PREVENT reset in play count and most played list while moving files to other folder

[ActualAkshay]

Whenever you you move a song from one folder to another in the same device, the song loses its play count and position in most played tracks. The moved audio file is treated as new song. In technical terms, whenever the path of a file is changed, the database entry is NOT updated with new path, instead a new entry is created in database of Poweramp which treats the audio file as new song.

It would be awesome if this could be prevented, and the play count is linked to the name of song and artist rather than file path, I know its said easier than done, but it would be cool af. Everyone would be able to reset their phones without losing auto-created playlists in Poweramp (Most played, Recently Add ed, etc etc). Also, if play count is linked to song name & artist name rather than filepath, then you could always replace files with better quality version without losing play counts.

Hoping for a response!

[andrewilley]

It would be a nice idea, but as you correctly surmise PA's database is indexed based on both the name AND folder location of each audio file. If you move any given file to a new location, or edit its filename in any way, PA notices that the 'old' file has been deleted so it removes it from the database. Then as a separate action it sees a 'new' file in a new location, which it proceeds to scan the metadata into its database as a new piece of music. However any old database items that are not detected from the physical file's metadata will be lost - such as star-rating, last-played counter position, overall play count, date added to database, existence in individual Playlists, etc.

Simply matching song title and artist name would not be sufficient. You could have different versions of the same song - live, studio or acoustic for example - or different MP3/FLAC/sampling rate/etc encoding. You would need to create a hash value based on a whole series of tags and other factors such as the overall size of the audio data portion of each file, and then retain that in the database for future reference. One possible solution would be to look for a useful - but sadly non exactly commonly used - index values such as a MusicBrainz tag. But for now, changing filename or path will always cause a music file to be treated as a new item. 

Andre

[ActualAkshay]

44 minutes ago, andrewilley said:

It would be a nice idea, but as you correctly surmise PA's database is indexed based on both the name AND folder location of each audio file. If you move any given file to a new location, or edit its filename in any way, PA notices that the 'old' file has been deleted so it removes it from the database. Then as a separate action it sees a 'new' file in a new location, which it proceeds to scan the metadata into its database as a new piece of music. However any old database items that are not detected from the physical file's metadata will be lost - such as star-rating, last-played counter position, overall play count, date added to database, existence in individual Playlists, etc.

Simply matching song title and artist name would not be sufficient. You could have different versions of the same song - live, studio or acoustic for example - or different MP3/FLAC/sampling rate/etc encoding. You would need to create a hash value based on a whole series of tags and other factors such as the overall size of the audio data portion of each file, and then retain that in the database for future reference. One possible solution would be to look for a useful - but sadly non exactly commonly used - index values such as a MusicBrainz tag. But for now, changing filename or path will always cause a music file to be treated as a new item. 

Andre

Or maybe something like considering Apple iTunes store ID data while matching track for example if title matches exactly with apple id or something, its not impossible but like I said its said easier than done, I have myself worked a lot on Mp3Tag software extension for windows that let you automatch tags from iTunes store using in-built search feature or by explicitly mentioning ID. All my songs are properly tagged with 1400px x 1400px album art from iTunes as well. If it was windows and the software supported plugins I would have myself made something useful, but its Poweramp and android so only Max can figure it out. Acoustic and Live versions can be skipped, and if ID3Tags are proper then I think song can be referred by its artist name and song name hash or filehash or something rather than file location for this purpose. I know its a lot of work, I am happy with already what we have, its just a thought, hope no one minds, its not a demand. I am using this software since my Samsung Galaxy Note 1, till now on my S20 Ultra, purchased it a long time ago. Its best players ever. YT Music, iTunes Music, JioSaavn, Wynk, Spotify can't beat it for me, I know its not right to compare those software with Poweramp since they work with online libraries but still I prefer Poweramp hehe.

[andrewilley]

8 minutes ago, ActualAkshay said:

Or maybe something like considering Apple iTunes store ID data while matching track 

That was rather my point, there is no single ID method. Some files may have an Apple ID if you happened to get them from iTunes, or Amazon or other commercial IDs, or open-source MusicBrainz tags, etc. There is no common standard.

Andre