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Poweramp won't delete duplicates


G_Music

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I've used Poweramp on my last 3 phones (all Samsung phones) with hardly any issues. This time, when I switched to a new phone (Samsung Note 9, from a Note 4) I downloaded Poweramp but now I'm facing several serious issues that are making using the app a nightmare:

1 - When I removed an SD memory card (I decided my phone's storage size was enough) I moved all my music onto my phone (instead of being on the SD card). Now Poweramp has found duplicates of every single song on my phone (literally thousands) and I have no way of bulk deleting the duplicates. The app knows the SD card has been removed, but it doesn't delete the duplicate songs. So I have to do it one by one. Over a year later, I'm still doing it because there are so many and it's so time consuming...

2 - I updated the app today and now it refuses to delete any of the duplicated files that it thinks are on the SD card which has been removed. These files don't play, but when I try to delete them I just get a message saying "Failed" and they remain in the list. So now I've got thousands of duplicates I can't even get rid of a bit at a time. If I want to listen to an album that is 50% duplicates I have to make a playlist of the album with only the songs that work. Are you kidding me???!!!

3 - When I imported my playlists (yes, I followed the correct method of doing this. It's very simple and I've done it before when changing to a new phone), the playlist titles appeared but they were all empty. So I had around 45 playlists with no songs in them and had to rebuild them from scratch.

4 - I tried to back up my playlists today. I selected the target folder (called "Playlists") and got a message saying they had been backed up, but when I checked the folder, several were missing and the ones in the folder were backed up several months ago, not today. So where did today's back ups go? I had to make a new folder in my phone (called it "Poweramp Playlists") and select that as the target folder then back them up again. Does this mean I have to make a new folder each time I try to back up my playlists?

I've never had a single issue with any other app or any other function of my phone, so as far as I'm concerned this is an isolated issue(s) with Poweramp.

What are you doing to fix this? Do I have any choice other than deleting the app and reinstalling it? I'm scared to do that as I have over 45 playlists that will take me at least a month to rebuild song-by-song if it doesn't import them properly again and I don't want to waste any more of my time.

What can be done about these issues? I've paid for a product and it isn't working as advertised. My phone is updated to the latest version of Android (version 10. Updated today)

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1 and 2. Settings > Library > Full Rescan.

3. You don't need to 'import' playlists at all, just place the .M3U files into a scanable location (configured in Settings > Library > Music Folders). The song files that each playlist refers to must exist in PA's library database, and be in the same folder structure, as they are matched by folder/filename not by embedded tag data.

4. You should be able to export internal playlists to existing folders, I think it overwrites but it might create a new numbered name. By default already file-based playlists (e.g. those showing as *.m3u in the lists) won't be re-exported, but the latest versions of PA have a tickbox that also copies existing files to the new location too.

Andre

 

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@andrewilley

1 + 2 - I've done a full rescan numerous times and it makes absolutely no difference. It was literally the first thing I thought of. Also, rescanning doesn't solve the issue of not letting me manually delete duplicates either. That issue only arose today after I updated the app. Now I can't even delete duplicates manually. Whenever I try I just get a "Failed" message and they're still in the list.

3 - Regardless of how the playlists are found by the app, they are empty. As detailed in my post, only the playlist titles appear. When you click the title there are no songs in it, so it obviously finds the playlist files, it finds the songs (it's even duplicated them all!) yet the playlists are empty. I had no issues with this the first time I upgraded to a new phone, but the last 2 times I've upgraded (all Samsung phones) and re-downloaded Poweramp (newer versions) the playlists have been bare and I've had to start from scratch.

To clarify - my music is all in a folder called "Music", then inside that, separate folders by artist name. This is the exact same structure I have always used ever since having a phone that could play music. It has never changed. The only variable is the version of Poweramp has changed.

4 - As I already explained: I attempted to export the playlists today and it didn't work. I double-checked the target folder was correct (it was) but the playlists did not appear in there as updated versions. All the playlists in the folder were from when I last backed them up in April. The additional few I've made since then were nowhere to be found. The only workaround I could find was creating a new target folder and exporting them to that instead. That worked, but why did I have to do that? Why didn't it back up the playlists to the original target folder I specified?

So thanks for your reply, but it solves absolutely nothing.

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I wonder if Google Play Store is restoring your old settings from cloud backup? Try deleting app data and starting the app again and let it rescan. Make sure only one instance of your SD Card is visible in Settings > Library > Music Folders, sometimes symbolic links can appear.

Open one of the .M3U8 playlist files from your storage in a text editor and check that the individual lines all point to correct files (and their containing folders) that exist in your storage. 

The option to re-export existing file-based playlists only exists in the very latest version of PA (build 876). Otherwise only internally-created playlists (i.e. ones that show in PA without a file extender) will be exported to new files.

Andre

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@andrewilley

With all due respect, you don't seem to have read my OP correctly: I do not use an SD card. All music is on my phone.

I'm well aware of how to export the playlist files as I've done so for several years with no issues - until today when they did not appear  in the specified folder. As I've now said 3 times(...) I had to create a new folder to export them to. This should not have been necessary. The text lines in the playlist files are correct, which again leads me to believe the issue is bugs in the latest version(s) of PA. When I back up the playlists I put copies on my PC so I can have a record of what songs were in each list.

I do not believe Google Play store is restoring any old settings. How would that affect the fact that the playlist titles appear but have no songs in them? - Put simply, it wouldn't.

Also, the fact that the playlist names appear means PA is finding the playlist files. However, it is not populating them.

I appreciate you taking the time to reply, but they don't seem to be specifically related to the very specific issues I've outlined here. You're stating basic things like "do a full rescan" and pointing out how to export playlists - I know all of this, yet PA is malfunctioning. Also, none of this explains why I can no longer manually delete duplicates after today's PA update either. I didn't have any issues with earlier versions of this app. It has gradually gotten worse and worse.

All of my issues still persist and all of the info required is in my OP.

 

By this point, once I've got the playlist files into an easily readable state in a document, I'll probably have to delete the app, reinstall it, then build all my playlists yet again... With no way to delete the duplicate files that are there (follwoing today's PA update) I don't have much choice as it's becoming a chore to use.

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Sorry, a few (long) replies later in a thread and an odd detail from the first post can get forgotten.

Just to check, but the new folder structure that you have created on internal memory is still exactly the same as when your files were on SD Card? No different subfolder names? That could cause the empty playlist issue.

When you long-press on two of the duplicated songs, and select Info/Tags, you should be able see where PA thinks the files should be located - is one on local memory and the other on the (now missing) SD Card?

At this point a Full Recan should fix the issue for you, as that's the whole point of that function, but if it's not then clearing app data and allowing it to build from scratch would be my next thought (backup your Settings first). Oh, and you did do a fresh install on your new device didn't you, rather than using a Titanium (or similar) backup copy?

All I can say is this is not a common issue as far as I'm aware, it seems to be affecting your device/setup only at the moment.

Andre

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3 hours ago, G_Music said:

@andrewilley

1 + 2 - I've done a full rescan numerous times and it makes absolutely no difference. It was literally the first thing I thought of. Also, rescanning doesn't solve the issue of not letting me manually delete duplicates either. That issue only arose today after I updated the app.

To confirm, you are running a FULL rescan? it is below the first standard Rescan option in the library list. The difference is the Full Rescan deletes the entire database and scans all of the enabled folders (internal and/or SD card) for music and playlists. If you are using this function, I don't see how PA can still be showing tracks that don't exist.

As far as your playlists go, there is an option. In the playlist settings to resolve playlists. Of course it does depend on your library having the actual tracks found, so that needs to be solved first.

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5 hours ago, MotleyG said:

As far as your playlists go, there is an option. In the playlist settings to resolve playlists. Of course it does depend on your library having the actual tracks found, so that needs to be solved first.

I'm always a bit reluctant to suggest that feature in cases like this, other than as a last resort, as if the music files really cannot be found (e.g. paths have changed significantly) then I worry it might permanently remove any unmatched entries from the playlists themselves, which is certainly not what is wanted here.

Andre

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