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[greynolds]

I've setup a "handheld" device that I use to sync my music, converted from original format to high bitrate MP3, to a folder which I can then transfer to a USB thumb drive to use in my car.

I have a relatively small number of music files that are relatively low bitrate MP3's that get converted to the same higher bitrate, but all of those files have an icon that shows "Stack Member of a Broken Stack" when I hover over the icon.  The original files are not members of stacks, so why do I see this in the list of files on the sync device?  All of these files have a status of "On Device".

[JimH]

Try a right click and unstack.

[greynolds]

Try a right click and unstack.

Thanks for the response, Jim, but there is no such option.  The right click options in the Devices & Drives view that's selected for this handheld device are limited to:

Play
Add to Playing Now
Select All
Transfer to Computer
Delete

[JimH]

Try it on the original file.

[greynolds]

Try it on the original file.

The unstack option is grayed out for all of those files.

[RoderickGI]

It has been a while since I have had the Audio Cache turned on in MC and used Handheld Sync, but I think if you have the cache enabled, and convert from say a FLAC file to an MP3 file, MC will Stack the files. That could be what MC is referring to.

There are several fields involved in Stacking. You can look them up in "Manage Library Fields". None of them are directly editable, but if you looked at them you should be able to work out of they are stacked, and what file they are Stacked with.

[Stack Top], [Stack Files], [Stack View], and of course [Stack Icon] should have some non -1 value in them. [Stack Top] is -1 if the file doesn't belong to a Stack.


If the audio cache is causing this you could turn off the cache and then empty it, then turn it back on if you want to use it. That will mean the files all get converted again next time they need to be synced, but that isn't a bad thing. I turned off the cache because I want to convert to exactly the format I specify when converting. If a files already exists in the cache, MC may, and often will, use it, even if it isn't the exact format I want.

See my notes here: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Handheld_Sync_Options#Clarification_of_Audio_Conversion_Modes

[greynolds]

It has been a while since I have had the Audio Cache turned on in MC and used Handheld Sync, but I think if you have the cache enabled, and convert from say a FLAC file to an MP3 file, MC will Stack the files. That could be what MC is referring to.

There are several fields involved in Stacking. You can look them up in "Manage Library Fields". None of them are directly editable, but if you looked at them you should be able to work out of they are stacked, and what file they are Stacked with.

[Stack Top], [Stack Files], [Stack View], and of course [Stack Icon] should have some non -1 value in them. [Stack Top] is -1 if the file doesn't belong to a Stack.


If the audio cache is causing this you could turn off the cache and then empty it, then turn it back on if you want to use it. That will mean the files all get converted again next time they need to be synced, but that isn't a bad thing. I turned off the cache because I want to convert to exactly the format I specify when converting. If a files already exists in the cache, MC may, and often will, use it, even if it isn't the exact format I want.

See my notes here: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Handheld_Sync_Options#Clarification_of_Audio_Conversion_Modes

Thanks for the response.  This sounds like it's on the right track.  Unfortunately, I don't see a way to look at some of the stack fields because they're hidden fields - they don't show up in the tag panel and I can't add any of them, other than [Stack Tag] and [Stack Icon], to my views.

I had the conversion cache enabled until recently when I decided it was taking up a bunch of extra space for very little, if any, benefit in my case.  So I disabled it in the settings and then deleted the folders outside of JRiver.

I'm probably wasting brain cells worrying about this as everything is working and the files that are needed to copy to the car are present.  But the stack icon that is suggesting something is wrong made me go digging a bit.

The conversion setting choices are also a bit unfortunate in this case too.  There's no option to leave lower bitrate MP3 files as-is while still converting FLAC and other formats to MP3, so they end up getting converted to higher bitrate MP3's, which, if anything, will make them sound a little bit worse (sort of like editing JPG images multiple times).  But I only have in the ballpark of 100 of these low bitrate MP3's, so it isn't a big deal.

[marko]

I had the conversion cache enabled until recently when I decided it was taking up a bunch of extra space for very little, if any, benefit in my case.  So I disabled it in the settings and then deleted the folders outside of JRiver.

Ahhh. In that case, do the following...

Load a view scheme that lists all audio.
Paste this into the search bar in top right...

Code: [Select]

-[stack top]=-1Select all
Right click > Stacks > Advanced > Error check & correct

Note that this won't work from a playlist, where all stacking options will be greyed out. You must work in a library view...

I wrote some stuff about stacks a few years ago...
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=55782.msg379242#msg379242

and posted a view scheme for managing stacks here:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,105662.0.html

You, or others, may, or not find these useful

[greynolds]

Ahhh. In that case, do the following...

Load a view scheme that lists all audio.
Paste this into the search bar in top right...

Code: [Select]

-[stack top]=-1Select all
Right click > Stacks > Advanced > Error check & correct

Note that this won't work from a playlist, where all stacking options will be greyed out. You must work in a library view...

Thanks for the response.  I just tried that search in the Files view for my music and no matches were found.  I also tried the Stacks > Advanced > Error check & correct on a small sample of the original MP3 files and it didn't find any issues with them.

[marko]

Possibly, with the cache folder being deleted outside of MC, auto import has already sorted out the stacks once it found the stack members no longer existed.

Do those mp3s still show a stack icon?

If they do, try expanding them, which may also help get things back in order.

-marko

[greynolds]

Possibly, with the cache folder being deleted outside of MC, auto import has already sorted out the stacks once it found the stack members no longer existed.

Do those mp3s still show a stack icon?

If they do, try expanding them, which may also help get things back in order.

-marko

The mp3's only show the stack icon in the Handheld view (under Drives & Devices in the left pane), not in the normal library views.  Since they're only showing in the Handheld view, I don't have any ability to manipulate the stacks there.  Auto import doesn't look at the cache folder unless it's within one of the configured import paths, does it?

Would deleting these mp3 files in the Handheld view and then resyncing possibly resolve the stack issue?

[greynolds]

Would deleting these mp3 files in the Handheld view and then resyncing possibly resolve the stack issue?

This appears to work.  I deleted 1 of the "problem" files from the Handheld view and clicked sync.  The file was synced without a stack icon.  So I deleted the rest of the files that had the stack icon and have the sync running now.  So it must have been something leftover from when I had the conversion cache enabled.

[RoderickGI]

It sounds like you have the problem fixed.

Unfortunately, I don't see a way to look at some of the stack fields because they're hidden fields

My fault. You are such an old hand at this stuff I didn't describe how to do that.
Here's something for the future. For hidden fields that don't show up in the drop drown list for adding columns to a View just add using an Expression Column containing just the field name. So an Expression Column containing the expression "[Stack Top]" will show that field.

The conversion setting choices are also a bit unfortunate in this case too.  There's no option to leave lower bitrate MP3 files as-is while still converting FLAC and other formats to MP3, so they end up getting converted to higher bitrate MP3's...

If you set the "Handheld Options > "File, Paths, & More > Supported Types" to MP3, and the "Handheld Options > Conversion > Audio > Mode" to "Specified output format only when necessary", then MP3 files shouldn't be converted, but all other files types will be converted.

If the car doesn't support higher bitrate MP3s, let's say it supports 128 bit but nothing higher, then you would set "Handheld Options > Conversion > Audio > Mode" to "Specified output format only when necessary (including high bitrates)" and with the MP3 encoder set to 128 bit MC would convert any higher bitrate MP3 files down to 128, with the caveats as per my notes in the Wiki I linked to earlier.

I tested that functionality last year, and it seemed to all work fine.

[greynolds]

It sounds like you have the problem fixed.

My fault. You are such an old hand at this stuff I didn't describe how to do that.
Here's something for the future. For hidden fields that don't show up in the drop drown list for adding columns to a View just add using an Expression Column containing just the field name. So an Expression Column containing the expression "[Stack Top]" will show that field.

Doh - that should have occurred to me .

If you set the "Handheld Options > "File, Paths, & More > Supported Types" to MP3, and the "Handheld Options > Conversion > Audio > Mode" to "Specified output format only when necessary", then MP3 files shouldn't be converted, but all other files types will be converted.

If the car doesn't support higher bitrate MP3s, let's say it supports 128 bit but nothing higher, then you would set "Handheld Options > Conversion > Audio > Mode" to "Specified output format only when necessary (including high bitrates)" and with the MP3 encoder set to 128 bit MC would convert any higher bitrate MP3 files down to 128, with the caveats as per my notes in the Wiki I linked to earlier.

I tested that functionality last year, and it seemed to all work fine.

I tried the "Specified output format only when necessary" option the other day, because I thought that should leave MP3's as-is and convert everything else, but it resulted in a ton of files being flagged to change.  I'll take another look at it though, as what you described is what I had expected to happen.

[greynolds]

It looks like I had forgotten to set the "Supported Types" setting when I set this handheld device up.  Setting that, switching to "Specified output format only when necessary", deleting all of the MP3 files that got converted to the higher bitrate from the handheld device view, and then running Sync again took care of this.

[RoderickGI]

Excellent. Thanks for the confirmation that it is still working as expected.