Fix Broken Links

Media Center's Auto-Import system includes a Fix Broken Links option. This option can be used to have Media Center automatically remove files from your Library which are missing from disk. There are three modes for this setting:

• No
• Yes
• Yes (protect network files)

These options correspond to:

No

Auto-Import will never remove any missing files from the Library.

Yes

Automatically removes any files from the Library that it finds missing on disk. Be very careful with this setting if any of your disks are removable or network. If the disk is disconnected, that counts as "missing" and the files will be removed.

Yes (protect network files)

The default. This is the same as Yes, except for that files living on a network or removable volume are left alone.

The Protect Network Files option is useful in case the server goes down (or you trip over and unplug your network or USB cord). Otherwise, Media Center could happily delete your entire library! With Protect Network Files enabled, MC will check to see if the network drive folder can be reached. If it exists and the file is not there, then that file will be removed from the library.

Media Center considers a volume to be a "network volume" if either:

• The filename begins with \\
• Windows reports the drive as anything other than Fixed

More

• Auto-Import
• Import
• Thanks to glynor for this clear explanation.
  
• Later change that changed "leave network files" to "protect network files".