Lost all disc playlists

[ralph.deratt]

I was syncing my DMS and music manager hung.  I killed the program and restarted my PC.   Now the music manager only finds the default disc.  All the music is there but the discs are gone from the manager.  I tried the database doctor, but it says everything is fine...

[VorTechS]

Hmmm, let me do some experimenting.  I'm not sure, but if you ensure all the .db, .idx and .pbx files are removed from the profiles directory...I think PhatNoise scans the drive for media and builds playlists.

If it doesn't, I'll add a feature/Utility into PhatHack Media Manager for you.  I know other people have asked for general support for dropping files onto the DMS...I think I can help both sets of people here in one go.

[ralph.deratt]

Hmmm, let me do some experimenting.  I'm not sure, but if you ensure all the .db, .idx and .pbx files are removed from the profiles directory...I think PhatNoise scans the drive for media and builds playlists.

As you sugested, I tried deleting the files in the profile directory.  I still only get the default disk with no song.   I also tried deleting the .db, .idx, etc files from the root of the data partition, but still I get only the default disk.  I kept backups of the files I deleted.

Any other ideas?

I could probably rebuild the disc manually, but the music is only on the phatnoise.  Can I reference the PN as the source of the songs?

-rDr

[sbingner]

There is an option to SCAN for media on the DMS that is missing from the database.  It will add it to the database on the DMS, but nothing will magically build playlists

[VorTechS]

It will soon.  I already import into PhatHack Media Manager media using the tag information in the files.  If you import to the Synch Media location then PBX and M3U files are generated.  I just need to apply the same logic in a separate tool under the DMS utilities menu - which I'll make a start on tomorrow as there seems to be a reasonable call for such a thing.

[sbingner]

Why would you automatically generate a playlist?  How do you know what type of playlist the user wants?  Will you make them by Album?  Artist?  Genre?   That's the problem with automatic and, I expect, why PMM makes you go through the harrowing task of dragging down something from the list area to the playlist area to create a playlist with it in it.  You can of course drag down a whole genre for everything in that Genre etc

[VorTechS]

Because if something b0rks, you can at least generate playlists by album title (or actually better still include and option to give the user the choice of how to generate the playlists), have the DMS work instantly without any interaction from the user - if things aren't right then it's up to the user to patch it up.

[VorTechS]

I released a new version of PhatHack Media Manager just now, with a new DMS utility 'Repair DMS Databases'.

Before running it, you may want to remove your TTS announcement files from PHTDTA\TTS to stop the program from importing the TTS announcements as media.

To run:

Select your DMS in the device list, select 'DMS Utilities', 'Repair DMS Databases'
In the first dropdown select 'Rapir with Import'
In the second dropown select how you want your playlists to be generated (Album, Artist, Genre, Year)

Click on Rebuild.

I've done as much as I can to test this process, so if there are problems you may want to just start again - or we can try and work out went wrong.

[VorTechS]

Next release/patch of PhatHack Media Manager has the ability to re-build playlist data in a simplified manner based on imported audio.  With the application now working from a database, an un-initialised DMS is scanned for data ... and if any playlists exist, playlists are generated.  If no playlists are available there is a new function (existing in v0.9) 'Generate As Playlists' which allows you switch your current view to say 'Album', select all the albums (manually unfortunately at the moment) and then hit that 'Generate As Playlists' function under the 'Playlist' menu.

This creates playlists in the database.  The new function in the new patch lives under the 'DMS Utilities' menu and is labelled 'Rebuild DMS Data'.  This will, re-write all the playlist files, TTS files, apply PhatSort and write all the necessary SSA/VIOT databases required for the DMS to work.

Should make life a lot easier for people who lose things due to corruption!