Genres and Ratings

[joeknudsen]

First off, I LOVE this player and my issue will not cause me to go anywhere else. I have reached the promised land! And sorry for the wall of text, just trying to ensure understanding.

So, what happens for me is that I don't like a bunch of genres, preferring to keep such nice and clean. As it happens though, my meticulous attention to detail fails me at times. Here's what happens...

Outside of Gmusicbrowser:

1- Delete all tags, a process that sometimes allows errant tags to slip through.

Inside Gmusicbrowser:

1- Edit tags, trying my best to ensure no errant tags, but you know...

2- Edit ratings, save when I remember, but there's more...

Problem:

After editing genre tags, I rate songs, and all is well.

But, what happens is, I missed a tag I didn't want, such as "Symphonic Rock". All I need is "Rock". But, I notice that tag remains and clutters my "Genres" tab.

So, as it works now, in order to remove that errant genre, I do the config > gmusicbrowser > delete config file.

Then, I reload gmusicbrowser, making sure to tick off the "write ratings to files" tag, ensuring I do the "write tags to files, and pull songs into that window" and other settings. Then I point the player to my folders and bring them into the best music player on the planet.

Errant genres are no more.

Only problem is, I continually and without fail lose all my ratings that I could swear I had saved to the file.

This problem has lasted me for a good five or more years now. Always "errant genre" > "delete config" > "NO RATINGS FOR YOU"

I've managed to save some ratings, somehow, so the fix now is to have a separate folder of duplicate songs specifically to correct this problem (scared to not keep these "correct" files within the main folder for fear of this issue).


Questions:

1- Genres. How can I delete these errant genres that seem to be stored somewhere I don't have access to (since they show up even after deletion within the player) without having to delete the config file? Which causes problems with...

2- Ratings. How can I ensure that when I edit a rating, it gets written to the file, and not just to a database or whatever it is that causes me to keep losing these ratings? (I know about "Update Tags", but it is so unreliable in my case)


Again, these issues, aggravating as they are, will not cause me to divorce the best music player on the planet. I very much appreciate the hard work and dedication of all involved.

[Quentin Sculo]

1- Deleting the whole config is a bit extreme !
The genre could be from one of rare tag format like ape, you can check for a particular song by opening its song property dialog, and then click the "advanced" button on the bottom, this window has one tab by tag found in the file.
Anyway, it shouldn't really matter. You can simply remove the genre in the song properties by clicking on the button that contains the list of genres and uncheck the genre you don't want. You can also do that on the songS properties, by clicking on the button next to remove in the genre section, and select the genre you want to remove.
Once the genre doesn't belong to any song it will no longer be in the list of existing genres (that you get when you click on the + button for example) after you restart gmb.


2- After checking the option and restarting gmb :
- all ratings changed should be written in the tag
- when adding songs, if it has a rating in the tag it should be used
- to write all existing ratings you can use "update tags"
- to read existing rating in files, you can select re-read the tags

If something doesn't work, try to reproduce it, make screenshots, notify me. (you can check if there is a rating in the tag in the advanced tag editing dialog I mentioned above, this dialog is mostly independent of the rest of gmb : it lists all the tags, regardless of gmb's options)

[joeknudsen]

What happens is this...

1- Right click file
2- Select "Song Properties"
3- Under "Genres", there is a + symbol
4- Here it lists what I'll call "extraneous genres"

So it looks like maybe it's "hard coded" and there's nothing I can do except to delete the config file, and reload. After submitting this thread, I've learned to use the latest "dot bak" file, as it seems to work good enough (while rescanning to ensure it gets latest files).

Also, I'm working to pay more attention to the process of writing the ratings tag when I actually rate the song. I'll rate it, write the tags and rescan to ensure a proper writing.

I assume, owing to the brilliance of a mind that created this great player, that I'm the one with issues :)

THANK YOU for your work and response.

[Quentin Sculo]

What happens is this...

1- Right click file
2- Select "Song Properties"
3- Under "Genres", there is a + symbol
4- Here it lists what I'll call "extraneous genres"

So it looks like maybe it's "hard coded" and there's nothing I can do except to delete the config file, and reload. After submitting this thread, I've learned to use the latest "dot bak" file, as it seems to work good enough (while rescanning to ensure it gets latest files).

No, these extraneous genres will disappear after a restart if they are not used by any songs. A possible problem is with songs that have been removed, as they are kept in the db for some time, and thus genres can still be used by these songs without appearing in the library.
Otherwise they should disappear, maybe you have trouble removing them, the widget in the mass tagging dialog is not very clear, to remove a genre from all selected songs, you have to click on the empty button next to "remove" and select genres to be removed.

Also, I'm working to pay more attention to the process of writing the ratings tag when I actually rate the song. I'll rate it, write the tags and rescan to ensure a proper writing.

If the field is set to be written, re-reading the tag will not have any effect, as when you modify a field that is written in a tag, gmb doesn't modify the value in the db, it simply write the value in the tag, and then re-read the tag which update any modified values. This is done so that any error writing a tag doesn't stay hidden for potentially a long time.

[joeknudsen]

Rocking on all cylinders.

Thanks so much for the info.

It's a testament to how great this player is, that it took me so long to try to sort this out.


For the record, the problem was entirely on my end.


Last question...

Android?


Thanks again for your efforts. If I were a moneyed man I'd make you one too.