GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 128408
change Edit->Delete to Edit->Avoid Song ?
Last modified: 2014-12-02 01:17:42 UTC
I'd like to remove a folder (or even just a set of songs) from my library. The folder is still there, but I don't want rhythmbox to scan it, and I want its song entries to be removed from rhythmbox's database. There seems to be no way to do this.
Sure you can - just mark them all and go to Edit->Delete. That doesn't work for you?
I don't want to delete the files, just remove them from my library. Is that what Delete does? If so, I will file a bug for renaming it, because Delete is for sure a confusing and misleading name for that feature.
Maybe. The more I think about it, the more I think Edit->Delete should just permanently delete files (after a suitable warning). At least when it's used in the library. In the playlist source, it should probably change to just "Remove from playlist" or something. It seems strange to me to want to remove files from your library but not from disk. If you don't want them, why did you add them in the first place?
They're on a smbfs mount and take forever to load and I keep hitting them in shuffled play. They crash rhythmbox on load. They're part of a project I was working on involving lots of small sound files. They're by a band I don't like anymore, but my sister still likes them, and I don't want them coming up in my shuffled play. These aren't the reason I filed this report, but they are all valid reasons, and I'm sure you can come up with more.
*** Bug 128675 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 133799 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 120352 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
So what's the status on this? I'm still rather confused about the meaning of delete. If it is deleting from the disk a string change to "Delete from disk" or "Permanently Delete" might be in order [or just a warning dialog as you suggested] since there is good reason to believe that it might only be deleting from the playlist.
It's only deleting from the library.
String changes sound so easy, and I am still helpless to submit a patch. Argh!
*** Bug 164328 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 169357 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Rhythmbox is a software for organising and playing audio files, not a file manager. If it ever should be implemented I strongly suggest the physical erase option must not be placed in the menu that opens when right-clicking a title. Agreeing to comment #3 .
Bug 171823 is a duplicate, and has a patch. Rhythmbox is described as an 'iTunes clone' in the bugzilla interface. When pressing delete in iTune, a dialog box asks if the user wants to delete the file itself as well as the database entry.
*** Bug 171823 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I'm pretty clear on what I, as a user, would want and expect from Rhythmbox. I do not need -- or want -- Rhythmbox to actually delete my files. I have nautilus and xterm to handle those things for me. The fact that iTunes *can* delete files is more of a design flaw than anything, IMO. I very adamantly believe that the "Delete" option should be renamed "Remove from library", and that the action should do just that. Calling it "Delete" is a misnomer (see Bug 171823 for some ramblings on the matter), and having something in Rb that deletes from disk is just asking for trouble.
Adam Weinberger please attach you patch here (we just produced a mid-air collision) Raising priority to make maintainers aware of it. Raising severity as ther is a number of dups and people seem to be concerned about the issue.
Created attachment 39699 [details] [review] Changes Delete moniker to Remove - by Adam weinberger Changes Delete moniker to Remove - by Adam weinberger
The problem I see with this is that it kind of conflicts with the idea of automatically keeping Rhythmbox's music view up to date with the filesystem. Perhaps when you do 'Edit->Remove' or whatever we could add a "negative" entry to the cache so that you wouldn't see the file even if Rhythmbox later rescanned, but that gets very hairy - and how would you ever undo if you decided you wanted to see the file? I think what people *really* want here is for the song to not be played back if they leave Rhythmbox on random or whatever. So maybe it would be better to have a concept of "striking out" a song (Edit->Avoid Song) or something. This would cause the name to be displayed in strikeout. Another possibility is that if you rate a song to 0 stars it is automatically skipped, but I'd rather avoid depending on the ratings.
iTunes has a checkbox for each entry. That seems much simpler than having to go to a menu and select something. Also, "Avoid Song" is vague. But the problem is that it really is quite different from the Delete moniker. For people who keep their entire music collection in Rhythmbox, the concept of avoiding a song makes sense. But what about people who want to play stuff off an mp3 CD? Should those tracks really remain permanently in the library? People expect a way to remove an item from the library. And I think the clearest way to express that is with a "remove from library" context menu option. And the checkbox thing that iTunes has is a Good Thing.
In regards to mp3 cds: by basing it on some of the stuff I've made to get audio cds working again, it would be relatively trivial to make mp3 cds show up as a new source (and not have to store them in the main DB).
I firmly agree with Comment #20 - "remove from library" describes clearly what will be done. Adam, will you revise your patch? James: a new source for inserted CDs is a sound idea.
"Remove from library" works but, as Colin said in Comment #19, should the file be re-added if the user adds the directory it is in? It makes sense that it should (it is in the added directory after all), but this might not be what the user wants in many cases. Personally I have never removed something from the library without deleting it from disk. I see getting RB to skip the track when on random as completely seperate to removing it from the library. In 0.8.8 if you put tracks on an mp3 cd into your library, it will automatically be deleted from the library when the cd is not there; in CVS they will be hidden (effectively deleted from the library) until the cd is re-inserted. I'll add mp3-cd support to my list of things to do.
As for avoiding certain songs, the best way is probably to be able to make a playlist that contains everything but a given set of songs. The most elegant way I can think of doing this is with the "personal catagory" things that were discussed on the mailing list recently, but that whole concept still needs a fair bit more discussion.
Adam: I don't like the checkbox; I don't imagine most users are going to understand what it's for at first. Avoiding particular songs I imagine is a rare activity, that's why I prefer the menu and strikeout approach. The mp3 CD case seems like the same problem as other removable mass storage; all of those should show up as separate sources. James: do we really want users to have to create playlists just to skip a few bad songs they don't like? I'm not sure how that would work exactly even, I guess I missed the "personal category" discussion. You don't think the "Avoid Song" approach will work?
Comment on attachment 39699 [details] [review] Changes Delete moniker to Remove - by Adam weinberger I don't think this patch will work once we fix Rhythmbox to add new files into the library. So marking this patch rejected, we need to solve the overall problem.
I agree that currently having to create a playlist to avoid songs would be horrible. The "personal catagory" was about adding a mechanism similar to F-Spot's tags - every track belongs to zero or more catagories, which are only stored locally in the db, and you can create playlists with "in catagory X", "not in catagory Y" and the like. We could add "songs to avoid" as a built-in catagory (with an "avoid song" menu item), and have a playlist "not in 'songs to avoid'", which would give you the desired behaviour. This would require us actually implementing the "personal catagory". The only real problem I see with what we have currently is that some behaviou needs to be definied; obviously it will avoid songs when using shuffle, but 1) if we are playing from one album in linear order, should it skip songs? 2) how about from the library (no filtering) in linear order? 3) if it's in an automatic playlist? 4) manual playlist? My first thought is play, skip, skip, play respectively; but that has issues - why should selecting an album though the library browser act differently to a auto playlist with the criteria "in album X"?
Instead of a catagory "avoid song" I'd prefer to get the fspot style tags and give the option to attach rules to them. christmas - Don't play unless date is between ~15dec and 25dec abba's "happy new year" - play only between 23:00 31-12-XX and 01:00 01-01-XX prologue/intermezzo - Don't play in shuffle mode, play when playing album single/album - show in library, or don't, foo or bar etc I think this would solve a wider range of these issues in a more consistent way. We're likely to end up with a specific option for each of a bunch of usecases otherwise.
Returning to NEW. Nobody actively working on this bug.
Following comment 21, comment 23 and comment 26 (amongst others?) I have filed an enhancement request: Bug 346290 – Handle removable media with music files as new sources e.g. mp3 CDs
Just adding my $.02, I thought about filing a bug for strikeout "avoid this song" type thing, and just by chance saw that. I'd really like to see this implemented, because right now I have a "Music" playlist, which basically contains no comedy, which is a horrid workaround.
*** Bug 448137 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
3.0 offers "Remove" and "Move to Trash". I think that's clear enough. If not, please reopen.