Reaper's Media Explorer doesn't show all folders (FIXED)

JoostJanssensDS · 05-17-2020, 08:14 AM

Alright I've been toying with this and Googling to find any answers to this:

I am browsing to a certain folder on my hard drive. When I get there, there should be two folders: Projects, and Samples. However, Reaper only shows the Samples folder, keeping the Projects folder invisible. Yet, when I switch the media explorer to Windows Explorer mode, my Projects folder becomes visible again.

Is there some kind of preference I am not seeing or finding? Why is it that one of the two folders is hidden in one mode but not in the other? I don't understand what is going on here.

KASETA · 05-29-2021, 02:34 PM

Does anyone have an idea why this is happening for some folders?

I have few folders in my Splice directory that are not being shown in Reaper's Media Explorer no matter what. They do contain wav samples and they are shown in other DAW's (Ableton Live, Bitwig)

Jezston · 07-13-2021, 07:27 AM

Found this thread as I am having the same problem. And this is rather urgent that I get it resolved.

I've just started working with a new client, using one of their PCs, and Media Explorer does not see my sound effects library on my external drive. It sees every other folder in that drive, but not the one I need Media Explorer to actually see and build a database from!

Made sure the folder is not hidden or read only, but it just does not show up. Screenshot attached.

EDIT: I should add I can't copy the data to the local drive, not only for legal reasons, but that the computer doesn't have enough capacity lol

Justin · 07-14-2021, 05:20 AM

Hmm if you view the folder properties in windows, what does it show? What REAPER version is this?

Jezston · 07-14-2021, 05:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin

Hmm if you view the folder properties in windows, what does it show? What REAPER version is this?

Nothing out of the ordinary, and have latest version (downloaded yesterday)

Justin · 07-14-2021, 05:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jezston

Nothing out of the ordinary, and have latest version (downloaded yesterday)

Hmm, can you open a PowerShell command prompt and do:

Code:

dir D:\

and post that output here?

Justin · 07-14-2021, 06:06 AM

If you type in the path to the media explorer’s address bar, does it work?

Jezston · 07-14-2021, 06:11 AM

Some more info:

- Browsing in command prompt also demonstrates the same issue, however I can go to the location by manually entering "cd Sound Effects"

- There is actually some weirdness in the properties in Explorer. It shows some files as being read only. If I uncheck this box, it spends a little while processing everything, says nothing is now read only, but if I exit the properties and go back, it says again that some files are read only.

Jezston · 07-14-2021, 06:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin

If you type in the path to the media explorer’s address bar, does it work?

Yes! Can't believe I didn't try that.

Dragging and dropping the contents to a database, will take a little while I expect, lets see what happens.

Justin · 07-14-2021, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jezston

Some more info:

- Browsing in command prompt also demonstrates the same issue, however I can go to the location by manually entering "cd Sound Effects"

- There is actually some weirdness in the properties in Explorer. It shows some files as being read only. If I uncheck this box, it spends a little while processing everything, says nothing is now read only, but if I exit the properties and go back, it says again that some files are read only.

Hmm sounds like it’s marked as hidden then?

Jezston · 07-14-2021, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin

Hmm sounds like it’s marked as hidden then?

It shows up in explorer just fine, even if I turn off 'show hidden folders and files'.

EDIT: Now this is interesting, if I look at the properties of the folder, the 'Hidden' checkbox is unchecked, but its *also* greyed out, so I can't tell it to be hidden or not. That's very odd.

schwa · 07-14-2021, 07:18 AM

What do you see if you run

Code:

attrib whateverthisfileis

from a command prompt? Perhaps it's marked as a system folder.

Justin · 07-14-2021, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jezston

EDIT: Now this is interesting, if I look at the properties of the folder, the 'Hidden' checkbox is unchecked, but its *also* greyed out, so I can't tell it to be hidden or not. That's very odd.

Quote:

Originally Posted by schwa

Perhaps it's marked as a system folder.

Bingo. Try:

Code:

attrib -s "D:\whatever invisible path"

Edit: also, making it so folders marked with the system attribute are visible (coming in 6.33).

Jezston · 07-15-2021, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin

Bingo. Try:

Code:

attrib -s "D:\whatever invisible path"

Edit: also, making it so folders marked with the system attribute are visible (coming in 6.33).

This fixed it! Thanks, I had managed to rebuild the library last night by manually entering the address then adding that to a library - apologies for the late reply but had to leave it running overnight.

But this command now makes it show up in reaper. Thanks so much!

I had trouble with other attrib commands I found before because it didn't like the folder name, but doing it in "quotes" made it work.

I wonder how this actually happened.

spantini · 07-19-2021, 07:44 AM

I couldn't see my Samples folder. I had to open File Explorer, navigate to my Samples folder, manually copy that address (or remember it), then go back to Media Explorer and manually type that address into the address bar. Then it opened right up. I then added it to the shortcut list on the left.

Strange thing though, I could right-click menu copy the address of the Sample folder, but when I went to paste it into Media Explorer's address bar there was no paste option - that's why I had to type it in.

Edgemeal · 07-19-2021, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spantini

Strange thing though, I could right-click menu copy the address of the Sample folder, but when I went to paste it into Media Explorer's address bar there was no paste option - that's why I had to type it in.

Ya it should have its own context menu, I mentioned this in pre-release when they were adding all that new stuff, but they never changed it, Workaround is to use Control+C/V keys to copy and paste text into that field.

DarkStar · 07-19-2021, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin

Edit: also, making it so folders marked with the system attribute are visible (coming in 6.33).

I do hope that that is a Preference as they are not really meant to be user-accessible.

It seems very odd that Jezston's folder on an external drive was flagged as such.

spantini · 07-19-2021, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spantini

...Strange thing though, I could right-click menu copy the address of the Sample folder, but when I went to paste it into Media Explorer's address bar there was no paste option - that's why I had to type it in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edgemeal

Ya it should have its own context menu, I mentioned this in pre-release when they were adding all that new stuff, but they never changed it, Workaround is to use Control+C/V keys to copy and paste text into that field.

I never remember to use Control+C/V.. It does work. Thanks for the reminder