Multiple copies of albums

[Muchacho]

For some reason I have multiple copies of a number (98) albums in my collection. I have removed the folder from the import directory. Restarted sageTV and re-imported and the problems persists. What is odd is that when the directory is removed from the import folder, when you view by artist the albums are not there. However if I view by album, the albums remain, even thought the directory is not included in the import directories.

I hate to have to delete my wiz file, as I have been using Sage for years and it contains all the info for all the saved shows... But it drives me nuts to have all these albums listed twice.

Any ideas about how to get this working correctly?

Thanks, Mike

[Polypro]

Just some thoughts after finally getting my music organized:

The ID3 Tags are what organizes everything. If the spelling is at all different, ie. "Van Halen II" and "Van halen II" etc.. it'll get listed twice. I use MP3 and used "The Godfather" program to get everything right.

To re-list everything, I'd remove the directory from Sage Imports, shut down the client and service, re-start client and service, and then import the directory again...you should see the HD light stay lit for a few seconds while it imports.

P

[yoyoman]

I would suggest you do as you did before only this time make sure to close the sagetv service if it is running and delete any playlists before removing your folder.

[something fishy]

I too have a "ghost album" that I can't get rid of. Mine's left over from when I used MP3s as a library (I now use lossless WMA). The MP3 directory is no longer specified in Sage but I can't get rid of it no matter what I do (try and play it and nothing happens).

I've also had similar problems with video imports. Sage would see a VIDEO_TS~1 directory in addition to VIDEO_TS. The duplicate was created by clearing and reimporting the same video directory. I sorted this by using sage to delete the VIDEO_TS~1 and all was well, but this isn't an option with music files.

I think that these are both part of the same problem. It's as though something gets stuck in the wiz.bin file and can't be cleaned out (start with a blank wiz.bin file and everything is fine, though obviously your recording and viewing history is gone).

Cheers

Eric

[wbarber69]

strangely enough I have the same thing happening with 95 of my folders, I have actually removed every single music import directory and my sage still shows 95 albums being there, the weird thing is they really have no relation to each other its just random albums that sage wouldn't remove after removing the directory from imports, rescanning, restarting, rescanning again, and then restarting

[JUC]

when you guys are removing the import folders, are you making sure that sage is being closed afterward-service too? Try restarting sage a few times. If not--try renaming your main music folder to something else, then restart sage.
JUC

[something fishy]

@JUC
yep, change import folders. Shut down client, shut down service (I normally run in service mode) and either then reboot or restart service and then client. Makes no difference the blighter still hangs around.

This isn't a Sage4 specific issue btw. I've always had it from 2.0.1, or rather the wiz.bin dates from then.

If makes any difference the media directories are on a fileserver not a local disk. As I'm using service mode they're referenced using UNC paths.

[Lucas]

Had the same thing happen to me.

I tried everything as you guys.
As a last resort, I removed the music import dirs, left sagetv running and a couple of hours later it was all gone.

[Muchacho]

I still have not gotten this to work. I have removed all the directories for all media imports, and restarted the computer, left if on for over 24 hours and the albums remain in the list.

Any other ideas?

[ToxMox]

You can try completely exiting Sage and with the service control app stop the service then in the Sage.properties file change this line:
make_all_mediafiles_local=false
to
make_all_mediafiles_local=true
then start the Sage Service etc. You don't need to change it back to false. It is a one time flag that resets to false after you start Sage. Be sure to make a backup of your wiz.bin before doing this just in case.

[wbarber69]

we shall see

[Muchacho]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

You can try completely exiting Sage and with the service control app stop the service then in the Sage.properties file change this line:
make_all_mediafiles_local=false
to
make_all_mediafiles_local=true
then start the Sage Service etc. You don't need to change it back to false. It is a one time flag that resets to false after you start Sage. Be sure to make a backup of your wiz.bin before doing this just in case.

Oddly my make_all_mediafiles_local was already set to true and does not return to false as you suggested that it would?

[ToxMox]

That's odd. I haven't used that property in a long time. Maybe try the opposite of the above. First set it to false. The restart Sage then stop it again etc. and set it to true again.

[wbarber69]

yes this did not solve the problem

[jlabrue]

I had this exact same problem (removed directory and artists were gone but not albums) and finally got it cleared out. I too was running the service and here is what fixed it for me:

1. Closed Sage GUI and stopped Sage service and everything else Sage related (Make sure to disable service to keep it from restarting)
2. Restarted the Sage GUI only (NOT the service) so that it loaded Sage.properties instead of SageClient.properties (Don't know that it is relavent but verify that you are using it and NOT SageClient.properties)
3. Removed and readded my music directory and forced a refresh
4. Removed the music directory and again refreshed and after a little while it finally cleared up the albums.
5. Finally, readded the directory that I wanted.

This won't fix it if you have some bad ID3 tags but it should clear up the "ghost" albums showing up after removing the import directory. I did not do the make_all_mediafiles_local fix

I think the key was to remove the service out of the equation and let the GUI load up with the Sage.properties file and manipulate the wiz.bin. It also cleared up some album art issues I had :-)

[jlabrue]

FYI

When starting GUI, make sure it is using the Sage.properties file and NOT the SageClient.properties. I did it a second time and the service had restarted on me and the GUI kept launching as a client. After you open it, close it and check the time stamp for the properties file.

[mkanet]

Music support is a complete mess on my Sage PC. I had duplicate albums, albums with only 1 song in them, several songs with no name at all, just numbers to identify them. I removed all music media folders from SageTV's configuration, rebooted several times and still see leftover albums. Whats the easiest way to fix this mess? I just want a clean interface to show my individual songs and albums.

I want to load the new WinAmp media player plug-in, but something tells me its just going to make this problem even worse by adding even more mess to the interface.

Is there an STVI which will upgrade the Music support of SageTV? Changing my entire STV is definately not an option.

[flashbacck]

Anyone else come up with methods to fix this issue?

[blade]

You must have proper tags. That's how Sage organizes everything. If the information is incorrect in your tags then that's what Sage is going to show.

If you have phantom albums or multiple copies remove the import directory. Click on refresh media library (or whatever it's called). Wait a little while until your library shows up as empty. If it doesn't then try changing the properties file as mentioned above. You also might have to restart Sage.

Re-add the path to the library and do not do anything while it loads. I had problems with importing when I used the computer for other things while it was importing.

[mkanet]

Does anyone know of an easy to use tool which would handle large music collections and try it's best to organize orphaned music files (singles) into folders and tag them as misc or Artist - Misc?

This would be a perfect compliment to SageTV since pretty much everyone has this problem who has singles.