[merijnb]

Please see this quite from a post zubersoft did a while ago:

Given that the Import->Local File option is primarily designed for a smaller number of files being imported at once, for each file, if there is a conflict you will get an option to decide how to handle the conflict. If you select "Update existing song with new file", then that is the same as the batch import "Update songs if matching files are found" option being checked.

Is this behavior changed? For me it used to be like this, but when I currently import files I can select two options fro "Duplicate file behavior", either "Create new song from existing file" or "ignore duplicate files".

It seems that there is no way to overwrite existing files anymore?

[Zubersoft]

The behavior has not changed. The dropdown you are referring to determines how duplicate files are handled (meaning files that have identical content and are identical sizes). If you use Import->Local File, and import a PDF that matches of a PDF in the storage location, you absolutely will still see the dialog asking how you want to handle the conflict. Make sure that Settings->Storage->Create Subdirectory per Song matches what you are expecting, as that setting was switched off by default a little while ago, which causes confusion for some users, as they have some songs in folders, and some not, creating problems when importing new versions of files.

Mike

[merijnb]

The behavior has not changed. The dropdown you are referring to determines how duplicate files are handled (meaning files that have identical content and are identical sizes). If you use Import->Local File, and import a PDF that matches of a PDF in the storage location, you absolutely will still see the dialog asking how you want to handle the conflict. Make sure that Settings->Storage->Create Subdirectory per Song matches what you are expecting, as that setting was switched off by default a little while ago, which causes confusion for some users, as they have some songs in folders, and some not, creating problems when importing new versions of files.

Mike

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the info.

I can confirm what you are saying, but I did have odd behavior prior to posting this, which might point out a bug.

Yesterday I was importing a bunch of songs of which I knew up front there should be duplicates, I did not get any dialog asking me how to handle duplicates. Being really surprised and questioning myself whether I was sure there should have been duplicates, I imported more songs which were very definitely duplicates, still no dialog.

I then checked the two options and choose the other one (ignore), just to test, and that did exactly what it says, it ignored all duplicate files.

I then checked the songs, and indeed found duplicates, the imported songs were really imported and not overwritten.

After restarting MSP I did another try and this time I did see the dialog asking how to handle the imported files.

Oh, this is on a Windows tablet (yep, I posted in the wrong topic, sorry).

[Zubersoft]

If you set the duplicate behavior to create new songs, then yes, it's going to generate duplicate songs in the library using the same files as the existing songs in the library. If you import a file named "Test.pdf" then import another file called "Test.pdf" with different contents, you should see the conflict dialog without having to restart the application or anything of that sort. I just ran this test and it worked fine regardless of what selection is made for the duplicate dropdown.

Thanks,
Mike

[merijnb]

If you set the duplicate behavior to create new songs, then yes, it's going to generate duplicate songs in the library using the same files as the existing songs in the library. If you import a file named "Test.pdf" then import another file called "Test.pdf" with different contents, you should see the conflict dialog without having to restart the application or anything of that sort. I just ran this test and it worked fine regardless of what selection is made for the duplicate dropdown.

Thanks,
Mike

It seems the 'erratic' behavior I'm seeing is related to the other top I've replied (importing meta data). Could it be possible if I import a song "Test.pdf" where other meta data is included then the "Test.pdf" already there, it's not seen as the same file?

Also, I normally have files named Title - Key, so "Test - C.pdf". Until now, (using guess title from filename), the title of the song was always that "Test - C", now, it seems the key part is dropped (so now it's "Test" and not "Test - C"). Even when I select "use filename as title" the key part is dropped. How to always use the filename as title?

I'm not sure what the expected behavior is with duplicate detection in this situation?

Please see the other topic with the test PDF and importing that twice for more info.

[Zubersoft]

If you modify the file and add additional metadata, then it's no longer going to be identical, and you should get a conflict dialog if importing the song again. As far as the second issue, the title specified in the PDF metadata overrides any other selection. I'll have to add a checkbox on the dialog that is only shown when "Extract PDF Metadata" is enabled that determines whether song titles will be derived from the PDF metadata if it's present.

Mike

[merijnb]

Hi Mike,

I've been thinking about what you have said in your last post, and while I understand the chain of thought, when I look at my case, the only thing which makes a song unique is the title / key combination.
For me it's really annoying if a song is considered different from a same song with the same title / key when I fix a typo in the artist or change the tempo.

That being said, is it an idea to add a special identification meta field, which can be used for identifying if a song is similar to a previous one. So if that meta data is populated that field will be used to see if there is any other song, overriding other ways to identify similarity.

[Zubersoft]

For me it's really annoying if a song is considered different from a same song with the same title / key when I fix a typo in the artist or change the tempo.

I don't know what you mean by this, as a song is not considered different from a song just because you change metadata in that song. Song's can have duplicate files, duplicate titles, duplicate metadata, etc. The only time the uniqueness matters is when importing PDFs, or using features like the synchronization feature where it needs to match up songs from different libraries, and it needs to use the song title and filename for this purpose. 

So if you want to avoid problems, just make sure to give all your files unique names, and that should be sufficient. I would generally also advise having unique song titles to avoid any potential issues, especially if you want to use features like the library synchronization.

If you mean that a PDF is different just because you modify the metadata in the PDF, then I disagree. That PDF is different, and should be treated as such, and you should get a conflict dialog if you import it so that you can replace the existing PDF in the library if desired.

Mike

[merijnb]

If you modify the file and add additional metadata, then it's no longer going to be identical, and you should get a conflict dialog if importing the song again. As far as the second issue, the title specified in the PDF metadata overrides any other selection. I'll have to add a checkbox on the dialog that is only shown when "Extract PDF Metadata" is enabled that determines whether song titles will be derived from the PDF metadata if it's present.

Mike

Hi Mike, just to make sure since I posted this in the wrong topic. Will this checkbox be available for all platforms (I'm running on Windows)?

Do you have an eta for a release which includes this?

Thanks!

[Zubersoft]

Yes, I'll add it for all platforms, and it's included with 3.9.0 which I'm releasing within the next 5 days.

Mike