Decreating details file

[videot]

I have just installed version 3.4. The the program went looking for more tracks. I'm not certain exactly what it did or where it found them but the net result is that I have many tracks listed in SonicStage twice. Is there some easy way to delete the file that carries these details & have the program look again & rebuilt the file from scratch? If so what file do I delete? None of the tracks have ever been downloaded.

[dex Otaku]

Caution: do this at your own risk. If you can't find your music library or lose DRM info for downloaded tracks, don't blame me.

The following basically re-sets your library.

Incidentally, you may have duplicates because of transcoding MP3s and then rebuilding the library - the transcoded [atrac3/plus] files will show up, and the MP3 files will show up as well.

The following will not get rid of duplicates that exist because of this problem, but it will show where the duplicates are - either in the SS library as atrac3/plus [or other OMA format] tracks, or as MP3, WAV, or WMA files elsewhere on your computer.

To re-set your library...

Part 1: empty the library.

* In the library view, select EVERYTHING. Simple way to do this is to click the box at the bottom-left that looks like a checked box

* Hit "delete" on your keyboard [don't just say yes, keep reading]

* When SS asks, "Are you sure you want to remove..." make sure the checkbox beside "Delete this music file from the computer" is NOT checked

* click "Yes"

Part 2: re-import everything.

* Find you SonicStage library folder in Windows Explorer. Drag it onto SS in library view. It will re-import your atrac3/plus files [as well as the other formats storable in OMA]

* Check for duplicates now; if there are dupes, then they're OMA files. Do your housecleaning now

* Find the rest of your music library [MP3s, &c.] and drop it onto the SS library view from Explorer

* If you have dupes now, they are MP3s, WAV, or WMA files. Again, do your housecleaning if necessary

* By housecleaning I mean: if there's both an atrac3plus and MP3 file in the library after this, choose which one you want to keep [if the MP3 is the "original", keep it - under most circumstances, keep the original of whatever you have, even if it means having to make SS convert it for downloading again later], and delete the one one you want to throw away [select it, hit delete, make sure the checkbox for "Delete this music.." IS checked, click "Yes"]

HINT: if housecleaning is necessary, try using SS's "All Tracks" view and sorting the entire library by artist, album, or codec [switch between different sorting methods by left-clicking on their column header at the top of the library in "All Tracks" view]; this should allow you to discern duplicates more easily than using the Albums view where you can only see one album at a time. Columns for "codec" &c. can be enabled by right-clicking the column headers at the top of the "All Tracks" view and checking/unchecking the different columns listed in the context menu that pops up.

Note that if you have a lot of MP3s that are poorly-named or improperly tagged, sorting things to figure out what to get rid of will become a job from hell. Lesson: tag and name things sensibly in a way that's conducive to sorting all on its own.

This is not a perfect process, but you can at least figure out where the duplicates are and handle them however you wish. Since it involves removing track references from the library, but not actually initialising the library, rights info for tracks uploaded with SS pre-3.2 and tracks purchased from Connect should be retained without any problems.

Once you get the library to the state you want it in, it's a good idea optimise your database. Go to Tools-Options, and on the "Advanced settings" page, click the "Optimize" button beside "Database optimization".