backup KMA files

[captnkarl]

When I backup my KMA files to an external hard drive, will it also save the genre and "hide from songbook" that I attached to the kma on my main computer. Then if I lose them and reload them from the external, will I have everything back the same or do I have to go through all the songs again??

[ddouglass]

Yes all the information including the Hide in Songbook is saved in the header of each file. Genre has always been saved.
At one time the Hide in Songbook was left out of the header but not anymore.

[captnkarl]

Thanks...I thought that was that way before, but I just spent over 200 hours going through every song finding the best version and fixing any mispelled words. Wanted to back up the kma files before I upgraded to 4.09...is that volume slide back?? I really liked it then they took it away

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by Hoster Upgrade Page

UPGRADED Playlist Volume Slider - The Volume slider is back. It does NOT use the Microsoft controllers, but is able to reduce the amplitude DOWN from the maximum Microsoft control setting for all but Video files. You can also set this to max and use your external mixer to balance amplitudes.

Read the rest of the changes for all four versions of 4.09 in the Support section. It tells you everything that was fixed, added, or upgraded. And yes 4.09 had some bugs show up after initial release that had to be fixed which is why there was an A, B, C, & D.

[Roy Dennis]

Originally Posted by captnkarl

When I backup my KMA files to an external hard drive, will it also save the genre and "hide from songbook" that I attached to the kma on my main computer. Then if I lose them and reload them from the external, will I have everything back the same or do I have to go through all the songs again??

Just a note.
Make sure any editing you do is through the Hoster edit function and not directly through Access.

Roy

[captnkarl]

Well, my computer messed me up tonight...songs would have a small skip in them ...only once during the song, then after awhile, things went ok. Back to the KMA....I added the song database to another computer from my ext. hard drive and when I went to create songbook except for excluded items, it came up with all 39,000 songs in my songbook (it did not exclude any of them). my question...is there a difference between adding the song database and importing songs from HD??? I would think that they would be the same since the songbook and import songs are created from the same KMA file. Anyone else have this problem?? If I lose my hard drive on the show computer, it takes my weeks to go through and "hide in songbook" if I have to get another computer.

OH YEA...I did edit the songs under the "edit songs" in Hoster

[mindonstrike]

Originally Posted by captnkarl

When I backup my KMA files to an external hard drive, will it also save the genre and "hide from songbook" that I attached to the kma on my main computer. Then if I lose them and reload them from the external, will I have everything back the same or do I have to go through all the songs again??

In reading through these posts I noticed that you implied that the "Hide in songbook" stuff was done in a version prior to 4.09 which means that, that info probably was not saved to the kma header (everything else should though). The hide in songbook info would be saved to the database but not the kma header and upgrading would not automaticly change that fact. If you would happen to have a list of the Hide in songbooks songs you could plug them into the edit screen and click apply changes to make them permanant.
If you've got the original database (songs.mdb) or if you already rebuilt database you would need the backup database (songs_backup.mdb). Post a copy of it here and I could extract all the bookids with hide in songbook info for you. So you can re-save them.

Sam

[captnkarl]

It would take forever to plug in a list of "hide in songbook" I think there are like 17,000+of them...my genre wasn't saved because I exclude the Spanish ones, but they are listed in the new songbook. I'm not sure when I went through all my songs, but I think it was early summer so I'm not sure which version I edited them on. Like I said, is there a difference between importing hard drive files and adding song database...adding song database did not have the "hide in songbook" in the header, otherwise when I created my songbook excluding those, my songbook would have been much smaller.

[ddouglass]

If you edited the "Hide in Songs" prior to version 4.09 then no this information is not saved in the KMA headers. This was not corrected until that version. So yes you would have to go back through them again.

...is there a difference between importing hard drive files and adding song database?

If you are moving/copying KMA files from a back-up you cannot use the Import from Hard Drive to add them to your Songs database. Adding the song database does not restore the KMA files.
Does your current Songs Database build the songbook without the songs marked as Hide in Songbook?

[captnkarl]

Yes Dale, on my laptop that I think is starting to fail, none of the "Hide in Songbook" songs will be included. I just backed up all my songs on an external HD in the middle of August. That backup I saved is the one I used on another "backup" computer where I just pull off of the ext. HD. I had to "Add songs to database" so Hoster knew where they were coming from and when I try to create a songbook without "excluded items", I get all the songs.

Hope you can follow what I'm saying here. My show computer (the songs are on internal HD) puts my books together just like I need them, but the backup computer (songs on ext. HD) includes everything.

I just thought of this...maybe I'm not running the newest version of Hoster on my backup and thats why it won't recognise the header "hide in songbook??? The backup computer has the version with the volume slidebar, but I know they took that away for a while and then put it back.

[ddouglass]

I understand now what you are trying to do.
As I said, if you edited those to "Hide in Songbooks" before 4.09 then the information was not added to the KMA header. If you still have one computer that will show the songbook correctly (without the "Hide in Songbook" songs) and it is running 4.09 (if not upgrade to it) then you should be able to correct this by doing the following.
On that computer open the Edit Songs tool. choose Select Multiple button. Next put a star (*) in the search window and click Find. This should list every file you have in the database (may take a few seconds). Then Highlight all of them and click on Apply Changes. This will take a while but it should rewrite every headedr with all the information stored it the database including the "Hide Songs"
Then recopy those KMA files to your Back-up and to the Laptop (Rebuikld database on laptop). That should fix it. It doesn't matter which version 4 (later ones) that you have on the laptop as long as the information for Hide gets into the database from the KMAs it will print correctly.

[captnkarl]

If I do that, they will all be saved the way the first one is saved won't it?? if I highlight all of them and apply changes, won't they all be changed to whatever has been checked in the boxes "hide in songbook" etc.? That would reset all my songs to the same settings, wouldn't it?? I almost did that until I looked at the hide in songbook and it was unchecked, then all my songs would not have the header of Hide.

let me know if I'm wrong please.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by captnkarl

If I do that, they will all be saved the way the first one is saved won't it?? if I highlight all of them and apply changes, won't they all be changed to whatever has been checked in the boxes "hide in songbook" etc.? That would reset all my songs to the same settings, wouldn't it?? I almost did that until I looked at the hide in songbook and it was unchecked, then all my songs would not have the header of Hide.

let me know if I'm wrong please.

Nothing will change except any field that you fill in. If you don't fill any fields then they will save exactly as they are in the database. In other words if in the database a file's informations says it isn't hidden then that is what will be saved in its KMA header. If it has Hide in the database then that file will save as being hidden in the KMA header for that file. This was also a change done in 4.09 so if you went in and changed the language for a group of files it would not change any of the genres, mux, duet, or hide for all those files. Only the item you edit is changed. If you do not edit anything then they will all be resaved with whatever is registered in the database.

[mindonstrike]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

I understand now what you are trying to do.
As I said, if you edited those to "Hide in Songbooks" before 4.09 then the information was not added to the KMA header. If you still have one computer that will show the songbook correctly (without the "Hide in Songbook" songs) and it is running 4.09 (if not upgrade to it) then you should be able to correct this by doing the following.
On that computer open the Edit Songs tool. choose Select Multiple button. Next put a star (*) in the search window and click Find. This should list every file you have in the database (may take a few seconds). Then Highlight all of them and click on Apply Changes. This will take a while but it should rewrite every headedr with all the information stored it the database including the "Hide Songs"
Then recopy those KMA files to your Back-up and to the Laptop (Rebuikld database on laptop). That should fix it. It doesn't matter which version 4 (later ones) that you have on the laptop as long as the information for Hide gets into the database from the KMAs it will print correctly.

I almost suggested this but wasn't sure if it would cause him to lose that info, I didn't have time to double check.

At the very least he should make a copy of his songs.mdb that he he can go back to in a worst case scenario.

Backup, backup, backup. A tenet of murphy's law is that the one thing you don't backup will be the one thing you end up wishing you had.

Been there. Done that.
Sam

[captnkarl]

It takes about 5 hours to backup, but right now I'm defragging because of a slight glitch in the music. at times it seems to kind of like skip or slight miss, so I'm updating all my drivers and defragging...hope it isn't my HD goin bad (only 10 months old). This is why I'm so concerned that my backups will be exactly like what I have on my show computer in case it is my HD failing.

I will be doing this tomorrow after everything else is done and will post the results so it may help others that need to know this info.

BTW what are mdb files...everything is saved as a kma file I'm sure???

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by captnkarl

It takes about 5 hours to backup, but right now I'm defragging because of a slight glitch in the music. at times it seems to kind of like skip or slight miss, so I'm updating all my drivers and defragging...hope it isn't my HD goin bad (only 10 months old). This is why I'm so concerned that my backups will be exactly like what I have on my show computer in case it is my HD failing.

I will be doing this tomorrow after everything else is done and will post the results so it may help others that need to know this info.

BTW what are mdb files...everything is saved as a kma file I'm sure???

What Sam was saying is back-up the file in C:/MTU/Hoster called Songs.MDB. That would be where the Hide information is store and this will only take a few seconds.
The MDB (not MTB) files are Access database files. This is where all the information from the KMA header (part of the KMA file for each song) and the location of each KMA file is stored so you can Search and add song files to your playlist. Rather than having to search through a list of lots of KMA files (in your case 39,000) to find the exact one you want the database is much faster.

[captnkarl]

Dale, I was right....what you had me do erased all my "hide in songbook".....PEOPLE DO NOT FOLLOW THOSE INSTRUCTIONS. Now I will be spending the better part of my free time over the next month hiding songs ..

[ddouglass]

I am sorry that happened because it isn't supposed to. You were using version 4.09d to do this, right?

[mindonstrike]

Originally Posted by captnkarl

Dale, I was right....what you had me do erased all my "hide in songbook".....PEOPLE DO NOT FOLLOW THOSE INSTRUCTIONS. Now I will be spending the better part of my free time over the next month hiding songs ..

Quick. Make a copy of your songs_backup.mdb file and you'll save the info. the backup songs mdb should be a copy of the one you lost. Songs_backup is always a copy of the one that's about to be re-built so if you rebuild a second time before saving it, it will be lost.
After saving it. delete or rename the current songs.mdb. Then take the songs-backup.mdb and change its name to "songs.mdb" and it will be as before, but not in the kma header. It will work for song book making purposes.

Hoster doesn't look at the kma header for it's info to play a song. It looks at the database. About the only time it will look at the kma header is when it's rebuilding the database

Hopefully your backup is still good.
There may also be a "temp_songs.mdb that is usable, but I haven't experimented with them enough to know definitively.

[captnkarl]

I'll try that as soon as I can...Hopefully you are right, I'll let you know.

Thanks