MCEBuddy deletes converted files when source drive is not available

Bugs / Feature Requests Bugs
1

MCEBuddy Version: 2.7.1

Operating System: Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 x64

Summary of the problem: When “Sync converted files” is enabled and source directory cannot be accessed, MCEBuddy deletes all of the corresponding converted files. More specifically, when MCEBuddy performs a file scan, it checks the history file. For each “original file” listed there that is on a mount point that no longer exists, it deletes the “converted file”. The folly here is that the drive with the source files being inaccessible should not be taken to indicate that the user intentionally removed it and all monitored files that it contains.

Steps to replicate the bug: Enable “Sync converted files” in Settings → General Settings. Add a monitor location on a second, non-boot drive and a conversion task that converts and copies it to a third drive or network location. Add a video file to the monitored location and wait for it to convert. Shut down PC, disconnect the drive with the monitor location on it. Start up the PC. Observe that the MCEBuddy service deletes the converted copy of the file.

Alternative steps (untested): Instead of shutting down the PC and disconnecting the drive, run diskmgmt.msc and simply remove the drive letter assignment, then click Scan in MCEBuddy.

Proposal: I would like to see this behavior changed to check whether the source exists before determining that the file it enclosed no longer exists. You do not appear to have the actual configured monitor location stored for each conversion job in the history file, so you may only be able to check whether the drive itself exists. For my purposes, this is good enough. For example, if the source file is “F:\Media\!Mirrored\!Home-Global\TV Series\My Series\S01E01 - Belly Button Madness.mkv”, check to see if “F:\” exists before attempting to “sync”/delete anything. Likewise with UNC paths like “\\myserver\mediashare\” in example “\\myserver\mediashare\TV Series\My Series\S01E01 - Belly Button Madness.mkv”.

While testing another drive, I booted up my PC running MCEBuddy without the source media drive connected. MCEBuddy deleted over 10,000 converted video files from my network media shares that were logged in the history file. I do not back up the converted files because they can be regenerated, but it will take weeks to recovert all of these files. I expected this possibility in the event of a hardware failure, but did not expect an oversight in MCEBuddy to be a cause of it.

My log file is on the FTP server.

2

I have worked around this for now using a babysitter script. The script starts with elevated privilege before the MCEBuddy Service starts, and checks every 10 seconds to see if “F:\Media\” (the root path for all my source files) exists. If the path does not exist, the babysitter immediately disables the MCEBuddy service and kills its process. (This keeps MCEBuddy from going rogue and deleting all the destination files.) If the path reappears, the babysitter enables and starts the MCEBuddy service.

Obviously, this is not ideal. I’d love to see this issue fixed in MCEBuddy so I don’t have to maintain this kludge.