[BobbyH]

Is this a good workflow/file location approach? Would you do it differently?

1) Load all files (audio and PDF) on the SD card.

2) In settings, turn off the option to have MSP manage the file locations (putting them in the database)

3) (Since I work on the backing tracks on my PC) When I add a tune, transfer it to the file location on the tablet, and then use MSP (or Companion) to include it in MSP's list.

My motive for using the files outside of the MSP location is 

1) It saves having two copies of each tune.

2) If I have a problem with MSP, I can continue performing by using the files in a player.

Is my thinking muddled on any of this? Please, any thoughts are very welcome. I hate the idea that I could start wasting time going about this the wrong way. I have read the manual, and I don't think it really addresses the big picture things that folks deeply involved might tend to take for granted compared to a not-very-technical new user. The result is that folks can get off on the wrong foot. (I tend to feel that way about most software manuals, though.) If you think I might have overlooked some key documentation, please let me know. Thanks for any help!

[BRX]

Absolute valid workflow IMHO.

Mine is very similar. I'm keeping my MSP directory mirrored (content and structure) on several devices and in the cloud for similar reasons.
I never saw the appeal of MSP managing the files for me.

Also I'm using dropbox and dropsync to keep all my file directories (and since the change of path handling to relative also my database) in sync on the devices.
If I find the time I might make a post about it. The new MSP sync features are great and have its own uses, but my way suits my purposes better.

[BobbyH]

Thanks! That's reassuring. I guess I'm catching on!

[itsme]

My workflow is also pretty similar. I also manage the files myself.

I came across a few things that might be good to know:

- If you copy all your files into subfolders of the MSP folder, MSP uses relative paths, relative to the MSP folder. That allows copying mobilesheets.db without modification between Android devices and Win10 devices.
- The MSP folder can be on the SD card. Due to Android restrictions it has to be something like /storage/sdcard1/Android/data/com.zubersoft.mobilesheetspro/files (it depends on the Android version of your device) so that MSP has the required write access. Write access for MSP is also required to restore MSP backups
- You should check if other programs that you are using can work with the files in that location, maybe they can't get write access there. This includes synchronisation tools like FolderSync.

For me it is important
- to have R/W access to my files directly, also with other programs
- to know where my files and folders are, because some scenarios require files to be in the same folder
- that I can copy mobilesheets.db between my Android tablet and my Win10 laptops without modifying it

Alas I had to give up using the SD card for files actively used in MSP because of Android's restrictions.

As a conclusion of the findings above my folder structure looks like this:

On Android:

Let MobileSheets Manage My Files: OFF
Set The MobileSheets Storage Location: /storage/emulated/0/_MobileSheets
Expose Database File: ON

/storage/emulated/0/_MobileSheets/mobilesheets.db

/storage/emulated/0/_MobileSheets/Fkbk0/ - contains complete fakebooks and the according CSV files used in MSP
/storage/emulated/0/_MobileSheets/Songs/A
...

/storage/emulated/0/_MobileSheets/Songs/Z - contain one file per song scores

and additionally

/storage/sdcard1/Android/data/com.zubersoft.mobilesheetspro/files - fakebooks and the according CSV files NOT YET used in MSP (they can be imported instantly by CSV import in case I need a song from there)
/storage/sdcard1/Android/data/com.zubersoft.mobilesheetspro/BAK - recent backups

on Win10

Set The MobileSheets Storage Location: d:\HerbertsGoogleDrive\_MobileSheets

c:\Users\her\AppData\Local\Packages\41730Zubersoft.MobileSheets_ys1c8ct2g6ypr\LocalState\mobilesheets.db

d:\HerbertsGoogleDrive\_MobileSheets\Fkbk0\ - contains complete fakebooks and the according CSV files used in MSP
d:\HerbertsGoogleDrive\_MobileSheets\Songs\A\
...
d:\HerbertsGoogleDrive\_MobileSheets\Songs\Z\ - contain one file per song scores

and additionally

d:\HerbertsGoogleDrive\_MobileSheets\Fkbk1\ - fakebooks and the according CSV files NOT YET used in MSP (they can be imported instantly by CSV import in case I need a song from there)
d:\Backup\MobileSheets_BAK\ - recent backups

I keep the files in the folders Songs, Fkbk0 and Fkbk1 in sync by different means and copy mobilesheets.db whenever needed.

[sciurius]

My workflow is similar, but with some significant differences.

First, I maintain all my song files on my (Linux) PC. I have several musical 'projects' (like bands and choirs) and I maintain the songs in separate folders on the PC. Simplified:

Music/Band1/Song1/Song1.cho
Music/Band1/Song2/Song2.pdf
...
Music/Band2/Song1/Song1.jpg
Music/Band2/Song2/Song2.cho
...

And so on. For every project there is a corresponding folder 'MSPro' that contains the song files to be put on the tablets. In software terminology you could say that I develop the songs in eg. Music/Band1/Song2 and then stage the result Song2.pdf into Music/Band1/MSPro/

Music/Band1/MSPro/Song1.cho
Music/Band1/MSPro/Song2.pdf
Music/Band2/MSPro/Song1.jpg
Music/Band2/MSPro/Song2.cho
...

Most projects are under version control using git.

Using a decent hierarchical file copy tool, rsync, I copy the staged songs into the MSPro folder on the SDcard of the devices, /storage/XXXXXX/Android/data/com.zubersoft.mobilesheetspro/files/Partituren .

MSPro is set to not maintain the song files, and to use the abovementioned folder for storage.

In MSPro, the songs from the individual folders are imported into collections, so I have a separate collection for each project, and songs with identical titles in different projects do not clash. In the future I intend to use a separate database (library) once MSPro supports this.

During rehearsals and gigs songs and collections may be modified in MSPro on the device, mostly annotations. Later I manually apply the relevant changes to the songs on the PC, and copy the updated file to the device. So I never copy song files from the device. Yes, this implies some additional work, but having a central repository with all songs and data pays back.

Unlike Herbert I do not copy the MSPro database between devices but I have designated one of the devices to be master and sync it to a cloud folder (updating folder). I then sync the other devices to the same folder (updating device). This is probably going to change when MSPro starts supporting separate databases.