Media Library Housekeeping
If you consolidate your library on the Linksys by Cisco Media Hub, you will always end up with copies of the music in at least two places – on your Media Hub and in one or more original locations. That’s not a bad thing in a sense: you have a backup, but it makes more sense to reorganize your network so that backups are more straightforward. There are other choices.
1. You can choose to have duplicates in iTunes or Windows Media Player (in other words they access both the Hub version and the original version).
2. You can construct playlists for media on the Media Hub or at the original source. This approach preserved your existing ratings and playlists, but can be slightly annoying if you are not using playlists.
3. Or you can eliminate the originals, redirect iTunes/Windows Media player to use the centralized files on the Media Hub. You would use the backup software on the Media Hub to back up your now centralized media files (To prevent showing duplicates, you would not have iTunes/Windows Media Player show the files at the backup location).
If you are a Windows user, Windows Media Player has some great features for helping identify and manage duplicates that are not available in iTunes. (And you can, of course, use both iTunes and Windows Media Player to access the same music files.) Specifically, Windows Media Player allows you to add columns (Show Columns option on the right hand side of the screen is how you do it) that show the location of the file (file path), the copy protection status and the source of the music. So, you can sort your music collection in Windows Media Player and do bulk deletes. It’s a whole lot easier that having to highlight thousands of songs one click at a time in iTunes. And iTunes does not show copy protection status or source (which is useful for expired subscription media files that you want to delete).
Tip 1: Make sure that you check More Options under the Windows Media Library menu and have checked the box, Delete Files from Computer When Deleted from Library. This will free up space on your hard drives on your network. Of course, you should only perform such deletions once you have consolidated all your music onto your Media Hub. The space you have freed up can be used for backing up your media hub or storing that ever growing collection of video files and photos.
Tip 2: If you are a Mac iTunes user, holding down the Option key (Shift key in Windows) while selecting the File menu will allow you to see a new menu command Show Exact Duplicates. This is very helpful for pruning redundant files.
Be careful when deleting files. If you are not using the Show Exact Duplicates option in iTunes, remember that duplicates exist in three types:
1. Exact duplicates of the same file generally in different locations. These can be deleted without fear (though you may lose rating information). In iTunes, you may see a song name with a (1) or (2) after it. That indicates an exact duplicate that can be deleted safely.
2. “Good duplicates” You may have bought two copies of the same song, e.g. one a regular album and one on a “Best of” album. It’s probably a good idea to keep both so that you have a complete version of the albums and don’t get frustrated by looking a missing song on the album when you are playing all the songs on the album.
3. Song duplicates. Here it’s the same song but perhaps a different version by the same artist or a different singer singing the same song.
Right now your music management software (e.g. iTunes or Windows Media player) is looking for music in the old locations. You need do nothing if you leave the original music in the same place. You can use the media from either the old location or the new Media Hub location. You can even set up different libraries to access the old source files or the centralized Media Hub media files.
If you have spent a lot of time adding playlists, ratings or comments to your library, there are some tricks around transferring the information without ending up with lots of duplication which we will address in later blogs. Please let us know if you have any questions and discuss with us further in the comments section of this blog, Twitter or Facebook.
If you’d like to learn more about the connected life Cisco can provide, please visit the Cisco consumer site and the Linksys by Cisco website.
Posted by Johanna Fry at 08:17AM PST
Johanna Fry
Cisco Around the Web