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[Marty3d]

Hi!

I usually copy 5-600 files to my laptop so I have something to listen to behind strict firewalls. Every other week I delete all files and copy new ones. I even made a simple smartlist for this purpose so I don't have to think too much (could hurt your brain, you know!)
This process is really simple but have it's drawbacks, like not being able to use my custom fields made on my home computer.
In the past, I got some advice that I could add a network drive to MC's device list and that sounded great, but in practice there were no real advantages as I understood it.

Has something happened in this area?

It would be sooo great to be able to fully sync between two MCs!
I believe the main things you'd want is 1. updating the play count 2. use all fields that exists within main MC 3. automatically delete/add files, like normal syncing.
Have I forgotten something?

Thanks!
/Martin

[Marty3d]

Another related question: If I sync between laptop and home comp., will the original fields transfer as well?

Thanks!
/Martin

[Marty3d]

First, answering some of my own questions:
1. The original fields DOESN'T transfer during synchronize.
2. You can't get MC to delete files on the receiving computer. Instead, MC just sits there telling me it's waiting...forever.

New/updated questions then:
1. Does anyone know how to get the original fields to show/get transferred on the receiving machine?
2. Does anyone know how to get MC to delete files not in sync list? It should be possible, shouldn't it? The networked user has the right permissions.

Please, help out...and share your own experience regarding this topic
/Martin

[Marty3d]

Since I'm used to talking to myself, I'll just continue here

I have tried every possible way to get MC to sync all fields used, not only the ones stored in my mp3's to no avail.

I was thinking that one could specify what fields to transfer per device. Could this work?

[JimH]

If you've added fields, you'll need to do that on the second machine also.

[Marty3d]

Thanks Jim!

Is it enough to create a new field with the same name and properties? I believe I tried that but these are not transferred... how does MC know what fields to copy anyway?

[park]

Just create the new field in your laptop version of MC giving it the same flags in the field configuration window, and making sure that it is the same kind of field (numeric, list, semi delimited etc.)

When you synch the files to the laptop as a portable device (I assume using a smartlist to tell it which files to send), make sure that in the handheld options you have "delete files not in list" ticked, and then any files not in that smartlist will be deleted from the laptop next time you synch. You dont need to worry about which fields will synch or not; the whole file is copied accross, so any fields in it will be visible in the laptop library (as long as you have created those fields in that library as outline just now).

I do a similar thing to you. I make sure that "get playstats from handheld on connect" is ticked so that my main library gets the "number of plays" info updated from my portable hard drive upon synch.

If you make any other changes to the files on your laptop (tagging stuff), I dont think there's any way of having that info being synched back to your main library upon synch. You would physically have to copy the laptop files over the top of the ones in your main library, and then in your main library "Update files from tags" to get the library to see the info you tagged on your laptop. But that is hassle and messy, so I dont do it. I just treat my portable library as a convenience at the moment, and resist doing any tagging at all.

[Marty3d]

Just create the new field in your laptop version of MC giving it the same flags in the field configuration window, and making sure that it is the same kind of field (numeric, list, semi delimited etc.)

Hm.. I can't get it to work. But I saw in my main library that I didn't have "Save in file tags when possible" for the user fields. Could it be the reason?

make sure that in the handheld options you have "delete files not in list" ticked, and then any files not in that smartlist will be deleted from the laptop next time you synch.

I tried this before, but as I said in a previous post, when MC starts sync, it just sits still and the sync window is reporting a forever "Waiting..."

[Marty3d]

make sure that in the handheld options you have "delete files not in list" ticked, and then any files not in that smartlist will be deleted from the laptop next time you synch.

It actually worked... I relied on the progress bar to change so I could see that something happened... But all of a sudden, the sync was ready!Perhaps moving that one to the bug list?

But I'm still curious how to make field transfer work!

[park]

You defintiely need those fields to be saved in the files. When your laptop library imports the files into the library it reads the tags from the files.

[park]

I've been thinking about this a bit more and, wouldnt it be fairly easy to add a tick box to the "Add library" in library manager called "Handheld library". When changes are made to files, they would be recorded in some kind of log.

Then when you synch a folder as a handheld device from your main library, there would need to be a place in the handheld options to tell it where to find the log file for the handheld library. Then any files which exist in both libraries would have any changes synch between them.

This might get complicated if people are using conversion during the synch, but as a start it could be implemented just for people doing straight copies of files.

Maybe something for MC13? 

[Marty3d]

I was also thinking about this...but in another way
I think in addition to sync between general devices, a sync between "MC" machines could be of benefit. Often, i believe, when you sync between two computers, you actually want to sync between two libraries ?

I dunno, am I out of it completely?

[park]

Just tried a synch to my usb drive and it seems that i was wrong about the "get playstats from handheld on connect" thing. None of the "plays" info (last played, or number of plays) got transferred to my main library, despite having played songs today on another library on another computer.

[rpalmer68]

I have my main library on a server that several PCs all access as read only, but would like to replicate my library to my laptop (files and library data) so that when I'm on the road I have all my music etc with me, including my custom views and user fields etc.

So a way of replicating the MC data and library to my laptop would be great. (or is there a way of doing this I've just managed to miss?)

Richard

[John Gateley]

I added a description of this to the wiki just now:

http://wiki.jrmediacenter.com/index.php/Handheld_and_Portable_Devices

This does the tracks, but not the library. What I do at home is make a separate library that auto-imports from the local files.
Then I just switch between my Home library (networked files) and my Travel library (local files) as needed.

j

[park]

That's what I do too. The problem with that system is m4a files though. They cant be tagged and that makes navigating genres etc. messy. At the moment I just filter out untaggable files so that they dont get synched at all.