Cubase Media Library BACKUP

I’d like to put some time into tagging my sample library. It would be a ton of work tho…
If I’d like to migrate to a new computer, how can I move over my entire tagged media library?

Do the tags get written to every file or is there a database file that I can back up?
(where IS this file then?)

Thanks;

Hi,

As far as I know, there is a dedicated mediabay file in every single MediaBay scanned folder. The tags are stored there. Please, double-check this, I’m not MediaBay expert.

I’ve tested this and I don’t see any files written to the wav folders. (even made sure there were edited fields for those files and no luck)

I have a feeling I’ve found it though… mediabay3.db in the appdata/roaming/Steinberg/Cubase11 folder.
Related question - Is the media library tagging included in a Profile Manager back up?

Given the huge time investment in tagging all your files, it would be amazing to be able to clearly back it up or migrate it. Even if I found the right file… I wonder is there anything else that needs to be included in the back up?

D

I do believe that the data is all written to the files themselves. Otherwise, when you delete Mediabay3.db, all data would be lost, but it isn’t.

The mediabay is a sql database which can be edited using a database browser – I used DB Browser for SQLite –

Also, I did an experiment – I made a duplicate of an audio file.

I opened mediabay and changed some tags on the file duplicate, and then compared to the original. The copied file’s size was changed, and date updated to the time mediabay added data.

Then I opened them using a text editor (PSPad) which revealed an entire XML data structure at the end of the audio file and the changes I made were easily found.

click to see xml data
<STEINBERG>
		<ATTR_LIST>
			<ATTR>
				<NAME>AudioSyncpoint</NAME>
				<TYPE>int</TYPE>
				<VALUE>63953</VALUE>
			</ATTR>
			<ATTR>
				<FLAGS>2</FLAGS>
				<NAME>MediaDuration</NAME>
				<TYPE>float</TYPE>
				<VALUE>43.427891</VALUE>
			</ATTR>
			<ATTR>
				<NAME>MediaRating</NAME>
				<TYPE>int</TYPE>
				<VALUE>5</VALUE>
			</ATTR>
			<ATTR>
				<NAME>MusicalCategory</NAME>
				<TYPE>string</TYPE>
				<VALUE>Vocal</VALUE>
			</ATTR>
			<ATTR>
				<NAME>MusicalCharacter</NAME>
				<TYPE>string</TYPE>
				<VALUE>Single</VALUE>
			</ATTR>
			<ATTR>
				<NAME>MusicalInstrument</NAME>
				<TYPE>string</TYPE>
				<VALUE>Vocal|Spoken</VALUE>
			</ATTR>
		</ATTR_LIST>
	</STEINBERG>
</BWFXML>
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Ah ok I get it thanks. That’s great news. I’ll keep tagging then, knowing it stays with the files.

Thanks!