Re-tagged items appearing in Recently Added

[Peter StreamMagic]

(15-12-2022 14:32)simoncn Wrote:  The only explanation I have is that a folder name or location was changed.

How can I figure this out?
This is driving me insane, there should be a reason for me to alter folder names or location, latest changes in general were made 20-11-2022 in order to add Artist Index pictures in Folder View.

[simoncn]

The next step in identifying why this is happening would be for you to produce a debug log of a rescan that unexpectedly adds entries to added-dates.txt. As you don't know in advance when this is going to happen, you would need to produce this log every time you do a rescan until the problem happens.

Please let me know what platform you are using to run MinimServer (Windows or NAS) so that I can post appropriate detailed instructions.

[Peter StreamMagic]

(15-12-2022 15:43)simoncn Wrote:  The next step in identifying why this is happening would be for you to produce a debug log of a rescan that unexpectedly adds entries to added-dates.txt. As you don't know in advance when this is going to happen, you would need to produce this log every time you do a rescan until the problem happens.

Please let me know what platform you are using to run MinimServer (Windows or NAS) so that I can post appropriate detailed instructions.

Both NAS (QNAP TS119PII) and Windows.
Lets start with the NAS.

[simoncn]

The following is the simplest way to do this on QNAP.

Setup:

i) Using the MinimWatch Log window, set the logging level to Debug, then close the logging window. This is a permanent setting while you are testing.
ii) Using the MinimWatch Properties window, check that the startupScan property is set to true (the default setting).

After this, do each rescan as follows:

1) From App Center, stop MinimServer
2) From App Center, start MinimServer. This automatically does a rescan.
3) If you see something unexpected in Recently added, use File Station on the QNAP to copy the minimserver.log file from the MinimServer shared folder to another location or filename. At the same time, copy the added-dates.txt and added-files.txt files. After this, contact me by PM and I will send you instructions for getting these files to me.
4) If everything looks normal, be aware that running MinimServer with the logging level set to Debug will make the minimserver.log file grow very large. This file will return to a smaller size the next time you stop and start MinimServer from the App Center to do another rescan.

[Peter StreamMagic]

(15-12-2022 12:17)Peter StreamMagic Wrote:  An other question related to this thread: what triggers MinimServer to add an album to added-dates.text?
The reason I ask this: 2022-12-14 21:06:38.978 /share/Multimedia/Multimedia (NAS)/Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith/01-01-Jimmy_Aldridge_Sid_Goldsmith-Hope_and_Glory-SMR.flac was added and appeared after the recan (the faulty one with changes made to the added-files.txt)
I cant figure out why this album was added to Recently Added.

Comparing the folders on my NAS and PC I found a change was made in the folder name: Jimmy Aldridge&Sid Goldsmith was changed to Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith I don't no for sure when this change was made.This could have been at 2022-12-14, but latest folder change date is set to 2022-05-01.
However related to changes made (making artwork visible in folderview- started at 2022-11-20) this seems not very plausible

[simoncn]

(15-12-2022 19:57)Peter StreamMagic Wrote:  Comparing the folders on my NAS and PC I found a change was made in the folder name: Jimmy Aldridge&Sid Goldsmith was changed to Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith I don't no for sure when this change was made.This could have been at 2022-12-14, but latest folder change date is set to 2022-05-01.
However related to changes made (making artwork visible in folderview- started at 2022-11-20) this seems not very plausible

I am sure this is the reason for the added-dates.txt entries for this album. Renaming a folder does not change the "last modified" date of the folder but does cause MinimServer to detect the album as having been added. There is no need for you to run the rescan debug logging now.

[Peter StreamMagic]

(15-12-2022 20:46)simoncn Wrote:  

(15-12-2022 19:57)Peter StreamMagic Wrote:  Comparing the folders on my NAS and PC I found a change was made in the folder name: Jimmy Aldridge&Sid Goldsmith was changed to Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith I don't no for sure when this change was made.This could have been at 2022-12-14, but latest folder change date is set to 2022-05-01.
However related to changes made (making artwork visible in folderview- started at 2022-11-20) this seems not very plausible

I am sure this is the reason for the added-dates.txt entries for this album. Renaming a folder does not change the "last modified" date of the folder but does cause MinimServer to detect the album as having been added. There is no need for you to run the rescan debug logging now.

I have been able to redate files using this program: Attribute Changer
       
It seems that Recent Added is largely affected by renaming Folders.
This is not only related to changes made after 2022-11-20, but to all changes I made since I started using MinimServer (2013).
There must be more users noticing this behaviour?

[paulM]

(14-12-2022 23:11)simoncn Wrote:  Deleting added-dates.txt would make things worse, not better. If you do this, the entire contents of the "recently added" list would be recreated based on "last modified" dates including files that were modified by bulk retagging.

Unfortunately, I think that this may have already happened while I was flailing about trying to remove the unwanted entries.

(14-12-2022 23:11)simoncn Wrote:  You could add a "fake" entry at the start of added-dates.txt that is older than the date when you did the bulk retagging. This would make all the bulk retagged files disappear after the next rescan. I think it would be OK for this "fake" entry to have a file path that doesn't correspond to any real files in your library, as long as it is a valid path. For example the fake entry could be something like:

2022-10-01 00:00:00.000 /share/Music/Fake/Path.flac

and this would eliminate any files retagged after 1st October. I will try this tomorrow and post back here.

I tried this without success - but that's probably because of my above flailing.

(14-12-2022 23:11)simoncn Wrote:  A nicer solution could be to have a new property setting instead of this "fake" entry, something like addedStartDate=2022-10-01.

I'd like to try this, but I am uncertian which field in properties to use. I've tried serverOptions and tagOptions but the latter resulted in a red icon, so I decided to stop flailing again before I do any more damage. Any suggestions?

[simoncn]

I tried the "fake path" trick and it does work.

My reference to a "new property setting" was about something that might possibly be added to MinimServer in the future, not something that is available now. Also, it would do exactly the same as the "fake path" trick which hasn't solved your issue.

If you have deleted the added-dates.txt files, your "recently added" information is lost and cannot be retrieved. This is why the User guide page describing this feature tells you that the added-dates.txt file contains essential information and should be backed up regularly.

You could try to recreate the added-dates.txt file based on your knowledge of when you added files to your library. This would be tedious and error-prone.

Another option is to use the "fake path" trick to eliminate all your batch edited files from the "recently added" list. For example, if the batch editing was done on 2022-10-02, setting the "fake path" to 2022-10-01 would ensure the batch edited files don't appear in your "recently added" list. MinimServer would then go back before 2022-10-01 and show files based on their "last modified" dates. This might not be exactly correct but it should be fairly close.

[paulM]

(17-12-2022 22:00)simoncn Wrote:  I tried the "fake path" trick and it does work.

My reference to a "new property setting" was about something that might possibly be added to MinimServer in the future, not something that is available now. Also, it would do exactly the same as the "fake path" trick which hasn't solved your issue.

If you have deleted the added-dates.txt files, your "recently added" information is lost and cannot be retrieved. This is why the User guide page describing this feature tells you that the added-dates.txt file contains essential information and should be backed up regularly.

You could try to recreate the added-dates.txt file based on your knowledge of when you added files to your library. This would be tedious and error-prone.

Another option is to use the "fake path" trick to eliminate all your batch edited files from the "recently added" list. For example, if the batch editing was done on 2022-10-02, setting the "fake path" to 2022-10-01 would ensure the batch edited files don't appear in your "recently added" list. MinimServer would then go back before 2022-10-01 and show files based on their "last modified" dates. This might not be exactly correct but it should be fairly close.

Thanks for this Simon. Following your advice, I tried an alternative fake path and second time around, the trick worked. I'm not sure why the original attempt failed as it was an equally valid path, so I must have made an error first time.

As noted, the recreation was not perfect - but the only imperfection was a single file that I remember editing a few months back as it had a spelling mistake in it. Additionally, the list is limited to 300 items rather than the 1000 that it previously had, but I am very pleased to have at least partially restored it. Thanks again.

Edit:- Scratch that last comment. At some point during my flailings, I appear to have messed up the serverOptions setting. The list is back to 1000 items.