Help using Amarok with a removable drive

November 12, 2006 4:47 AM

Help using Amarok with a removable drive

I just installed Ubuntu Edgy on my PC. I have all my music on an external USB hard drive, and after I installed Amarok it built a music library containing all the music files on the drive. Perfect. However, the next time I boot up my PC, turn on the hard drive and start Amarok, my music library is gone. I'm almost certain this has something to do with the fact that it's a USB drive that isn't always on. How can I make Amarok remember the contents of my library, even when the drive is switched off?

posted by mattholomew to computers & internet (2 comments total)

...in the absence of any more helpful answers, you could always try the Amarok fora.

Have you tried telling it not to automatically re-scan your collection? I imagine it's doing that, deciding it can't find files, and removing them.

I seem to remember it has support for removable music devices, but that might involve mirroring their contents onto local storage. You'd have to read the manual! (I'm a long way from my own PC, so can't do that for you, I'm afraid.)
posted by Luddite at 8:27 AM on November 12, 2006

Amarok will scan the collection and creates a database, usually sqlite db, with all the information. It then rescans periodically to find any new music or make updates on files that may have changed. There are two things you can do.

First, you can just manually rescan when you enable your usb disk. Under the "Tools" menu is an option to "Rescan Collection". If it's a large collection, though, this can be time consuming and annoying.

The other option is when you configure the collection. Setting -> Configure Amarok and then click on the "Collection" option. This is where you set what directories to find your music files. Here you will see a checkbox for "Watch folders for changes". Uncheck this, click "OK" and "Rescan Collection" under the tools menu. Then it won't erase the database when it goes to look for the files and the USB disk isn't on as it won't be watching for changes anymore. This just means that as you add new files or make changes, you will have to manually rescan.
posted by chrisroberts at 2:09 PM on November 12, 2006 [1 favorite]