I have a question regarding the handling of temporary files during metadata updates. Currently, when updating the metadata of MP3 files stored on a remote server, MP3Tag creates temporary files in the same directory as the original files. This process can be quite slow due to the limited speed of the server.
Question: Is there an existing option in MP3Tag to specify a local directory for storing temporary files during the metadata update process? If not, I would like to request this feature.
Proposed Feature: Introduce a configurable option in the settings to specify a local directory for temporary file storage. This would allow users to leverage the faster read/write speeds of their local storage, thereby speeding up the metadata update process while still updating the audio files on the slow servers.
Are you sure that it is faster to copy - let's say - a 20 MB mp3 file from your slower remote server to your faster local storage over your network, modifiy it and then copy it back to your slow remote server?
Would it not be faster to create a temporay copy on your remote target, modify it and at the end just rename this temporary file?
This question is serious, I don't know the outcome in your environment.
It's a Brennan B2 using a slow SMB connection to a Raspberry Pi. FLAC files are loaded into MP3Tag, which then saves a temporary file to the B2, updates the file, deletes the temporary file, and writes the FLAC back (I think).
So, the temporary file could be stored locally rather than over the network, thus having two locations: one for temporary work (local) and one for the final FLAC (server).
I could copy all the files to a local drive, update them, and then copy them back, but this is also a slow process.
That sounds weird. I'm not sure when it comes to MP3 files but at least for FLAC files, if you have sufficient padding, no rewrite should happen at all unless the change you make exceeds the free padding (which can happen when you for example embed an image).
I'd suggest you do this instead. Copying a batch of files from or to the server can happen unattended and changing files locally (at least if you have an SSD) should happen pretty much instantaneously.
While you have the files locally it would also be a good time to ensure that your FLAC files have enough padding so that future tag changes (even on the slow server) will happen quickly and without rewrites.
If you're unsure what padding is, I've tried to explain it here.
Yes and this file then gets renamed to the original filename and the original file is deleted.
This happens, AFAIK for files which have to be rewritten anyway as the padding is not big enough.
For MP3tag to process files, the file's information has to be transferred over the network (in your setup). And the updated information has to be sent back, again over the network.
Usually, no complete file gets transferred and a temporary file is only needed if the old file has to be rewritten.
Even though you noticed the temporary file next to the original file I doubt that a modified behaviour (create temporary file locally first and then transfer it back) would speed up things as it is the remote file handler and the slow connection that slows things down.
The advice to copy the files to the local drive and then transfer them back is a good recipe if you do not know how many modifications you want to carry out and whch effect on the size/padding they will have.