Fredrik,

I've been experiencing disappearing MP3 files after I perform "Write to Tag".

The file is there before I write to tag, then I get the following message "System Error. Code: 5. Access is denied". The reason access is denied is that the file has gone! The trashed files cannot be found in the recycle bin either, they've just vanished from the folder.

The problem is intermittent and random. Sometimes affecting two or three files in a folder (album), sometimes it's just a single file.

I'm becoming concerned because I can rip the lost file again if it's from a CD, but not if it's a download. Now I'm having to make a backup copy of of any downloaded album before I update the tags.

Any thoughts about what's going on?

CATraxx version 9.10 (problem was also happening with v9.05)
Operating system WinXP Professional SP3

Thanks, Les

Hi Les,

I had a similar scare. What it ended up being was that Windows Media Player was renaming the files and putting them in a different folder. Could another program be "AutoOrganizing"?

No, CATraxx does not delete any files when updating tags.

It's not the same problem as this (which I though had been fixed)?

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=12254

Where are the files located, on a local hard drive, or on a network drive?

The files are on an 1.5Tb external USB drive.

I've actually seen the files vanish as CATraxx writes the tags!
For example, a newly ripped CD has 15 files in one folder. I attach the files to the album in CATraxx. Everything looks OK (monitoring in Windows Explorer). Then I run Audio>Write to Tag and one or more files simply vanish...for example tracks 3, 5 & 7 vanish, all the other remain in the folder, just with an updated time stamp.
I've even had the situation where I rip a lost track for the second time and it vanishes again when I update the tag.
The behaviour is unpredictable and not reproducible so I can't give you any files to look at. I only know that the problem has occurred again when I get the ""System Error. Code: 5. Access is denied" message at the end of the write to tag operation.

- Les

I have absolutely no idea why this happens. No-one has reported this before. I have looked at the source code of that 3rd party tagging library CATraxx uses, and the only place the file can be deleted is if the size of the tag block needs to be increased. In that case a new temporary file is created in the Windows temp folder (C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temp), then the original file is deleted, and finally the temp file is copyed to the audio file folder and renamed.

Do you see any files in the Windows temp folder that could be the original audio files (named something like ChaCCE7.tmp)?

Thanks Fredrik,
I'll take a look in the Windows temp folder and try some more write to tags this evening.

What exactly do you mean by the "tag block" size?
When I update the tags I write the album art to the MP3 files. This means that the MP3 file sizes grow the first time they are written to by CATraxx. Subsequent tag updates happen much more quickly and the file size does not increase.

The files that I have lost have always been during the first write to tag. Whenever I update existing tags that goes without a hitch.

One other thing, the USB external drive is also shared over the home network. Don't know if that's significant or not.

- Les

And this is because the tag block size needs to be increased.

OK, that's where they all are!

If I rename the .tmp file back to .mp3 then the file is restored to full health. So at least I can recover them if it happens again.

- Les

Hallo.
Ich muss diesen Thread noch einmal hervorheben, da ich jetzt selbst in dieser Situation bin. Am Anfang dachte ich, dass es an mir liegt, dass ich die Dateien wahrscheinlich nicht mehr habe.

Nach "write to tag" bekomme ich die Fehlermeldung "log file: unable file-file not exite", obwohl sie beim letzten mal noch vorhanden war. Ich habe vorsichtshalber den Ordner mit den mp3-files in ein anderes Laufwerk kopiert, und in diesem Laufwerk war die Datei noch vorhanden.
In der Log-Datei wird auch ein Speicherort genannt, den es nicht gibt. Z.B. hatte ich am Anfang ein Verzeichnis mit allen Songs von Sinatra (o:\sinatra\sinatra-song.mp3), danach habe ich jeden einzelnen Song dem dazugehörigen Album zu geordnet und neu gespeichert (o:\sinatra\album\02) sinatra-song.mp3). Danach habe ich die Dateien von CATraxx neu ordnen lassen (Autoorganize). Hat alles bestens geklappt. Nach "write to tag" bekam ich aber die Fehlermeldung und der Song ist weg. Aber wohin? Und warum? In der Fehlermeldung ist auch der alte Speicherort genannt, obwohl er nicht mehr existiert. Der alten Speicherort habe ich nach dem korrekten Zuordnen von CATraxx von Hand gelöscht und den Eintrag in der Datenbank gelöscht. Am Anfang ist mir das nie bewusst geworden, aber nachdem ich ca. 21000 Dateien so neu in CATraxx eingetragen habe und ich einmal am Tag die Sicherung gemacht habe und danach "write to tag" durch laufen lassen habe, wurde immer mal wieder neue "nicht existierten" Dateien gefunden und aus den zuvor erstellten Ordner gelöscht.

Ich habe Win7 Pro 64bit-kann also nicht auf den Ordner "Dokumente und Einstellungen zugreifen.
Also bitte, kann mir jemand sage, wo die Dateien sind und warum sie gelöscht wurden?

Vielen Dank für die Hilfe.

Gruss Peer


Hello.
I must emphasize this thread again, I'm even in this situation. At first I thought it's up to me, that I probably have the files anymore.

According to "write to day" I get the error message "log file: unable-file file exite not", although it was still there the last time. I'm a precaution the folder with the mp3 files copied to another drive, this drive and the file was still there.
In the log file, a location is called, does not exist. E.G. I had at the beginning of a list of all songs by Sinatra (o: \ sinatra \ sinatra-song.mp3), then I have ordered every single song and the accompanying album of new store (o: \ sinatra \ album \ 02)-sinatra song.mp3). After that, I can rearrange the files of CATraxx (Autoorganize). It all worked out fine. According to "write to day" but I got the error message and the song is gone. But where? And why? In the error message and the old location is known, although it no longer exists. The old location I have for the correct assignment of CATraxx cleared by hand and delete the entry in the database. In the beginning, I never became aware of this, but after I registered about 21 000 files so new and I have to CATraxx made ​​once a day backup and then have to run "write to tag" was carried, from time to time new "non-existed "files found and deleted from the folder you created earlier.

I have Win7 Pro-64bit can not access the folder "Documents and Settings.
So please, can someone tell me where the files are and why they were deleted?

Thanks for the help.

The error "Unable to locate file" happens before CATraxx actually tries to write to the tag.
Are you sure the file hasn't been moved by another program? iTunes for example? Before you use "Write to Tag", you could run "Rescan Folders" to get a list of any missing files.