Data File Problems

[djriptide]

Thanks for any help I can get:

I am a DJ using two tower computers for my gigs.  One is my main computer and one is just for back-up.  My main computer is loaded with OtsAvDJPRO, and the back-up computer is loaded with OtsAVDJSILVER.

For years I have been using folders to categorize my music and so, have been using the data file to a great extent.  With the early Ots programs I haven't had a problem but recently I've  been upgrading and started using the above Ots programs.

I have always updated and categorized new folders on my main computer and then copied the data file to my back-up computer. With these new Ots programs I haven't been able to do that correctly for some reason.

My main DJ computer is partitioned and has the music files on D:\music  My back-up computer has my Windows recovery files on the D:\ drive and my music files on
C:\Users\Dave\Desktop\Music

The Data files on my main computer is at D:\ and the Data files on my back-up computer is at C:\OtsLabs\Data

After I have updated some of my music and folders I copy the Data file from my main computer and paste it over the old Data file on my back-up computer as I've always done in the past.  After I do that and open the Ots program on the back-up computer all of the new folders appear.  I then re-link all unavailable items and that's when I have problems.

The music won't play after I've done the above even though the icons are all lit up.  They won't load or play.

Then if I go to Media Library Folder Structure I see my list of folder and they are pointed to C:\Users\Dave\Desktop\Music on half of the list.  As I scroll down though, I find my same folders again at D:\ listed in the Media Library Folder Structure. 

If I double click one of the folders in Media Library Folder Structure under the C:\Users\Dave\Desktop\Music and then take one of those songs in Library on the right pane I can drag and drop it to load and it plays fine.  When I check for any unavailable songs there are none.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?  Iv'e tried everything I can think of and I've always thought I really know the Ots programs pretty well....guess not?

Thanks for reading all this, it's kind of hard to explain.
Dave

[Jigger]

I would clear the data file on your back up computer, and then start again.
On your back up computer why not have everything the same as your main computer ie use c/ots labs for everything , music , data, this is just my thoughts maybe others will post, with another solution.

[djriptide]

Thanks Jigger;

Yes, I have cleared the data file and the music several times on the back-up computer which hasn't helped.  I did have the data set at C://otslabs/data but same problem.

[Dr.J]

Hopefully I've read this right, I believe you are copying the Media Library (.oml) to the backup computer. You don't want to do this, you only want to copy the actual audio files. Once the audio files are in place then you do the rescan. You shouldn't have any problems if you follow this procedure.

[Jigger]

Yes but the oml file has all the cats which allows you not to have to do them all again.

[Bryan Durio]

That's one of the reasons why I never store category/genre info in the .oml file. Store it in the .ots files and you don't end up with this problem.

[djriptide]

The data files are very important to me as a DJ and as I said I've used them between main and back-up computer now for years.  Something evidently has changed with the advent of OtsAV.  I appreciate all of your comments so far but Dr. J, yours didn't help because as Jigger said, I don't want to have to do all over again what has taken me years to categorize and it's been an ongoing process.

Sorry Bryan, I don't understand your comment at all?  Please expand for this layman.  Why is that one of the "reasons you never store category/genre info in the .oml file?"  As I said, I never had this problem with previous Ots programs and I've had several through the years.  I don't know what you mean by "storing in the Ots files?"  What are you storing?

I'm not complaining, just having a problem and asking for help from someone so I can go back to doing what I've always done with great success.

Dave

[milky]

Dave, what Bryan means is that you can store the genre information in the Ots file, against each track. If the OML file becomes corrupted, there is an option to import genre from the Ots file. It is safer than simply storing them directly into the OML.

[djriptide]

Hi Milky;

Ok, thanks yes I understand what you're saying now but I don't just categorize files by genre.  I might have 20,000 country songs categorized by genre but that won't help me much if I want to bring up the top 10 country dance songs of all time

Thanks again, does anyone else know anything that can help me?  Iv'e sent a couple of messages to Ots about the problem about a week ago but no help there yet either.  Something has changed with that Data file and the way it works.

[Darryl]

Can you please clarify what the problem is?  Do you see your categories and songs under the appropriate categories in ots Av but find that you cannot play them?

If that is the case then the issue lies with the location of the media files being different between the two computers.  If you double click an item in the media library in ots Av it will show you the full pay the the media file. Check that this path is correct. When you plug in external storage devices windows can reorder your hard disks and the drive letter changes.  You can easily test this in most versions of windows by copying the full path from its Ots AV into Windows explorer's address bar. If you need help with any of this please let us know.

[djriptide]

Thanks Darryl;

Yes, your first sentence is partially correct, I see all my categories but some of the categories contain no songs and other ones contain only a few of the songs from my main computer after copy and pasting the "Data" file from one computer to the other..  Yes, the media files are in different locations between my main computer and my back-up computer.  I am not using an external drive.  When I first brought this problem up to tech support I was using an external.  I have since bought a new computer with sufficient storage space so all music is stored in the hard drive of both computers.  My main computer is Windows XP and my new back-up computer is Windows 8.

The drive letter is different between my two computers as to where my music is stored, as in my original post. My main DJ computer is partitioned and has the music files on D:\music  My back-up computer has my Windows recovery files on the D:\ drive and my music files on C:\Users\Dave\Desktop\Music

I've always been able to copy the Data file, (which is the one that I always update) from my main computer which is on the C:\OtsLabs\Data to my back-up computer Data file located at C:\OtsLabs\Data and overwrite the old information with a "paste" of the new file.

When I do that now with my new OtsAv programs that part of the process still works the same. 

However, if I go to my main computer as an example and open up one of my music files by double clicking it in the media library, the path is D:\Favorites\B-52's\Love Shack.ots.  "Favorites" is one of my folders B-52's is the artist and LoveShack.ots is the actual media file.  The category I have set up for that song is "Makes Them Dance"

Going to my Back-Up computer after I've updated and copy and pasted the new "Data" file into C:\OtsLabs\Data and re-linked all unavailable items, the folder "Makes Them Dance" still shows up as one of my categories.  However, there are no songs listed in that category now.  If I do a media library search on "Love Shack" the song comes up and will play but in the Album/Item Information it says it's never been played and not categorized though I've played it many times.

Still in the back-up computer, if I go to another category, "Best 50's Fast" and bring up the song Perez Prado, "Mambo No5" the song plays and tells me how many times I've played it in the past.  Only part of the songs from this category are there though from my main computer.

In other words it looks like to me the Data file just isn't working correctly for some reason after it's been copied from one computer to another. 

[Jumpin' Jeff]

My recommendation is to map the c:\ files to the d: location. They will still reside on your C drive, but look to be on a non existant d drive, and you can fake it out, and keep everything in sync.

For example, you mentioned your main computer file D:\Favorites\B-52's\Love Shack.ots could be physically be located at c:\D\Favorites\B-52's\Love Shack.ots, and the D folder is mapped as your D drive.

[milky]

Jeff's method works well, as that is similar to what I do. My music resides on a NAS, which I map as drive "O:". I have a license for my laptop as well, and a copy of the music from the NAS is also on an internal 1TB drive F:. To avoid having to relink each time, I simply "subst" the internal drive F: to a virtual drive "O:". The otm file loads, and "sees" all the music as if it was on the external drive.

Having said that, your method should also work. However, I believe it is absolutely necessary to perform an Easy Scan AFTER completing all maintenance on the source PC and BEFORE transferring the otm file to the target PC. This sets the "pointers" to where every track lives. Once you have copied the music to the backup PC, copy and paste the OML, and then immediately launch Ots and do a "Relink unavailable albums (files)", pointing to the top of the music folder tree on the backup PC. This will scan the new location, and change the pointers to reflect their new drive letter.

[Dr.J]

And keep in mind if you edit the audio files on the main computer (i.e. set cue points with Ots Studio), they will no longer be considered the "same" audio file as the backup computer. You would need to copy the edited audio file to the backup computer along with the .oml file to have them match.

[Darryl]

The different drive letters explain why some items cannot be played, but not why items are missing from categories on one computer.   The 'data file' you are referring to is the Ots Media Library (OML) file - the name for this varies depending on the flavour of OtsAV purchased but it is binary compatible between them.  The file names are listed in the help http://docs.otslabs.com/OtsAV/help/index.htm#using_otsav/media_library/media_library.htm:
OtsAVDJ.oml for OtsAV DJ Product License owners
OtsAVRD.oml for OtsAV Radio Product License owners
OtsAVTV.oml for OtsAV TV Product License owners
OtsAVDJt.oml for OtsAV DJ Trial users
OtsAVRDt.oml for OtsAV Radio Trial users
OtsAVTVt.oml for OtsAV TV Trial users

So if you have the DJ variant on one machine and the Radio variant on the other (for example) you might not be loading the OML file that you thought you were.  As a test, create a new category called SyncTest on the source computer, copy the OML over and check that the category is shown on the target computer - that way you can prove that you are correctly copying the Ots Media Library over before fixing file paths and missing media files.

BTW:  Mistakes are very easy to make (accidentally copying from the target to the source for example - I've done it!) so if you haven't already done so, make a backup of the OML files on both computers (just in case) before you go any further.