Topic: iPod plug-in for Media Jukebox (Read 11799 times)

udeups · « **Reply #50 on:** October 29, 2002, 09:31:15 am »

I have noticed the exact same symptoms as jgourd on my 20GB iPod. It doesn't matter whether the iPod has been loaded by MJ or Ephpod, if it's almost full (17 gigs in my case), MJ crashes every time I click on the iPod root directory to expand it.

jgourd · « **Reply #51 on:** October 29, 2002, 09:37:40 am »

Thank god it is not just me

SteveG · « **Reply #52 on:** October 29, 2002, 09:46:51 am »

udeups,

When doing your testing, does Ephod not have any problem displaying/playling more than 17 gigs?

jgourd · « **Reply #53 on:** October 29, 2002, 09:57:12 am »

Not using Ephpod. MMJB has no problem though.

udeups · « **Reply #54 on:** October 29, 2002, 10:05:45 am »

Quote

udeups,

When doing your testing, does Ephod not have any problem displaying/playling more than 17 gigs?

Correct; Ephpod doesn't have a problem displaying all 17 gigs. I will rerun some of these tests with a little more documentation when I get home today. Here's what I did over the weekend with the latest build of the plugin: Loaded about 17 gigs with MJ. Close MJ. Open Ephpod. Displays fine. Do a sync with Ephpod to get some news feed downloads, etc... nothing major. Close Ephpod, reopen MJ. Click on iPod root/E: drive icon in MJ. Get error (sorry, can't remember the exact wording, but I think it's a standard Windows one). MJ (v. 8, latest build) crashes.

I know this isn't as stringent a test as would be useful for true debugging, so, as I said, I'll work with it a little more and document my process better.

Thanks again for all your work. I will try to play around with v. 9 to see if this process happens there too.

Paul

jgourd · « **Reply #55 on:** October 29, 2002, 11:32:35 am »

I have Vidual Studio and can run stuff in the debugger if you want me to.

SteveG · « **Reply #56 on:** October 29, 2002, 01:50:27 pm »

Hello Everyone,

I have just posted a new Plug-in for testing. It includes..

1) Improved "Eject". Ipod should now be removed from MJ, unmount still is not implemented.

2) Improved formatting. Whenever MJ connects to iPod, it will create any folders that do not exist and create a Database file if it is not present.

3) Improved handling of duplicate files. In the new Plug-in, files are sent to random folders. If a duplicate exists, the user is given the option of modifying the filename or selecting a different folder.

I have not tested these extensively, so if you aren't in the mood for potential bugs, don't download. But,as always feedback is a great thing.

JGourd and udeps, let me attack this tomorrow, thanks for your offers to help debug.

Have a good night.

Steve

TimB · « **Reply #57 on:** October 29, 2002, 02:49:18 pm »

Quote

\

3) Improved handling of duplicate files. In the new Plug-in, files are sent to random folders. If a duplicate exists, the user is given the option of modifying the filename or selecting a different folder.\

Cool to see all the progress on the iPod plugin.

Steve just a thought.

To keep user intervention to a minimum would it make sense to only prompt if there's no folder to put the file in that wouldn't result in a duplicate? ie check all the folders and then send the question. I don't think most users are even aware of the foldering in iPods so a message might confuse them.

-=Tim=-

jgourd · « **Reply #58 on:** October 29, 2002, 02:56:13 pm »

The real trick is to avoid dupes all together and simply update playlists when apropriate.

willrmc · « **Reply #59 on:** October 29, 2002, 04:10:21 pm »

ok, i finally got to testing the plugin again and here are my results.

i made 2 test playlists with several albums that were in both playlists. then i sent them to the ipod to see what happened.

it ended up duplicating the songs instead of putting it on once and pointing to it twice like ephpod does. so if i went to the artist/album on the ipod it listed every song twice. im not sure what ephpod does but even if you try manually adding an album that is already on the ipod, it checks and finds it and does not duplicate it.

also when you add a playlist, it puts the songs on but does not add it to the ipods playlists unless you specifically create a playlist on the ipod and then drag the playlist on to it.

and i was having the same problem as other people in mj crashing when i click on the root, but it happened with a full and empty ipod alike, i went and added more songs from ephpod then relaunched mj8 and finally it worked.

hope this helps, thanks again
-willie

ashawley · « **Reply #60 on:** October 29, 2002, 05:45:07 pm »

Steve:

I'll send you a sample file that was causing the wierd "Macintosh" errors I mentioned previously. Also, I'm going to send you a log file that Windows is generating each time I try to access the route of my iPod. I'm getting a crash everytime. I'm running version 9 on an ipod formatted with ephpod. Hopefully the log file will help.

Adam

jgourd · « **Reply #61 on:** October 30, 2002, 01:10:34 am »

Bad News and Worse News:

First the Bad News: If I fill the iPod with just 10gig worth of files, MJ crashes when I click on the root icon.

Now the Worse News: Using the new and improved eject function causes one of the most devastating system crashes I have ever seen. Each and every running proccess in the task list crashes and pops up a warning dialog. Eventually after clicking "OK" or "Don't Submit Error Report", XP Blue Screens on me. At this point I can't even reboot until I power the machine off for a few seconds. It will happen when there is only one or one hundred albums on the iPod.

jgourd · « **Reply #62 on:** October 30, 2002, 02:44:21 am »

New Wrinkle

I reformatted the iPod with MJ. I transfered about 8 gigs of music to it. I exited MJ and restarted it. I clicked the root of the iPod and nothing happened. I looked at he Media Library and then clicked on the iPod root again. This time the iPod was't recognised as an iPod and all I could see was the calander and contact stuff.

At no time did I dismount the iPod. All I did was exit and restart MJ.

I then dismounted the iPod and remounted it. This time MJ crashed when I clicked on the root icon.

I then deleted the "iTunesDB" file. MJ no longer crashes.

I used the "Rebuild database from iPod" menu item but it did nothing.

SteveG · « **Reply #63 on:** October 30, 2002, 01:30:00 pm »

Hello Everyone,

A new build with the following features..

1) Modifications to duplicate file handling. I have had conflicting suggestions regarding how to handle
duplicate files. What I have implemented is a compromise. With each upload, MJ will check to see if the file already exists anywhere on iPod. If a duplicate is discovered, the user will be prompted to either
allow the transfer or not. This selection can be applied for all subsequent transfers so it will not need
to be selected over and over. If the user selects to enable duplicate transfers, I also verify that the
random folder does not already have the duplicate file. If so, the user has the option of either renaming the
file at the point of the transfer, or to let the file go as is. This can be tweaked more, but I think this
will get most requests accomplished.

2) Fixed tree collapse for playlists in version 9. A new build of 9 must be made before this is available.

TimB ... I hope this incorporates what you requested.

In regards to Adam's problem.... Adam sent me this file and I could not duplicate the problem. If anyone else sees this error, please chime in.

JGourd sent his Database file and I could not duplicate his problem on 2000 or XP. My best guess is that it is a conflict with MusicMatch which I have disabled and he has installed. I duplicated the eject problem on XP ( not on 2000) although it was not as catastrophic as JGourd saw, I just needed to reboot. I have removed this option until I fgure out what is going on.

For future problems, JGourd's idea of emailing the iTunesDB file is an excellent one. With this file I can attempt to duplicate most issues which should speed debugging. Please feel free to email me this file with a bug report.

WillRMC.. The latest version should hopefully improve the handling of duplicate files.

FOR EVERYONE..... Playlist ordering works, but is arguably a little akward. To transfer an ordered playlist, create a playlist on iPod from MJ, drop your MJ playlist on this playlist and then before upload, right click on the root and select "Show queued files only" Now the files are ordered and the order will be rememberd on upload. The trick is to remember that after the upload finishes to go back to the root and reselect "Show all files". Sorry it is complicated, I will improve tomorrow.

Thanks,
Steve

Kurt Young · « **Reply #64 on:** October 30, 2002, 02:50:43 pm »

Hey all, I wanted to take a second and draw a distinction between duplicate files and duplicate songs. I know that y'all know this already, but it makes me feel comfortable, at this stage in the game, to draw attention to these equally important but functionally different issues.

Duplicate files == two actual files with the same filename. This, in my opinion, is okay. Some folks have files with the same names, and that shouldn't be a problem. Like, maybe some guy has all his music in subfolders, and wants to transfer two files named "Pearl Jam - 01.mp3" -- they're different songs, but they've got the same filename.

The issue with duplicate files is, of course, overwriting one another. Overwriting a file when a duplicate is found isn't a good idea at all... you'd end up with multiple songs in the iPod's database pointing at the same file, which may or may not be correct. Ephpod solves this by dynamically renaming every file as it copies it to the iPod (2001.mp3, 2002.mp3, etc), but I rather think that leaving the filenames as unchanged as possible is a worthwhile goal.

Bottom line on duplicate files: It should be okay for me to have multiple "pearl jam - 01.mp3" files on my iPod's hard drive. The trick is making sure that there's only one per \F* directory.

Solutions: If a file is being copied into a directory where a file already exists with the same filename, you could...
- automatically try a different folder,
- generate an empty folder, like \F24, and copy it there,
- modify the new file's filename, like add a .00001 or .00002 before the .mp3 ("Pearl Jam - 01.00001.mp3", "Pearl Jam - 01.00002.mp3" hehe)

Keep these solutions as invisible to the user as possible. Not everyone's a power user, they just want their tunes on their iPod.

Duplicate songs == two identical entries in the iPod's database. I'm talking about two entries in the database that have every tag in common... same artist, same album, same track#, same genre, same composer, and same title. This also causes the iPod's display screen to show two instances of the song, and could cause general yuckiness in the MJ plugin. It doesn't matter what file the songs are pointing at, this shouldn't be allowed to happen.

This would most likely be caused by uploading two playlists that both call out the same song; an instance gets created in the database for every time it's found on a playlist. Naturally, I want the song to show up in both playlists, but if I surf to the album that the song is on, I don't want to see it twice.

Bottom line on dupliate songs: Somehow implement a safety net that checks for and prevents duplicate songs.

Solutions:
- If a record (song) is being created in the database that is identical to a record that already exists, prevent it from being created and prevent file transfer of the file that it's linked to.
- If the same song is called out on multiple playlists, make sure that each playlist is pointing to the same record (song) in the database... don't let each playlist try to create its own record. (Did that make sense at all?)

Cheers guys, thanks for letting me talk.

TimB · « **Reply #65 on:** October 30, 2002, 03:29:05 pm »

I had ceased to beta test early in the test as my iPod became very disturbed.

I've since discovered that there might be something wrong with my iPod as it sticks on the Firewire icon on the iPod screen so it looks as if it was an iPod issue rather than a beta one.

I know this wasn't keeping anyone up at nights (except maybe me) but wanted to let folks know.

-=Tim=-

JimH · « **Reply #66 on:** October 30, 2002, 03:35:11 pm »

Hi Tim,
I don't know whether you're running XP or not, but I saw this thread on Apple's board today and thought it was really interesting:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?50@21.b3VYavdddOu.0@.3bbb9b23

Something is clearly a problem with iPod and firewire and it would not be surprising if it's Windows related.

Jim

TimB · « **Reply #67 on:** October 30, 2002, 04:54:48 pm »

Quote

Hi Tim,
I don't know whether you're running XP or not, but I saw this thread on Apple's board today and thought it was really interesting:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?50@21.b3VYavdddOu.0@.3bbb9b23

Something is clearly a problem with iPod and firewire and it would not be surprising if it's Windows related.

Jim

I am using XP, I'll try this tomorrow am and report in.

Thanks Jim!

-=Tim=-

jgourd · « **Reply #68 on:** October 30, 2002, 05:25:06 pm »

I tried the new build. Since my iPod has 15 gig on it, just trying to look at the iPod in MJ caused MJ to crash and burn. I emailed Steve my iTunes DB so hopefully he can sort this out.

Although MMJB is installed, I have renamed its folder so that it can't be found.

As far as the new dupe control is concerned, the development is going in the wrong direction. Here is how I would do it:

1.) Always append some form of timestamp to every file's name so that there is never a duplicated filename.

2.) If the song being uploaded is a dupe (all tags the same and / or the full pathname to the source file is the same) then don't upload it. All you need to do is add a pointer to the playlist to the existing file on the iPod. You can check for dupes by building a simple in-memory database and weeding out the dupes before ever copying a single file.

willrmc · « **Reply #69 on:** October 30, 2002, 06:53:09 pm »

ok, i installed the new plugin and tested it with my same test as yesterday. which is put 2 separate playlists on, with several albums appearing in both playlists. this time i manually added the playlists on the ipod and dragged the mj playlists to each one. then i went to upload and it and went through and uploaded all of the songs, then when it came to the second playlist it asked me whether i wanted to put duplicate files on the ipod (which i didn't of course) but then when it was over i went to the playlists and found the second one had none of the dupe songs. so what we need to happen is have it not upload the song a second time, but then point the playlist to the file already on the ipod. i think jgourd and kurt are right on track with their last posts. but the plugin keeps getting closer and closer, and i can't wait to have it fully functional and updating the playcounts for smart playlists (i'm getting a little ahead of myself, i know). thanks again!
--

jgourd · « **Reply #70 on:** October 31, 2002, 12:44:55 am »

I found a registry key that seems to point to the MMJB launcher app when the iPod is connected. Could those who use Ephpod and those who use MMJB plaease look at this registry key and tell me which file it points to?

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Apple Computer, Inc.\iPod\iPodMusicManager] "MusicManagerPath"=hex:44,00,3a,00,5c,00,50,00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,\ 6d,00,20,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,5c,00,4d,00,55,00,53,00,49,00,43,\ 00,4d,00,41,00,54,00,43,00,48,00,5c,00,4d,00,55,00,53,00,49,00,43,00,4d,00,\ 41,00,54,00,43,00,48,00,20,00,4a,00,75,00,6b,00,65,00,62,00,6f,00,78,00,5c,\ 00,4d,00,4d,00,4a,00,42,00,4c,00,61,00,75,00,6e,00,63,00,68,00,2e,00,65,00,\ 78,00,65,00,20,00,41,00,75,00,74,00,6f,00,53,00,79,00,6e,00,63,00,00,00

This is a hex representation of "D:\Program Files\MUSICMATCH\MusicMatch Jukebox\MMJBLaunch.exe AutoSync"

Thanks,
Jonathan

mclaugh · « **Reply #71 on:** October 31, 2002, 04:34:39 am »

IIRC from the EphPod boards, the way that they check for duplicates is by file size. Thus, you could potentially have the same song encoded at 128 and 192, given different ephpod numbers (2013 and 3123, or something), and both stored on the Ipod.

In general, is there a specific reason why Joe Freshman isn't involved with programming this plugin? His work on EphPod has been amazing, and I've seen him recommend MJB to more than one person on the ephpod list looking to organize their music collection. He might be able to offer some insight on the multiple file sync issue.

TimB · « **Reply #72 on:** October 31, 2002, 10:50:04 am »

Quote

Hi Tim,
I don't know whether you're running XP or not, but I saw this thread on Apple's board today and thought it was really interesting:

http://discussions.info.apple.com/WebX?50@21.b3VYavdddOu.0@.3bbb9b23

Something is clearly a problem with iPod and firewire and it would not be surprising if it's Windows related.

Jim

Tried this and alas it didn't work but thanks for the help (and also for the posting on Apple's iPod Forum, what a guy!)

-=Tim=-

SteveG · « **Reply #73 on:** October 31, 2002, 02:35:39 pm »

Hello Again,

New build today.

Updated file duplication handling and added an overwrite option. Fixed some bugs.

I appreciate all the feedback on file duplication. Here is the deal. I follow the different suggestions (which sometimes are at odds with each other) but have implemented a solution which I think solves most requests AND is compatible with the way MJ is designed to interact with Plug-ins. This last sentence is the main reason why not everything is possible without major overhauling. My goal is to implement as much as possible with as little major gut wrenching of MJ.

With this in mind, please use the options for "Overwrite and Don't Send Duplicates" and offer hypothetical situations of how these do not get you where you need to go. A simple "I would like to do this but can't.." would be amazingly helpful. Some of it may be accomplished with a better understanding of how this works and some may need to be worked on.

Let me make the following suggestion. Either drag your files to the root of iPod and then add to playlists from within iPod, or Drag playlists directly onto playlists.

mcLaugh, I have talked with Joe Freshman. He knows iPod but does not have access to or knowledge of the guts of MJ. By his suggestion we are not naming the files 2001,2002 etc and storing in one folder as is the case in Ephpod. This general info is a help.

More tomorrow....

jgourd · « **Reply #74 on:** October 31, 2002, 04:13:15 pm »

I just tried an experiment. Steve was commenting that he can't get MJ to crash when the iPod is over 10gigs full. He suggested to me that the mere presence of MMJB could be a source of my crashes.

In my experiment, I took a new Windows XP installation that only had MJ installed. I took a fresh Factory Reset iPod and it mounted as an external hard disc. I then uploaded about 13gig of music. I exited MJ and restarted it. When clicking on the root icon of the iPod in MJ, MJ crashed.

My conclusion is that neither MMJB or IpodSrvc.exe have anything to do with the crashing.

I can tell you that there are two symptoms that go hand in hand. When the iPod has a lot of songs, clicking on the root of the iPod will either crash MJ or it will just show "Calendars", "Contacts", or "mjdb" sub folders.

Since I have been able to reproduce the crashing on two machines now (both XP), I think it is safe to say that the problem doesn't have anything to do with my particluar software environment.

jgourd · « **Reply #75 on:** October 31, 2002, 04:40:47 pm »

Halloween Build:

I was copying a whole bunch of files and got the dupes dialog. I accepted the defaults and hit OK. The upload aborted after that and of the 576 songs selected to upload, only 384 made it.

I do not know is this is intentional or not but if I copy files to a playlist and subsequntly use the "Send To > Device H:" context menu item on an albm icon, it sends it the previously selected playlist.

mclaugh · « **Reply #76 on:** October 31, 2002, 05:23:10 pm »

Thank you for your reply.
Now, to answer your question, let me explain what my typical usage is, and how the duplicate file thing can be annoying (I apologize in advance if this gets long).

I own over a thousand CDs, I have about 80 gigs of music on my hard drive. I generally fill up my ipod by dragging over entire albums, or an entire artist's folder. Additionally, I have mix cd's I've burned (pre ipod) that I've ripped, and put them on. Those CDs contain songs that are usually already on the Ipod- for me, I want the playlist to go on there, and grab those same songs.
If you go by the Apple marketing stuff, you can store anywhere from 1000 to 4000 mp3s on your Ipod, depending on its capacity. Anyone that has enough music to fill an Ipod probably is serious enough about music not to want to have a song appearing twice, and taking up valuable room.
Does that help?

willrmc · « **Reply #77 on:** October 31, 2002, 06:57:36 pm »

with the new build i copied some songs on then tried putting mj playlists that had some of the same songs and anything that was on the ipod already did not show up on the playlist. but there were no duplicates anymore so that is good.
anyway this is how i plan to use my ipod. i typically will have all of a favorite artists complete albums on the ipod so i can listen to them in the original order. but then i make long playlists that are a mix of all of my favorite songs mixed together. so lets say i download all of the beatles albums to my ipod. then i also have strawberry fields, help, yesterday, hey jude, etc. among my "favorite songs" playlist. right now with the beatles albums already on my ipod, when i try to drag my favorite songs playlist into an ipod playlist, any song that is already on the ipod (i.e. strawberry fields, help, yesterday, hey jude) will be excluded from the playlist i create.
right now i just export all of my playlists as m3u from mj to a folder and have ephpod sync with that folder, when it sees that the song is already on the ipod elsewhere, it just adds the song to the playlist w/o recopying the song. hope this is the kind of info you're looking for. thanks
-willie

ashawley · « **Reply #78 on:** October 31, 2002, 07:29:51 pm »

OK Steve, I've got lots of info for you tonight (too much Halloween Wine I guess)

I've been able to duplicate and prevent the crashes when accessing the root of the iPod. Here's what I did:

If I click the "+" sign next to the "CD/DVD & Handhelds" item and then click the iPod, I get a crash every time.

If I DON'T click the "+" sign, but click the "CD/DVD & Handhelds" item itself, and THEN click the iPod, I have no problem. The "Analyzing Devices" and "Gathering Information & Updating View" dialogs come up and then the iPod has a nice "+" sign next to it when I click on it.

Bottom line, it has something to do with the "Analyzing Devices and Updating View" function. I don't think that is kicked off unless you first select the "CD/DVD & Handhelds" item (man I'm getting tired of typing that)

OK, now that I don't have the crashes, or at least can prevent them, I've run into another problem. If I upload songs to my iPod, I don't see them in the view window. No matter what I upload. The Artist/Album/Genre show up correctly in the left-frame, but when I select an album, no songs show up in the right-pane. Strange...I didn't see this under MJ 8

Also, I've been e-mailing you regarding that strange "Macintosh" error I've been getting. Well, I restored my iPod tonight (using Apple's 1.2.1 updater) and now I don't have the problem. I even connected to ephpod (it built the "mac" file btw) and then reconnected to MJ and uploaded files again and still no problem. That's strange because I've been using the 1.2.1 firmware since Apple released it for windows (actually before that, but when they came out w/it I restored again). So, while I don't think that's the root of the problem, restoring somehow fixed my problem.

Guess we'll have to chalk that one up to...well, "ghosts in the machine"

If I can duplicate it, I'll let you know, but for now, forget about it.

Let me know if you need more info.

Adam

jgourd · « **Reply #79 on:** November 01, 2002, 01:33:22 am »

Quote

I've been able to duplicate and prevent the crashes when accessing the root of the iPod. Here's what I did:

If I click the "+" sign next to the "CD/DVD & Handhelds" item and then click the iPod, I get a crash every time.

If I DON'T click the "+" sign, but click the "CD/DVD & Handhelds" item itself, and THEN click the iPod, I have no problem. The "Analyzing Devices" and "Gathering Information & Updating View" dialogs come up and then the iPod has a nice "+" sign next to it when I click on it.

I have verified this to be the case on my machine as well.

jgourd · « **Reply #80 on:** November 01, 2002, 02:54:49 am »

Here is a fun bug: If you choose to overwirght dupes, your playlists disappear and no new files appear on the iPod.

This is a DB issue I am sure. Here are the details to re-create:
1.) Create two playlists on the iPod
2.) Fill one playlist with a few songs and upload.
3.) Fill the other playlist with a few songs but make sure some of them are the same songs as the first playlist. Upload.
4.) When the dupe file dialog pops up set it up to over-write the dupes.
5.) Click OK and take note of the files that are uploaded from this point on.
5.) Disconnect iPod
6.) Verify that the playlists as displayed on the iPod itself are missing.
7.) Verify that the files copied after you OK'ed the dupe resolution are not on the iPod.
8.) Connect the iPod and verify that everything still looks OK in MJ.

I have been able to reproduce this using these steps every time.

Here is sonething else I just observed:

You cannot drag files already on the iPod to a playlist on the iPod.

If you choose not to over-write existing files, the playlist you were copying into never receives the songs.

jgourd · « **Reply #81 on:** November 01, 2002, 04:24:46 am »

This may or may not have anything to do with the MJ plug-in.

If you go to the "About" page on the iPod, if always shows 15 gig free no matter how much is on it.

DB7 · « **Reply #82 on:** November 01, 2002, 06:47:57 am »

Stupid question:

I've loaded the Ipod Plug in and I get the hand held drive letter that I think designates the Ipod.

I drag MP3 files I'm interested in copying to to IPOD drive. The IPOD window shows files in Que......(in MMJB it usally starts the copying process at this Point), but nothing happens. Is there another step I'm missing?

I also noticed I don't have the ipod eject selection when I right click on the ipod drive. I remember it being there before......

I still have MMJB loaded, should I uninstall it?

Suggestions please, thanks

ashawley · « **Reply #83 on:** November 01, 2002, 07:48:03 am »

DB7:

Once you're files are in Queue, you need to click the "upload files" button to get them on the iPod.

Regarding the Eject feature. I believe Steve took that off in the most recent build because it was causing problems and he wanted to get it fixed before he put it back.

Adam

TimB · « **Reply #84 on:** November 01, 2002, 10:19:48 am »

Quote

I've been able to duplicate and prevent the crashes when accessing the root of the iPod. Here's what I did:

If I click the "+" sign next to the "CD/DVD & Handhelds" item and then click the iPod, I get a crash every time.

If I DON'T click the "+" sign, but click the "CD/DVD & Handhelds" item itself, and THEN click the iPod, I have no problem. The "Analyzing Devices" and "Gathering Information & Updating View" dialogs come up and then the iPod has a nice "+" sign next to it when I click on it.

Bottom line, it has something to do with the "Analyzing Devices and Updating View" function. I don't think that is kicked off unless you first select the "CD/DVD & Handhelds" item (man I'm getting tired of typing that)

I'm up and running again.

I'm getting a similar problem with instant MJ9 crashes but for me its when I try to open the E: directory (where my iPod lives.) This literally just started it was fine before.

-=Tim=-

TimB · « **Reply #85 on:** November 01, 2002, 10:43:49 am »

Quote

I'm getting a similar problem with instant MJ9 crashes but for me its when I try to open the E: directory (where my iPod lives.) This literally just started it was fine before.

-=Tim=-

OK...

quit and started MJ9 - same problem
rebooted PC - same problem
reinstalled MJ9 and plugin - same problem
Ran ephpod and added some files went back in MJ9 - problem goes away

weird eh?

-=Tim=-

SteveG · « **Reply #86 on:** November 01, 2002, 01:35:40 pm »

Hello Everyone,

A new build...

1) Modified "Overwrite Files" duplicate selection to preserve Playlist data. For example, if you have file
a.mp3 in playlist "One". You Upload file a.mp3 again to Playlist "Two". If you select "Overwrite" you
will have one copy a.mp3 on your iPod and it will be in Playlist One and Two.

Also, some people sent DB files that would crash. These would crash because they were defective. I have added a safeguard that prevents MJ from crashing in this instance. The bad news is, you will need to reformat. I will work next week on providing a way to rebuild a database file from a corrupted iPod. It is not hard from the Plug-ins perspective, but implementing it with MJ is tricky.

For everyone running v9, there is a problem in MJ that is causing the crash when expanding the tree. I am unable to get the fix to it out to you until the next build of 9. Sorry.

In regards to these issues from JGourd

1)You cannot drag files already on the iPod to a playlist on the iPod.

---- This is by current v 8 design. Hopefully improved in v9

If you choose not to over-write existing files, the playlist you were copying into never receives the songs.

--This is modified in today's build

Everyone - If you want to always have no duplicate files on your iPod, but multiple instances of the file in different playlists, simply check the box to overwrite duplicates and MJ will take care of the rest.

Have a good weekend.

Steve

jgourd · « **Reply #87 on:** November 02, 2002, 08:30:41 am »

New bug:

You can cause a crash in MJ by clicking on a playlist other than the first one created when you delete the files from the root. To demostrate:

1) Format iPod with MJ.
2) Create two playlists: "One" & "Two".
3) Copy Songs "A" & "B" to playlist "One".
4) Copy Songs "C" & "D" to playlist "Two".
5) Upload.
6) Verify the iPod's playlists are OK and what you expect them to be.
7) Go to the root of the iPod and delete all three files.

Click on Playlist "Two", verify that MJ Crashes.

If you make more than two playlists then the only one you can click on is the first one created.

The Overwrite dupe handling fix works fine when I only have a few files in my test. When I have several gigs in the test I usually end up with no playlists on the iPod when disconnect from the computer.

Phil Lee · « **Reply #88 on:** November 04, 2002, 02:26:56 am »

Unfortunately MJ started crashing on me for the first time today.

I had to do a reinstall of XP over the weekend so reinstalled MJ and downloaded the latest plugin. On Saturday I was able to see the contents of my iPod in MJ.

This morning I wanted to upload a new album to my iPod. When I clicked on the + to expand the Handhelds folder I could see H:, my iPod, but there was no + next to it. When I clicked on H:, MJ crashed. I didn't have time to do any further investigation.

jgourd · « **Reply #89 on:** November 04, 2002, 03:36:55 am »

Steve indicated that we would have to reformat in order to prevent future crashes. You can stop the crash in order to reformat by using the Windows Explorer to browse the iPod and delete the iTunes Database files.

When the DB has been deleted, MJ will stop crashing so you can use the MJ option to format it.

Mine has been behaving well over the weekend. I have been conservative with my testing so far. I have not created any playlists yet after confirming the the overwrite bug is fixed.

jgourd · « **Reply #90 on:** November 04, 2002, 03:46:52 am »

I found a new way to make MJ crash with the iPod. This is similar to the clicking on the root. To reproduce:

1 ) Start MJ. Verify that the playing now or home page is showing. If the iPod is showing, go to the playing now page, quit and restart MJ.
2 ) At the top of the folder tree in MJ select the iPod as the target device.
3 ) Click the little red and white traget to select the iPod.
4 ) Verify that MJ crashes.

Note, if I use the method where I click on the "CD, DVD, & Handhelds" icon and use the keyboard to get to the root of the iPod, there is no crash.

SteveG · « **Reply #91 on:** November 04, 2002, 06:12:34 am »

For everyone running MJ v9 who is having crashing problems when expanding the "CD DVD and Handhelds" icon, there was a bug introduced in the cdwriter.ocx that was distributed last week. This is now fixed and will be resolved with the next build of v9.

Thanks,

Steve

SteveG · « **Reply #92 on:** November 05, 2002, 10:36:59 am »

Hello Everyone,

I have just posted a new build. I am going to close this thread and start a new one.

Steve

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Author Topic: iPod plug-in for Media Jukebox (Read 11799 times)