Issue with Date Added field

[HandyAndy136]

Hello! I just installed Winamp this evening, and I'm really liking what I'm seeing so far. However, I've run into a fairly irritating issue. I imported my iTunes library, and everything (play counts, ratings, etc) got transferred, except for the Date Added field. In the Date Added field is the time that I imported the iTunes library (so everything says something along the lines of "26/01/2015 11:03:20 PM").

Oddly though, the Date Added as listed in iTunes is instead put in the Date Updated field. This would be fine, except for the fact that if I edit a track's metadata for whatever reason, then Date Updated gets updated (heh) to the time of the metadata edit. This is a little frustrating as I would rather like to keep about 6 years' worth of music history. So, I'm wondering whether this is an easily-fixed issue, and if so what can be done to solve it. Thanks all!

[Aminifu]

Winamp is acting as it was designed. The 'Date Added' field tracks the date and time when items are first added to the media library (i.e. when you imported them). A file's location is considered as a part of it's unique id. If a file is moved or copied to a different folder it is treated as a different file and will get a new 'Date Added' when it is first scanned into the media library. The only way to workaround the 'Date Added' rule is to export the library database as a ".xml" file, manually edit the 'Date Added' values, and import the database back. Definitely not an easy fix.

Any time Winamp (or any app that changes a file's modified date and time stamp in the Windows file system) is used to change anything in a file, the file's modified date and time stamp is updated, so the 'Date Updated' field reflects that. Most 3rd party tag editors have the option of not changing a file's date and time stamps. However this has consequences, read the 2nd paragraph below.

There are also utilities (like "Attribute Changer") that can change a file's modified date and time stamp (and other file system properties), then the file can be rescanned into the media library and Winamp's 'Date Updated' field will reflect the edited date and time.

Rescanning can be done manually and there are options that can be used to have it done automatically in various ways. Look on the General Preferences (keyboard shortcut is <Ctrl + P>) - Media Library - Local Library - Watch Folders tab. To save scanning time, Winamp will not rescan a file already in the library (unless forced to) whose modified data and time stamp ('Date Updated' value) has not changed. Winamp assumes nothing in a file changed if it's modified date and time stamp has not changed and it's a waste of time to rescan it. Selecting all (or some) of the files in the library and using the right click context menu command to "Read metadata on selected items" will force Winamp to rescan everything selected.


The 'Date Added' as listed in iTunes being put in the 'Date Updated' fields sounds like a bug, if these values are not the same as the files' modified date and time stamp values.


As far as music history is concerned Winamp provides 2 ways of tracking how many times and the last time each file is actually played, the 'History' view and the 'Recently Played' smartview. There are separate options in General Preferences for selecting at what point during playback the files are tracked for both views and an option for selecting how long items are kept in the 'History' log. The 'Recently Played' smartview can be edited to change the time period that is considered recent.