finding folders on a drive that have no audio

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syrianprince
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 12:04 am

finding folders on a drive that have no audio

Post by syrianprince »

Hi,
I am having trouble getting my brain around what to search for to find folders on my D drive that contain no audio files. I want to delete folders which have no mp3 files, nor flac files nor ape files nor m4a files. I can do it for one filetype, but want to do it for all at the same time.
Hope someone doesn't mind helping me out
Thanks
salazor
Posts: 258
Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2014 10:52 am

Re: finding folders on a drive that have no audio

Post by salazor »

Do this first add audio files to the filter Menu | Search | Organize Filters... | Audio | Edit - unless you default settings will suffice - then type

Code: Select all

!audio:
syrianprince
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 12:04 am

Re: finding folders on a drive that have no audio

Post by syrianprince »

Thank you.
But it does not seem to do what I was hoping.

I typed -
d:\music\monkey !audio:

in the search box and the search provided me with many folders that had audio files in them or their subfolders. The files were included in the audio filter.
I want to find the folders that have other items but not audio in them.

Do I select Everything? I am sorry I do not understand well enough.
Thank you
void
Developer
Posts: 16669
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: finding folders on a drive that have no audio

Post by void »

Please try searching for:

Code: Select all

folder: d:\music\ !child:*.mp3 !child:*.flac !child:*.ape !child:*.m4a
syrianprince
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 12:04 am

Re: finding folders on a drive that have no audio

Post by syrianprince »

Thank you. That search string finds subfolders with audio files in them as well as the types of folders I am searching for. So it's partly there for what I am wanting. How does one include searching subfolders? I tried a trailing backslash eg d:music\ monkey\ but it does not seem to work. Maybe it's not possible to search what I am wanting to do?
That search string also finds folders that only have other folders in them i.e. no (in this case audio) files.
Would if be possible to search to include folders with files other than the specified types, but exclude folders that contain only other folders and not files? I want to be confident that I can bulk delete folders - but not subfolders - that do not contain audiofiles of the types I specify.
Apologies if I am not clear enough. I do appreciate the help given here very much.
best
sp
void
Developer
Posts: 16669
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: finding folders on a drive that have no audio

Post by void »

How does one include searching subfolders? I tried a trailing backslash eg d:music\ monkey\ but it does not seem to work. Maybe it's not possible to search what I am wanting to do?
Type the full path including the trailing backslash (\) for example:

Code: Select all

d:\music\monkey\
Would if be possible to search to include folders with files other than the specified types, but exclude folders that contain only other folders and not files?
I found a bug here, child: is not working for subfolders.
I've added to my TODO list to fix this issue.

Even if this function was working as intended, there is no way to differentiate between subfolders and subfiles.
I would need to add a new function entirely, which I've also added to my TODO list.

searching for empty: may also help you reduce some of the unnecessary subfolders.
Also please try searching for parents:x where x is the depth of the subfolders, this may help to locate folders.
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