How to add network folders to My Movie Manager

How to add network folders to My Movie Manager

A lot of people might want to be able to scan and catalog movies from thier network folders.

Even though My Movie Manager claimed that it can work wth network folders, I forgot to add a user interface for adding network drives/folders to the list of watched folders. This was becuase I didn't actually have a network drive at the time, and I tested the feature by sharing one folder in my father's computer to mine. I had manually added the path to the folder in the configuration file for My Movie manager and then later removed it. I didn't rememebr about this until one day someone asked the question "How to add a network drive to list of Watched folders."

Since I don't want to work on this application anymore, (It's written using outdated technologies, and the code is really bad as I didn't have any professional experience back then) I thought of writing up the steps to edit the configuration file for users who would want to stick with My Movie Manager and have the option of cataloging their movies over the network.

I know this is not the ideal way to fix this problem. Please read on only if you are willing to edit the configuration file for having this functionaity.

Steps

1. Find the folder where My Movie Manager is installed. This is usually "C:\Program Files (x86)\My Movie Manager" in 64 bit Windows, and "C:\Program Files\My Movie Manager" in 32 Windows. If you are unsure which version of Windows you use, check both the locations. Alternately, you can right click on the desktop shortcut and choose "Open file location" option.

2. There will be a folder called 'Data' inside the installation folder, inside which, there is a file named 'Loc.xml'. Copy this file and keep a backup somewhere. Then open this file in notepad by right clicking and choosing edit.

3. You will be able to see the list of watched folders as seen in the screenshot.

   

4. Add one more line to it as shown below. The highlighted text is the path of your network folder. Save the file and open My Movie Manager.

   

5. Click "Scan watched folders" option from the Menu, and it should list your movies from the network folder.

6. Sometimes, you may need administrator privilages to save the file after editing. Solution is to open notepad as administrator by right clicking notepad icon and clicking "Run as Administrator" and then opening the "Loc.xml" file using the "File > Open" menu option. Another way is to copy the "Loc.xml" to your desktop, edit the file in your desktop and copy back to the installtion folder, and replace the existing file.

7. You can have folder paths like, \\<Shard computer Name>\Shared\Folder\Name or \\<IP Address of the shared computer>\Shared\Folder\Name.

8. Make sure that the network folders are added at the last, after all the local folders. If you add it as the first folder, My Movie Manager will stop loading movies if the shared folder is offline. This is applicable if you have multiple network folders as well. As soon as My Movie Manager encounters a problem loading movies from one of the folders given in the configuration file, it stops loading movies from the folders listed after that folder. This is unintentional and a bug in the application.

9. If things don't work after editing the configuration. I'm sorry!! You will have to do without the network folder functionality. You can replace the modified configuration file with the backup file you created in step 2, and things will be as it was before.

10. You can always move on to a better Movie manager, which has this feature. Honestly, that would be the last thing I would want you to do as the developer of this application, however that's the best advice I can give you at the moment. If My Movie Manager ever makes it to a new version with up to date features, and you want to be notified about it, please register your email address here. I am too lazy to spam you with unwanted emails, so you don't need to worry about that :) .