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[Etsijä]

I have been using MC20, where my library (all settings, lastly played songs, views etc.) is sitting inside Dropbox.  Works beautifully in my two PCs, a laptop and desktop. Everything is kept in sync nice and easy.  My MP3 library is on OneDrive, so that is also kept in sync between the two machines.

I just bought the upgrade license to MC21/22 and am now a bit unsure as to how to migrate to it. As my library is inside Dropbox, do I still need to back it up and do a restore in MC21/22?  Will it know the location is indeed inside Dropbox instead of a local one? I want to of course retain the functionality of having exactly the same looking MC21/22 in both of my PCs, as it is now for the MC20.

[JimH]

If you have licensed MC21, there is no need to do anything until MC22 is available.  Then you can install it and it will ask for the license.

[Etsijä]

If you have licensed MC21, there is no need to do anything until MC22 is available.  Then you can install it and it will ask for the license.

Sorry, but I don't see how this is in any way related to my question.  Of course I want to take MC21 into use now that I've paid for it. Also my question was not about licensing but about installing/upgrading.

[blgentry]

I have been using MC20, where my library (all settings, lastly played songs, views etc.) is sitting inside Dropbox.  Works beautifully in my two PCs, a laptop and desktop.

I'm sure you're aware this is not recommended at all.  But it's been working for you so... Just letting you know in case you weren't aware.

As my library is inside Dropbox, do I still need to back it up and do a restore in MC21/22?  Will it know the location is indeed inside Dropbox instead of a local one?

I would recommend backing up your library as a safety measure.  It's fast and easy, so why not?  File > Library > Backup library .

Presumably, MC sees your Dropbox based library as "just another directory" that it's using for it's library.  I'm assuming you have Dropbox mounted as a drive, or as a folder on your window system.   So MC21 should "just work" with your dropbox library.  But if it doesn't you can always tell MC to build a blank library inside your Dropbox folders and then restore the backup you made.  Again, should be fast and easy.  But probably not necessary.

Good luck.

Brian.

[Etsijä]

Brian, can you tell me why it is not recommended to have the main library inside Dropbox?  I can ome up with no reasons at all for this. On the contrary, this trick is absolutely essential for me, as I do the bodywork on my music library (creating songlists, ripping etc.) on my desktop, and use my laptop in my dance classes.

[blgentry]

Brian, can you tell me why it is not recommended to have the main library inside Dropbox?

I can't speak for JRiver as I'm just a user of MC like you are.  That being said, I think it's a speed thing.  The database is the library.  ...and network file access is MUCH slower than local file access.  So it could slow things down with large libraries.

On the contrary, this trick is absolutely essential for me, as I do the bodywork on my music library (creating songlists, ripping etc.) on my desktop, and use my laptop in my dance classes.

There are many ways to replicate libraries from machine to machine.  If I were you I would probably be making a library backup on the desktop, copying it to a disk that the laptop can see, and restoring that backup.  That process probably takes about 30 seconds total and is a "perfect sync".  But I'm not advising you to change.  If you like what you have, that's fine.  Good luck.

Brian.

[Etsijä]

My upgrade to MC21 went just fine on both of my machines. Everything was already there, all major settings copied from my MC20 install. The only thing I had to do in both PCs was to point my library again to Dropbox - by default MC21 install had reverted to a local library.

Brian, I'm sorry but I have to disagree with you concerning the speed of MC when it uses a library from inside Dropbox. I see absolutely no speed issues at all - which should be the case, since Dropbox isn't actually a "network drive".  It is a local folder which is kept in sync with the network folder in background.

I have monitored this for a long time now, and seems like whenever I stop using MC and quit it, the files to sync with Dropbox are 16 small files, like mediafiles.jmd, curplaylist.jmd, index.dat, user.jmd etc.  The files are very small indeed, and it takes about a second from Dropbox to sync them.

Having all this syncing fully automatic and happening on background is a huge advantage to my work. At the moment, I am creating new playlists for my classes on my desktop PC.  After I quit MC21 on the desktop, it takes a few seconds, and my new playlists, special views etc. are in use in my laptop (which I use to play music on my classes).

[blgentry]

Glad to hear of your success!

I wasn't aware that dropbox cached files and did sync. That's pretty neat.

Brian.