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Citrus Alarm changes audio file last modified dates (6 posts)


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  • Started 9 months ago by bigbadsteve
  • Latest reply from Mark

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  1. bigbadsteve
    Member
    Posted 9 months ago

    Following installation of the latest version of Citrus Alarm Clock (v2.3.3.0), I was suprised when doing a file search for recently modified files to find that the Citrus program had changed the last modified dates of a number of my mp3 files.

    There's no question that Citrus Alarm Clock was the program in question since all the file dates were changed while the program was playing 'morning' alarm audio files, all the audio files were in the alarm's playlist, and no other audio programs were running at that time.

    Rather strangely, not every mp3 played by the alarm had its modified date changed - it looks like sometimes one or two consecutive mp3 files were not modified.

    I'm less than enthused at my mp3 files being modified by an alarm program at all, since for one thing it will mean for me unnecessary incremental backups of audio files which have had (I'd hope) no real change made.

    Why is the program altering mp3 files at all? Is it a 'quick and dirty' method of avoiding repeat plays? Or to store the mp3 gain? Or if none of the above, what exactly is being changed in my mp3 files by Citrus Alarm Clock?

    Also please note my request for a feature change to not alter users' audio files at all, unless it's very well explained upfront in program help & the Read Me, as well as being selectable in program options.

    If the above can be resolved I'll almost certainly buy the program; sad experience has taught me there's some pretty ordinary alarm freeware out there, and it's almost criminal how buggy some of it is.

  2. Mark
    Administrator
    Posted 9 months ago

    Hi Steve,

    To support the widest range of audio formats, Citrus uses the Windows Media API to play all the alarm media files. A side effect of this is that, by default, any media files that are missing some artist information, album artwork, or other such information, will have it added automatically by the Windows Media API and the file's last modified date will be changed. (Media files that already have complete information are left untouched).

    While I suppose this can be helpful, particularly when it comes to cataloguing songs, it's not for everyone. If you'd like to change this behaviour, you can do it within Windows Media Player, which controls a lot of the global settings for the API. Simply open Windows Media Player, find the Tools/Options menu item, and click the Library tab. There's an option entitled "Retrieve additional information from the Internet." Uncheck it, and files will no longer be modified by the Windows Media API whenever a file is played in any program that uses it, including Citrus Alarm Clock.

    I hope this helps, and please let me know if you have any other questions, comments, or suggestions.

  3. Anonymous

    Posted 9 months ago

    That setting was already unticked, so any other suggestions?

  4. bigbadsteve
    Member
    Posted 9 months ago

    The last post was mine, just so you know, Mark. A prompt to optionally login if a user logged out near the 'Reply Content' form on these webpages would be helpful.

  5. bigbadsteve
    Member
    Posted 9 months ago

    I'm guessing Mark is understandably pretty busy developing & providing support to paying customers so I'll answer my own question, having since done some research on it.

    For the benefit of anyone looking at buying Citrus Alarm Clock and reading this board topic: I see that Citrus's leading freeware competitor also changes audio file last modified dates, so it sounds like a peculiarity of Microsoft's Media Player API is certainly to blame and this is pretty much unavoidable; another freeware alarm clock I tried which used its own player software sucked extremely hard (buggy as hell). One could run another player in a Citrus Alarm Clock alarm instead, but in doing so one loses control of some player options.

    Since the Citrus program has many more features than its main freeware competition I'll be springing for a license as soon as I scare up the very reasonable price. Gotta love the "wake the computer from sleep or hibernation" feature; I'm already using Citrus Alarm Clock to cut my power bill by hibernating the computer on going to bed.

  6. Mark
    Administrator
    Posted 9 months ago

    Hi Steve,

    Sorry for the late response! I'm not sure how I missed your reply earlier, but thanks very much for the kind words!

    I've looked into the issue a little more, and it looks like the Windows Media API simply behaves this way by default, regardless of the settings in Windows Media Player. If there's a way to work around it, I'll find it, but in the meantime, you can always mark your music collection files as read-only to prevent date changes. I've also submitted a request to Microsoft to make this behaviour configurable to API users, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

    Cheers,


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