Cleaning the Poweramp library

[Jonny G]

I use Poweramp on my car's Android headunit with a SSD connected via USB.

I deleted some MP3 files from the SSD to free up some space when it was connected to my desktop PC. When reconnected to my headunit, Poweramp's library obviously still shows the entries for the albums I deleted but of course is unable to find them.

I'm aware the best way to avoid this is to delete them via Poweramp itself, but I find this results in the actual MP3 files being removed with the containing folder left behind empty making it confusing what is / isn't already on the SSD when next adding files from my desktop.

AFAIK the "Rescan" option simply adds newly found files to the library and "Full Rescan" would delete the entire library requiring a very lengthy rescanning process.

Is there any way to clean the library of these orphaned entries?

Thanks for any assistance!

Edited March 2, 2023 by Jonny G

[andrewilley]

Poweramp's regular quick Rescan should automatically detect any added, deleted, moved, or modified files and handle those changes accordingly. However if you make the changes away from the Android environment (which can also happen with automatic folder-syncing software) then sometimes the modifications do not seem to get notified to the quick rescan process.

If a normal Rescan is not sufficient, a Full Rescan (in Library=>Settings) will do the job. As you say it does take a fair while longer to perform, especially with an external drive rather than mounted storage, as it is far more thorough and has to open and read the embedded tags for every audio file that it finds.

I've never quite understood why the quick Rescan sometimes misses external changes though. Assuming all applicable directories and subdirectories are crawled (perhaps they aren't though, maybe Android notifications are relied on?) then looking for differences in folder contents, or changed file sizes or time/date stamps, ought to pick up pretty much anything that has been altered.

Andre

[Jonny G]

Thanks Andre,

Quick rescan is deffo not picking up on the deleted files on the SSD, although as you explain, as these changes have been made using a Windows PC, it's understandable.

A Full Rescan is just not something I want to do regularly as it can take upwards of 3/4 hour to complete and messes with album art choices, etc. I guess I'll just have to remember which files I've deleted and then manually delete the album entry in Poweramp after the fact.

Re: mounted drives, I've always understood that a USB connected drive would be classed as a mounted drive. Are you saying if I were to keep my media on a high speed MicroSD of suitable size and have that inserted directly into my headunit via the onboard slot, I might find that Poweramp library scans are quicker? 

 

Edited March 2, 2023 by Jonny G

[andrewilley]

You would only need to do the Full Rescan once to detect the changes you have made, so while it does take a while it would be a one-and-done. Embedded Album art is not loaded and re-saved at the time of scanning by the way, it's only loaded when you view or play the item - so embedded images shouldn't affect the scan time unduly. 

Access speed would depend on how the device is set up I guess, and what spec the USB port is. I've always felt subjectively that directly mounted SD Cards seem to access quicker than external memory sticks that are plugged into the USB port via an OTG adapter, but that could just be my imagination. Max would know in more detail.

@maxmp Is there any particular reason you're aware of why the quick rescan process should sometimes miss fairly obvious things as deleted files, changed file sizes, or modified time/date stamps during its quick directory crawl? It usually seems OK with stuff that has been modified on the Android device directly in a file explorer app, but a number of users have reported issues over the years when they've made external changes to SD Cards, or when using file syncing apps, etc. Is it some sort of Android notification/reporting issue?

Andre