Library

ECHO is local-library first. After you import a folder, it reads titles, artists, albums, artwork, and duration, then builds a local catalog. The files stay in their original folders; the app only keeps a searchable, paged index.

A messy library usually means messy tags, not a player that “does not recognize music”. This page shows how to inspect first, then edit a small set of tracks. To tidy folders before import, see How to keep music folders tidy.

First Import

Do not import an entire drive on the first run. Start with a small check:

1. Prepare a folder with 3 to 10 known-good tracks.
2. Import it from Import Folder.
3. Check Songs, Albums, and Inbox for tracks, artwork, and album grouping.
4. Double-click a track and confirm playback.
5. Import the full library afterward.

This separates “does ECHO work” from “does this large library need cleanup”, which makes troubleshooting much faster.

Import Lag Is Normal

Lag, slower progress, and higher CPU or disk usage during the first import of a large library are normal. ECHO has to:

• Enumerate audio files in folders.
• Read tags from MP3, FLAC, M4A, WAV, OGG, and other files.
• Extract or cache artwork.
• Calculate duration, codec, sample rate, and bit depth.
• Write the results into the local library catalog.
• Refresh album, artist, and folder grouping.

Avoid running full remote syncs, large downloads, full-library artwork completion, or other heavy background work while import is running. Finish the first import before doing tag cleanup, artwork completion, or remote sync.

Scan And Rescan

Importing the same path again should behave like a rescan, not a duplicate library. Rescan when:

• You added many tracks to a folder.
• You changed tags in bulk.
• Artwork or track order changed.
• Files were moved, replaced, or restored.

Do not treat full-library rescan as the first fix for everything. If one album is wrong, fix that album’s tags first. If one folder is wrong, rescan that folder first.

Tags And Album Grouping

When albums look wrong, check these fields:

Field	Effect
title	Track title
artist	Track artist
album	Album title
albumArtist	Album artist; decides whether same-named albums merge
trackNo	Track order
discNo	Multi-disc order
year	Year display
Artwork	Album wall, player, and detail views

Tracks from the same album should usually share the same album and albumArtist. Compilations, soundtracks, and multi-artist albums especially need a clean albumArtist.

Network Metadata

Network metadata is useful for filling missing information. It should not overwrite high-confidence tags you already curated. Recommended priority:

• Manual local edits first.
• Embedded tags first.
• Folder structure and same-folder artwork first.
• Network results as candidates or weak completion.

Before applying network results in bulk, try a small selection. Do not overwrite the whole library in one step.

File Safety

The ECHO library index is not the same thing as your real audio files. Normal library maintenance should respect these boundaries:

• Removing a library record should not automatically delete real music files.
• Missing files should be marked missing or repaired, not used as a reason to erase history immediately.
• Tag writing, move repair, and bulk operations should require explicit user confirmation.
• Before deleting, renaming, or moving real files, check the path and keep a backup.

Large-Library Tips

• Use search, paging, sorting, and folders to narrow problems.
• Back up important music files before bulk tag edits.
• Keep the computer powered and prevent external drives from sleeping during scans.
• Network drives, removable drives, and NAS libraries depend on device and network speed.
• If something fails, screenshot scan progress and error details before sending a report.

A folder layout that stays maintainable

ECHO can read messy folders, but tidy folders need fewer tag edits later:

D:\Music\
  Artist\
    2003 - Album\
      01 - Track.flac
      02 - Track.flac
      cover.jpg
  Various Artists\
    2020 - Some Soundtrack\
      01 - First Track.flac

You do not have to follow this exactly, but try to:

1. Keep one album in one folder.
2. Do not split one album across three unrelated directories.
3. Put artwork in the album folder; cover.jpg and folder.jpg are common names.
4. Do not mix installers, archives, and photos into the music root and then import the whole thing.
5. For cloud sync folders, wait until files are fully downloaded. Placeholder files that only show a name will scan terribly.

Filenames help you recognize tracks, but ECHO reads tags first. A filename of 01 Foo.flac will still group badly if the embedded album tag says Unknown.

Where to look after import

Import indexes files. It does not copy your music into ECHO.

Order	Page	What to check
1	Inbox	Newly imported tracks
2	Songs	Titles, artists, and duration
3	Albums	Split albums and wrong artwork
4	Folders	The directory you actually selected

If Songs looks empty, do not reinstall the app. Check first:

1. Is the scan still running?
2. Did you search the wrong text?
3. Are you on Albums or Favorites instead of the all-songs page?
4. Does the source folder actually contain audio files?

Using the Inbox

Inbox is for tracks that just arrived and have not been organized yet.

1. After an import or rescan, open Inbox first.
2. Play a few tracks to confirm the files are healthy.
3. Fix obviously wrong tags on the spot.
4. Add keepers to playlists or favorites.

The Inbox is a staging area, not a second library. Do not use it as permanent organization.

Fix one album

Fix one album first. Do not rescan the whole library because two albums look wrong.

1. Diagnose what kind of mess it is

What you see	Most likely cause
One album split into two	Inconsistent album or albumArtist spelling
Track order is 5, 2, 1, 8	trackNo is empty or wrong
Two discs interleaved	Missing discNo
Artwork from a different album	Inconsistent embedded or folder artwork
A compilation split into many per-artist albums	Compilation missing a shared albumArtist

2. Know what each field decides

Field in the tag editor	What it decides
Title	The track name in song lists
Artist	The performer of this track
Album	Which album it belongs to
Album artist	Whether same-named albums merge
Track number	Position within the album
Disc number	Which disc
Year	The year on the album wall

Within one album, album and albumArtist must match exactly. Jay Chou, jay chou, and Jay Chou (trailing space) can be three different people to the software.

3. Edit step by step

1. Open Albums and click into the wrong album.
2. Note which tracks should belong together.
3. Go back to Songs and select all of them.
4. Right-click and edit tags.
5. Fix album and albumArtist first, then track and disc numbers.
6. Save.
7. Reopen Albums and confirm the merge.
8. If it did not merge, check for a missed track or a stray space in one album name.

For compilations, soundtracks, and multi-artist albums, set one shared albumArtist such as Various Artists. Do not give every track a different album artist.

Fixing wrong artwork

Artwork usually comes from these sources, in this priority:

1. A cover you manually chose or confirmed.
2. The image embedded in the audio file.
3. A cover.jpg-style image in the album folder.
4. A network candidate.

Work through it in this order:

1. Open the album folder in File Explorer and check whether a cover image exists.
2. Use another player or a tag tool to check whether the files embed a cover.
3. Confirm every track in the album embeds the same image. One track with a different image can break the album wall.
4. Once local artwork is confirmed clean, refresh the cover cache.

Do not clear the whole cover cache as a first move. Decide first whether this is one album’s problem or a library-wide problem. Network artwork is for albums that never had a cover, not for overwriting high-quality covers you already curated.

Duplicate tracks and missing files

Seeing two nearly identical tracks after importing a large directory is common. Possible causes:

• The same folder was imported under two different parent paths.
• You keep both the MP3 and the FLAC.
• Cloud sync created another copy.

First distinguish “duplicate records” from “two real files”. Check the paths in File Explorer. ECHO’s library records can be cleaned up, but do not expect one button to delete files from your disk.

When files show as missing:

1. Check whether the drive is connected and whether its letter changed.
2. Check whether you moved the files to another folder.
3. Check whether cloud files turned back into placeholders.
4. Once the files are confirmed present, rescan that folder.
5. Do not rebuild the whole database over a few missing tracks.

When to rescan, when to leave the database alone

Rescan makes sense when:

• Many new tracks were added to a folder.
• You just bulk-edited tags with an external tool.
• Artwork or track order changed in specific directories.

Do not reach for it first when:

• Playback has no sound.
• One track’s lyrics are off.
• One album title is misspelled.
• The wrong output device is selected.

One album’s problem gets one album’s fix. One folder’s problem gets one folder’s rescan. Full-library rescan and database rebuild are last resorts, not routine maintenance.

Safe habits while organizing

1. Edit 3 to 5 tracks first, check the result, then go bulk.
2. Back up important files before tag edits.
3. Do not unplug external drives mid-scan.
4. Do not run library-wide artwork completion, library-wide tag edits, and exclusive-mode listening at the same time.
5. Removing a record from the library usually does not delete the music file on disk. If you really want to delete files, do it in File Explorer, deliberately.

Your library is a long-term asset. Click freely when listening; click carefully when editing tags.