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Collections

This page tells Guayadeque where your music is. The program works with one or more Collections, each one an independent library with its own folders, cover words and options, while the settings at the bottom of the page apply to all of them.

Collections is the list on the left. Use the buttons beside it to add a collection (you are asked for its name), to move the selected one up or down and to delete it; double-click a collection to rename it. Names must be unique. The collections of connected portable devices and iPods also appear in this list, but they cannot be edited here.

Deleting a collection now asks for confirmation and warns that all its data will be lost — tracks, covers, ratings, play counts and the static playlists of that collection. The delete button stays disabled while the selected collection is the only one.

Paths are the root folders of the selected collection, where all the music of that collection is. You can add as many as you need, for example different external drives. Use the buttons on the right to add a folder (chosen in a folder dialog) and to remove the selected one, and double-click a path to change it to another folder; a folder already in the list is not added twice. Leaving the mouse over the list shows the collection name, its id and the date of its last update.

Adding, removing or changing a path marks that collection to be scanned. When the preferences are closed with OK after a path was edited, Guayadeque asks 'Do you want to scan the edited collections now?'. Answering Yes rescans only the collections whose paths were edited, and No leaves the scan to be started later from the Library menu.

Words to detect covers are the words used to find the cover images in the album folders of the selected collection. An image whose file name contains one of these words is taken as a cover, and so is an image whose name carries the album name. Use the buttons to add a word, edit it (or double-click it), move it up or down and remove it; the words are stored in lower case. The first word of the list is the name used for the covers downloaded from the web or extracted from the audio files. By default the list carries 'cover', 'front' and 'folder', and a new collection copies the list of the first one.

Options holds the settings of the selected collection:

• Update when opened: the collection is updated (new and changed files) when Guayadeque starts.
• Create playlists on scan: static playlists are created from the m3u and other playlist files found in the music folders during a scan. Uncheck it to ignore those files.
• Follow symbolic links on scan: symbolic links found in the collection folders are scanned as normal folders.
• Scan embedded covers in audio files: the cover image embedded in an audio file is extracted and used as the album cover. Uncheck it to scan only the image files of the folders.
• Embed rating, play count and labels: the rating, the play count and the labels of a track are also kept in the tags of its file, and read from there when the file is scanned.
• Enable search with accented characters support in the library (slower results): the search also finds words written with accents, so 'e' finds 'é', 'è' and 'ê'. It makes the search slower.
• Default copy action: which of the actions configured in Copy To is the default one for this collection, or 'None'.

Separators between multiple artists chooses which signs inside an artist field mean that several artists are credited: &, ;, |, +, feat. and featuring. A track by 'Artist 1 & Artist 2' then appears under both artists. Only & is checked in a new configuration. A / always separates and is not in the list, because it is also the form used to join the names. The separators only decide how the library groups and lists the tracks: the artist name itself is kept exactly as the file stores it, so ticking or unticking a box does not rewrite any tag. When a box is changed, OK asks if the artists of the library should be re-split right away; answering No leaves the splitting of the existing tracks as it is until the next update or rescan of the collection, and it can be applied later by changing a box again and accepting the prompt.

Single artists lists the artist names that must stay as one artist even when they contain one of the separators, like AC/DC, Simon & Garfunkel or Earth, Wind & Fire. The comparison ignores upper and lower case. Add, edit (or double-click) and remove the names with the buttons. A name is only kept in one piece while it is in this list, so removing an entry splits it again on the next library update or rescan; the names shipped by default can all be changed or removed. The list is shared by all collections.

Write ID3v1 tag also keeps an ID3v1 tag beside the ID3v2 one when the tags of an MP3 file are saved, for very old players. When it is unchecked, an existing ID3v1 tag is removed from the file on its next save. This option also applies to all collections.

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