[Harry_M]

I would like to avoid duplicates not only in batch import, but also in normal import/add of songs.
I have all my songs as pdf which are sometimes updated by my notation software.
When I go through the list of my pdfs via file explorer, I want to add new songs and/or update existing ones to have the pdfs in sync with Mobilesheets.
When I open them from the file explorer with Mobilesheets, they are always added - no matter if they already exist.
I would like to avoid duplicates and have Mobilesheets to ask for "add song" or "swap pdf on existing song" if a song already exists.

[Harry_M]

Any thoughts on this?
How are others handling their files and sync of new/updated files with MobileSheets?

[jeffn1]

I have been renaming the new version and manually deleting the old one.

Or, maybe if not deleted it entirely from Mobilesheets, I removed the older (outdated) version from the collection. (In my case I have three collections based on the three different groups I play with: classic rock/BillyJoel and Beatles/jazz standards).

[Harry_M]

This is a manual operation, isn't it? So you must know which files are updated and manually rename/swap/remove them.
I am looking for a more automated way to handle this...

[Zubersoft]

If you long press a song on the library screen, there is an option to "Swap PDF". Is this different than what you are looking for? I would think this would be faster than having to go through the song editor to do it.

[smw]

If you long press a song on the library screen, there is an option to "Swap PDF". Is this different than what you are looking for?

Speaking for myself, I'd prefer an option called "Replace PDF". That is, sometimes I'll rescan a song I already loaded into MobileSheets, or otherwise edit and improve the original PDF file on my computer. At that point I'd love to have an easy way to replace the PDF file that MobileSheets is using.

The existing "Swap PDF" option doesn't seem to do that; instead, what it appeared to do the one time I tried it was to tell MobileSheets to use the new PDF file, but in the location where I'd uploaded it to the tablet -- but that directory's contents get replaced on each subsequent upload, so the song failed to work at all because MobileSheets was looking for a file which no longer existed.

Thus, what I'm actually doing in practice is to delete the song from MobileSheets entirely and reimport it from scratch, which of course loses annotations and linked mp3s. Granted that annotations may be in the wrong location if the underlying PDF file has changed, but I'd rather move them than have to start over (and most of the time, at least for me, the new PDF is the same size as the original, so most annotations wouldn't have to move anyway).

I did once try manually copying the new PDF over the old one in the actual data directory MobileSheets was using for that song. I forget what happened, but it didn't seem to work very well, nor did I really expect it to.

Hence, it would be really nice to have an explicit option for "take this new PDF file and copy it over the one MobileSheets is already using".

- Steven

[jeffn1]

I think I have run into this in other programs (copying word documents, etc.) in Windows. I think its pretty common and a methology has already been developed that works well.

The system I have encounted I think works like this: when you are copying files and it discovers a file with the same name, I think its gives you four options.

Maybe(?): replace replace all (and two others?)

Something like that. I think this is very common and a system has already been developed that works well. (Too bad I can't remember exactly how it works and what the options are, but maybe someone else can do a better job).

Jeff

If you long press a song on the library screen, there is an option to "Swap PDF". Is this different than what you are looking for?

Speaking for myself, I'd prefer an option called "Replace PDF". That is, sometimes I'll rescan a song I already loaded into MobileSheets, or otherwise edit and improve the original PDF file on my computer. At that point I'd love to have an easy way to replace the PDF file that MobileSheets is using.

The existing "Swap PDF" option doesn't seem to do that; instead, what it appeared to do the one time I tried it was to tell MobileSheets to use the new PDF file, but in the location where I'd uploaded it to the tablet -- but that directory's contents get replaced on each subsequent upload, so the song failed to work at all because MobileSheets was looking for a file which no longer existed.

Thus, what I'm actually doing in practice is to delete the song from MobileSheets entirely and reimport it from scratch, which of course loses annotations and linked mp3s. Granted that annotations may be in the wrong location if the underlying PDF file has changed, but I'd rather move them than have to start over (and most of the time, at least for me, the new PDF is the same size as the original, so most annotations wouldn't have to move anyway).

I did once try manually copying the new PDF over the old one in the actual data directory MobileSheets was using for that song. I forget what happened, but it didn't seem to work very well, nor did I really expect it to.

Hence, it would be really nice to have an explicit option for "take this new PDF file and copy it over the one MobileSheets is already using".

- Steven

[Harry_M]

If you long press a song on the library screen, there is an option to "Swap PDF". Is this different than what you are looking for? I would think this would be faster than having to go through the song editor to do it.

Yes, that's fine for me if I know that the song already exists in the database.
Most of the time, I am not sure if it already exists. In these cases I start mobilesheets via click on the pdf. Now I would like to have the duplicate supervision that looks if the song already is in the database. It can add it normally if not, but should prompt for "swap pdf" if it exists to avoid duplicates.
I think this would simply be the batch import duplicate detection, but also for single imports.