"Delete from handheld any files not included via selected Playlists, Smartlists, and other settings to the right under the heading 'Check any that should be included in your sync', or which have been manually added to the Sync List since the last synchronisation."
No. The files you manually added are only added for one single sync. That's the thing I didn't get, and I'm not sure if you get it now. By
default, MC doesn't really ever "sync"
anything to the device. It just
copies them over (a bit fancier because it can convert on the fly). But it is a one-time-only, and unless you tell it to delete files, a one-way-only operation.
The
Sync List is defined as a specific "thing" in Media Center. It uses the term consistently, even if we don't. It is the list of
changes it is going to make to the device. Assuming you haven't told Media Center to delete any files, this consists
only of the "sum" of the two ways you can add files to your device (manually or via lists). And, every time you click Sync, the Sync List is erased (it starts blank every time).
The Sync List (proper) does
not include files already on your device. It is just the list of changes. Full stop.
You can
see and manage the files already on the device by going and looking at the Handheld's View in the Tree (clicking the Details link in the Action Window takes you there too). But that view isn't the same thing as the Sync List (it includes the Sync List items, and all the stuff already there). I'm calling this the Device View now, I guess.
By default, MC never updates existing files, and never removes them automatically. This is always true unless you:
* Enable one or more "items to sync" in the Handheld Device Options dialog,
and...
* Check one or both of
Resync if Date Modified has changed or
Delete from handheld any files not in sync list.
So, the way manually adding files works is:
1. When you add a file manually to the device, MC adds that file to the Sync List.
2. When you then click Sync, the file is copied over to the device and then that item is
removed from the Sync List. It is a one-time operation, then they're not on the Sync List anymore.
Those files are now on the device, though, so they show up in the details View (I'm calling this the Sync Queue View now). If you've enabled Delete from handheld any files not in sync list, then those files will be removed on the next sync,
because... As I said in #2 above, the second they're actually copied over to the device, they're no longer on the Sync List.
The Sync List is always
blank at the end of a sync because it is the list of things it is going to "do" not a list of files. Once it is done, it clears the list.
Then, if you did select some Playlists to sync, and you click the Recheck Sync button (or close and open the device's View) it re-populates a
new Sync List.
I actually don't think any of this is new, but we'd need Matt to confirm. It actually explains some confusion I've long-had with the system. But I've now, tonight, tested it extremely thoroughly. That's, for sure, how it works now anyway.
I think it works perfectly well, if you get what it is going to do conceptually. I was just hung up on the fact that adding files to it was like adding them to a Playlist. It is, but as soon as you click Sync, that playlist is blown away.