Moving and Renaming Files
Ora reconnects renamed, moved, or relocated files to their existing track, keeping analysis, cues, playlists, and tags.
Ora identifies a track by a fingerprint of the file, not its path. When a file you've imported reappears under a new name or location, Ora reconnects it to the existing track instead of marking it missing or importing a duplicate.
What's preserved
A reconnected file keeps:
- BPM, key, waveform, and energy analysis
- Cue points
- Playlist membership
- Tags, ratings, and play count
Nothing is re-analyzed.
When it runs
No action needed. Reconnection happens during normal scans:
- Live: while Ora is open, renames and moves inside library folders reconnect within seconds.
- On launch: Ora rescans every folder and matches anything that moved while it was closed.
- New drive: add the new folder once; every file matches by fingerprint.
How matching works
The fingerprint is a hash of the file's size plus a sample of its bytes, taken at import. Renaming or moving doesn't change the bytes, so the match holds. Re-encoding or converting does, so Ora treats that as a new track.
Two guards:
- Move, not copy: Ora only reconnects when the file at the old path is gone. If the original is still there, the new file imports as a separate track.
- No guessing: if a moved file could match two missing tracks, Ora leaves them missing rather than reconnect the wrong one.
Limitation
The fingerprint reads the start and end of the file, where tags live. Editing tags in place is fine: the fingerprint updates on the next scan. But if you rewrite tags and move or rename the file before Ora scans the edit, both signals change at once and the file imports as new. Reattach its cues and playlists by hand.
When you move a whole library folder
Fingerprint matching handles files moving around inside your library. A library folder itself moving is different: Ora is still pointed at the old path, so everything under it goes missing at once.
Tell it where the folder went. Open Folders in the sidebar, right-click the folder, and choose Relocate..., then pick its new home. Ora re-points the folder and rescans it, matching every file by fingerprint, so your analysis, cues, playlists, and tags all stay attached. If you were looking at that folder at the time, the view follows it across.
A few things to know:
- Only the folders you imported can be relocated, not the subfolders inside them. Relocate the folder you added.
- Pick a folder that's already in your library and Ora tells you so rather than merging the two.
- It waits for a running scan to finish first.
Spotting a missing file
A track whose file Ora can't find shows a red icon before its title. Hover it and it reads File missing. The track, and everything you did to it, stays put: it's the file that's gone, not the track.
Library health in the sidebar keeps a Missing files count, so you can see all of them together. If a whole folder has gone missing, relocate it rather than fixing tracks one at a time. If it's an unplugged drive, plug it back in and the files reconnect on the next scan.