Topic: MC iTunes Synchronizer (using MC with an iPhone or iPod Touch) [v6.0.2] (Read 500552 times)

BullishDad · « **Reply #350 on:** September 18, 2009, 11:12:36 pm »

Thanks, Sue, for posting that you've had success with the new 64gb Touch.

I'll be looking to move my MC playlists to the Touch, and it seems that it should work with the 3rd gen Touch. If anyone does this specifically (MC Audio playlists->Touch 3G) I'd like to hear about it.

prod · « **Reply #351 on:** September 19, 2009, 04:26:56 am »

Quote from: Cerebro on September 18, 2009, 08:43:38 pm

Hi Prod,

Thanks a lot for your comment and help. I've checked the log file and found that the tool got stuck with a song and did not continue. I have removed the mp3 that caused the problem and restarted it. It did work in the end after several runs, where I took problematic songs out of my library one at a time.

I want to thank you a lot for this great tool, as it is exactly what I was looking for! As a small side note though: can the code be changed to just ignore files it cannot process and give their names at the end of the log file? That might save those people a lot of time who have a large and old library (like me) who try to sync for the first time, but can't because with every run it gets stuck with another file.

And another quick question (with the fear of sounding stupid): I am looking for the place to enter the the "RebuildOnSync: Yes" in my smartlists in MC. Can you give me some direction? I

Thanks a lot!!

Cheers

I suppose I could have the sync continue regardless, what was it in your library that was causing the problem? The "RebuildOnSync: Yes" goes in the notes of your playlist - if you click on your playlist in the MC tree, above the list of files there's an area with a "Play" button etc. Below the buttons, there may be some text "Click here to add notes", or the text may have info about your playlist - just click on that and you can edit the text.

Cerebro · « **Reply #352 on:** September 19, 2009, 08:06:33 pm »

Quote from: prod on September 19, 2009, 04:26:56 am

I suppose I could have the sync continue regardless, what was it in your library that was causing the problem? The "RebuildOnSync: Yes" goes in the notes of your playlist - if you click on your playlist in the MC tree, above the list of files there's an area with a "Play" button etc. Below the buttons, there may be some text "Click here to add notes", or the text may have info about your playlist - just click on that and you can edit the text.

Found that notes part. Thanks! Regarding the errors: I am not sure why exactly the tool stopped at the lines below. The songs were always playing fine in MC and Itunes and on my ipod. I paste some of the 'last lines' below for you (each comes from a different sync session that could not finish because of that element)

1)
<Track Filename="J:\Musik\Incubus\Make Yourself\Incubus - Nice To Know You.mp3">
<Lyrics ChangedIn="iTunes" OldValue="

2)
<Track Filename="J:\Musik\Madonna\Music\Madonna - 02 - Impressive Instant.mp3">
<AlbumArtist ChangedIn="iTunes" OldValue="Music" NewValue="" />
<Lyrics ChangedIn="iTunes" OldValue="

3)
<Track Filename="J:\Musik\Seal\Best 1991-2004 (2004)\Seal - Best 1991-2004 - 08 - Love's Divine.mp3">
<Year ChangedIn="iTunes" OldValue="0" NewValue="2004" />
<Lyrics ChangedIn="iTunes" OldValue="

Hope that helps somehow! I think it might indeed be a good idea to allow via a checkbox in the settings to 'ignore errors during sync'.

prod · « **Reply #353 on:** September 20, 2009, 04:31:40 am »

It's a little strange that you didn't get a "proper" error message ... looks like the program has lost its connection to the log. Possibly there is something in the lyrics of those files that has caused it. If logging fails, the app has to stop.

prod · « **Reply #354 on:** September 20, 2009, 04:59:35 am »

v4.8.5;

Reworked import tracks to iTunes process, now sends all files to be imported in one call - making it faster and avoiding a minor bug in iTunes 9 to do with adding files one at a time (audio analysis wasn't being done until restarting iTunes)
If an error occurs syncing a track, the sync will wait 1 second and try again. This is repeated a maximum of 10 times before the sync gives up, logs an error and continues to the next track. This has been included because iTunes 9 locks a file until it has done audio analysis, so if a track sync is attempted on a track that hasn't been analysed yet, the sync of that track will fail. Waiting a second or two and trying again allows a sync to occur.
Duplicate file entries in the MC library no longer cause the sync to stop, a warning is entered in the log and the sync continues.

mesue · « **Reply #355 on:** September 20, 2009, 06:08:00 pm »

I started a sync with the new version and left it, and when I came back it said:
Synchronize unsuccessful. Exception from HRESULT: 0xA0040203

Looks from the log that it got as far as importing playlists, but I'm not sure if it did them all or not.

zxsix · « **Reply #356 on:** September 20, 2009, 11:20:45 pm »

Quote from: mesue on September 20, 2009, 06:08:00 pm

I started a sync with the new version and left it, and when I came back it said:
Synchronize unsuccessful. Exception from HRESULT: 0xA0040203

Looks from the log that it got as far as importing playlists, but I'm not sure if it did them all or not.

I had something similar right after updating to itunes 9 but with the prior build of MCIS.
What solved it was deleting all MC created playlists in itunes, then rerunning MCIS.
It recreated the playlists and I've had 5 successful syncs since then.

prod · « **Reply #357 on:** September 21, 2009, 06:41:27 am »

I've not seen this here, but perhaps as zxsix says it is a one-off thing to do with the iTunes 9 update. The cause of the error is losing the COM connection with either iTunes or MC.

mesue · « **Reply #358 on:** September 21, 2009, 08:36:31 am »

Okay. I'll try that next time. Thanks.

zxsix · « **Reply #359 on:** September 24, 2009, 12:58:16 am »

Seems to have something to do with itunes updates.
I had 3 successful syncs under itunes 9.0.
Then imported some new tracks into MC and
Upgraded itunes to 9.0.1.8 today.
Tried to sync libraries and ended up getting a failure code and this at the end of the log file:

Code: [Select]

  <DeleteFileFromPlaylist Playlist="MARY\Unrated" Filename="E:\Users\brian\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Progressive Metal\Illusion Suite\Final Hour\Scarlet Skies.mp3" />
  <Result EndDateTime="2009-09-23T22:20:45">Exception from HRESULT: 0xA0040203</Result>
</MCiS>

Deleted the entire tree of MC playlists in itunes.
Added 85 new tracks and sync'd again.
100% worked.

Code: [Select]

 <AddFileToPlaylist Playlist="BRIAN\Unrated Random" Filename="E:\Users\brian\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Alt Metal\Smile Empty Soul\Consciousness\Reflection.mp3" />
  <Result EndDateTime="2009-09-23T22:43:47" Analyzed="3316" Synchronized="71" Imported="71" Removed="64">Successful</Result>
</MCiS>

Added 36 more tracks and sync'd again.
100% fine again without deleting the playlists.

Code: [Select]

  <AddFileToPlaylist Playlist="BRIAN\Unrated Random" Filename="E:\Users\brian\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Alternative\Muse\The Resistance\Resistance.mp3" />
  <Result EndDateTime="2009-09-23T22:54:44" Analyzed="3288" Synchronized="36" Imported="36" Removed="0">Successful</Result>
</MCiS>

These results lead me to conclude that something in the playlists is altered during an itunes upgrade and it's not the fault of MCIS.

prod · « **Reply #360 on:** September 24, 2009, 06:26:50 am »

I've done a little research and apparently error 0xA0040203 is caused by an object (i.e. your playlist) being locked by iTunes. I'll look into why this is happening on iTunes upgrades, and see what I can do to get around it.

rossp · « **Reply #361 on:** September 24, 2009, 10:10:23 am »

Can you sync pictures with this app?

Ross

Magic_Randy · « **Reply #362 on:** September 24, 2009, 04:59:50 pm »

Quote from: rossp on September 24, 2009, 10:10:23 am

Can you sync pictures with this app?

Ross

The MC iTunes Synchronizer syncs the MC library with the iTunes library. You then use iTunes to sync with the iPhone/iTouch/iPod. iTunes does not have a library for the pictures. It syncs pictures based on folder(s). So this means that if you are managing your pictures using MC, you should have a folder structure for the pictures that makes it easy to use in iTunes.

zxsix · « **Reply #363 on:** September 25, 2009, 07:21:07 pm »

Got the lock error again today. Haven't installed any itunes updates.
Looks like this may become a recurring issue.
Here's the line from the log....

Code: [Select]

  <DeleteFileFromPlaylist Playlist="BRIAN\Unrated By Album" Filename="E:\Users\brian\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Death Metal\Kittie\In The Black\Sorrow I Know.mp3" />
  <Result EndDateTime="2009-09-25T17:13:55">Exception from HRESULT: 0xA0040203</Result>
</MCiS>

I manually deleted the track that the log complains about from the playlist in itunes and then tried to sync again.
Got the same error on the same track! MCIS is still trying to delete that track even though it doesn't exist in the itunes playlist anymore.

Other info....
No ipod or other portable devices connected or syncing during this time.
No podcasts downloading during this time.
No songs being played in itunes during this time.
Itunes had downloaded 2 application updates (iphone apps, not itunes updates) about 15 minutes prior to this and they were done downloading at this time.
For all appearances itunes is sitting idle and there would be no valid reason for a file or even a record to be locked at the moment.
I don't touch any tags or do any playlist management inside of itunes.

Rather than deleting the playlist from itunes and letting MCIS recreate it I decided to try leaving the playlist alone and just restarting itunes.
This would theoretically release any file locks.
Sure enough that allowed the sync to complete properly.

prod · « **Reply #364 on:** September 26, 2009, 04:25:30 am »

This file that caused the error; has it just been imported in the current sync operation?

zxsix · « **Reply #365 on:** September 26, 2009, 10:32:16 am »

Quote from: prod on September 26, 2009, 04:25:30 am

This file that caused the error; has it just been imported in the current sync operation?

Rating was changed on track on iPhone. Then sync'd with iTunes. MCIS then sync'd that rating change from iTunes to MC. This causes the track to no longer be part of the playlist. On next MCIS sync, it attempts to remove the track from the playlist in iTunes and in most cases will be removed from iTunes completely. Error seems to hit on the remove track from playlist part.

zxsix · « **Reply #366 on:** September 26, 2009, 11:06:04 am »

Ran through the scenario again with only a couple of songs changing and it sync'd fine.
?

mesue · « **Reply #367 on:** September 26, 2009, 11:12:35 am »

I'd been having sync errors off and on since the iTunes 9.0.1 update. I tried your suggestion of closing and reopening iTunes and got a successful sync that time after several failed ones.

zxsix · « **Reply #368 on:** September 26, 2009, 01:15:42 pm »

Yeah, that's really looking like a locking issue.
Not sure why itunes would be locking a record in a playlist when that playlist isn't being played or edited though.

prod · « **Reply #369 on:** September 27, 2009, 06:07:09 am »

Unfortunately (for you, perhaps fortunately for me

) I've not been able to reproduce this problem on my machine, which makes it very difficult to workaround. Even if I could reproduce it I'm not sure whether it would be possible to force iTunes to unlock a file it has locked. I'm using iTunes v9.0.1.8.

The workaround for now seems to be restart iTunes, then resync. I could automate this process but seems a little heavy handed to me.

zxsix · « **Reply #370 on:** September 27, 2009, 01:31:01 pm »

Quote from: prod on September 27, 2009, 06:07:09 am

Unfortunately (for you, perhaps fortunately for me ) I've not been able to reproduce this problem on my machine, which makes it very difficult to workaround. Even if I could reproduce it I'm not sure whether it would be possible to force iTunes to unlock a file it has locked. I'm using iTunes v9.0.1.8.

The workaround for now seems to be restart iTunes, then resync. I could automate this process but seems a little heavy handed to me.

Nah, it's an apple bug or an anomaly.
I think just having this info here to educate the MCIS users is enough.
If a ton of people start experiencing it then it would become another matter.

mesue · « **Reply #371 on:** October 03, 2009, 10:02:00 pm »

As of today, I now have all play history and ratings synced between Squeezebox Server, iTunes, and MC. Awesome! Although I still do all my ripping, tagging, and playlist creating in MC, I do the vast majority of my listening via Squeezebox, so this is great.

Zardoz2293 · « **Reply #372 on:** October 09, 2009, 11:35:09 pm »

Prod:

Great tool! I have read all of the postings and seem to encounter a problem that I haven't seen described. My goal is to play and rate tracks through the iPhone and MC, using iTunes as conduit only, and MCiS as the transport.

Problem: It takes three MciS synchronizations to have MC, iTunes and iPhone synchronized.

Example:
1. iTunes & MC are both loaded and iPhone is connected to iTunes.
2. MC has Smartlist = "[Media Type]=[audio] [Rating]=<1 ~seq ~n=100"
3. iTunes, iPhone and MC database libraries are synchronized (as in the end of step #7).
4. Listen to track on iPhone and rate it (assign rating).
5. MCiS → Synchronized (1st pass/execution): Results = iTunes Library is not updated with iPhone content changes until end of processing.
6. MCiS → Synchronized (2nd pass/execution): Results = MC is now updated but iTunes does not have the Smartlist playlist changes from the iTunes update.
7. MCiS → Synchronized (3rd pass/execution): Results = MC, iTunes and iPhone all synchronized correctly at the end of this third synchronization pass.

Thanks!

iTtunes – v9.0.1.8 Media Center – v14.0.71 MCiS – v4.8.5 Settings: ---------- Only synchronized files of types: mp3 Refresh podcast feeds = Checked Fix Broken Links in iTunes = Checked Import files to iTunes of types: mp3 Synchronize iPods = Selected Synchronize On-The-Go playlists from iTunes to MC = Checked Synchronize MC playlists to iTunes playlist folder = Checked To root folder = Selected Rebuild playlists from scratch = Checked

prod · « **Reply #373 on:** October 10, 2009, 05:47:40 am »

Hey Z

I've been meaning to do something about iPhone>iTunes syncing before iTunes>MC, it's been annoying me as well recently. As for the smartlists not being refreshed, hadn't noticed that one, but you're right it isn't doing it at the proper time.

v4.8.6;

Fixed MC smartlists were being refreshed before sync, not after. They are now refreshed after syncing the libraries, but before the playlists are sync'd across to iTunes
Added option Synchronize iPods (before synchronization) to Settings

This should get those 3 syncs back down to 1.

prod · « **Reply #374 on:** October 10, 2009, 11:44:31 am »

v4.8.7;

Extracted hard-coded timeouts and put them in the .settings file so they can be "tweaked". The wait-timed elements are in milliseconds.

Zardoz2293 · « **Reply #375 on:** October 10, 2009, 11:58:58 am »

Hey Prod,

Quote

Fixed MC smartlists were being refreshed before sync, not after. They are now refreshed after syncing the libraries, but before the playlists are sync'd across to iTunes

Excellent, Works Perfect!

Quote

Added option Synchronize iPods (before synchronization) to Settings

Excellent, Works Perfect!

Thanks!

Zardoz2293 · « **Reply #376 on:** October 10, 2009, 01:39:22 pm »

Prod:

Is there a way to select the playlist to active or deactivate in iTunes?

Example: Create a playlist or smartlist in MC. In MCiS select the playlists and smartlists you want synchronized (and/or uncheck previously checked playlist/smartlist items). The desired result would check/uncheck the associated playlists in iTunes (Devices->Music->Playlists) so you don't have to directly change these in iTunes to match MCiS.

Thanks!

prod · « **Reply #377 on:** October 10, 2009, 02:04:03 pm »

Nope 'fraid not, it's not possible to control that bit of the iTunes interface.

Zardoz2293 · « **Reply #378 on:** October 11, 2009, 01:10:06 pm »

Prod:

Quote

Nope 'fraid not, it's not possible to control that bit of the iTunes interface.

Unfortunately

I just experienced an interesting problem. I have my music on an external drive. The device was turned off. Executed MCiS and performed the sync. iTunes reported it could not find the files (as would be expected) and MCiS reported an HRESULT error. I powered up the external drive with the music and performed the sync again in MCiS (not thinking any problem would occur). Two concerns occurred:

1. Since the drive with the music was off iTunes now sees them as broken links and invalid. The sync process in MCiS now performs a total rebuild of the iTunes library -- very time consuming. However, the device is now powered up and the paths are now valid but haven't been refreshed in iTunes. Is there a way to perform a forced refresh from MCiS to iTunes to attempt a validation of the paths it has for the music?

2. Is there a way in MCiS to create an archive of error logs automatically? I am unable to provide the HRESULT error (when the external device turned off) since the second sync execution has consumed the results of the prior run. I didn't think the error would be useful since I knew what caused the problem, but in hindsight it might be useful now.

BTW, Prod, this is great work you have done on MCiS!

prod · « **Reply #379 on:** October 12, 2009, 02:55:34 am »

Hi Z, cheers, appreciate it...

Quote from: Zardoz2293 on October 11, 2009, 01:10:06 pm

1. Since the drive with the music was off iTunes now sees them as broken links and invalid. The sync process in MCiS now performs a total rebuild of the iTunes library -- very time consuming. However, the device is now powered up and the paths are now valid but haven't been refreshed in iTunes. Is there a way to perform a forced refresh from MCiS to iTunes to attempt a validation of the paths it has for the music?

Running the sync should refresh the links. If that doesn't work, you might have to rebuild your iTunes library.

Quote from: Zardoz2293 on October 11, 2009, 01:10:06 pm

2. Is there a way in MCiS to create an archive of error logs automatically? I am unable to provide the HRESULT error (when the external device turned off) since the second sync execution has consumed the results of the prior run. I didn't think the error would be useful since I knew what caused the problem, but in hindsight it might be useful now.

I'm not a big fan of logs "hanging around", because in the vast majority of circumstances they aren't required - in fact I don't even look at mine anymore. To be honest, the HRESULT errors aren't terribly useful, and they're generally quite cryptic. It usually means something has happened in iTunes that I have no control over.

Zardoz2293 · « **Reply #380 on:** October 12, 2009, 09:10:56 am »

Prod:

Quote

Running the sync should refresh the links. If that doesn't work, you might have to rebuild your iTunes library.

If you open iTunes and the device with the tracks is invalid (powered off) it (the path) will appear valid until you try to access. Executing MCiS at this point will result in having to rebuilt the entire iTunes library as when the iTunes/MC sync is performed iTunes will then "see" that the path is invalid and displays the "(x)" next to the track. MCiS reports the HRESULT error and no processing occurs. You discover your error and power up the external device. iTunes is still displaying the "(x)" for everything, you execute MCiS and you get a total rebuild, even though the paths are now actually valid. This event also eventually results in loosing any rating changes on the iPhone as the rebuild causes iTunes to not recognize/match the tracks in iPhone->iTunes. I'm assuming that the technical problem is that a unique id is given to each track when loaded into iTunes and they are matched using this process, hence, why it doesn't know to update the ratings one a rebuild has occurred. Obviously, make sure if you are using an external device have it powered up before you perform the MCiS sync. I suspect I will have to execute MCiS in a batch to prompt for checking if the external device is active before processing, unless you add an option for an ID-10-T message prompt before processing option in the settings.

Quote

I'm not a big fan of logs "hanging around", because in the vast majority of circumstances they aren't required - in fact I don't even look at mine anymore. To be honest, the HRESULT errors aren't terribly useful, and they're generally quite cryptic. It usually means something has happened in iTunes that I have no control over.

Right there with you, those HRESULT values are worthless taken out of context from the originating API call, that is exactly why I didn't pay attention, nor was concerned when I saw the error until after I executed MCiS the second time and experienced the effect of the error and I was unable to provide this information to you.

Thanks!

prod · « **Reply #381 on:** October 12, 2009, 12:13:39 pm »

I see what you mean now... you could try a bit of JScript as a safety net mechanism. Here's a rudimentary example;

var wsh = new ActiveXObject('WScript.Shell');
var fso = new ActiveXObject('Scripting.FileSystemObject');

if (fso.FileExists('<put your full pathname you are searching for here>'))
{
wsh.Run('<your MCiS command line>');
}

wsh = null;
fso = null;

The idea is that if the file doesn't exist (i.e. a file that exists on your external drive), MCiS won't run. For it to work, replace the bits I've highlighted in the code and save it as a .js file. Then you can double-click it to run it.

By the way, you need to double up on your backslashes in the quotes (e.g. D:\Documents\MyFile.txt becomes 'D:\\Documents\\MyFile.txt').

prod · « **Reply #382 on:** October 15, 2009, 01:55:53 am »

v4.8.8;

Added another wait time WaitTillRefreshPodcastFeeds
Sync iPod before sync is now sent before refreshing the podcast feeds
Added wait time display messages and ability to stop sync during those initial wait times

Zardoz2293 · « **Reply #383 on:** October 15, 2009, 02:56:45 am »

Prod:

Question:

Quote

* Added another wait time WaitTillRefreshPodcastFeeds
* Sync iPod before sync is now sent before refreshing the podcast feeds
* Added wait time display messages and ability to stop sync during those initial wait times

Excellent, I was having a sync issue since the "Loading MC..." processed too quickly. (Long before the Backup and Sync finished on the iPhone).

Thanks Prod!!!

prod · « **Reply #384 on:** October 16, 2009, 12:17:21 pm »

No probs Z.

I've been having a couple of problems with podcasts not downloading successfully first time (through iTunes) so I've added some more settings (accessed via the .settings file)...

v4.9;

Added new wait setting WaitAfterRefreshPodcastFeeds, default 0
Added new setting RefreshPodcastIterations, default 1
Added new wait setting WaitBetweenRefreshPodcastIterations, default 30000
Added command line parameter /Settings - use an alternative .settings file, if not specified uses the default MCiTunesSynchronizer.

Those settings essentially work like this if Refresh Podcast Feeds is checked;

Wait WaitTillRefreshPodcastFeeds (milliseconds)
Do the following RefreshPodcastIterations number of times;
- Send a Refresh Podcast command
- If that wasn't the last refresh wait WaitBetweenRefreshPodcastIterations (milliseconds)
Wait WaitAfterRefreshPodcastFeeds (milliseconds)
Continue with the sync

park · « **Reply #385 on:** October 17, 2009, 12:04:28 pm »

Not sure of the reason for this, but when I use iS with MC in Library Server (Client) mode, all of MC's playlists get created in itunes, but none of them get populated with any songs.

When I load the MC library directly and do a sync with iS, things work as expected.

Kudos again for this amazing piece of software. The less time we are in itunes the better. And you've actually made people's lives that little bit better

Cerebro · « **Reply #386 on:** October 17, 2009, 08:34:15 pm »

Prod,
I'm using your tool with great satisfaction. Thanks heaps again for what you put in there.

1) Podcast sync
I am using your tool to use my ipod nano 5th gen, which is not yet supported by MC (and sadly seems to take longer, due to apple's GREAT idea to lock the database up there as well). I use MC as well to download Podcasts. Now, I used to fill my ipod using a smartlist that contained a subset of my downloaded podcasts (not enough space for all of them) and they would show up nicely under 'podcasts' on the ipod with all bookmarking features etc. Now, when I sync this smartlist with all podcasts into itunes, those tracks only show up as normal music. Is there a way that your tool can actually sync my MC podcast list with the iTunes equivalent? I mostly use my ipod for podcast, so if that worked it would take a great nuisance away...

2) Speed
I wonder: I have about 10000 tracks in my library and every sync task run takes at least 1h on my pretty fast double core laptop...mostly the analysis and tags. Is this normal or do I have an issue? I wonder how the sync tool identifies files to sync..I don't suppose it checks updated files only, right? Just to confirm.

Thanks!

prod · « **Reply #387 on:** October 18, 2009, 05:06:58 am »

Cheers guys.

Quote from: park on October 17, 2009, 12:04:28 pm

Not sure of the reason for this, but when I use iS with MC in Library Server (Client) mode, all of MC's playlists get created in itunes, but none of them get populated with any songs.

The way the sync determines a track in iTunes is the same track in MC is by the path & filename .... I've never used the MC library server so I'm not sure, but perhaps when using library server the path & filename is different.

Quote from: Cerebro on October 17, 2009, 08:34:15 pm

1) Podcast sync

I've tried to do this but to no avail - iTunes requires a collection of tags to be added to the podcast to recognise it as a podcast, and as MC doesn't support internal file tagging for M4A, AAC, it wouldn't work for those types. I managed to get it working for MP3's though I deemed that not good enough. I now use iTunes to manage my podcasts.

Quote from: Cerebro on October 17, 2009, 08:34:15 pm

2) Speed

Sync'ing around 10,000 tracks should take a much shorter time, in my experience around 5 minutes. The first sync will take a long time, but after that it should be much faster - unless it has detected thousands of changes, which would be strange. I think there's a issue somewhere. What do you have checked? Have you altered any of the default expressions?

Cerebro · « **Reply #388 on:** October 18, 2009, 08:26:21 pm »

Quote from: prod on October 18, 2009, 05:06:58 am

Cheers guys.

I've tried to do this but to no avail - iTunes requires a collection of tags to be added to the podcast to recognise it as a podcast, and as MC doesn't support internal file tagging for M4A, AAC, it wouldn't work for those types. I managed to get it working for MP3's though I deemed that not good enough. I now use iTunes to manage my podcasts.

Sync'ing around 10,000 tracks should take a much shorter time, in my experience around 5 minutes. The first sync will take a long time, but after that it should be much faster - unless it has detected thousands of changes, which would be strange. I think there's a issue somewhere. What do you have checked? Have you altered any of the default expressions?

Hi Prod,

Podcasts)
hm. I feared that about the podcasting. I think I will convert then into iTunes as well for this (although basically all my podcasts are audio mp3). I know this does not really belong into here, but what are the tags that need to be added so iTunes understands it and puts the mp3s at least in the podcast category? I've been looking around in the net, but found only contradictory statements.

Speed)
I just removed the settings file to give it a new start and it takes more than 1 hour again. I check all items in 'fields to aggregate' and 'fields to export from MC to iTunes'. I suppose the latter one is the culprit? Should that be only used once? sorry for that stupid question..

Thanks!

prod · « **Reply #389 on:** October 19, 2009, 02:41:30 am »

Here's those tags;

ITUNESPODCAST should contain 0 or 1 depending on whether Podcast (i.e. it should be 1)
ITUNESPODCASTDESC should contain the podcast Comment
ITUNESPODCASTID should contain the Episode URL
ITUNESPODCASTURL should contain the Feed URL

You can use MP3TAG to put these tags into non-MP3's.

Speed issues - try unchecking "Lyrics", iTunes takes forever to return this tag's contents, and generally it's not required to check it anyway - I wrote the following regarding this in a previous post;

Quote from: prod on July 29, 2009, 12:42:00 pm

You are correct that not selecting lyrics makes the sync faster (substantially in my experience). This is due to the internal workings of iTunes - I have no idea why iTunes takes so long to return Lyrics for a track, yet all other fields are returned relatively quickly.

Also you've brought up something I've been meaning to explain for a while. That is, in certain fairly common circumstances, there is no need to select some fields in the export-only section of MCiS. Those circumstances are if the file tags of each individual track are up-to-date. The reason is that when MCiS asks iTunes to return a track, iTunes first reads the file tags and automatically updates *some* fields in its database if they are different. It then returns the track complete with the updated info. And because MCiS asks for every track in the iTunes library, all those tracks are updated. It's kind of like right-clicking a file in iTunes and selecting "Get Info" for every single track in your library. Quite good really, because I know, for instance, that the album artwork is automatically updated in this way if changed using MC. I haven't had the inclination to test this behaviour for every field so sorry I haven't got a definitive list of which fields are updated in this way. It may well be that "Lyrics" is one of those fields.

The MC iTunes Synchronizer is designed in such a way that the less checkboxes you select, the faster the sync will be. Some fields are faster to retrieve than others of course so you may not notice a difference, but as we've all noticed Lyrics are particularly slow.

Hope that clears up any confusion.

Cerebro · « **Reply #390 on:** October 20, 2009, 08:04:12 am »

Quote from: prod on October 19, 2009, 02:41:30 am

Here's those tags;

ITUNESPODCAST should contain 0 or 1 depending on whether Podcast (i.e. it should be 1)
ITUNESPODCASTDESC should contain the podcast Comment
ITUNESPODCASTID should contain the Episode URL
ITUNESPODCASTURL should contain the Feed URL

You can use MP3TAG to put these tags into non-MP3's.

Speed issues - try unchecking "Lyrics", iTunes takes forever to return this tag's contents, and generally it's not required to check it anyway - I wrote the following regarding this in a previous post;

Hi Prod,

It all worked. Unchecking a good number of tags I don't need (including lyrics) brought down the sync time to about 5 min. As well, I made my transition with the podcasts..found a tool called 'Markable' that can turn podcasts into very comfortable audiobooks.

Thanks so much for all your help. Great work!

Cheers!

Fred1 · « **Reply #391 on:** October 20, 2009, 09:13:41 am »

Hi,

i haven't read the entire thread, so i hope my question wasn't answered yet.

I'm using MC under Parallels (a virtual machine) on my Mac, which works well.
iTunes is running under OS X, where i sync my iPod Touch.

I'd like to sync my iTunes (OS X) with MC (Windows).

I could install iTunes (Windows) under Parallels to sync to it.
Can i simply exchange the iTunes Library between the OS's?
Or what else could i do?

Thanks
Fred

prod · « **Reply #392 on:** October 20, 2009, 11:44:14 am »

Quote from: Fred1 on October 20, 2009, 09:13:41 am

I could install iTunes (Windows) under Parallels to sync to it.
Can i simply exchange the iTunes Library between the OS's?

Don't take only my word for it - I'd do a little research if I were you - but I believe you can simply copy your .itl files from PC iTunes to Mac iTunes, as long as the pathnames to your music are the same in both. Could just be a rumour, sounds a little too straightforward to me.

Fred1 · « **Reply #393 on:** October 21, 2009, 07:00:07 am »

Thanks, Prod,

i will install iTunes for Windows and test it.

Fred

broncodan · « **Reply #394 on:** October 24, 2009, 01:03:10 pm »

Hi Prod,

Using most current version of itunes and 4.9 of MCIS. Getting the following error and not sure why as the files are there.

</Track>
<FileNotFound Pathname="C:\Documents and Settings\Stephens1\My Documents\My Music\Itunes tag update\Mobile Applications\Fantasy '09 1.0.2.ipa" />
<FileNotFound Pathname="C:\Documents and Settings\Stephens1\My Documents\My Music\Itunes tag update\Mobile Applications\Epocrates.ipa" />
<FileNotFound Pathname="C:\Documents and Settings\Stephens1\My Documents\My Music\Podcasts\The Adam Carolla Podcast\Adam and Richard Belzer.mp3" />
<FileNotFound Pathname="C:\Documents and Settings\Stephens1\My Documents\My Music\Podcasts\The Adam Carolla Podcast\Adam and Broken Lizard.mp3" />
<Result EndDateTime="2009-10-23T14:30:54">Object reference not set to an instance of an object.</Result>
</MCiS>

Any suggestions?? Thanks.

prod · « **Reply #395 on:** October 26, 2009, 11:47:59 am »

It's not an error that one... just information. It just means the file is in your iTunes library, but not in your MC library. Turn it off in settings if it's annoying you.

Zardoz2293 · « **Reply #396 on:** October 28, 2009, 08:37:10 am »

Prod:

I would like to make a request. Is it possible to add an option *not* to expand the second nodes in the playlist tree?

Current:

Desired:

Thanks!

prod · « **Reply #397 on:** October 28, 2009, 09:40:15 am »

I'll think about saving the state of expanded/collapsed nodes in the settings for the next version, but in the meantime did you know, if you put the phrase HideFromSync: Yes in the notes (i.e. in MC) of those playlist groups, they won't show up at all in the tree?

broncodan · « **Reply #398 on:** October 28, 2009, 10:00:12 am »

Hey Prod,

Your suggestion of turning of the logging of files not found worked - but I am not sure why it should stop the program from continuing with the sync.

A suggestion would be to have the program finish the sync and then indicate at the end - sync completed but with errors (and if you could somehow list the errors at the end of the log that would be helpful). Either way still a great program......

prod · « **Reply #399 on:** October 28, 2009, 11:06:45 am »

Hi Dan

FileNotFound is just an informational message, and won't cause the sync to fail... whatever caused your sync failure was something else. Perhaps there is a corrupt file in your iTunes library that's screwing things up. Errors are handled gracefully, and the sync can continue in some cases, but if something unexpected happens the sync has to stop. I need to know more about the error before safely ignoring it or attempting a fix - is it still occurring, does it occur intermittently or constantly, were MC & iTunes idle at the time or were you using either of them, when the error occurs what are the status messages in MCiS (i.e. at what point of the sync are/were you at).

Cheers

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Author Topic: MC iTunes Synchronizer (using MC with an iPhone or iPod Touch) [v6.0.2] (Read 500552 times)