Hi all,

Newbie alert

I am a newbie one week old Linux user (Ubuntu) and still learning all the ins and outs of this OS..

I just discovered  the one "killer app" in Linux.. for me, its gotta be Amarok!!

Its way better than itunes and any other similar programs out there. With it, i finally managed to update/organize my scattered mp3 files (i didnt like how itunes was doing it). The lyrics and wiki info just makes it even more awesome!!

Im thinking this one app alone (Amarok) makes using Ubuntu/Linux worth it over Windows.

So far I'm investing a lot of my time and energy into organizing my mp3 collection (updating song info, etc)

Which brings me to these newbie questions:

1) Does ALL  the changes reflect in the actual MP3 file? ie., i corrected the Title, Album, Artist, Genre info in Song.mp3 under Amarok.  I then tried to play it later in Windows Media Player in Vista, it shows some of the new info (ie., Artist, Album) But not all (ie., Genre is shown blank ).  Plus, I think (not sure) i may have some mps in my hard disk that are "read only" (copied from a CD), would Amarok be able to write over song info w/o asking for/changing File Attributes (might be a Linux thing, not sure.. sorry)


2) Everytime i reboot back to Ubuntu, my Mounted windows drive (where the MP3s are) is gone.. so i have to remount in "Places". Not really a hassle, except Amarok have to scan all the files again which takes several minutes. Is there a way to skip this and just load the previous settings?

3) Most importantly, is there a way to Save or Backup the data I painstakingly organized/inputted, in case of an Ubuntu Crash or a reinstall? There is no File menu in Amarok. And i can only see a Save Playlist function. As i asked earlier, are the changes somehow saved in the MP3 folder (in the harddisk)?

For example, if i had to re-install Ubuntu again (or say, i decided to switch to Knoppix ) and then reinstall Amarok again. Would those changes I made earlier  still be there when Amarok  re-read those info on the harddisk or will i have to re-do everything again?

Just making sure that all those long efforts i'm doing now will be safe

Thanks for the time, and did I mention I love Amarok? 

1. As long as you have write access to the drive where the music is stored, and to the individual tracks, Amarok will write tag changes to the files. Note though, that Amarok writes id3v2.4 tags, and not all other apps support this (oddly, since it's been around for an awfully long time!) and may not interpret the tag data correctly/completely. Genre is one of those tags that gets mangled all over the place, however the main tags should be fine.

re the read-only files, no, Amarok won't change the tags for those files, and you'll get the warning you've already seen. You should be able to safely change the permissions for those files manually though, if you want to.

2. You can set up Ubuntu to mount your windows drive permanently to the location of your choice by editing one of your system files... /etc/fstab - check ubuntu documentation and have a look at the file for more info.

3. Your amarok settings and database are stored in your home directory. Settings are ~/.kde/share/config/amarokrc  and everything else is in the ~/.kde/share/apps/amarok directory. If you back these up, then you're pretty much right, as long as your music is in the same place. There are other threads on this forum that give more detail about restoring Amarok after a system re-install or upgrade.

dangle_wtf wrote:1. As long as you have write access to the drive where the music is stored, and to the individual tracks, Amarok will write tag changes to the files. Note though, that Amarok writes id3v2.4 tags, and not all other apps support this (oddly, since it's been around for an awfully long time!) and may not interpret the tag data correctly/completely. Genre is one of those tags that gets mangled all over the place, however the main tags should be fine.

re the read-only files, no, Amarok won't change the tags for those files, and you'll get the warning you've already seen. You should be able to safely change the permissions for those files manually though, if you want to.

2. You can set up Ubuntu to mount your windows drive permanently to the location of your choice by editing one of your system files... /etc/fstab - check ubuntu documentation and have a look at the file for more info.

3. Your amarok settings and database are stored in your home directory. Settings are ~/.kde/share/config/amarokrc  and everything else is in the ~/.kde/share/apps/amarok directory. If you back these up, then you're pretty much right, as long as your music is in the same place. There are other threads on this forum that give more detail about restoring Amarok after a system re-install or upgrade.

thanks for the reply! you pretty much answered all the questions i have

I found the amarok  directory (couldnt see it until I checked "show hidden files") and backed it up already.  My understanding is it also makes changes (tags) to the actual MP3 file itself, so either way, the changes I am making will be saved/permanent.

Just out of curiosity, since the Mp3 files are changed as you said, then wouldnt a fresh install of OS/Amarok just read the files again and presto, it can be organized by Artist/Album/ Genre etc? so theres no real need to backup those Amarok settings/directory? (but im still doing it anyway)

thanks again for the help. Now i can continue finishing organizing my MP3s in peace. Ive got a lot of older MP3 files (mostly ripped hastily)  that dont have the proper tags/info. Never found the time or desire to update them all, untill I tried Amarok.

-- edit-- I just realized, I would imagine the LYRICS info wouldnt be part of the id3v2.4 tags, would it? so i guess those info must be saved in a database somewhere in the Amarok directory. Is this assumption right?  So aside from the LYRICS, i guess pretty much the other info (artist, title, album, genre) should be in the id3v2.4 tag.. right?

You're right, lyrics are stored in the database in the Amarok directory, not in the music file itself. It IS possible to store the lyrics in the file as part of a tag, but Amarok doesn't do it. Cover art is another item that's not stored in the file - there's a separate directory where these are cached (within the Amarok dir), and the link is maintained in the database. You *could* get away with just building a new collection as you said, unless you have these extra "bits".

Ok, that just about answered all my questions and concerns..

thanks again dangle! You've been a big help.   

You're welcome, and thanks for editing the subject!