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Topic: Resetting Added Date (Read 2667 times) previous topic - next topic
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Resetting Added Date

I have recently replaced a track based lossy rip with an image based flac rip which has caused a bit of confusion in the date added field. Some tracks still have the old date added and some have the new date added. Is there any way to reset the date added so that all the tracks get just one consistent date?

Thanks for any pointers for fixing this.

Resetting Added Date

Reply #1
Quote
Playback statistics are now pinned to a combination of artist + album + disc number + track number + track title information...

foo_playcount identifies tracks by the tags mentioned in the quote. If only one tag in the new file differs slightly from the old file, foo_playcount will treat it as a new media library entry and the new file will be given a different added date. In the future, try copying the metadata from the old file to the new file before replacing the old file.

To "fix" this you could try exporting the statistics for the affected album to its files' metadata, manually altering the added date of the affected track to match the other tracks and then importing the statistics back into the foo_playcount database. The options for doing this are located under Playback Statistics in the (right-click) context menu. Hold "Shift" before right-clicking if you don't see the relevant entries upon first glance.

If the above doesn't work, try altering a tag all of the tracks share, such as album, with an external editor and while foobar is not running. Then when foobar rescans the media library at startup, it should see all of the files as new and give them all new added dates.

Resetting Added Date

Reply #2
To "fix" this you could try exporting the statistics for the affected album to its files' metadata, manually altering the added date of the affected track to match the other tracks and then importing the statistics back into the foo_playcount database. The options for doing this are located under Playback Statistics in the (right-click) context menu. Hold "Shift" before right-clicking if you don't see the relevant entries upon first glance.

Thanks Ben. While a bit painful, this did work. I exported the statistics, extracted the tags from the flac file, fixed the dates with an editor to make them consistent, deleted tags from the flac file, imported the fixed tags back into the flac file. Then I rescanned the library and imported the statistics from the file and now the added date is consistent across all tracks again.

I have a number of other lossy rips that I plan to replace with flacs. Is there some sequence of deleting the old files from the library and then adding the replacement flacs that would always use the new timestamp for all tracks so this isn't a problem again?

Resetting Added Date

Reply #3
If the above doesn't work, try altering a tag all of the tracks share, such as album, with an external editor and while foobar is not running. Then when foobar rescans the media library at startup, it should see all of the files as new and give them all new added dates.

I tried this too with interesting results. I changed the DATE tag to an different value with an external editor and it did work. Then I used foobar to change the DATE value back to the correct value which then caused foobar to revert to the previous multiple values for the date added.

Is there a way to cause foobar to simply "forget" about the previous values? Simply removing the rips from the library is not adequate. The old values are retained and come right back when the replacement rip is added.

 

Resetting Added Date

Reply #4
Thanks Ben. While a bit painful, this did work. I exported the statistics, extracted the tags from the flac file, fixed the dates with an editor to make them consistent, deleted tags from the flac file, imported the fixed tags back into the flac file. Then I rescanned the library and imported the statistics from the file and now the added date is consistent across all tracks again.

I have a number of other lossy rips that I plan to replace with flacs. Is there some sequence of deleting the old files from the library and then adding the replacement flacs that would always use the new timestamp for all tracks so this isn't a problem again?

I tried this too with interesting results. I changed the DATE tag to an different value with an external editor and it did work. Then I used foobar to change the DATE value back to the correct value which then caused foobar to revert to the previous multiple values for the date added.

Is there a way to cause foobar to simply "forget" about the previous values? Simply removing the rips from the library is not adequate. The old values are retained and come right back when the replacement rip is added.

foobar's database and foo_playcount's database are separate and not synced, and that behavior is by design. Even though a track/album is removed from foobar's library, foo_playcount will retain its statistics for said track(s) for 4 weeks after they were last played. This accounts for the behavior regarding the added date you've described above.

The only advice I have for you is that before you make any future replacements, you:
a) export the playback statistics to the files you wish to replace
b) copy all metadata from those files to the new files before you do the replacement

I can't really offer any suggestions beyond that. I don't know really what to tell you regarding the replacement you already made, but I think you'll find a satisfactory solution you can live with.

The goal is that the playback statistics are maintained across the album without foo_playcount assigning new added dates due to differing metadata, but I'm not certain of exactly how foobar and foo_playcount interact. All I've suggested thus far are guesses based upon behavior I've observed in the past.

Re: Resetting Added Date

Reply #5
Here is my solution for this. Suppose I just added "Techodelic" by "Yellow Magic Orchestra" which has 10 songs on it, and the date values are messed up, causing the track ordering to be wrong. Here's what I'll do:
1. Go through my most recently added albums until I find one with 10 or more tracks
2. Select 10 tracks from the album, right click, playback statistics, copy
3. Select all the songs from "Technodelic", right click, playback statistics, paste

It's quick, it's dirty, and it just might work for you too.