@ Daniel:

It can't suit me. Unfortunately, none of my externals have enough capacity to take responsibility for even most of my relevant collection, much less all. I've always wanted a master collection drive, external, it would order my files much more efficiently. But I'm not getting one for the foreseeable future.

Even so, I'm all for adding access to features via preferences, and I'm sure doing that would be useful to many people.

@ RJ:

I'm pretty sure that I had the same filepaths. But if I didn't, it would have been because of different usernames, and the analysis data is in the user folder. If I wanted to transfer my analysis date to any computer account with a different username there'd be a problem, even if it is true that identical paths will work in separate installations. Also, the tree changes for my tracks from computer to computer; sometimes I dj with a smaller usb drive and a borrowed computer, or use a usb if a computer that I'm using has different music than I want to dj with for that particular gig.

This could be solved partially by having the data stored in the installation directory if that directory is the Program Files folder, though of course that wouldn't mend the potentially varying paths for the tracks (unless the analysis data has some kind of hash to be able to recognize an mp3 or whatever type upon input). Also, files are personal data, and in the unlikely instance that multiple users existed in one dj-employed system, technically that analysis data would be personal and having it in a shared directory like Program Files would be a breach of compartmentalization.

It could also be solved by adding the data to the same directory as the tracks they pertain to, as mentioned earlier, though I know people could be loathe to clutter up often already cluttered music repositories with a bunch of strange files. But it still would solve all the issues I've stated, certainly, and make the data definitively portable, including the possible eventuality of the files being given to a completely different person.

Another option is to have the analysis data directory positionable from the options menu, as Daniel maybe refers (yes, it would also be cool to have the settings path be portable and changeable in the options gui). It would have to be coordinated with the request that Mixxx makes to the user for the music directory each time it starts in a strange place; the one caveat here is that if all else in this system remained the same, that tree within the music directory *would* have to be the same *within* the music directory the user points to. This is not a terribly unfriendly compromise, I would do it. And it is probably the simplest and most immediate solution. But there would have to be a mouseover in the relevant part of the dialog/preferences, or info somewhere, reminding the user that the tree must match the tree that the analysis was originally performed on or Mixxx won't read it.

I knew this one could point toward a potentially complex rearrangement. Just for everyone's information, I know there is a lot of high priority work to do and I don't necessarily expect people to jump on wishlist items like this immediately. It is, however, very nice to feel that developers are attentive, I appreciate that always.