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[ScottCocoaBeach]

I decided to take the plunge and get the Archos Gmini 400 even though I hadn't been able to determine if I could transfer my playlists and sync as I could with my Nomad Jukebox 3.

I am using MC 11 Build 220 and it looks like you all are super close to success:

My computer sees my archos as E:

I went into options and selected handheld, there I setup the following:

Path to detect:  (e.g. 'F:' or 'MyMusic')

I put in    E:\Music\ which is where the archos holds music files

for Display name I put Gmini 400

Default Playlist Directory:

\Playlists


With those options set I can sync to my device, however, I do get an error message on some files that says:

The following files cannot be transferred.
Remove them and continue the transfer?

There is a pretty full list of files with the name of the song and then a dash and File not supported.  I checked and these are WMA, the same as all my other files so I am not sure why I would be getting this message, especially since MC just sees my device as a drive.

The Playlists files and music files transfer to the device.  The playlist files go into E:\Music\Playlists instead of E:\Playlists (I tried to put in E:\Playlists earlier and it created an extra symol and still put them as a sub directory of Music), but the archos finds these okay.  However, there is a problem with the playlists themselves:

My playlists looks like this:

.\Music\05 - One Last Breath.wma
.\Music\Just Wakin' Up.wma
.\Music\06 - My Sacrifice.wma
.\Music\02 - How You Remind Me.wma
.\Music\Pow.wma
.\Music\Falling For The First Time.wma
.\Music\02 - Fame.wma
.\Music\Are You Ready.wma
.\Music\05 - Just For.wma
.
.\Music\04 - Too Bad.wma
.\Music\With Arms Wide Open.wma
.\Music\04 - Rise.wma
.\Music\Nothing at All.wma
.
.\Music\07 - Stand Here With Me.wma
.\Music\Never Do Anything.wma
.\Music\08 - Weathered.wma
.\Music\09 - Hide.wma


There is a period being added to the beginning of each line, which causes the playlist not to work.  In the playlist path, I have tried:

Playlist
Music\Playlist
\Playlist

The middle option creates a subdirectory of music in the music folder and then adds playlist, but with all options I still get the period at the start of the list.

Some of the playlists have a lot of songs missing while others seem full, but all have the period.  I can't figure out why there would be empty lines with just the period?

When I change the playlist path and resync (I manually delete the playlist files first), then I get the same error message as before about some files not being able to transfer, then for just a few seconds it pops up a message deleting files, then it reloads 151 files, it looks like the same files each time, then it loads the play lists as indicated above.

It seems like we are really close to sucess.  If I delete the periods the playlist will work okay, but with tracks missing.  Of course I don't want to hand edit all my playlists.  I think I have between 60 and 70 total being synched.

Thanks for any help!

[ScottCocoaBeach]

Build 221 Update:

The user defined path option in build 221 allowing me to put in \ instead of .\ fixes the period problem I was having above.

However, certain WMA's are still not transferring, I no longer get a blank line with a period in the playlist, the song files that aren't transferring are simply not listed in the playlist.

I have taken a look at some of the playlists and it appears that WMA's with a bitrate of 129 are not always transferring, if they are listed in MC as 128 they always transfer, but some of the ones listed as 129 are not transferring.

When I go to sync, they system says deleting files, then I get the message about being unable to transfer some files (some with 129 bitrate) and then a message about a duplicate file, then scan of about 1400 files, then transfer of 151 songs (happens every time, probably the ones previously deleted) and then the transfer of playlists which now works great except for the missing files.

Thanks for all the great work on this, it looks like success is one step closer.

[SteveG]

Scott,

Can you give me the specific error in regards to 'Unable to transfer files'? For a file that does not transfer, what happens if you drag and drop the same file to the device from Windows Explorer?

The duplicate file message is telling you that you are transferring multiple songs with the same Name, Artist, Album, Genre and Track Number tag info. If you do this, and have 'Delete Unselected files' checked, there will always be a certain amount of retransfer unless you resolve the tagging info.

Steve

[ScottCocoaBeach]

Steve,

Build 223 got rid of the "unable to transfer files" error, so now it looks like all files are tranferring.  I am still getting a message about deleting files when the sync begins, my file count when analyzing files is now in the 1600 range instead of the 1400 range.  I believe the fix for transferring files with a missing creation date you all made must have corrected this error.

I did a sync a moment ago and when it goes through the I mentioned earlier and then adds 593 files and then the playlists.

I resynced after removing one protected wma file from a play list and it gave the deleting files message again, and then synched 2 files and then the playlists.  I did not disconnect the device between the synchs.

I just exited MC, then detached handheld, then re-attached handheld and re-started MC to sync again.

Same as before- deleting files, analyzing files (over 1600), and then adding 593 files again...  I'm not sure why this is happening, but each build gets us much closer and at this point I do seem to be getting my full playlists and song files moved over.

The only real issue I am having now is that on some playlists my player will show next track as "-" and it won't play or skip this track, I have to go into the playlist and scroll to the song past it and start from there.  I checked the playlist and drive and the song is listed, so this may be an archos problem and not on the MC end, but I'm not sure.

I'll keep researching this one and let you know if I spot more.

Thanks for all the help on this.

[ScottCocoaBeach]

Steve,

I just did some research on gmini400.com forum and found out what is giving me the problem with some files not playing on my playlists.

When MC transfers the files it dumps all songs into the "music" directory without keeping the subfolder structure.

The archos library can only see 999 files in a folder (they are there when I browse the HD on my computer) but there library program won't see them as I have over 1600 files being transferred.

If there is a way to transfer the files maintaining their folders and putting that information in the playlists then I would be good to go.

Thanks,

[wickesy]

Hi Scott,

If you go to the Drives & Devices tree and right click on the entry for your GMini you will see an option "Rearrange upload folders" - change this to Artist/Album and you should be good to go.

David

[ScottCocoaBeach]

David,

Thanks for the advice.  I gave this a try tonight.  Unfortunately, while it does place all the music in the appropriate folders, the playlists MC create still point to the \Music\ directory, so the songs aren't found and they playlists do not work at all.

I would love to see this fixed as the Gmini is an awesome device.

[wickesy]

Scott,

I can't see why it works for me but won't work for you - I've just read back through your posts and it seems you have everything set up the same as me.

My set-up is:

Path to detect K:\Music\
Playlist Path \Playlists
Playlist Filepath \
Re-arrange folder structure \Artist\Album

MC generates the playlists and puts the correct paths in and the Gmini plays them perfectly.

Maybe try deleting the Gmini in MC and setting it up again?

[ScottCocoaBeach]

David, U R Da Man!

Thanks for letting me know this is working for you.  I tried it again, I exited MC before doing my sync so that may have been the trick.

Worked great and I now have all my playlist synched.

I did get one error about 10 files not being able to transfer, but the file names were not listed so I am unsure about how to check into this.  Other than that things are now great with MC 11 and the Gmini 400.

Media Center Rocks!