What is the definition of a "music file"?

[Bill50x]

I have for a while checked my different music file types to see the proportions among the different types (flac, wma, mp3, ogg etc), just for the fun of it (nerdy?). Nowadays I have converted all the lossless files to flac and all the lossy to mp3. With other means, I only have two types of musical files.

But the result from the Explorer in W7 does not correspond with the result from the search result with the LMS. When I made the last complete check, the LMS reported abot 1.8 times more files than I got from Explorer (searching with *.flac etc). As this big difference can't be true, I started a closer investigation. In my library, I have tagged all files (and cleaned the folders) within #0-9, A, B, C, D and E and the folders for each artist. They include only the music files and sometimes an art-folder including extra pix. Nothing else. No cue-files, no m3u - nothing.

Still, I got rather different results using Explorer and LMS (all figures includes flac and mp3). Some examples:

Folder Explorer LMS
#0-9 832 832
A 11572 11625
B 20810 22810
C 12637 12629
D 11086 11086
E 8691 8691

I have not yet tagged/sorted/etc the rest of the folders, but some checking has been done, these folders only contain flac and mp3 files, some pix and sometimes av txt-file. No cue or m3u however. Nothing else either.

O 2749 2778
T 11455 11495
X 365 365
Compilations 20168 20589


As you see, in most cases LMS reports more files than what is actually there.

So the question is, WHAT does LMS consider as a music file? And how do I make it to count right?

Rgrds / B

[garym]

In my case I can confirm (via comparisons to other music databases I use) that LMS counts only my FLAC, mp3, and m4a files as music files. I have about 70,000 files and my totals from all sources are exactly correct. Note that I have no cue sheets and my playlist files are in a separate playlist subdirectory.

[Bill50x]

In my case I can confirm (via comparisons to other music databases I use) that LMS counts only my FLAC, mp3, and m4a files as music files. I have about 70,000 files and my totals from all sources are exactly correct. Note that I have no cue sheets and my playlist files are in a separate playlist subdirectory.

Do you get exaktly the same amount of files if you look for them in/with W7 Explorer? I do not have any other databases to compare with.

The strange thing is that in some folders I get exaktly the same result with Explorer as with LMS, in other folders it just differs with a few items - and in some folders it´s a huge difference (about 10 %).

One of the folders (O) I have explored more deeply (Explorer 2749, LMS 2779) but I have so far not seen any reason for this difference. I did actually count half of the content by hand and that show no difference to what Explorer reported. But the difference must be somewhere!

I do not save playlists, I only have three of them with a total of say 60 files. I have no m3u-files. No cue-files. Very few textfiles. Only flac and mp3´s, and some jpg`s/pdf´s which are saved in a separate folder (under each album). This is a mystery to me :-)

/ B

[Bill50x]

Now I have re-scanned the complete collection. LMS still report a few more files than is actually there - if compared with Explorer (*.flac and *.mp3 - no ther music files present).

The difference is 165 files added to the 248 507 Explorer reports. If I had been clever enough I should have moved the three playlists I have, to see if they maybe alter the result. But done is done, I do not like to spend another 15 hours on a re-scan :-)

Anyhow, the question remain, where does the difference come from? Any responsible who have any idea?

Rgrds / B

PS, before the rescan, LMS reported slightly over 480 thousand files :-)

[Bill50x]

Gentlemen, I´ll rest my case! At least for a while. I have found some wav´s and ape´s in my collection, which I was pretty shure I´d converted.

Shame on me :-)

Rgrds / B

[Bill50x]

Now, I have been thru all my files. I am pretty sure I do not have anything else than mp3 and flac.

And for some reason it is the other way around! Now, LMS reports less files than Explorer does. Explorer find 80 more mp3/flac than LMS do.

So who should I trust, LMS or MS?

/ B

[garym]

Now, I have been thru all my files. I am pretty sure I do not have anything else than mp3 and flac.

And for some reason it is the other way around! Now, LMS reports less files than Explorer does. Explorer find 80 more mp3/flac than LMS do.

So who should I trust, LMS or MS?

/ B

I always also point Foobar2000 (computer music player, etc.) at the same library I use for LMS. Although it handles multi-artists and a few minor things a bit differently, the total tracks are always identical between it and LMS. I wouldn't really trust Explorer, as it is too likely to count weird things. Install foobar2000, tell it the location of your music library and you'll have another good check (and a good computer based player). It won't mess with your tags unless you explicitly tell it to (unlike WMP). I find the foobar component, FACETS to make it easy to use and organize my file views (to look a bit like itunes), but that's not required.

[Bill50x]

I always also point Foobar2000 (computer music player, etc.) at the same library I use for LMS. Although it handles multi-artists and a few minor things a bit differently, the total tracks are always identical between it and LMS. I wouldn't really trust Explorer, as it is too likely to count weird things. Install foobar2000, tell it the location of your music library and you'll have another good check (and a good computer based player). It won't mess with your tags unless you explicitly tell it to (unlike WMP). I find the foobar component, FACETS to make it easy to use and organize my file views (to look a bit like itunes), but that's not required.

That's a good tip. I always use foobar for my music playing in the computer (WMP is a disaster) but i didn't knew it could be used as you mentioned. Thanks!

Rgrds / B