Topic: Folders on handheld player (Read 3803 times)

sbl · « **on:** January 18, 2005, 07:01:11 pm »

I recently purchased an iRiver IFP-895 player. It knows how to play through up to 8 levels of folders. I would like MC11 to synchronize to the player using the folder hierarchy I have on disk - artiist/album/track. But MC11 just copies all the files in to the root folder. The problem with this is that if two filenames are the same, the second one overwrites the first. I have a lot of cases of this problem.

Windows Media Player 10 knows how to synch using folders, but WMP10 falls over when I try to synch with this player (even though it is said to work.) The iRivier Music Manager can't do folders either (and is extremely painful to use.)

Is there a way to get MC11 to create folders? If not, please consider adding this feature. I guess I got spoiled by the Rio Carbon which reads the ID3 tags and creates its own index (though it also does folders...)

Thanks.

JimH · « **Reply #1 on:** January 18, 2005, 07:04:13 pm »

Did you check for newer drivers for the player? I ask because a friend found it to help.

sbl · « **Reply #2 on:** January 18, 2005, 08:11:20 pm »

Yes, I did check, and I did update the firmware.

Now why was this post moved when I was asking for a feature in Media Center?

IanG · « **Reply #3 on:** January 19, 2005, 03:57:36 am »

I'm assuming you've defined your handheld using tools / options / handheld? If you have, it'll appear in the "Drives and Devices" tree in the left hand pane. Right click on it and you'll get the options for how you want your files organised.

This is still a Media Center forum, it's just focused on issues relating to hand helds.

Ian G.

sbl · « **Reply #4 on:** January 19, 2005, 08:12:54 am »

The player appears under Files and Devices. But there is no option in the player options screen for creating folders. I would like to see one. WMP10 attempts to "autodetect" whether a player supports folders, but allows the user to explicitly specify it.

IanG · « **Reply #5 on:** January 19, 2005, 12:29:55 pm »

Quote from: sbl on January 19, 2005, 08:12:54 am

The player appears under Files and Devices.

Is it showing as a disk or a handheld (the icon looks like books)? If it's a disk, you need to tell MC it's a handheld, if it's already a handheld you can right click on it, select "Rearrange upload folders" and then select the folder structure you want.

Ian G.

sbl · « **Reply #6 on:** January 19, 2005, 05:42:17 pm »

It shows as a handheld (books). I can right click and select options. A dialog box labelled "handheld options" appears. There is no option for "rearrange upload folders". There is a button for "Configure remote and fixed drives for detection", but this player does not appear as a disk drive and this option seems inappropriate.

Steve

IanG · « **Reply #7 on:** January 19, 2005, 06:05:13 pm »

Steve, sorry, I've just run out of ideas! It looks like we'll have to wait for Steve G (no relation) to make an appearance.

Ian G.

SteveG · « **Reply #8 on:** January 20, 2005, 01:06:55 pm »

Steve,

Please get MC 11.0.178 if you do not have it.

After that, expand the tree under 'Drives & Devices' and see if your device is there. If it is, you should be able to right click on it in the tree and see an option called 'Rearrange upload folders' that will do what you are after.

If any of this is not as I have described, please repost and I can make additional suggestions.

Thanks,

Steve

sbl · « **Reply #9 on:** January 20, 2005, 06:11:00 pm »

Steve,

I downloaded and installed 11.0.178, but the behavior is the same. The device does show up under Files and Devices as "iRiver IFP-895T". If I right click on it, the only option available is "Show Queued Files Only". If I click on "Handheld Player" in the action menu, it displays the drag-and-drop area for the player. I can right click it and bring up the same Handheld Options menu I described earlier.

Steve

sbl · « **Reply #10 on:** January 20, 2005, 08:19:14 pm »

Wait, it gets better...

I create folders on the device, which works fine. Then I select 16 tracks and drag them over to the folder. The transfer box comes up and tells me, correctly, that I have 16 items. But when I start the transfer, it tells me I have 32 items and not enough room on the device. Worse, if it thinks there is enough room, the tracks all end up in the root folder anyway!

I eventually got what I wanted by transferring the tracks to the root folder and then going in to the, otherwise brain-dead, iRiver Music Manager, and moving the tracks to the respective folders.

I really shouldn't have to do this!

Steve

SteveG · « **Reply #11 on:** January 21, 2005, 05:04:18 pm »

Steve,

Does your device appear in Windows Explorer? If so, can you drag and drop files to it and have the device recognize and play the files?

If not, this is why you are having problems. I can explain more after you reply.

Thanks,

Steve

sbl · « **Reply #12 on:** January 21, 2005, 05:07:34 pm »

No - as I mentioned above, this device does not appear as a drive in Windows Explorer.

Steve

SteveG · « **Reply #13 on:** January 23, 2005, 06:18:18 pm »

Steve,

Sorry, I do not see your reference to Windows Explorer.

Anyway,

If it does not appear as a drive, the only access we can provide to it is via what is called WMDM support, which is a standard Windows interface. You will have the same abilities (and limitations) that you have with Windows Media Player. Your frustration should be directed at iRiver.

In the meantime, how are creating folders on the device?

Steve

sbl · « **Reply #14 on:** January 23, 2005, 06:30:43 pm »

I can create the folders fine. But I can't transfer files properly to the folders.

Can't do this in WMP10 either - I went to another PC which didn't crash when I tried to access the device or synchronize, but it also failed to create folders and did crash when I tried to select devuce options. I will complain to iRiver.

A pity so few of the flash players can handle this sort of thing....

Steve

SteveG · « **Reply #15 on:** January 24, 2005, 08:28:11 am »

Steve,

Can you tell me how you create the folders? Using what application and with what steps?

Thanks,

Steve

sbl · « **Reply #16 on:** January 24, 2005, 08:39:03 am »

I can create the folders in MC11 - I'm away from the system I use for that, so I don't remember the exact sequence, but MC11 has no trouble displaying the folder structure of the IFP-895 nor of creating a new folder. It just gets very confused when I try to transfer tracks to said folders, and it tries to make two copies of each track.

The player is away with my wife for the next week, so I won't be able to do any more experiments until she returns. Let me know if there's something you would like me to try.

Steve

SteveG · « **Reply #17 on:** January 24, 2005, 02:02:53 pm »

Steve,

Thanks. When you can, please let me know specifically where you are in the tree/menus when you create the folders.

Thanks,

Steve

kineticarl · « **Reply #18 on:** January 24, 2005, 03:41:07 pm »

Not trying to hijack your thread, sbl, but this happens to my zen micro as well, but only after i upgraded the firmware to comply with MTP (Microsoft transfer protocol). MC11 copies two copies of each file to the root folder, and not into the music folder. My zen micro does show up in windows explorer, but not as a letter-assigned drive. It's just 'there'. Thus in MC11 it doesn't show up in "my computer" as a drive, but detetcs it as a device and then installs a plug-in that almost works. I can create and delete folders through MC but can't get it to send the music to the correct folders.

SteveG · « **Reply #19 on:** January 26, 2005, 01:50:18 pm »

kineticarl,

If your right click on the Micro in the tree do you see an option 'Show queued files only'?

If so, MC is interacting with your Micro via the plugin. If not, it is accessing it via WMDM support. If via WMDM support the question is the new Micro firmware backwards compatible with wmdm support from WMP9. You could test this by running WMP9 with the micro and seeing if it works.

Thanks,

Steve

sbl · « **Reply #20 on:** January 26, 2005, 02:28:42 pm »

I can tell you that with the IFP-985, a right click showed "Show queued files only".

Steve

sbl · « **Reply #21 on:** January 29, 2005, 08:20:08 pm »

Ok, here is what I see. First, with the player attached showing the right-click menu:

Now I drag two tracks to the "Gordon Lightfoot" folder on the device and ask to see the list:

It tells me I will have 19.6MB left. Now I start the transfer and get an error saying that the device is full. I show the transfer list again - now it has four tracks, with the two correct and two duplicated to the root folder.

Let me know if there are other things I should try.

Steve

SteveG · « **Reply #22 on:** January 31, 2005, 08:20:35 am »

sbl,

You mentioned that the iRiver does not appear as a drive in Windows Explorer. This means that MC is accessing your device as a generic WMDM device and that we access it in the same generic way that WMP accesses it. Whatever issues you have with WMP, you will have with us, not because we have done anything wrong, but because iRiver has written a limited driver for WMDM and provided no support for your device as a USB mass storage device.

Steve

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