• Registered: 2007-07-09
  • Posts: 7

Topic: Missing files behavior

I think the issue is of interest.
When I returned to Cog after I had listened to an album to listen to it again, Cog didn't work -- or so it seemed at last.
What had happened? I had moved the folder with the audio files in the meantime!

What I want to say is, that it could be quite a feature to signal to the user, that he's (she's of course as well...) trying to play a file with an invalid path.

What do you think?

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Heinz-Peter

  • Registered: 2007-07-08
  • Posts: 790

Re: Missing files behavior

I think this actually is a feature request. smile

Right now, it should silently skip the invalid files.

It's not the best way of handling it, I agree. I think maybe turning the text red would be a good idea, (Popping up an alert sheet would be annoying, in my opinion), but still moving on to the next song. If you have any other ideas on how to show the problem to the user, I'd be glad to hear them. Some people have suggested watching the file, and updating the path automatically when it moves, so that's a possibility too. I guess that would involve not letting them delete the file (or maybe removing it from the playlist if it gets put in the Trash).

  • remain
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-07-08
  • Posts: 573

Re: Missing files behavior

Hmm, how about the iTunes approach: putting an exclamation point symbol on the left of the song in the playlist when played.

After all, some people might not even notice that Cog had skipped over a song in the playlist.

With an indicator, people would be sure to know there is a "broken" playlist entry and would remove it.

It informs... but it does not intrude.


Additionally, this feature could not only be limited to when Cog plays the missing file.
Perhaps there could be a "Check for missing files" function, which would:
-scan over the playlist and mark all the missing files with a symbol
-then select all the missing files, which would be convenient if one wants to delete them right away
This could be especially useful when building a playlist that you want to save.