Odd issue when using Find Missing Media tool

I had an odd issue when using Find Missing Media tool.

I had about 18,000 media all in one folder – I created about 10 subfolders and move them to correct “category” subfolder. Then I used the RM fix broken media tool to “reset” links.
That all went well. I ended up with only 6 not found (which is probably correct).
[EDITS{

The issue was that I ended about with about 470 with NO MEDIA LINK – now I had originally 50 or so in media gallery but nothing near 470. Not sure what cause this just curious if there is a bug or something unique that caused this. it is possible the unused media being in the folder as contributing factor.

The diff also matches in some ways this is more confusion are they are in the gallery.
[EDIT] lacks contact but some variations of left to right would be expected as I have some files on computer that are NOT in media gallery but that has nothing to do with the issue with ***broken media fix tool

[addition[***

I can resolve this (and did ) with sqlite – my reason for reporting is that the seems be a bug or glitch and I was able to repeat the result using a restored database. It might take a person a long time to fix that issue by hand without the use of sqlite. Fortunately it took less time to fix my problem then the time I have spend trying to report and document.

Strange. Obituary seems to be the smallest folder with differences, I’d start by looking at what the differences are in that folder to see whether or not it gives a clue (duplicates?) hopefully to give a route forward.

Could it be that the 605 represent duplicate media files? A single media file can have multiple media links. Just a thought.

good call out but there are files in window folder not in RM Media gallery also so that lacks context (other than me)

this is more what I was talking about (Empty captions are expected) (not all 600+ showing)

yes that was what I was going to look for next

clarifying a the same media file can have more than one MediaID (this is separate from media link).

here is the result – and they were not that way before (maybe a small handful) but not more than 10
over 468 and Merge duplicate mediaID is not option with RM

The good news is I should be able to find the ones I need to keep and discard through Sqlite – but this is not something available to everyone.
I can look for MediaID with no links that are also duplicate and remove the ones that have ZERO links. Doing manually for ~500 in the RM UI would be tedious and more likely to fix wrong.

@rzamor1

I can pretty much confirm the all but one Media item was not duplicate before I moved files and ran media fix tool based on a db from few weeks back. I have not yet tried to replicate this from a backup file the most recent back just before I moved the files. That said the use of the tool might cause the 400+ media items without links I am guessing it has to do with the order of operation when RM is rebuilding things and sort of left orphans in the process. Something about the rebuilding cause them to be “used”. not sure if both “sets” are unused
see below from the new October data bases after running Media fix tools – for same reason it create new mediaID

the new mediaID have nolinks – these new mediaIDs appear to have been created by the MediaFixTool

example 17491 & 17492

Kevin

If you create a backup with media and restore it in a different folder see how those numbers compare. Based on the first screenshot you would still have 5 missing, but 0 unused. Links should be the same but media items should be different.

but that is NOT what I did – I never backup media in RM.

Running the tool after reorganizing files in subfolders should not create this issue. The tool
created duplicate mediaIDs while fixing and left “orphans” unused media for them.
so Same mediaFile/file path now has 2 mediaID but only one with mediaLinks the the other has none. This was same database not restored. I moved media to subfolders from the parent folder. Granted it had a nearly 98 % success rate — but over 400 is not a few outliers.

edit From adv tools info
(Most of the 605 should not be - I did have an intentional handful in gallery not attached)

ps. I will do video which I have time – I am probably not being clear with screenshots and context is getting lost

Using TreeShare can cause many duplicate files to be downloaded to a media folder. Every so often I use the utility Duplicate File Finder++ which allows me to move all duplicate files (with similar file names) in the RM media folder to a separate folder like “Duplicate Media”. Then using the RM media view, I can view the red “x” unlinked media and update the correct media file location. This approach results in duplicate link “mediaID”s but it has not been a problem since it makes reference to the intended media file. If a file is lost or unlinked, I still have access to the folder of duplicate media files created by Duplicate File Finder++.

that is true
I do not dowload from tree share

There was only one duplicate before but nearly 500 after.
database just before I made changes to structure of windows media folder

after running tool I have 468 Duplicates
that is from the tool. Same files, no changes in file names, only folder path locations changed in subfolder vs parent

I was not able to recreate this issue. I copied all of my media files into a folder in a different location on my drive, renamed the old directories so that all media links broke, and then ran fix media links pointed to the new directory structure. The Fix broken media links action repaired all media files and the before and after "Enhanced Properties List” matched. No media was put in an unused state.

I wonder if you can recreate this issue or if it was a 1-off.

Shame you didn’t perform a Backup immediate before embarking on this. You’d have the prior Enhanced Properties List to know the stats exactly and You could run iterations of the same full process to see if the results match exactly each time (or differ).

I have backup it would do no good in this scenario– what I said what I never backup with media.

yes I was going to attempt to recreate the issue from the backup before – so see if same thing happens and issue can be replicate – I plan to record steps to demonstrate (before and after) when I had time to do that.

I wasn’t talking about the media itself, just the Unused media: count (before vs. after).

here is a video replicating same result/problem with
sorry about the audio quality

RM Media Fix Glitch.mp4

Maybe i was confusing when I originally posted the “unused” media did not change. I originally thought that was part of the issue or maybe a contributing factor till I dug in further.. the unused media count did not change and it coincidentally very closely matched the file difference of Windows vs Media gallery. It was 608 before running and 608 after on unused (see video)– I had reason for this which I was going to work on later this year but want to track them as I need to link them later.

Well, what I initially quoted and several of the talking points were about that 600-ish number. That’s why my reply has clouded the problem discussion. Apologies ~