How to change the Date Added?

I tried to change the Date Added for some albums. I’d like that the Date Added corresponds to the file creation date (and not to the file modification date).
But when I select “Prefer File Creation” in the Album Editor, it is not the file creation date that is used, but the modification date. I did the same in the Track Editor, but it doesn’t work either.
Am I doing something wrong?

Thierry

Good question, I sometimes go back and review an albums metadata with ‘Metadatics’ and save any changes but would like to keep the original ‘date added’ info :slight_smile:

I also hoped to get more realistic adding dates by using the creation date of the file, but, as in your case, the results were no good. With some googling I learned that it depends on the used operating system and file system if the creation date is kept available.

I’m using Linux with the ext4 file system and for this combination there is no standardized way to access the creation date of a file, it seems the modification date is returned instead.

source: http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/91197/how-to-find-creation-date-of-file

Also for my case, my oldest files are copied between operating systems and file systems for the last ten years. For these files realistic creation dates are long gone.

I now fully rely on the ‘date added’ that is stored in the Roon database. For the initial import this doesn’t provide much info, but for all that is added afterwards it does.

Still, if the Roon team can somehow extract more realistic dates from my files I will be happy to use them.

I am in a Windows environment. For quite some time now, I use CATraxx to manage my musical library. Every CD and vinyl I bought is encoded in CATraxx, and so I know the purchase date of each one.
I sometimes like to navigate through my albums according to their date of acquisition (for example, to see the albums I have purchased in the last few months), and because Roon offers the possibility to sort the albums on the basis of their creation date, I thought I could use this option in order to sort my albums according to their purchase date. At first sight, it sounds very simple: I use Attribute Changer to change the creation date (I set the creation date to the date of acquisition), and then, in Roon, I select “Prefer File Creation” for the Date Added in the Album Editor.

Here’s a screenshot of the Attribute Changer window:

And the confirmation that the creation date as been successfully changed (file properties window):

So, why doesn’t Roon use the file creation date?
Is it a bug? In this case, it should be corrected.
But if the problem is actually more complicated (e.g., depending of the operating system and/or the file system used, as Jan suggested) and cannot be solved, then this option (“Prefer File Creation” for the Date Added) should be removed, I think.

Hi @Thierry_Meulemans ----- Thank you for the report and apologies for the troubles. May I kindly ask you please give us the details of your setup as seen here.

Furthermore, would you be able to send us a sample of content that you are noticing this issue with via a dropbox link in a PM? We would like to examine this issue in house to try and reproduce. If you could compress the content first and then provide a download link in a PM we would greatly appreciate it. If you are not a dropbox user I can provide another upload method.

-Eric

Hi Eric

Hereafter the details of my setup, as well as information regarding my network description.

My Setup:

  • version of Roon:
    This PC: Roon Version 1.2 (build 165) stable (64bit)
    Core: NAS-QNAP
    Roon Version 1.2 (build 165) stable (64bit)
    RoonServer is installed on an internal SSD drive of the NAS.

  • operating system (on my laptop) : Windows 10 Professional 64 bit

  • laptop computer: DELL XPS 13 (model: XPS 9394); Intel Core i7-5500U 2.40GHz (RAM=8 Gb); video controller: Intel HD Graphics 5500; audio controller: Realtek ALC3263 with Waves MaxxAudio

  • music files (large majority of FLAC files, some MP3 files) stored in the NAS (WD RED Pro Edition, 6TB - 7.200 RPM - 128MB cache)
    NAS: QNAP TVS-471 (Intel Core i3 / RAM : 4Gb) + SSD Samsung Pro 850 128 GB (where RoonServer is installed) + 3 HD Western digital RED Pro Edition 6 TB.

  • collection size: 22.400 tracks

Network description

  • router: Asus RT-AC87U AC2400 Firmware up to date (checked)
  • other networking hardware: NAS QNAP-TVS-471, Logitech Squeezebox Touch (connected to the router via Ethernet)
  • everything on the network is wired, except my laptop computer and other devices like tablets and smartphones (connected via WiFi)

I send you a PM with a dropbox link so you can see an example of files (from the album “Unison” of Aka Moon). The creation date of these files has been set to 2014-07-12 (with Attribute Changer). But, for some reason, I see that, after zipping these files, the creation date is changed to 2016-11-24. So, the creation date of the files that I send to you via dropbox does not correspond to the one of the same files used by Roon and stored in the watched folder (I don’t know why the zipping process changes the creation date of the files…).
But here is a screenshot of the results of the Album view Sorted by Date Added. You see that the Aka Moon album is shown as being the most recent one in my library (while the files’ creation date of this album is 2014-07-12…).

Thank you for your help (if you need other information, don’t hesitate to ask).

Thierry

1 Like

Hi @Thierry_Meulemans ----- Thank you so much for the follow up and the feedback! I wanted to confirm that the provided content has been received and has been placed into my testing queue for evaluation. Once I have had chance to test the media, I will follow back up with you asap with my thoughts/findings. I appreciate your patience as we look into this issue!

-Eric

Hi @Thierry_Meulemans ---- Thank you for your patience while we’ve been looking into this issue for you.

We have tested the provide media (thank you again) and unfortunately we have not had a lot of luck reproducing these issues. Among the tests we ran, we had no issues A) saving the modification date in app back to the modification date of your files (which was listed as a week ago after we unzipped them), or B) externally modifying the the file dates to 2014, and setting that as the modification date.

Moving forward, I would like to propose the following test. Select an album in your library that was imported some amount of months ago. In Windows, make any change to all the files on the album, such as adding or updating a tag. Please do this with standard tag editing software or from the Windows file property screen, as opposed to using the file tools you mentioned earlier.

Once the new modification date is shown in Windows for all the media, navigate to the content in Roon, select all the tracks, and use Roon’s editing features to set the import date to the newly edited modification time.

If the import dates update to reflect the change(s) made in Windows, this will be an important clue about what’s going on here. Let us know how it goes!

-Eric

Hi Eric,
Thanks a lot.
I did as you suggested. I selected the album “Like Minds” (Gary Burton), containing files created in november 2016. In Roon, after having setted the import date to the file creation date, here is what I obtain when I sort the albums by Date Added:


You see that the album is on the fifth screen (I have added a screenshot of the Windows file property screen, which confirms the creation date: November 10, 2016).

Then, I changed (on the Windows property screen) the content of a tag for all the files of the album, as you suggested (I simply added a commentary).
In Roon, I re-scanned the album and setted the import date to the file creation date again.
You see on the following picture that the album is now considered by Roon as the most recent one (it is now at the first place of the first screen of the album list):


You can also see that only the modification date has changed (not the creation date).
Because the import date was setted to the file creation date, the place of the album shouldn’t have changed in the album sorting screen.
Note that, if I set the import date to the File Modification date, the result is the same.

So, sorting the albums according to their Import Date setted to the File Creation Date doesn’t seem to work in my case (it is as if Roon could only sort according the the modification date…).

Unless I am doing something wrong?

Thierry

Hi @Thierry_Meulemans ----- Thank you for the follow up and sharing your feedback/observations with me. We went back and re-tested with the provided content again this evening and are still having a hard time reproducing this behavior.

Can you confirm for me if you are editing this information from the “tracks” listing or from the “albums” screen. Some screen grabs of the procedure would greatly help us verify that we are following in the same “foot steps”.

-Eric