Rhythmbox doesn't add/import MP3s from ~/Music on Ubuntu Gnome 15.04

Question

I just installed Ubuntu Gnome 15.04, all my music is located in /home/user/Music/, e.g. /home/user/Music/Back to The Future.

I run Rhythmbox and try to import all MP3s to the player, but nothing happens. I selected the path /home/user/Music/, but Import x listed tracks remains disabled. I checked the preferences, the parameter Music files are placed in has the right value: file:///home/user/Music. Why can't Rhythmbox just import my MP3s? What should I do in order to see these files inside Rhythmbox library?

All needed codecs are installed already. When I click on MP3-file it's opened with video player and played there. I paid attention that Gnome Music also doesn't display MP3s inside of ~/Music, probably, there is the same root of these two problems.

Execution of

ls -l ~/.local/share/rhythmbox

Returns:

total 132
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user   1386 May  3 22:20 playlists.xml
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user      0 May  3 21:31 podcast-timestamp
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 129653 May  3 22:16 rhythmdb.xml

Solution 1

Based on our discussion, I assume that the database was corrupted.

Delete it:

rm ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/rhythmdb.xml

or rename it:

mv ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/rhythmdb.xml ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/rhythmdb.xml.bak

And start the import again.

Solution 2

In order to be able to decode and play MP3 files, You need to install required decoder which is not installed on Ubuntu by default, And are provided in the package called "ubuntu-restricted-extras".

Run this in a terminal to install that package :
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

After installing those, Try to import your MP3 files again.
If failed (Which is your problem now !) it's probably because the database was corrupted.

So as A.B. said, You can just delete the database and re-import :
rm ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/rhythmdb.xml

At this stage the shouldn't be any problem with Rhythmbox importing mp3 files.

Solution 3

For me, on 16.04LTS, import suddenly stopped working after an update. The fix was to install the ubuntu-restricted-extras as above, then pause and close rhythmbox, then start rhythmbox again; then, import was working again. I did not delete or rename rhythmdb.xml . This is worth a try before you re-import your entire collection.

Comments

[msaad]

Works for me after doing 'sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras' (may not be necessary for everyone). Ubuntu 16.04 running cinammon 3.

[David Foerster]

This is essentially the same as A.B.'s earlier answer.

[Carlton]

Deleting the database AND installing ubuntu-restricted-extras was the fix for me.

[MrMowgli]

Indeed didn't work for me. I suspect that this is the restricted formats issue mentioned by msaad, and amusingly this just started happening after an update. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS