[FEATURE] Add an easier way to relocate a source file while retaining metadata

[JM117]

Description

A way to change the location of a source file while still retaining the original metadata.

What problem does this solve?

Right now, if you move a source file to a new location, the video will still appear in VHA, but lose all of its old metadata (rating, year, custom tags, etc.). This makes it tough to reorganize files without having to manually update all this info. There's also no way to correct stuff like a mistaken folder tag (since they can't just be deleted).

Proposed Solution

A button or tool to manually (re)locate the source file for a video -- so you can either move the file first and then set its new location in VHA, or use VHA to move the file directly (the same way you can rename a file by retitling the video in VHA). This could also be useful for updating the source of a video to a better-quality version without losing the existing metadata.

Additional context

As far as I can tell, the only way to do this is by manually editing the database file (which feels risky), or perhaps by symlinking. Since VHA can already rename files and uses folder names to generate tags, it would be nice to have this additional bit of leverage.

[whyboris]

Thank you for creating this Issue 🤝

Every video file gets hashed (the .jpg images are named using the hash string) - so an identical file in any other folder will generate the same hash (and no new screenshots need to be generated).

I thought I added some logic to re-use the already-present metadata in a video if a new one appears and an old one is marked for deletion (from the gallery - because the original is no longer there) -- to catch when a file is moved to another folder. I'll look around my code (it's been years!) and see what's happening (or if I never implemented this idea).

Either way, it would be very good to retain metadata as you suggest - and I'll try to get this feature bug-proof. The easiest (most seamless) way may be for VHA to re-use (copy) the metadata from a file if a new one is is identical to it. I'll have to think carefully about edge cases. 👍

[sebiimaks]

Retaining metadata is good, but it needs to be optional. The 'delete thumbnails' option is already a little patchy and opaque in operation, so it would be good to not have to battle too rigid an implementation when you need to rebuild. As the hub file is just a JSON, a good option is to have a way to export metadata natively in-app. The most common problem that I am correcting for is bad or absent thumbnails, so I use a script to export metadata as a CSV from the JSON so that I can add it back after the rebuild. I'm sure there's an easier way, but that's my current workaround.