How to remove multiple ghost tracks (0:00 / 0 MB) from library?

MarcVBMarcVB Member
in General

Hi everyone,

I'm a new Astiga user (joined just a couple of days ago) and have encountered a persistent problem with ghost tracks in my music library.

I've uploaded approximately 30 albums to Google Drive and connected my collection to Astiga. Unfortunately, I've discovered numerous invalid entries scattered across different artists and albums.

The problem:

  • Some tracks appear as "[unknown title]", while others have seemingly valid titles.
  • All affected entries show a duration of 0:00, a file size of 0 MB, and a bitrate of 0 kbps.
  • The "Storage account" field in their details is empty.
  • Some entries point to individual MP3 files, while others point to album folders rather than actual music files.
  • The corresponding ghost files cannot be found in Google Drive or in Astiga's metadata editor.
  • In some cases, a ghost track appears alongside a perfectly functioning version of the same song.

What I've already tried:

  1. Synchronizing my library repeatedly.
  2. Removing an affected album folder using "Remove files from index".
  3. Removing the entire artist folder using the same function.
  4. Refreshing the library and synchronizing again.

Unfortunately, none of these steps has resolved the issue. The ghost tracks remain or reappear.

I found a somewhat similar issue discussed in the thread "Can't delete my storage, Astiga keeps ghosts in songlist", but my situation seems slightly different, as I've only just started using Astiga and haven't removed or reconnected any storage accounts.

My questions:

  1. Is this a known issue with Astiga's indexing or synchronization process?
  2. Could Astiga be mistakenly indexing folders or invalid file references as music tracks?
  3. Is there a way to identify and remove all these ghost entries without deleting or rebuilding my entire music library?
  4. Could an administrator perform a server-side cleanup if necessary?

I'd also like to understand what causes these entries, so I can avoid the problem as I continue uploading my music collection.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Marc

Answers

  • gravelldgravelld Administrator

    Hi @MarcVB - we're taking a look at this now.

  • gravelldgravelld Administrator

    Hi @MarcVB - this looks like a bug in the metadata editor.

    When editing files it looks like it creates entries for parent folders, if they are selected when the update is submitted.

    For the 'ghost' files it looks like the edited files weren't synchronised when the metadata was updated. It looks like a bug here where the "Storage account" details (as you spotted) are not filled in, and the song can't be removed from the database as a result.

    Short term, we've cleared those out. Is it looking better now?

    We worked this out by looking at your library in our database, and found seven such files. If there are specific files and folders we missed you'll have to let us know what you are seeing.

  • MarcVBMarcVB Member

    Hi @gravelld,

    Thank you very much for investigating this so quickly and identifying the underlying bugs!

    I've checked my library, and the ghost tracks appear to be gone now. I really appreciate your help.

    I'll keep an eye on the library and let you know if any further ghost entries appear. Hopefully, the metadata editor bug can be fixed in a future update.

    Thanks again for the excellent support!

    Marc

  • MarcVBMarcVB Member

    Hi @gravelld,

    Unfortunately, I've just managed to reproduce the bug again.

    I tried editing the metadata of an album using Astiga's metadata editor. This time, I was very careful to select only the individual music files (all tracks in the album), without selecting any folders.

    After clicking "Save changes", two things happened:

    1. The metadata changes were not saved or applied.
    2. A new ghost track appeared in my library, listed as "[unknown title]" with a duration of 0:00.

    Interestingly, the ghost track's file path points to the first music file of the album I was trying to edit, rather than to an album folder.

    This suggests that the problem is not limited to accidentally selecting parent folders. It also occurs when selecting only music files for a batch metadata update.

    For now, I'll stop using the metadata editor until the issue is resolved.

    Could you please investigate this additional case and remove the newly created ghost track?

    So sorry and many thanks again for your help!

  • gravelldgravelld Administrator

    Sorry @MarcVB - I didn't mean to imply it's limited to only when selecting parent folders. It appears to be caused either by saving with a folder selected or by saving a file that hasn't been added to the library yet.

    The file you edited had been skipped in sync because of a temporary block and timeout when updating genres related to the file. This isn't a problem with the file, it's a deadlock in our database. This is a separate bug; we'll fix that.

    I cleared the rows again.

  • MarcVBMarcVB Member

    Hi @gravelld,

    Thanks again for looking into this so quickly and for identifying the underlying issues! I really appreciate your support.

    It's good to know that the problem isn't with my music files themselves. I'll continue uploading and synchronizing new albums, but will avoid using the metadata editor until the bugs have been fixed.

    I've checked my library, and the ghost tracks appear to be gone again.

    Thanks for your efforts, and please keep us posted when the fixes are implemented!

    Best,

    Marc

  • gravelldgravelld Administrator

    👍🏽

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