Restore Tag from Backup

Access: Menu > File > Restore Tags, <Ctrl+Alt+R>

If you have created a backup of your tags as a CSV or XLS file using function "Main Menu > Save Taglist as" (<Ctrl+1> or <Ctrl+5>), or if you have created a list of tags outside the program, you can use this function to restore or import them. While it's also possible to drag and drop a CSV or XLS file directly onto a Main Editor page to initiate a restore, restoring via the Main Menu function allows you to 1) browse to a backup file anywhere on your system, 2) initiate a restore whether or not Drag & Drop Editing is enabled in Preferences, and 3) automatically restore in "Update Mode" rather than in Drag & Drop's optional "Overwrite Mode" (see Drag & Drop Editing in Preferences, General 2 page, for a description of these two modes).

As a usage example, say we have the list of tags shown below and would like to restore a few tags fields to the content they had at a previous backup:

Select "Restore Tags," browse to the appropriate backup file, then click the "OK" button to load the backup file and have a preview of anticipated results created (click the Cancel button or the surface of the Preview window at any time to pause or cancel a preview in progress):

Expected changes are shown in bold type in rows directly beneath rows containing existing tag data in regular type. Each file name has a check box to its left used to enable or disable changes for that particular file during a subsequent restore. Files with changes detected are automatically checked as a preview is produced. You can check or uncheck individual files by clicking anywhere on a file name line or on its change-preview line. Or select multiple rows as done in the Main Editor, then right-click on the Preview and choosing "Check selected" or "Uncheck selected" from the context menu. Use this same context menu to select or unselect all rows, or use the button at the bottom of the Preview. Once you are satisfied with the changes shown, click the "Commit Changes" button to write the changes to tags (clicking anywhere on the surface of the Main Editor will pause the operation, once begun, and allow cancellation).

In the initial Preview, tag fields that contain data where the backup file does not are flagged with a "***REMOVE***" designation. These tag fields are cleared during a restore. Comments, User Text, Lyrics, and MusicMatch Bio fields may contain long textual data, not all of which is shown in the Main Editor. CSV backups support the backup of lengthy text by retrieving the full text directly from a tag, rather than backing up just the visible text as shown in the Editor. XLS backups, on the other hand, will not do this. When restoring from an XLS backup, cells that contain text in excess of 200 characters in the Editor are flagged with a "***SKIP***" designation on the restore row. Cells with this designation are not operated upon during a restore.

Only columns visible and editable in the Main Editor are updated when a Preview or Restore is performed. Although a backup file may contain data for other columns, data belonging to hidden columns are simply skipped. As with most multi-file functions in Tag Clinic, the Restore function operates either on selected Main Editor rows, or on all rows if no rows are selected. By adjusting column visibility and selecting rows, it is possible to restore anywhere from just a single tag field in a single file, all the way up to a complete library of tags.

There are inherent limitations to using CSV and XLS files for backing up and restoring tag data. Only the first instance of a multi-instance field can be accommodated - only the first Comment, for example, if a tag contains more than one. Many tag fields may also contain sub-field data that is not backed up. The Comment field, again, has Description and Language sub-fields that may also contain data in addition to the comment itself. This extra information is not included in a backup and cannot be restored using this restore feature. Also, some types of tag data, such as images and encapsulated objects, are not stored in a tag in a textual format and do not lend themselves to this type of backup and restore medium. To get around these limitations, consider backing up to an MDB database file, an option available in Tag Backup & Restore.

Note that tag data entered via a Restore operation is processed exactly as if the data were entered by hand. Any auto-edit options in effect at the time of a restore are applied just as if the data were entered manually. Thus, for example, if auto-capitalize is in effect when restoring, a title such as "any song title" will restore as "Any Song Title." Similarly, if Preferences is set to disallow a Total Tracks number from being smaller than a Track number, and the backup file contains one of these situations, the Total Tracks number will not be restored.

Both CSV and XLS backup files can be edited (or even created) outside the program if desired, then imported later. Keep in mind, however, that Tag Clinic has an ASCII-only user interface. If you edit a backup file in MS Excel®, for example, you can easily introduce non-ASCII characters that will not be rendered correctly when imported into your tags.

Two things are required in a backup file in order for Tag Clinic to be able to use it for a Restore, or a Drag & Drop edit. First, the top line in the file must contain the list of column names in Tag Clinic into which the data is to be restored (backup files produced by Tag Clinic itself will automatically contain this line). Second, a "File Name" column must always be present. The file name column must be either the first or the second column listed (the first column may be a row number column if desired, although this column is not used during a Restore). In addition, if the program is listing multiple folders at the time a Restore is initiated, file names in the backup file will be required to contain fully-qualified names so that both a file name and a path name can be matched.

Auto-Renaming While Restoring

XLS backup files can be used to automatically rename files at the same time that tags are restored, if a column has been added to the backup file with header name "Rename To." During a restore preview, the program looks for a column by this name and, if a potential new name is found in this column, displays it in the "File Name" column in the applicable preview row. The program will attempt to rename existing files to the new names found in the backup file during a subsequent tag restore. File extensions are automatically added to text found in a "Rename To" column if not already present.