What's new?

This post is about CLZ Books Android v5.0.7 and CLZ Music Android v5.0.8

Fixed:

• Permission dialog will now pop up in the barcode scanning screen when the app does not have camera permissions.
• Small text fixes

This post is about CLZ Books iOS v5.0.5, CLZ Music iOS v5.0.5 and CLZ Movies iOS v5.0.2.

Improved:

• When trying to send a support e-mail, instead of showing an error message, redirect to a web based contact form if there is no e-mail address set in the E-mail app.

Fixed:

• Re-added the ability to save a cover to the photo’s app in the edit screen. (Long-press the cover)
• Small text fixes

Today, a subtle addition to your Music Connect software, but one that can save you a lot of time if you’re always adding your CDs by barcode:

A new “Add [..] to Collection” button under the add queue, that lets you add all scanned albums in one go. No more need to click the little “+” buttons for each entry.

Some other improvements:

At the same time, some other tweaks went live in your software:

• In the “fixed” area at the bottom of the Edit Album screen, we replaced the Owner field with the Location field.
  
  Through user feedback we found that the Location field is used by many more users, compared to Owner. Also many new users were not finding the field. So we figured the Location field deserved a more prominent spot in the Edit Album screen.
  BTW: the Owner field can now be found on the Personal tab.

• The User Rating field has received a make-over and can now be set using a nice sliding star thingie.

Log in with existing CLZ Account

Improved “start trial” interface for users who are logging in with an existing CLZ Account was added to the following apps/versions:

• CLZ Music v5.0.4 for iOS
• CLZ Books v5.0.4 for iOS
• CLZ Music v5.0.7 for Android
• CLZ Books v5.0.6 for Android

Fixed:

• Quick Search wasn’t working correctly if the app was set to folder mode.
• Improved subscription purchase and CLZ user registration.

Sign up for CLZ Account:

• Now requires an active subscription before signing up for a CLZ Account.

We are seeing more and more users switching to our software, leaving a competitor product or their own Excel solution behind. So our import tools are getting more and more important.
Therefore, we have spent some time making our Import from CSV/TXT screen a bit more easier to use.

The most important part of importing a CSV file is of course the mapping of your fields to our fields. Sadly we cannot make this part fully automatic, but we DID make it a lot easier!

After uploading your file, the contents is shown in the Preview. Now to map your fields to ours, just click the column headers in the Preview and from the popup select which of our fields you want to import that column to. Super easy, super quick.

Enjoy!

Fixed in today’s maintenance build:

• Possible crash after adding an album / switching folders.
• Old Import from Music Collector:
  • The main list did not refresh after importing from Music Collector.
  • Importing from a file failed due to missing storage permission. CLZ Music will now ask for the storage permission.

We made the CLZ Account and Subscription status at the top a bit more clear and fixed a crash in the edit screen:

Fixed:

• Crash when the collection status was edited.

Small fix build for your app today:

• Some contact links could crash the app
• The “Add Collection” menu item was named incorrectly

After the release yesterday we had a couple of reports from users experiencing crashes with CLZ Music for Android. We found out it happened for devices that weren’t online.

We’ve fixed that now, and you can use the app online and offline. Thanks for reporting this! If you run into any issues with the app, let us know through support.

Fixed:

• A crash if device had no internet connection
• Collection name could contain a “new line”

It’s finally here: CLZ Music 5.0 for Android! With support for multiple collections, automatic syncing of your own images, plus a re-designed top bar and menu.

On top of that, (and the main reason why it took so long):

* Starting with v5, CLZ Music is now a subscription app!

Read on below to find out how that affects you (hint: it doesn’t!).

What’s new in CLZ Music 5.0 ?

CLZ Music is now a subscription app, costing $1.49/month

To allow us to keep delivering our CLZ online services (CLZ Cloud and CLZ Core) and our continuous updates to the app, the app has now become a subscription app. For new users, this subscription gives them access to the CLZ online services:

• CLZ Core: for adding albums by artist/title, barcode or cat. no.
• CLZ Cloud: for online backups and syncing between devices.

IMPORTANT: Of course, since you have purchased the app earlier, you have automatically received a life-time “Basic”-level subscription, which gives you access to your existing CLZ Core and CLZ Cloud services. You do not need to pay for a subscription!
In other words, the app now being a subscription app has no effect on you whatsoever!
If you still see any “unlock” problems with your app, please CONTACT US here and we’ll get it resolved ASAP.

Please note: We may introduce new “premium” CLZ services to the CLZ Music app later, which are not part of your free life-time “Basic” subscription. At that time, if you want to use the new services, you will be able to optionally upgrade to a “Premium” subscription.

Now supports and syncs multiple collections !

It is now possible to manage multiple “collections” within your app. The collections you create will be listed in the main menu, so you can easily switch between them.
Use the menu to add new collections, edit their names, change the order, etc…

Multiple collections now also sync through the CLZ Cloud, e.g. to/from the Music Connect cloud-based software or the Music Collector desktop software. So if you have created multiple collections on the desktop side, these will now finally be separated on the mobile app too!

Already have multiple collections in the CLZ Cloud?

If you already have multiple collections in the CLZ Cloud, here’s what to do to get your existing entries split up into multiple collections on your mobile app too:

1. Tap the menu top left
2. Tap “Sync with CLZ Cloud” and make sure you’re in sync.
3. Tap the menu top left again and tap “Maintenance”
4. Tap “Update all from CLZ Cloud”
5. Now use “Sync with CLZ Cloud” from the menu again.

Automatic cloud-syncing of your own “custom” images

Before v5, if you replaced the automatic Core front cover with your own image (e.g. from Camera Roll), it would not automatically sync to the CLZ Cloud. You had to “force” the upload by using Upload to CLZ Cloud in the Edit screen.

For version 5 we made this more automatic. We introduced a new toggle “Custom Image” in the Edit screen. This toggle will be automatically set when you replace the Core image. Once the Custom Image toggle is set, that cover will automatically sync to and from the CLZ Cloud.

Re-designed top-bar

• The menu icon now includes the “CLZ Music” mark (bigger tap area)
• The “Collection Status” filter button has been moved to the right

Re-designed main menu

• The menu now clearly shows your Account and Subscription Status at the top. Tap either of those to manage them.
• New “Maintenance” screen that now contains:
  • the “Clear Database” option
  • the “old Import from Music Collector” option
  • the new “Update from CLZ Cloud” option (only use when instructed by support staff)

How to update your CLZ Music app to version 5:

• On your device, open the Play Store app.
• Tap the menu button on the top left, then tap “My apps & games”.
• Find the CLZ Music entry and tap “UPDATE” on the right.

It’s finally here: CLZ Music 5.0 for iOS! With support for multiple collections, automatic syncing of your own images, plus a re-designed top bar and menu.

On top of that, (and the main reason why it took so long):

* Starting with v5, CLZ Music is now a subscription app!

Read on below to find out how that affects you (hint: it doesn’t!).

What’s new in CLZ Music 5.0 ?

CLZ Music is now a subscription app, costing $1.49/month

To allow us to keep delivering our CLZ online services (CLZ Cloud and CLZ Core) and our continuous updates to the app, the app has now become a subscription app. For new users, this subscription gives them access to the CLZ online services:

• CLZ Core: for adding albums by artist/title, barcode or cat. no.
• CLZ Cloud: for online backups and syncing between devices.

IMPORTANT: Of course, since you have purchased the app earlier, you have automatically received a life-time “Basic”-level subscription, which gives you access to your existing CLZ Core and CLZ Cloud services. You do not need to pay for a subscription!
In other words, the app now being a subscription app has no effect on you whatsoever!
If you still see any “unlock” problems with your app, please CONTACT US here and we’ll get it resolved ASAP.

Please note: We may introduce new “premium” CLZ services to the CLZ Music app later, which are not part of your free life-time “Basic” subscription. At that time, if you want to use the new services, you will be able to optionally upgrade to a “Premium” subscription.

Now supports and syncs multiple collections !

It is now possible to manage multiple “collections” within your app. The collections you create will be listed in the main menu, so you can easily switch between them.
Use the menu to add new collections, edit their names, change the order, etc…

Multiple collections now also sync through the CLZ Cloud, e.g. to/from the Music Connect cloud-based software or the Music Collector desktop software. So if you have created multiple collections on the desktop side, these will now finally be separated on the mobile app too!

Already have multiple collections in the CLZ Cloud?

If you already have multiple collections in the CLZ Cloud, here’s what to do to get your existing entries split up into multiple collections on your mobile app too:

1. Tap the menu top left
2. Tap “Sync with CLZ Cloud” and make sure you’re in sync.
3. Tap the menu top left again and tap “Maintenance”
4. Tap “Update all from CLZ Cloud”
5. Now use “Sync with CLZ Cloud” from the menu again.

Automatic cloud-syncing of your own “custom” images

Before v5, if you replaced the automatic Core front cover with your own image (e.g. from Camera Roll), it would not automatically sync to the CLZ Cloud. You had to “force” the upload by using Upload to CLZ Cloud in the Edit screen.

For version 5 we made this more automatic. We introduced a new toggle “Custom Image” in the Edit screen. This toggle will be automatically set when you replace the Core image. Once the Custom Image toggle is set, that cover will automatically sync to and from the CLZ Cloud.

Re-designed top-bar

• The menu icon now includes the “CLZ Music” mark (bigger tap area)
• The “Collection Status” filter button has been moved to the right

Re-designed main menu

• The menu now clearly shows your Account and Subscription Status at the top. Tap either of those to manage them.
• New “Maintenance” screen that now contains:
  • the “Clear Database” option
  • the “old Import from Music Collector” option
  • the new “Update from CLZ Cloud” option (only use when instructed by support staff)

How to update your CLZ Music app to version 5:

• On your device, open the App Store app.
• On the bottom, switch to the Updates tab.
• Find the CLZ Music entry and tap “UPDATE” on the right.
  TIP: if you don’t see the CLZ Music update yet, pull down to refresh!

Based on user feedback we found out users were looking for and expecting a tool to find duplicate entries in their collection. Some way to find out if you’ve accidentally added multiple versions of the same album, but perhaps with a different format or barcode.

After quite a few requests and discussions with users about this, to find out how they got duplicates and what they would expect from such a Duplicate Finder tool, it’s here today: Find Duplicate entries in your collection!

New: Find Duplicate Albums

Open the menu top left and select Find Duplicates to begin.

Then select which field to find duplicates on. You can find duplicates based on:

• Title
• Title & Artist
• UPC (Barcode)
• Index

Click “Find Duplicates” and see what it comes up with. Use the blue “Keep” button to keep a group of duplicates, or use the red “Remove” button to remove a duplicate!

If you click “Remove all duplicates automatically”, it will remove all duplicate entries and will only keep 1 single entry (the oldest one) in your collection.

Tip: use the columns button, top right, to set up the columns you’d like to see!

A new Import tool is now available in Music Connect, for importing databases created with our old competitor “OrangeCD”.

To import your list of albums from OrangeCD, you need to export an OXL file of your albums out of OrangeCD. Here’s what to do:

1. Start OrangeCD on your computer.
2. Click menu Database > Import and export
3. Select the Export to OrangeCD XML option
4. Press “next” and save the file somewhere you will be able to find it
5. Upload your OrangeCD OXL file in the box on Connect.

Got rid of some bugs today for your program, check it out:

Fixed:

• Drag & drop of images from a webbrowser was broken
• Grouping on “My Rating” didn’t work sometimes
• Some year entries weren’t set correctly
• Removing entries from the Link screen was not possible with keyboard
• Edit in List behaviour modified for dropdown field types
• Editing an artist (or different entry) from the Edit Track/Disc screen would hide the screen in the background.
• Quick Search: When searching for a Location, you could get double letters

Another big step forward for our cloud-based Connect software, making it even more customizable:

The columns in List View are now resizable. That is, you can now change the width of the columns by simply dragging the dividers between the column headers. Hover your mouse over the divider and it will turn blue, then drag it make the column wider or narrower.

TIP: double click the divider to make the column auto-size to its’ current content!

See it in action:

Do you prefer the automatic column widths, the way it was before? No problem, just go to the Settings screen and enable the “Size columns automatically” settings.

Changed:

• Bigger buttons for the find cover screen and option screen.

Fixed:

• Filter Screen: Drag/Drop of pre-set filters could give an Access Violation error
• Duplicate Finder:
  • Updated the standard set of columns (you can also pick your own using the column button top right)
  • After searching for duplicates twice, the screen could show “0 found” even if it found duplicates
• When running the program on 2 or more screens with different DPI settings, you could get a “List Index out of Bounds” error
• You can now bypass the “Lock File” warning if it appears on start up
• Add buttons in the Add Screen are now disabled while data is being downloaded to prevent an Access Violation

Small bug fix build today for your Music Collector on macOS:

Fixed:

• Editing the personal rating in the template and edit screens missed the star images
• Better handling of the filename in the export screens
• Drag/Drop of discs into other albums wasn’t working sometimes

Based on user feedback we found out users were looking for and expecting a tool to find duplicate entries in their database. Some way to find out if you’ve accidentally added multiple versions of the same album, but perhaps with a different length or barcode.

After quite a few requests and discussions with users about this, to find out how they got duplicates and what they would expect from such a Duplicate Finder tool, it’s here today: Find Duplicate entries in your database!

New: Find Duplicate Albums

Click menu Tools > Maintenance > Find Duplicates to begin.

Then select which field to find duplicates on. You can find duplicates based on:

• Title
• Title & Artist
• Barcode
• Index
• All Fields

Click “Find Duplicates” and see what it comes up with. Use the blue “Keep” button to keep a group of duplicates, or use the red “Remove” button to remove a duplicate!

If you click “Remove all duplicates automatically” the program will remove all duplicate entries and will only keep 1 single entry (the oldest one) in your database.

Tip: use the columns button, top right, to set up the columns you’d like to see!

Because the version we released yesterday was built with a new Xcode, the program automatically supported Mojave’s “Dark Mode”. Unfortunately, we all run “Light Mode” here, and we didn’t see that the program looked completely wrong in Dark Mode!

We do plan to support Dark Mode on Mojave, but this is a different project and will be addressed later this year.

Fixed:

• Mojave’s Dark Mode made the program look bad so we switched the program to light mode for now.
• Export to XML, Text, and other export functions were broken
• Images Shelves styles were broken.

Trial Mode improvements:

• Bigger “+” button on the default toolbar.
• Improved “My CLZ Account” messaging when logging in with a CLZ Account.
• New hints to Sync with CLZ Cloud after adding some items.
• Removed the ugly blue “hint box” that appeared when starting with an empty database.

Only supports macOS 10.9 or higher

This is the first version to not support macOS 10.8 Mountain Lion anymore.

To stay current with Apple we’ve just updated to Xcode (the software used to create Music Collector for macOS). In order to do this we had to drop support for macOS 10.8 (Mountain Lion) from 2012 as Apple doesn’t support it anymore in Xcode.

If you still use macOS 10.8, make sure to not upgrade Music Collector to this version.

Fixed:

• Drag and drop image on Details Panel to change the front cover was broken.
• Index number sometimes didn’t increment correctly.

We already worked on this area in the previous update, but we were still not completely satisfied. So more tweaks to the Add button in the Add Games from Core screen today:

Tweaks to the Add button:

• All Collection Status values are now available, including “For Sale” and “On Order”!
• The little popup menu now indicates the selected value with a checkmark.
• The Add button itself now says “Add to Collection” or “Add to Wishlist”.

Screenshot from the Add button in Movie Collector:

Fixed:

• Flashing starting the program (especially visible on very big screens)
• Selected x from x items in the status bar and the total items at the top now have a bit more space
• Clicking the add button twice didn’t give an “Already in collection” warning
• Opening the program in full screen on a secondary screen didn’t work
• Add Screen: On high DPI screens, search results could take up too much space

With the big feature updates behind us (multi-collections, image syncing, 64-bit support, Flex template, etc…), it is time for some smaller tweaks that were requested by our loyal users:

• More compact toolbar layout, to save screen space
• No more annoying Add to Collection / Wish List popup in Add Albums screen
• New “Transparent” styles for the Flex template, to show off your backdrops

Read more

Music Collector version 19 has arrived! Here’s what’s new:

• Manage multiple “collections” within one database file
• Automatic Cloud-syncing of your own “custom” images
• A new super-adaptive “Flex” template for the Details Panel

Read on for the full details:

Read more