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[gpvillamil]

MC10 has been working fine for me for while. However, lately I am having a perplexing problem.

Basically, after a sync, if I browse by album on the iPod, everything is out of order. The albums are not sorted alphabetically. There might be some that are in order but then a whole slew in random order. Some titles are repeated several times.

Some albums are on the iPod but cannot be reached by browsing. (However, if they are in a playlist, I can reach them via the playlist).

I have restored the iPod and installed firmware 1.4 (I have a 2G iPod).

The only major change I can think of is that I had a hard disk crash, and restored to a new disk from a backup. However, MC10 shows all files correctly and in order.

Media Center Registered 10.0.173 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2579 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1047 MB, Free - 575 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2900.2180 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2900.2573 (xpsp_sp2_gdr.041130-1729) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2900.2578 (xpsp_sp2_gdr.041130-1729) / wnaspi32.dll: 4.71 (0002) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0002)

Ripping /   Drive D: PLEXTOR DVDR   PX-708A    Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Drive E:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: No /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: No /  Play sound after ripping: No 

Burning /  Drive D: MATSHITA DVD-RAM SW-9585    Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:40  MaxSpeed:40  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None

[newflavour]

sounds like you are experiencing the same issue i had a few days ago. I have posted a work around for this here:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=26121.0

although my issue relates to tracks sorting alphabetically it applies equally across any sorting methods you may have applied to your playlists.

the initialise process within MC does NOT "format" or "remove" the actual tracks from your ipod - this has been my experience thus far.

the other day I browsed my ipod and manually removed all tracks and playlists. applied the work-around linked about and then synched the playlsits again. everything is now running a smooth as a babies butt.

[gpvillamil]

nope, different issue. this is not playlist order - it is the order in the browse menu, which should always be alphabetical. i am starting with a clean iPod (ie just restored).

[SteveG]

gpvillamil,

I have not had any other reports like this. What happens if you temporarily  (as a test) transfer files with iTunes, does the iPod have the same issue? (Only do this test if you can reinitialize when you are done before running MC again.)

Steve

[gpvillamil]

iTunes transfers fine.

In hindsight, I have had this problem before, however it took a while for me to notice it, because I rarelly scroll through the complete list of albums on the iPod.

Some albums seem especially susceptible to the problem, usually those that start with a NON alphanumeric character eg. "...Mixing" or "[Hypnotic Sounds]"

I have saved an iTunesDB file from the iPod in this state, I can send it to you if you want.

It is also happening with MC11.

[gpvillamil]

OK, I sync'ed again after a restore to 1.4 firmware, and everything was a complete mess.

So I restored to 1.3 firmware on the iPod, sync'ed again, and everything is now OK.

However - I have added some additional tunes so some albums are no longer in the sync, including some that always caused problems. Please test album names that start with punctuation, for example something like "...Mixing".

[SteveG]

I will need to set up an iPod with firmware 1.3 to do this test.

Steve

[SteveG]

Gian,

Are you able to reproduce problems with firmware 1.3 if you add albums that were problematic in 1.4?

Steve

[gpvillamil]

Well, I restored the iPod to firmware 1.3 and then did a complete sync. Everything seems OK, one of the problematic albums ([Hypnotic Sounds]) transferred perfectly.

I am now doing a resync, without initializing the iPod. First thing that seems odd is that it is reporting -9.5GB free, but has gone ahead, started the sync, deleted files and is now transferring. I will let you know how it goes.

I have put several of the "troublesome" albums in the sync queue.

[gpvillamil]

Well, something's up with the way free space is reported, the transfer did not start after files had been deleted from the iPod.

I seem to be able to sync correctly to the iPod, with everything showing up correctly, but I have to initialize each time. Which of course makes it quite time consuming...

[SteveG]

Perhaps the free space issue is related to your other issue about nested smartlists. Can you replicate this if you do not use nested smartlists?

Steve

[gpvillamil]

Well, a first test suggests that things work OK without nested smartlists. Still checking.

However, just before, an incremental sync did not work because of the free space issue. A complete sync after re-initializing completed OK, with just two errors in the album list. Basically "!K7" appears between "Agaetis Byrjun" and "Air II".  Also - "Agaetis Byrjun" appears twice in the list, first with a small group of albums starting with "A" that come before the ones using "A" as an article, ie:

...
Africa - Never Stand Still
Agaetis Byrjun
A Hard Day's Night
A Momentary Lapse of Reason
...
After Virtue
Agaetis Byrjun
!K7 (Disc 1)
Air II
...

Note that Agaetis Byrjun is actually spelled using the ae ligature, which raises the possibility of Unicode characters or punctuation being the problem.

[SteveG]

Lets track these issues separately as I think they are not related. The nested smartlists may be responsible for the available space issue, but are most likely not responsible for the Album ordering.  I am more interested in pursuing the nested issue first. Please test your results using non nested smartlists and see if the problem goes away. I  posted a similar suggestion in your other thread.

Thanks.

Steve

[gpvillamil]

Things seem to be getting a bit better - after the latest sync, I could find only one out-of-sequence problem. This is in the browse by Album view on the iPod. The following are album names, in the order in which they appear.

...
4
'64-'95
!dundunbanza!
'64-'95
76 14
...

Note once again how the troublesome albums are ones starting with punctuation.

I have not had time to try a sync without smartlists, in order to deal with the other issue.