An update option

[DuLac]

I normally have muso set up to display my music sorted by date added. However, as it often happens I need to update or add new information to a given album, artist or song(s). I am aware that this can be done via the 'Edit Tracks' option. I use it when the data to be added is minimal. However, in some cases when the information to be added is extended, this may not be the most efficient and/or convenient way to do it. I am referring to adding composers to albums with 15, sometimes 20 or more songs of different composers, for instance.
When I have one of theses cases I remove the album from muso and work on the files outside it. To get the info I want I scan the album cover and use an OCR program or alternatively collect the information from the some web sites (ex. allmusic.com or discogs.com) to Notepad++. Then in Notepad++ I apply a script to this raw text that conveniently places the information in such a way that it can easily be imported as tags to the songs files via Mp3tag. It is far from being a fully automatic process but it still saves me a lot of typing, and hence a lot of typing mistakes.
Anyway, when I re-import the song files into muso (I always use Import from a Specific Folder) I have lost the original time stamp. I know I can use a Win utility that changes the attributes to match the original time stamp but this is not practical at all.

Would It be possible to add an extra Update option to the Import menu? When using that option muso would only add the new tags or update the already existing ones, if that was the case, for any giving album.

[musoware]

Re-importing from a folder should re-read the tags and update the muso db without the need to remove the album first (so should keep the Date Added intact), PROVIDED you have ticked the box labeled "Check updated meta-data on import" (Music Folders tab under Options / Music Sources).

[MDE]

Re-importing from a folder should re-read the tags and update the muso db without the need to remove the album first (so should keep the Date Added intact), PROVIDED you have ticked the box labeled "Check updated meta-data on import" (Music Folders tab under Options / Music Sources).

Not sure about this - in my experience the tags are not always updated. It will update for new tags, but if you delete ("blank") a tag in the underlying song file it does not change the Muso db on re-import.
On a related matter, I have been doing a bit more development on the "classical tagging" regime. The new version (not yet released) will mean that edits made in Muso can be written to the song file, including custom fields. The Mp3tag action will check for any such changes and apply them to mirror the import action. (obviously this means that you need to use the import actions set out in the regime). Subsequent re-imports will therefore be consistent. One matter that is still unclear to me is the difference between the "write tags" and the "write & apply" actions. The latter doesn't always seem to write all changed tags and doesn't give a message saying how many song files have been changed.

[MDE]

It will update for new tags, but if you delete ("blank") a tag in the underlying song file it does not change the Muso db on re-import.

It also doesn't always seem to update if you change a tag in the underlying song file, where there is already a value in the Muso db. The work-round is to delete the Muso fields you want to update, then import. This avoids having to remove the album.

[MDE]

Re-importing from a folder should re-read the tags and update the muso db without the need to remove the album first (so should keep the Date Added intact), PROVIDED you have ticked the box labeled "Check updated meta-data on import" (Music Folders tab under Options / Music Sources).

It also seems to me that the "date added" is updated when you re-import, even if the album has not been removed first.

[musoware]

It doesn't update "Date Added" when you update tags on an existing track, or shouldn't anyway, there's another column for Date Changed/Updated which is updated.

You're right though that Muso won't overwrite existing values on an update, since you may have edited it in the muso DB and want to keep that value. I can see why you might want to though - but Muso doesn't know.

I'll review a Force Update option as a change request.

[MDE]

It doesn't update "Date Added" when you update tags on an existing track, or shouldn't anyway, there's another column for Date Changed/Updated which is updated.

On my system it appears to change both these fields to the current date/time.

[DuLac]

Re-importing from a folder should re-read the tags and update the muso db without the need to remove the album first (so should keep the Date Added intact), PROVIDED you have ticked the box labeled "Check updated meta-data on import" (Music Folders tab under Options / Music Sources).

Yes, ticking the box"Check updated meta-data on import" seems to do the trick. Thanks.
I noted that you may implement a 'force update' option that will cover other situations as reported by MDE.

[musoware]

I've just noticed the force update option is already there under Options, under the check updated metadata option:

"Tags takes precedence (tags will overwrite Muso fields if different)"

I thought the requirement sounded familiar! With this set the tags always overwrite Muso fields, even if the tags are blank and it overwrites values in Muso.

[MDE]

I've just noticed the force update option is already there under Options, under the check updated metadata option:

"Tags takes precedence (tags will overwrite Muso fields if different)"

I thought the requirement sounded familiar! With this set the tags always overwrite Muso fields, even if the tags are blank and it overwrites values in Muso.

That works fine - I hadn't noticed it either!

It doesn't update "Date Added" when you update tags on an existing track, or shouldn't anyway, there's another column for Date Changed/Updated which is updated.

This wasn't working for me either - then I changed the Music Folder option to "Folder Creation Date" under "Preserve source date". So long as the folder isn't changed, that preserves the date added. Using "File Creation Date" seems to change the date added even if the file is only modified. So it seems that Muso is using the "modified date" not the "creation date" as stated. On inspection, that seems to be because Windows changes the FLAC file creation date, even if only the tags are changed.