William Mohat]

While MobileSheets supports "Collections", they are of almost no use if multiple "collections" of songs are VERY SIMILAR.

    I'll be specific.

I'm involved with several Barbershop Quartet groups...... several separate CHORUSES and QUARTETS.
Each of these groups have HUNDREDS of songs in their libraries.   UNFORTUNATELY, while many of the SONG
NAMES are the same........the song FILES are VERY DIFFERENT.

   For example, three or four of these groups might all have the same song  (say, for example,
"Amazing Grace" in their libraries.)   BUT, the .pdf files are DIFFERENT  (the songs might be 
in a different key, or altered by a different ARRANGER).   The audio "learning tracks" also have the SAME
NAMES, but are likewise COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.   Trying to put them in separate "collections"
just does NOT WORK.

    Attempting to merge these libraries has been a DISASTER......as MobileSheets automatically
tries to store the conflicting files in a FOLDER with the COMMON NAME  (e.g.  "Amazing Grace") and the
PDF and .mp3 files are getting overwritten and lost by the hundreds, every time I try to IMPORT 
a different collection into a common database.

    I have tried dropping the "Guess Title from Filename".......but the names are often IDENTICAL (contents 
differ)......and MobileSheets winds up putting them in a common location, with files getting overwritten and lost.

    I have tried disabling "Let MobileSheets Manage My Files"......... but that doesn't fix things....they still wind
up getting a common name and file folder somewhere.........with the resulting loss of data.    Trying to
"Set the MobileSheets Storage Location" gets really tricky, .....it's a multi-step process, and files are 
STILL continually getting overwritten and corrupted.

     Is there any way to get MULTIPLE INSTANCES of MobileSheets loaded on a single tablet,
with EACH having a DIFFERENT STORAGE LOCATION and MAIN DATABASE file.........so that different
groups of songs (with identical names) won't wind up stepping on each other?   You know,
a "MobileSheets for Chorus A", and a "MobileSheets for Chorus B".....that are COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT
of each other, so files with the same names won't OVERWRITE each other in your SHARED DATABASE???

    [ Yes, I know that I could alter the original .pdf file names ......say, for example, put a different suffix
on each file so they would look different.....and would wind up in different subfolders.........but then I'd
have to RE-IMPORT EVERY SONG BY HAND (HUNDREDS OF THEM) to get them in different collections....
and then I'd STILL have the nightmare of these different groups giving me "update files" that don't have
those same "suffixes" included, which would corrupt all my databases when imported. ]  This REALLY doesn't work....
and I've been fighting with this file conflict issue for a long time now.   HELP!!!.

[Skip]

Try making a separate base Library for each group. I've not done this as I can use a single base library. I think this is done by starting with an empty library, as if you just installed MSP. Load the songs for group 1, then make a backup, saving it as backup group 1. repeat for group 2 and save as group 2, etc. I would make a folder for MSP backups in the tablet and in another location. Then you can  restore the appropriate base library as needed. 
Someone who is doing this may be able to verify this.

[itsme]

"While MobileSheets supports "Collections", they are of almost no use if multiple "collections" of songs are VERY SIMILAR.g."
This is definitely wrong.

MobileSheets allows various solutions for your task. Here's one o them:
You could e.g. keep the same song titles and use a collection for each of your line-ups. With the collection / line-up in the database you need to make it visible on the songs tab and in the setlist editor. To do so add the collection via "Library Settings - Song Title Formatting" either to Title or Caption of the songs. Set "Show caption" and "Use formatted title for sorting".
So your different groups can easily share scores or have individual scores as required.
Filter by Collection while working with one of your groups and while preparing set lists.

[itsme]

Skip's proposal works via "Library settings" - Switch Library".
Doing that you can create completely separate libraries for each of your line-ups.
This is only convenient if your line-ups share no ( are almost no) scores as using the same score in various libraries becomes complicated to maintain.

[Zubersoft]

An option is being added very soon (one of the 3.9.X updates) to isolate storage for each library so that a different subdirectory is used for each library. That should resolve this issue.

Mike

[William Mohat]

"While MobileSheets supports "Collections", they are of almost no use if multiple "collections" of songs are VERY SIMILAR.g."
This is definitely wrong.

MobileSheets allows various solutions for your task. Here's one o them:
You could e.g. keep the same song titles and use a collection for each of your line-ups. With the collection / line-up in the database you need to make it visible on the songs tab and in the setlist editor. To do so add the collection via "Library Settings - Song Title Formatting" either to Title or Caption of the songs. Set "Show caption" and "Use formatted title for sorting".
So your different groups can easily share scores or have individual scores as required.
Filter by Collection while working with one of your groups and while preparing set lists.

Dear "itsme" .....

    I have tried what you suggested, but it only partially works.

    Specifically, I had the Title Formatting contain the following:  %TITLE% ~~ %COLLECTIONS%  and I enabled "Use formatted title for sorting".

     When IMPORTING a COLLECTION from another user, it DID add the "COLLECTION" name to the end of the title......BUT....that's ALL that got changed.

     The STORAGE FOLDER that holds the .PDF files and the .mp3 audio files gets created with JUST the "TITLE" (without the "COLLECTION" added).....
      and then MobileSheets CONTINUES to use OLD copies of the .PDF and .MP3 files that it "saw" earlier, WITHOUT the "COLLECTION" as part of the file names.

     WORSE:

     I HAVE turned off "Let MobileSheets Manage My Files"..............BUT.............while it CREATES new files in the folder location I specified, it
     appears to IGNORE them, and prefer to use the OLD files it copied (when I *DID* let MobileSheets manage my files.)    I have NO IDEA
     where THAT storage location is, and can't find it...........but as long as it exists, MobileSheets won't use the new folders I have specified.

     SO.......HOW can I create a TRUELY SEPARATE LIBRARY, that won't be affected by files MobileSheets "saw" earlier????   This is a SERIOUS problem....

[William Mohat]

An option is being added very soon (one of the 3.9.X updates) to isolate storage for each library so that a different subdirectory is used for each library. That should resolve this issue.

Mike

Mike:

   Simply specifying a "different subdirectory for each library" may not be enough.   For some reason, MobileSheets will
"see" it's private, HIDDEN data files, and will prefer to use THOSE, instead of only the files in the specified subdirectory.

  I'll explain:

    I've TURNED OFF  "Let MobileSheets Manage My Files"......and I've specified a NEW subdirectory, THINKING I was starting
from scratch.  There WAS no "mobilesheets.db" file in that new subdirectory, so there SHOULD NOT be any conflict with
ANY files that I try to load.    AND, I deleted ALL database and music files I could find, on the ENTIRE TABLET.

      BUT....when I start to import files from another user, MobileSheets CONTINUALLY complains about "duplicate
file names", and asks if I want to OVERWRITE or RENAME, or CANCEL.    (These users have files with the same names,
but the music is in different KEYS, or are different ARRANGEMENTS of the same songs.)   Loading into a completely different
subdirectory should eliminate any conflicts, but MobileSheets CLEARLY is continuing to "look" at files it had stored previously.
This includes BOTH the .pdf files, and any attached .mp3 audio files as well.   And I   KNOW without any doubt that MobileSheets
has COMPLETE, OLD COPIES of files it has "seen before".

      It's clear that MobileSheets has some kind of HIDDEN DATABASE file, that I cannot see or delete, that continues to point
MobileSheets at HIDDEN COPIES of files that I have ERASED from every directory that I have access to.   The conflicts persist.

     SO......if your 3.9.X update allows people to switch subdirectories, WHAT ABOUT THE HIDDEN, PRIVATE DATABASE that 
MobileSheets REALLY LOOKS AT FIRST?   Will THAT get swapped out and  re-created in the new subdirectory as well, or not?
If not, this won't really work as intended.

--Bill

[Zubersoft]

The only "hidden" files in MobileSheets is the database file (and it's not hidden if you enable "Expose Database") as well as the application settings (which you can export under Settings->Backup and Restore->Export Settings). It's must more likely there is just some confusion over how the application works. First off, as I mentioned, the database is not stored in the storage location by default. It's stored in a location that is not accessible by users. If you enable the "Expose Database" option, then the database file is stored in the storage location. You want a clean slate, what you should be doing is going to Settings->Other Settings->Clear Library, as that would clear out all of the files and the database. You should also delete any files that might be in the storage location (which is /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.zubersoft.mobilesheetspro/files by default). Please note that the default storage location is not accessible by other apps on Android 11 or higher due to restrictions in the OS itself. I don't know how you went about clearing things out, so I just wanted to mention this.

If you truly want a clean slate, just uninstalling the app, unchecking any option to keep application data, and then reinstalling it would be the most thorough approach. Then you can change the storage location if desired, uncheck the "Let MobileSheets Manage my Files" option, create your new folder at a simple location (like /storage/emulated/0/MobileSheets) and then place all of your PDFs under that folder. You can then import them, and I 100% guarantee you there won't be conflicts of any kind regardless of how you named those files.

Mike

[William Mohat]

If I let Mobilesheets Manage My Files, BUT I SPECIFY a DIRECTORY......and I have "Create Subdirectories For Songs" checked......Mobilesheets makes a separate folder for EVERY song.  Inside each folder are the song .PDF files...........AND ALSO any .mp3 audio files I might have associated with that song name.

Now, if I EXPORT the files, I get everything, but all rolled up into a single  .msf file    (I can't see or edit the original folders.)  No good...

Now, if I SHARE the files, I get a collection of ONLY the PDFs, with NONE of the .mp3 files included.    That's no good either.

Now, if I simply COPY all the SONG  FOLDERs from the specified storage location, I can move them to a PC, and edit the names of all of the files, so the new modified song names will indicate which "library" they belong in.

What I would THEN LIKE TO DO is then BATCH IMPORT all of these songs back into MobileSheets.   MobileSheets DOES have a BATCH IMPORT,
but it ONLY BRINGS IN THE .PDF file.........it does NOT bring in the AUDIO .mp3 files that are included in the same SONG folder.   They CLEARLY BELONG TOGETHER, but the BATCH IMPORT doesn't bring in the audio files as well.

    IS THERE ANY WAY to have MobileSheets BATCH import from a collection of song folders,
 and bring in BOTH the music score   .PDF file, AND ALSO bring in any .mp3 audio files that 
are in the SAME FOLDER as the PDF?    If I could do this, it would save me a LOT of time.

Thanks for your help with this.......
Bill

[Zubersoft]

Long press the song, tap Share->Export Files, check the option to export audio files and it will export both. 

To automatically import audio with PDFs, follow the directions in this video: https://youtu.be/l3R8MuKF9tY?t=164

You just have to enable the option in the settings, and make sure the audio files match the pdf filenames. Let me know if you run into issues with this.

Mike

[William Mohat]

MIKE:    

     Thanks for the reply ..... but what I'm trying to do is a bit different.....   Let me explain:

      I'm involved with several barbershop quartets and chorus groups.   For any given song,
 you have the .PDF file of the song SCORE..... and then 5 AUDIO "Learning Tracks" to go with it.
You have a separate file for each part (TENOR / LEAD / BARITONE / BASS), and also for ALL parts combined.

       When you initially load the song and then attach all 5 of these AUDIO files to it  (using the 
Song Editor).....  MobileSheets will create a file folder that holds ALL of the files.

       I'll give you an example:    Let's say the barbershop SONG is called "Caroline".    After importing
the song itself, and then attaching all 5 of the audio files, you can go to the "MobileSheets Storage Location"
and I can find a folder that looks like THIS:

            Folder Name:   CAROLINE
            Contents:        CAROLINE.PDF
                                  CAROLINE-ALL.mp3
                                  CAROLINE-TENOR.mp3
                                  CAROLINE-LEAD.mp3
                                  CAROLINE-BARITONE.mp3
                                  CAROLINE-BASS.mp3

      Now note:   If I manually SELECT a group of song folders, and do a  SHARE -> EXPORT files
operation,  MobileSheets will copy all of the SONG folders to the directory I specify......and all
of the song folders will include ALL OF THE AUDIO FILES that were in the source SONG directories.

      BUT.....If I then take this collection of SONG folders and COPY it to a different TABLET.....
and try to do a BATCH IMPORT.........MobileSheets will only pull in the "CAROLINE.PDF" file,
and NONE of the audio files that are in that folder.   How can I get MobileSheets to BATCH IMPORT
ALL of the .mp3 files that are in the SONG "CAROLINE" folder?     I have MANY HUNDREDS of song
files, and manually re-attaching all the song files could take MANY, MANY HOURS.

       Now.......before you try telling me that I could EXPORT as .mdb or .msf........ there's a reason
why I can't do that.............and it has to do with my ORIGINAL QUESTION about having MobileSheets
support multiple LIBRARIES..........which it currently doesn't do.

       I work with SEVERAL barbershop quartets and choruses.   MANY of these groups sing the same
basic song  (like "CAROLINE", for example).....but they sing that song in a DIFFERENT KEY, or they 
have a slightly different ARRANGEMENT of that song......but all these files initially have the SAME FILE NAMES.
    
If I try to load the songs in different COLLECTIONS, (but with the same file names), obviously 
files wind up getting overwritten, because "Collections" are NOT saved in DIFFERENT LOCATIONS.

       I have found a way to do BATCH FILE NAME EDITING in Windows..............  so if I have a 
group of SONG folders for the CLEVELAND chorus and one for the AKRON chorus, I can batch edit
all the folder and file names at the same time.   Using "CAROLINE" as an example...... I can batch
edit ALL song folders for the CLEVELAND group ....and for the AKRON group.....so that the song filenames
now include a suffix that indicates WHICH CHORUS the song belongs to.  For example,
after batch modifying the FOLDER and FILENAMES to include the CITY, I now have:

            Cleveland Group:                                           Akron Group:

     Song Folder:  CAROLINE~~CLE                             CAROLINE~~AKRON
     Contents:      CAROLINE~~CLE.pdf                        CAROLINE~~AKRON.pdf
                         CAROLINE-ALL~~CLE.mp3                CAROLINE-ALL~~AKRON.mp3
                         CAROLINE-TENOR~~CLE.mp3           CAROLINE-TENOR~~AKRON.mp3
                         CAROLINE-LEAD~~CLE.mp3              CAROLINE-LEAD~~AKRON.mp3
                         CAROLINE-BARITONE~~CLE.mp3      CAROLINE-BARITONE~~AKRON.mp3
                         CAROLINE-BASS~~CLE.mp3              CAROLINE-BASS~~AKRON.mp3

    I can then BATCH IMPORT the songs, and MobileSheets will create TWO song folders:  
CAROLINE~~CLE and   CAROLINE~~AKRON.........and it will also IMPORT the  two separate
song files,   CAROLINE~~CLE.pdf      and CAROLINE~~AKRON.pdf.    (with the different filenames,
they no longer conflict and overwrite each other.)   BUT......I then have to MANUALLY ATTACH all
of the audio files, to MANY HUNDREDS of SONGs.....which could take DAYS of effort.

    WHY CAN'T MobileSheets just automatically ATTACH every .mp3 in the same SONG folder
that has the PDF file in it?     Look, when you EXPORTED the file folders, MobileSheets included
ALL of the "attached" audio files, but why it can't do the INVERSE OPERATION?


     ANY OTHER WAY of EXPORTING and IMPORTING the song collections  (as a .mdb or a .msf) .... you just
get one huge packed file........and I CANNOT MODIFY those song file names and audio file names with the CITY or
QUARTET name.

      I've tried just COPYING the modified file folders to the "MobileSheets Storage Location".....but
your DATABASE continues to look for the ORIGINAL, NON-MODIFIED filenames, so ..... that clearly doesn't
work either.


      SO...............is there ANY other way around this file naming / multiple groups problem?

--Bill Mohat / Tenor,  "Four Of A Kind" quartet.....

[Zubersoft]

The reason for not just automatically attaching every mp3 in a directory to a single PDF, because if there are multiple PDFs in the directory (which is the case for most users performing a batch import), it would incorrectly add all of the audio files to every song created from any of those PDFs. That just isn't the right behavior for most situations. I also don't believe most users attach multiple audio files to a single song (some users certainly do, but I don't believe it's the majority). I would have to add a new setting that controls whether MobileSheets tries to account for situations like this where there are multiple audio files with file names that start with the same name as the PDF, but have different suffixes, so that they can all be added to the single song that is created. Without that, there is no easy way to do what you are trying to do right now. The best thing to do is just to ensure every song has a unique title and filename across libraries, then you can export to .msf and import the .msf without any conflict, but I recognize that this may not be doable with your scenario.

Mike

[William Mohat]

The reason for not just automatically attaching every mp3 in a directory to a single PDF, because if there are multiple PDFs in the directory (which is the case for most users performing a batch import), it would incorrectly add all of the audio files to every song created from any of those PDFs. That just isn't the right behavior for most situations. I also don't believe most users attach multiple audio files to a single song (some users certainly do, but I don't believe it's the majority). I would have to add a new setting that controls whether MobileSheets tries to account for situations like this where there are multiple audio files with file names that start with the same name as the PDF, but have different suffixes, so that they can all be added to the single song that is created. Without that, there is no easy way to do what you are trying to do right now. The best thing to do is just to ensure every song has a unique title and filename across libraries, then you can export to .msf and import the .msf without any conflict, but I recognize that this may not be doable with your scenario.

Mike

   Mike:

     Curious thing.......I can EXPORT part of my database (a collection of songs, for example) as a .msf   file...........but I can't later IMPORT that same .msf file successfully.    It only loads about 1/3 of the way, then prints this error message:

     Unrecoverable error while importing file /storage/2B3B-86A5/
     AD_files-09_03_2024.msf.  Aborting import.

     It had successfully loaded about 40 songs out of a collection of about 140 songs, before the IMPORT operation failed.

     Going to the "MobileSheets Storage Location", I could see that the file it failed on was called:

     DOES YOUR CHEWING GUM LOSE ITS FLAVOR

      In that folder were the .PDF file of the sheet music, and about 9  .mp3 audio files.   
 These audio files have fairly long names......like:

     Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (On The Bedpost Overnight) - Bari Missing.mp3
     Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (On The Bedpost Overnight) - Baritone.mp3
     Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (On The Bedpost Overnight) - Bass Missing.mp3
     Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (On The Bedpost Overnight) - Bass.mp3

     These filenames are the longest that are stored in the collection........and they contain "'(" and ")" characters.

     Now, I was able to originally load the PDF score, and create the entry in MobileSheets for this song....and then
ATTACH all of these audio files to it....all with no problems.   All those operations worked just fine.
But, I can't EXPORT then RE-IMPORT the same song files, using the .msf format?

      Is there a size limit to the filenames that MobileSheets can handle?   Are  "'(" and ")" characters not allowed
in audio file names?   (But, I could CREATE the song entry, and use these audio files with no problems.)  
Why does   EXPORT as .msf    and then IMPORT as .msf   FAIL with this specific song file????

   *******************

      Also ....another bug..... the audio PLAYER...... if there is any "metadata" in the .mp3 file, the NAME
of the song won't be printed correctly in the Audio PLAYER.   Instead of the expected song name,
you might see  "TRACK 12"....or the ALBUM NAME.....or something like that.       I have been able to strip the metadata out
of some .mp3 files, and then the song names then print correctly in your Audio Player..........but why
doesn't MobileSheets just use the base file name?   Why is it looking at, and printing text from the 
embedded metadata at the beginning of .mp3 audio files?   This is especially a problem when taking
songs from Audio CDs, and importing them into MobileSheets.

--Bill Mohat / Tenor

[Zubersoft]

Please share the .msf file with mike@zubersoft.com (you may have to upload it to a cloud service and share a link if the file size exceeds around 25 MB) and I'll take a look it to provide more information. It could be a bug, or it could be a corrupted file. 

The audio player is extracting the title from the mp3 metadata. If you want that title to be correct, just fix the mp3 metadata so that the title in it is correct. As for why the filename isn't just used, for most users seeing something like 01_The_Song_Title.mp3 as the title instead of "The Song Title " is not going to be what they want.

Mike