Bugzilla – Bug 4469
duplicates in music library with TPE2 & shortcuts
Last modified: 2011-01-14 12:57:16 UTC
The directory of my music files is structured by categories. There are certain files which has shortcut so that the same CD can be found in both ways (e.g. One CD belongs to certain "conductor" as well as "label"). SlimServer used to recognize and eliminate duplicate the CD, but now (6.5.1) it DOES duplicate. Note that the CD is recognized as ONE, while tracks are all in the ONE - there are two (or sometimes three) track #1s and #2s in one CD, according to SlimServer.
Dan, is this behavior something we want to/can continue to support? If so I will add it to the spec.
Which version worked? We should be getting the canonical path to the files in either case with a Windows Shortcut.
(In reply to comment #2) > Which version worked? We should be getting the canonical path to the files in > either case with a Windows Shortcut. I don't remember exactly, but I think it worked nicely (without duplication in SlimServer database) at 6.1 or 6.3.
Ok. Could you provide an example directory structure & shortcut which is causing this issue so that Chris can reproduce it? thanks
Created attachment 1715 [details] my directory structure
Sorry, the file went without my comment. As you can see, "German Requiem" resides in "00 NEW DISC" and "Classical - Orchestra - Karajan". The original Disc is in "Classical - Orchestra - Karajan" and shortcut was created and moved to "00 NEW DISC". This is just an example and I have many shortcuts like this, either in "00 New Disc" + genre, or "Orchestra" + "Violin" in case of violin concertos. Thanks again.
QA: can you reproduce and if so, please attach a scan log.
Ping QA team...
I just tried reproducing this with 6.5.5 - 15738 and I was not able to, it works fine for me. Ken are you still able to reproduce this?
Ok, I tried and the issue is still there. I downloaded the 1/2/07 nightly 6.5.5, and in "Server Settings", chose "clean the list and re-scan" everything. It takes several hours in my case (over 20K tracks). When I woke up this morning, I checked it out. I picked up an artist whose particular album is placed in multiple folders (e.g. original flac file in "Orchestra" folder while its "shortcut" in "New CDs" folder) using "shortcut". I clicked THE album, then, voila, there are TWO entries for ALL the tracks on the album. All duplicate from top to bottom, there are TWO track 1's, there are TWO track 2's....
Thanks for getting back to me Ken. I thought maybe the large library had something to do with it so I increased the size of my music library, there are now 47,136 songs, which includes directories matching your structure exactly including the shortcuts. I've tried browse -> music folder, artist, and album, and everything is showing up as I expect it to, I'm not seeing any duplication. It sounds like you're using the 'browse music folder' option, is that correct? When trying this or browsing albums, either way I'm only seeing each track once.
Hi, thanks for quick response. I am at the office now, but what I have been describing so far is from "browse Artist" view. From "Music Folder" view, my guess is, what you see is exactly what you put in the folder, while from "Artist" view or "browse Artist option", you pick the artist from that view, and then album which you know is in another folder, then I see duplicated tracks. Will you try this again?
I tried it again, and I'm still not able to reproduce this. You are correct music folder browses file structure and browsing via artist/album browses the database of metadata. I'm not sure why I'm not able to reproduce this, it seems fairly straight forward. I will give this another try this week and see if I can reproduce. Ken thanks for hanging in there with us, if you come up with any other ideas that might help me to reproduce please feel free to share.
Once we have a reproducible case, we can retarget this bug.
Still unable to reproduce this. I have a question for Ken, according to your directory structure you have a directory called "Beethoven: Symphony No. 5" but this isn't possible in XP, is the : a typo? Have you tried this in SC7?
Marking bug as worksforme, if you disagree with this, please reopen the bug and update with the requested information.
I just tried with the few weeks ago version, but this bug still exists. Is the fix you are talking about new? Which nightly beta should I try? Again, this was not fixed as of a few weeks ago.
(In reply to comment #17) > I just tried with the few weeks ago version, but this bug still exists. Is the > fix you are talking about new? Which nightly beta should I try? Again, this > was not fixed as of a few weeks ago. Ken can you answer my questions in comment 15? Do you have any ideas why I may not be able to reproduce this?
Ross, you are right, it was typo. I have no idea why you guys can't reproduce this symptom. Just create a few shortcut from the same folder - say, your favorite album -, then in the database it will appear twice or three times. Anyway, so I choose only from "Music Folder" and as long as I do that, I don't have complaint. Good to know that you guys are still working here. Didn't know what changed after Logitech bought you out. I have been using SB from long time ago.
Ken have you tried 7.4 yet? Please do. Is anyone else out there seeing this? If it's as bad as this bug makes it sound, I can't imagine we wouldn't hear from others frustrated by the duplicates. I've tried it again, still can't reproduce. Ken have you ever tried reproducing this on a different system?
Ross, thank you for your suggestion upgrading to 7.4. Thanks to that, now the SB Server recognizes only 250 albums out of more than 1500, and "Rescan" is disrupted unexpectedly every time I try. Huh? I was totally happy with 6.5.5! Any help now?
Created attachment 6012 [details] Screenshot of the "double" database
Okay, thanks to the Slim forum, now 7.4.1 has completed scan and I tried if the phoenomenon is still there. The answer is YES. I recently ripped an album by REO Speedwagon. I put the album on the folder - say, "80s & 90s", then I created a shortcut and I put that in my another folder, say, "10_2009" which is in the upper folder "New CDs". So, now there is an original ripped album in one folder, and shortcut to that is in another folder. I searched by putting REO in the box on the upper right of the left hand side of the web control - then REO Speedwagon was found. I clicked it, then the album that I recently ripped appears. Then I click the album, the result is the attached. Please reproduce the situation like above and try it yourself. Thanks for your continuous work on this.
Ken when you rescan, do you clear and rescan? I will try reproducing again.
Yes, I did clear and rescan everything.
Ken please attach your server.pref file, and answer a few questions for me: Do you use itunes? Do you see this duplication with 100% of your music or just some music? How did you create these shortcuts? Also please attach a sample file so we can look at the tags and see if that has anything to do with this.
I don't use iTunes, or iPod for that matter. There are too many shortcuts to check accurately, but as far as I sampled out, they are all duplicated, just like the screen shot I attached previously. I creat shortcut by right-clicking the file and move the shortcut to the desired folder (in the same HDD). I attach a sample Flac file for your review as requested.
Created attachment 6062 [details] Sample Flac file
Thanks Ken! It turns out that your sample file was the missing piece of the puzzle I needed, I'm sorry it's taken this long to get to the bottom of this bug. You have a TPE2 tag, also known as album artist or in some circles the band tag. I'm able to reproduce the duplicate entry bug when there is a shortcut in my music library which points directly to a track with a TPE2 tag. I am not able to reproduce this when the shortcut points simply to a directory that contains tracks with TPE2 tags. I tried toggling the TPE2 setting under my music in SBS but it seems to make no difference.
Thanks! I use "Tag&Rename" for editing all my music tagging - but the most tagging is automatically done by the ripping software (in my case, Plextor software) downloaded from internet. Those missing piece, I manually add tag by Tag&Rename. Looking forward to the fix. I am glad that the Slim Device spirit is stil alive here, Ross.
7.4.x milestone is in the past
my first question is why do your FLAC files have id3v2 tags in them? FLACs aren't supposed to use TPE2/id3. my second Q is why not change the shortcuts to just point at folders, instead of specific files, since that seems to not generate the issue?
I have no idea what you are talking about... I am just using Tag&Rename. What do you mean by FLACs are not supposed to use TPE2/id3? The tagging software Tag&Rename IS doing it. It's been several years already since I filed this bug and are you still working on it? I do short-cut the folder, NOT the file.