A way to keep fixing tracks and check for duplicates in the run

[meaning]

Hi @paultaylor,

once the first half of my previously fixed tracks will be checked for duplicates, I try to figure out how I will make to keep things running fine while feeding plex with my “duplicates checked folder only”.

here is what I am thinking about :

Folder A = new tracks
Folder B = new fixed tracks
Folder C = fixed and duplicate checked tracks

Folder A to folder B -> fix tracks
then -> check duplicates for tracks located in Folder B and folder C -> Files that remains after the fix either remains in Folder C, or are moved from folder B to folder C

Is this something possible ? especially the last part. Can I check two separate source folders for duplicates, and always make sure the FINAL, duplicates winners gos to the C folder that is the one mapped to plex ?

Please let me know

[paultaylor]

Hi Delete Duplicates doesn’t move the winners, it only moves/deletes the losers. But if you run Delete Duplicates on B then won’t that just leave you fixed lib for Plex.

You can select multiple folders to check (not so easily with remote ui but see Multiple source directories) but you can’t move them into new folder.

[meaning]

ok so Ican select multiple folder as I do for the fix job, but for the duplicates job. clear.

Problem is, due to the size of the lib, I’d rather avoid risking to see new duplicates showing up in folder C, as it would mean I’d have to re-scan the entire library for plex to find out they are not there anymore (once I’ll run another duplicates job).

That’s why a “move the winner” option would be super dupa dope.

[paultaylor]

Hi, Delete Duplicates deletes or moves the duplicates, i.e the losers. I do feel it would be confusing if it started moving the non-duplicates, i.e the winners, and would not work well with the Delete empty folders logic because now you would want to move pdfs ecetera with the winners.

So I remain unconvinced by this idea.

[meaning]

Understandable point.

Lets keep brainstorming to figure out best possible solution.

Just for you to know, the idea is to avoid very long library (re)scans.

As you know, plex starts its scans based on folder creation dates. Which means that newest folders will be scanned in priority. That means that, if I have 100k folders, and do add, lets say, 100 folder to my plex music lib folder, it will start scanning these 100 folders and add them right away.

[paultaylor]

I think in future maybe this would work:

• Fix Songs
• Delete Duplicates
• Rename songs with move folder set to move songs to C folder

You can do this now by running Fix Songs twice, but using different profile for second run so it doesn’t do any song fixing.

Would that work?

[meaning]

lets see if I got you correctly :

Folder A -> initial unfixed songs

-> Fix songs -> fixed songs are moved to folder B

-> delete duplicates -> duplicates are removed and stay in folder B

-> Fix songs from folder B -> rename but not fixing -> files remains the “same” but moves to folder C (which is the plex media folder)

Is this right ?

[paultaylor]

@meaning

-> delete duplicates -> duplicates are removed and stay in folder B

Yes, although to clarify the line above the winner duplicates are kept in folder B, the losers are deleted.

[meaning]

Indeed. I did not formulate it correctly. But it’s clear. Now, question is, is there a way we could automate this somehow ?

I believe it’s a use case for several people, monitor Folder A -> fix tracks -> move them to folder B -> check for duplicates in folder B -> keep winners and remove loosers -> run a “rename” without fix task on folder B -> move files to folder C.

Then we have the full process achieved, including fixing tracks, deleting duplicates and putting all the nicely renamed and fixed files without duplicates never ever to a dedicated folder.

[paultaylor]

If you mean can we do it as one task without any user interaction ?

We cannot, and to be honest this is the direct opposite of what I explained in my roadmap article

Because it is simply too dangerous if anything goes wrong, and just generally too confusing for users. But do plan to have seperate rename/moves task so 3rsd step can be done (and redone) more easily.

What you could possibly do is use the command line to simply run the tasks one after another, but thats more awkward if using docker build.

[meaning]

Let me know when the additional task will be ready, I’ll have a look into this then !

[meaning]

So @paultaylor,

lets give this a try, manually for now.

I have folder A (my music dump)

Folder B -> the place where I ran the duplicates check. and loosers were removed. Only winners remain.

What do I need to do now to run a “rename” and move all these tracks, by the way creating folder C ? (that will be the one fed to plex).

Can you let me know the right settings to use in the fix job task settings ?

[paultaylor]

Okay, just thought is that first time you run this, isn’t C going to be the same as B, so you could just folder copy B to C, and subsequent times you run isn’t B going to just be C + B and therefore again you could copy everything over to C.

But if you want to try my idea, the key thing is to unselect all the matchers because that takes alot of the processing time

and set Move Folder and Move Unmatched Folder to your final folder so that all songs get moved to the final folder

but it will still do some other things, but its the best we can do with current setup.

[meaning]

haha you are right.

But instead of copying B to C, I’d rather create B. And let music_processed be C.