Topic: POST IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 23432 times)

SteveG · « **Reply #100 on:** February 11, 2004, 05:00:41 pm »

A new round of fixes in today's build. Thanks for your patience.

1. Changed: Portable transfers will notify users of duplicates based on Artist/Album/Name/Genre/Track Number matching.
2. Changed: More robust error reporting for problems during synchronization to iPod.
3. Fixed: Possible errors during initialization for iPod.

... And other internal fixes that will hopefully improve results.

Steve

Madcow · « **Reply #101 on:** February 11, 2004, 06:06:44 pm »

Still no playlists showing up after a sync using build 67.

RemyJ · « **Reply #102 on:** February 11, 2004, 06:16:38 pm »

Quote from: Madcow on February 11, 2004, 06:06:44 pm

Still no playlists showing up after a sync using build 67.

I wonder what I'm doing right? Before going to work this morning I started a sync of 2030 tracks (the most that will fit on my 20gb) using build 66. When i got home this evening, all 2030 tracks and their playlists transferred OK.

tlongacre · « **Reply #103 on:** February 11, 2004, 06:42:13 pm »

RemyJ, that's interesting. So, Madcow, how many songs did you sync? How big is your iPod?

I'll try tonight when I get home. I've got a 40gig iPod and have been syncing to fill it (over 6,000 songs). Haven't been getting playlists. I generally end up with 70-125mb free, which certainly seems big enough for 8-10 playlists.

markp99 · « **Reply #104 on:** February 11, 2004, 07:08:38 pm »

.67: Tiny sync of just 45 songs, 1 playlist, 1 audible book...

No playlists
No audible book playback

RemyJ · « **Reply #105 on:** February 11, 2004, 07:12:51 pm »

Hmmm. I probably had about 300mb free actually. I'll try and really fill it to the brim and see what happens. Also, now that I think about it, all of the playlists except 1 were already on the iPod before I did the "big sync". I'll try all new playlists as well.

gbdesai · « **Reply #106 on:** February 11, 2004, 07:31:26 pm »

With .67 my sync with conversions still fail abeit with a little more data...

Here are two captures of the two sequential dialogs I get after a sync attempt.

The playlist is just two songs long. As I said before the temp MP3 files that are created play fine on my PC. Any thoughts? Could it be trying to send over the files with the APE extension instead of sending the new MP3s that were created in the temp directory?

park · « **Reply #107 on:** February 11, 2004, 08:10:42 pm »

Hi all,
Tried to synch the ipod with latest MC and got errors for every playlist it tried to synch, then MC crashed.

Reinitialized and resynched, filling my 30GB Ipod almost to the brim (just over 500mb left) and just finished. Ipod sees all genres, artists, albums and playlists. Yokatta!

So all seems well. For me.

JimH · « **Reply #108 on:** February 11, 2004, 08:16:13 pm »

Quote from: RemyJ on February 11, 2004, 07:12:51 pm

Hmmm. I probably had about 300mb free actually. I'll try and really fill it to the brim and see what happens. Also, now that I think about it, all of the playlists except 1 were already on the iPod before I did the "big sync". I'll try all new playlists as well.

Remy,
It's my guess that this is what is making the difference. If the iPod is too full, we're not leaving enough room to write the playlists and maybe other files.

We're giving this the highest priority we can now.

gbdesai · « **Reply #109 on:** February 11, 2004, 08:19:15 pm »

If it helps on my problem, the the empty playlist does appear on my iPod, just no songs get transferred.

Matt · « **Reply #110 on:** February 11, 2004, 08:29:13 pm »

Are people with files not showing up in playlists all doing conversions? I noticed the screenshot of the failure was APE files, so maybe that's it.

Thanks.

gbdesai · « **Reply #111 on:** February 11, 2004, 08:35:14 pm »

Matt,

If you read my other posts up higher, I described what I tried. I tried MP3s and they worked fine. I'm surprised I'm the only one that can't transfer files. I just did a Restore on my iPod, re-initialize, and sync with the same errors. Thanks for investigating.

Gautam

gbdesai · « **Reply #112 on:** February 11, 2004, 08:50:35 pm »

Just reverted to .60 and the same procedure that fails here syncs fine with the old code in .60.

RemyJ · « **Reply #113 on:** February 11, 2004, 08:53:11 pm »

Quote from: JimH on February 11, 2004, 08:16:13 pm

Quote from: RemyJ on February 11, 2004, 07:12:51 pm
Hmmm. I probably had about 300mb free actually. I'll try and really fill it to the brim and see what happens. Also, now that I think about it, all of the playlists except 1 were already on the iPod before I did the "big sync". I'll try all new playlists as well.

Remy,
It's my guess that this is what is making the difference. If the iPod is too full, we're not leaving enough room to write the playlists and maybe other files.

We're giving this the highest priority we can now.

Cool. Just some more info...

I just...

Reinitilized the iPod (no tracks no playlists no nuthin)
Selected enough tracks (via playlists) to bring the iPod to within 30meg of the 18.5gig limit. Turned out to be 1859 tracks this time.
Started the sync.
The sync failed on the LAST track with error code 0.
The iPod showed 32meg free (via a DIR on the drive).
Ejected the iPod.
All my tracks (except for the last one), playlists, artists, albums, etc WERE INTACT.
Reattached the iPod.
Removed a few tracks from playlists.
Resynched.
The track that previously failed transferred fine.
Ejected.
Still had everything intact.

I will note as I did previously, I did have to press the Options button before performing the syncs to get the space tallies to tally correctly.

Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead.

lalittle · « **Reply #114 on:** February 11, 2004, 08:55:34 pm »

Quote from: gbdesai on February 11, 2004, 08:35:14 pm

Matt,

If you read my other posts up higher, I described what I tried. I tried MP3s and they worked fine. I'm surprised I'm the only one that can't transfer files. I just did a Restore on my iPod, re-initialize, and sync with the same errors. Thanks for investigating.

Gautam

There seems to be something about MC that is inconsitant when it comes to various people doing the exact same things. For example, I have two iPods, one of which does not play Audible files when synching the EXACT same set of files as the other one (this is using eariler versions of MC.) If I sync a smaller set of files, both iPods play audible files. If I do a full synch with Ephpod, both iPods play audible files. If I do a full sync with MC, only ONE of the iPods plays audible files. I have no idea why an MC sync would behave differently from one iPod to the next, but this is indeed the case.

I think this is why these issues are so hard to track down. Different people seem to be getting totally different results.

Larry

lalittle · « **Reply #115 on:** February 11, 2004, 09:02:50 pm »

I seem to be seeing a connection between initialize failures and the amount of data on the iPod when I try to initialize it. When I initialize the iPod when there is only a small group of files on it, it seems to work. If there is a large amount of data on it (about 26 gigs in my case) the initialize either takes a LONG time to complete (several minutes, during which it "appears" to be locked up) or it just crashes MC.

Larry

Matt · « **Reply #116 on:** February 11, 2004, 10:33:35 pm »

Quote

No audible book playback

We'll fix Audible book playback after all of the other synchronize stuff works properly. Hopefully you can hang tight until then.

Quote

Tried to synch the ipod with latest MC and got errors for every playlist it tried to synch, then MC crashed.

Reinitialized and resynched, filling my 30GB Ipod almost to the brim (just over 500mb left) and just finished. Ipod sees all genres, artists, albums and playlists. Yokatta!

Maybe anybody else with problems should try a reinitialize as well. Also, only try filling it to the 80% mark or so. That way we'll know it isn't running out of space.

Thanks everyone.

gpvillamil · « **Reply #117 on:** February 11, 2004, 10:34:09 pm »

Quote from: RemyJ on February 11, 2004, 06:16:38 pm

Quote from: Madcow on February 11, 2004, 06:06:44 pm
Still no playlists showing up after a sync using build 67.

I wonder what I'm doing right? Before going to work this morning I started a sync of 2030 tracks (the most that will fit on my 20gb) using build 66. When i got home this evening, all 2030 tracks and their playlists transferred OK.

Are you sure that the playlists are correct?

I did a sync, and had 2800 files come across. It's what the iPod shows in its about screen, and there are 125mb free. All the playlists seemed to be there, both in the MC tree, and on the iPod after I disconnected. At this point, I thought that everything was fine, like you.

However, I later realized that many of the playlists were incomplete. When I added up the number of files in each playlist, it came to about 1700. The incomplete playlists were invariably those based on a smartlist. Playlists that had been manually created were 100% correct. I am not sure what happened to the 1100 remaining files - they are definitely on the iPod, and can be reached by browsing through artist/album/genre, but are not in the playlist.

Matt · « **Reply #118 on:** February 11, 2004, 10:37:15 pm »

Quote

However, I later realized that many of the playlists were incomplete. When I added up the number of files in each playlist, it came to about 1700. The incomplete playlists were invariably those based on a smartlist. Playlists that had been manually created were 100% correct. I am not sure what happened to the 1100 remaining files - they are definitely on the iPod, and can be reached by browsing through artist/album/genre, but are not in the playlist.

I'm guessing those smartlist have random tokens (~sort=[random], ~n=100, etc.) and the smartlist is getting run twice -- with different results each time. Would that explain what you're seeing?

gpvillamil · « **Reply #119 on:** February 11, 2004, 11:19:29 pm »

No, not really.

The smartlists do have random tokens, and are run each time. However, there is a size limiter on them of 1000 megabytes, so each list should have between 70-100 songs. I'm only getting 22-45 songs per list on the iPod. On MC, the same smartlists consistently generate between 70-100 songs per playlist.

Also, the only way songs get on the iPod at all is by synchronizing with a set of playlists. There should be no songs on the iPod that are not also in a playlist. However, the iPod has 2800 songs, and the total of all songs in playlists is about 1700.

I tried doing this on a freshly initialized iPod and had the same results.

Is it possible to have the same song on the iPod in multiple playlists?

Matt · « **Reply #120 on:** February 11, 2004, 11:31:50 pm »

Quote

No, not really.

The smartlists do have random tokens, and are run each time. However, there is a size limiter on them of 1000 megabytes, so each list should have between 70-100 songs. I'm only getting 22-45 songs per list on the iPod. On MC, the same smartlists consistently generate between 70-100 songs per playlist.

Also, the only way songs get on the iPod at all is by synchronizing with a set of playlists. There should be no songs on the iPod that are not also in a playlist. However, the iPod has 2800 songs, and the total of all songs in playlists is about 1700.

I tried doing this on a freshly initialized iPod and had the same results.

Is it possible to have the same song on the iPod in multiple playlists?

Sounds like the bug is that MC runs the smartlist once to get the files to transfer.

Then it runs the smartlist again to tell the iPod about the playlist.

Instead it should only run the smartlist once. Otherwise what should be in the playlist and what gets transfered to the iPod will be out of step.

Look for a fix tomorrow.

gpvillamil · « **Reply #121 on:** February 11, 2004, 11:47:25 pm »

That sounds about right!

Also, I realize that things are in debugging mode and you need the messages, but it would be really helpful if an iPod sync would just run to completion, and deliver all error messages at the end. Right now, I get:

1) start sync
2) errors related to file deletion
3) sync (long process, 25 - 45 min)
4) other errors
5) sync playlist info

so if I start the sync and walk away, an error dialog might hold up the sync process. i come back to the computer and find out that i still have 45 minutes to go because it was waiting for input.

lalittle · « **Reply #122 on:** February 11, 2004, 11:49:57 pm »

Quote

Is it possible to have the same song on the iPod in multiple playlists?

I know that it used to be possible. I use one smartlist as my "iPod transfer" list (I sometimes us a different one for each iPod since they're different sizes) and a second smartlist containing the last 200 additions to the library.

Larry

lalittle · « **Reply #123 on:** February 12, 2004, 12:16:35 am »

The Good:

- no error code at the end of the sync.

- no more sluggish sync screen -- selecting/unslecting items has much quicker effect.

- all songs appearing on iPod.

- MC no longer crashing when switching the view from the iPod to another item. I can once again compare the source smartlist to the iPod contents without MC crashing.

- Doing an "update" sync no longer goes through the whole list as if it's transferring the files really fast. Rather, the sync progress window only shows files that it needs to add, and it's done. This makes update syncs (adding a few songs or albums) WAY faster than they were before.

The Different:

- After a sync, MC needs to "retrieve files" from the iPod twice rather than once.

The Bad:

- no smartlists showing up on iPod.

- no Audible playback (I know you said you'd address this after the other issues were solved, but I just wanted to mention for the sake of being thorough, and to reiterate that this is a top priority for a lot of people.)

- auto collapse logic still a bit funky (not an iPod issue.)

One question -- there shouldn't be problems syncing more than one iPod, right? I haven't synched my 1st iPod since switching to MC10, but since it's working (including Audible playback) I don't want to screw it up.

It was a bit rocky there for a little while, but things are definitely getting better. (Looking forward to Audible support.)

Thanks,

Larry

RemyJ · « **Reply #124 on:** February 12, 2004, 12:57:39 am »

Quote from: Matt on February 11, 2004, 11:31:50 pm

Sounds like the bug is that MC runs the smartlist once to get the files to transfer.

Then it runs the smartlist again to tell the iPod about the playlist.

Instead it should only run the smartlist once. Otherwise what should be in the playlist and what gets transfered to the iPod will be out of step.

Look for a fix tomorrow.

OK, Now I see what's different about me. The only smartlists I had synched were Top Hits and Recently Played which weren't changing. When I added the Favorites One Audio CD and one Data CD, I started getting symptoms that correspond to the problem Matt describes where the smartlist is evaluated twice. Basically MC complains that it has a problem creating some playlist entries (based on the second evaluation) because those tracks weren't transferred in the first place (based on the first evaluation).

Seviien · « **Reply #125 on:** February 12, 2004, 01:19:28 am »

When synching the ipod, songs that have a playcount of "1" on the ipod seem to be increasing the playcount on Media Center by 2.
I did a couple of quick tests, and this happened 4 out of 5 times on one synch and 2 out of 2 times on another.

lalittle · « **Reply #126 on:** February 12, 2004, 03:28:28 am »

I just did a sync of my other iPod (the one that I have NOT been using to test the new MC versions) and I received 3 "error code" songs at the end of the sync. I hadn't done a new initialization before doing this sync, and I believe that the last initialize was done with 9.1 on this iPod, so I went ahead and initialized it. It took about 3 full minutes to complete, but MC didn't lock up or crash.

Before I did the initialize, I checked the Audible playback on this iPod (which has never had problems playing Audible files) and a couple NEW Audible files that had just been transferred played fine. I figured that this meant that this iPod, like before, would still be able to play Audible files after a new initialize/sync. As you might have guessed, I was wrong. After the new sync (which didn't give me any error codes) was done, the Audible files no longer played. In other words, now NEITHER of my iPods play Audible files. My girlfriend is not going to like this -- I sure hope you guys can get Audible files working again soon.

Larry

markp99 · « **Reply #127 on:** February 12, 2004, 07:56:03 am »

New wierdness:

I flushed my entire MC library (just for kicks) and then re-imported just 841 songs afresh (left out a few large genre chunks of my library).

- No playlists made it over to iPod; but, Audiobooks NOW are playing.

Strange...

Rien van Ham · « **Reply #128 on:** February 12, 2004, 09:26:02 am »

Hi,

After installing version 10.0.67 the following problems:

- When sending 1083 files to the IPOD, the progressbar reaches 100% after 30(!) uploads; (but all 1083 were sent!)
- Still not possible to update any of the tags: when trying I get (again) that strange error with only a "h" and an "ok"-button.

Kind regards,

Rien

SteveG · « **Reply #129 on:** February 12, 2004, 10:07:19 am »

For anyone with audible playback issues, what file extension do your audible files have? .aa?

Steve

tlongacre · « **Reply #130 on:** February 12, 2004, 10:32:43 am »

Quote from: SteveG on February 12, 2004, 10:07:19 am

For anyone with audible playback issues, what file extension do your audible files have? .aa?

Steve

Yes in mine, the extension is .aa

markp99 · « **Reply #131 on:** February 12, 2004, 11:04:38 am »

.aa for me too...

Madcow · « **Reply #132 on:** February 12, 2004, 12:22:24 pm »

Spotted another problem in build 67:

Replay Gain isn't being applied.

Under "Set Upload Volume Adjustment" in MC, I have Apply Replay Gain ticked with an additional adjustment of +24db (the highest it will go, on the left-hand side of the dialogue box).

Neither of these are being applied - ie the songs are playing at different levels, and they're all too quiet. This worked fine in build 60 and earlier (the old iPod code).

Additionally, I'm still not seeing any playlists but should have repeated my stats: I'm uploading 4400 files for a total of 27.8 GB, which pretty much fills my iPod, leaving 142.8MB free. I have about eight Smartlists (one of which contains all those 4400 files, a couple of which are about half that size, and the rest of which are tiny) and a single Playlist, none of which are being transferred across. Using build 60 and earlier, I've successfully transferred MORE songs across leaving LESS space on the iPod, so I'm not convinced it's a space issue, especially as 142MB seems quite a chunk to hold a handful of playlists. Anyway, there you go.

tlongacre · « **Reply #133 on:** February 12, 2004, 01:01:17 pm »

Used v. .67 this morning and got all the same results as ever.

I left 2.2 gig free, but still no playlists.

Also, it still froze when I tried to just initialize, so I had to do a full Restore and then Initialize inside MC.

I did NOT get the error 80 anymore.

I DID get one message saying I had one duplicate file (not sure I believe it, but I'll check later).

iTunes files are playing fine.

Audible files are not playing.

SteveG · « **Reply #134 on:** February 12, 2004, 02:30:59 pm »

Everyone,

A new build of MC is now available with the following improvements for iPod....

1. Fixed: Errors during on the fly conversion of files to portables.
2. Fixed: Rename of tag info on portables.
3. Changed: Rename of tag info will not allow changes to Artist, Album, Genre, Name or Track Number on handhelds.
4. Changed: Handheld transfers require more squish space on large players. (for the database, etc.)
5. Fixed: Smartlists with random track listings did not synchronize with handhelds properly.
6. Fixed: Synchronizing information back from a handheld player could cause playcounts to get bumped twice.

Prior to this build, if you had "random" as a smartlist rule, synchronization would have been messed up. Hopefully this resolves most issues from yesterday with the exception of Audible files and the report of Replay Gain not working correctly. If all is going well, these will be the next items addressed.

This thread is long. I will close it and copy this message to the beginning of a new thread.

Thanks.

Steve

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Author Topic: POST IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 23432 times)