This app trashed WEEKS of tedious exacting work

[decard123]

this app replaced 4,000 of my file names with crap - WITHOUT asking or telling me a single time

after i had very labouriously and tediously and carefully fixed and completed eg using Soundhoud to check the Artist (and track) - which this app replaced with UNKNOWN!!!

WTF!!!

ity is a DANGEROUS app

it’s DELETED!!!

but NOT before it caused massive damage to 4,000 file names and files

(and now the files are somehow the files have quite different file sizes (so i can’t even match o file size!!!

Edited by moderator to remove the least constructive sections

[decard123]

here is another examp;lle

it replaced Blondie as the artisist (in teh filename)

with ‘DEV’

wtf???

[Anesidora]

It looks like you used a custom renaming script. Is that right? Are only the file names incorrect, or is it the tags, too? If the tags are OK, then you can fix your file names by disabling the Tagger Script and using Picard’s default settings, or by changing the script so that it works the way you want.

Even if a file is mis-tagged or untagged, it’s often possible to identify the track by using Picard’s “Scan” button. That is much easier than using SoundHound for every track.

File sizes can change dramatically when large cover art is embedded or removed. Picard lets you limit cover art size or save cover art to a separate file. You can change those settings in Options→Cover Art and Options→Cover Art→Cover Art Archive.

[Sophist]

As they say, a bad workman always blames their tools. There are thousands of users (myself included) who have successfully tagged very large music collections using Picard.

Some advice for others to help you avoid making the same mistakes:

1. If your current files have a big investment of time, take a backup before running Picard on them.

2. Test your file naming scripts carefully against a range of different situations such as single [NAT - Non-Album Track], files not in the database etc. In particular be sure that the directory part of the file naming script only includes album information and not track-related information because using track related information can result in your files being split amongst many directories.

3. If this is not the first time you are running your files through Picard, then you will have MBID tags inside your files which identify the precise release, and Picard will not need to attempt to identify which release the files relate to. BUT if it is the first time running through Picard, then Picard will have to make an educated guess as to which release it applies to. To do this it will use your stated release preferences, the existing file names, and the number of tracks, and the Acoustic ID fingerprint - but which it uses depends on which workflow you choose to use, and which ever workflow you use it will nevertheless still be a guess. So…

   A) Educate yourself on how Picard works and which workflows should be used in which circumstances. Compared to many open source tools, Picard’s documentation is both comprehensive and well maintained (with special thanks to Bob Swift), so please take the time to read before jumping in feet first; and
   B) You need to manually review each and every guess made by Picard to determine whether it is correct or not.
   C) If you are unsure about what will happen when you save, check the metadata carefully before you save.

[reosarevok]

I cleaned up the original post a bit to remove the worst bits of non-constructive attacking and then unhid it, in case it’s useful for others when combined with the replies. @decard123: @Anesidora’s post might be helpful, if you want some help rather than just to vent and attack.

[dpr]

@Sophist

Picard’s documentation is both comprehensive and well maintained (with special thanks to Bob Swift), so please take the time to read before jumping in feet first;

https://picard-docs.musicbrainz.org/en/index.html

If it’s not already clear to you, there is a difference between information held in individual tags (metadata) stored in the music file and the information included in the filename for the file and the directory/folder name that the file is in.

Musicbrainz has a number of important identifiers for the track, release and artist etc whose names begin with MB and are stored in each file. More information is in the picard documentation and on the musicbrainz website

[outsidecontext]

I hope posting this at least helped you vent your emotions a bit.

I think most has been said above already. What puzzles me a bit is the file names, with all that extra information added. This does not look like a Picard generated file name. At least getting something like this out of Picard would require some rather sophisticated naming script in combination with probably some custom tags.

Would be interesting to see the actual metadata that files had before and after, and to know more about what was the actual steps taken when using Picard.

[decard123]

the FILE NAMES (and TITLES) were carefully created and curated by ME using MP3Tag!!!
Over WEEKS and WEEKS.

and i only just YESTERDAY, basically finished all the major and/or global corrections, and only had a bit if tidying up to do to FINISH.

and, btw, it wouldn’t have mattered so much if Picard ACTUALLY GOT ITS INFORMATION RIGHT when it changed a field!!!

but it virtually every case that i have seen, it has got the information completely WRONG!!!

worse than that, it changed CORRECT information for complete crap

eg it changed the Artist Blondie (in t he File Name) for some crap bs entry

including, so egregiously, deleting laboriously researched names of Greek bands, with UNKNOWN!!!

WHAT ARROGANT INCOMPETENCE.

and i point out that any half-way decent app, espec with such important user data, would ask for approval of EVERY change at least at a record level, if not at a field level, with an option to do the remainder automatically, once teh user was satisfied that it was doing the fix/es correctly.

but not these arrogant incompetent mugs

and it is now much harder to fix because the file size has changed quite a bit - SO I CANNOT MATCH THEM AGAINST ANY BACKUPS BY FILE SIZE

so i have to now AGAIN labouriously, manually, individually, commb through 4,000 tracks and identify and fix all the new errors

also have to truncate all the crap that has been added at the end of each File Name!!!

anmd they did 4,000 some changes WITHOUT A SINGFLE QUESTION OR CONFIRMATION

way tro go, guys!!!

[chaban]

Sounds like the infamous PEBKAC error.

[reosarevok]

I’ve closed this topic since clearly @decard123 is not looking for help.