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[prod]

Updated 23rd February 2015

Now free and open source! https://github.com/prod1/mcis

MCiS is an application that synchronizes MC and iTunes ratings, play & skip counts, last played & skipped dates. It also exports fields such as Name, Artist, Album, Compilation and Lyrics flags from MC to iTunes, and Album Rating information from iTunes to MC. As well as this, MCiS can automatically import files to and remove any broken links (missing file links) from the iTunes library.

This is how the general synchronization process works;

The first time the sync is run is slightly different to subsequent runs, the following happens in the first run that doesn't happen in subsequent runs;

• Three fields are added to the MC library; iTunesRatingSync, iTunesPlayedCountSync and iTunesSkippedCountSync.
• An aggregate play count is reached for each track by adding the number of plays in iTunes and the number of plays in MC.
• An aggregate skip count is reached for each track by adding the number of skips in iTunes and the number of skips in MC.
• If the track is rated in iTunes but NOT rated in MC the rating in iTunes is used. Otherwise the rating in MC is used.

As opposed to subsequent runs when;

• An aggregate play count is reached for each track by adding the number of plays in iTunes since the last sync and the number of plays in MC.
• An aggregate skip count is reached for each track by adding the number of skips in iTunes since the last sync and the number of skips in MC.
• If the rating since the last sync is now different in MC the MC rating is used. If the rating since the last sync is the same in MC but different in iTunes, the iTunes rating is used.

Assuming the various options are selected, the following happens on all syncs;

• The latest Last Played date for each track is used.
• The latest Last Skipped date for each track is used.
• If the track has Mix Album set to 1 in MC, Compilation in iTunes is set to true. If the track has Mix Album set to 0 in MC, Compilation in iTunes is set to false.
• Any other selected fields are also sync'd to iTunes if different
• Any files of the specified types that exist in the MC library but not in the iTunes library are imported
• Any entries in the iTunes library where the physical file can not be found are removed
• Playlists and contents are sync'd across to iTunes

Only tracks that already exist in both the iTunes and MC libraries are sync'd.

MCiS can also synchronize your playlists from MC to iTunes. Smartlists are also sync'd - they are created in iTunes as normal playlists. There are two choices;

• Synchronize to the root playlist folder in iTunes
  
  • MCiS will create the playlists directly under the Playlists section in iTunes. Playlists will be removed from iTunes where a playlist exists in MC but has not been selected for synchronization. Also, a playlist will be removed from iTunes where the parent folder is selected for synchronize and the playlist does not exist in MC.
• Synchronize to a specifed folder in iTunes
  
  • You specify a folder in which to put the playlists in iTunes (note that this should be a unique name in your iTunes playlist folders). Note that all existing playlists in this iTunes playlist folder you specify will be deleted. If the iTunes playlist folder does not exist, MCiS will create it. MCiS will sync the MC playlists you select into that folder.

Right-clicking a playlist in the tree will present a menu;

Rebuild instructs MCiS to always rebuild from scratch the playlist or playlist group. Rebuilding from scratch merely clears out all the tracks from the iTunes playlist before inserting them again - this guarantees the sequence in which they are inserted is the same as the sequence in MC. However, it is much slower - you may want to do this when the sequence is important, can not be duplicated using the playlist sorting options in iTunes, and has changed since the first time the playlist was sync'd.

Shuffle shuffles the playlist (or the children playlists if it is a playlist group) in either MC or iTunes, dependent on the following conditions;

• Playlist is standard playlist or smartlist, Shuffle selected, Rebuild not selected = playlist is sync'd from MC to iTunes and then shuffled in iTunes
• Playlist is standard playlist, both Shuffle and Rebuild selected = playlist is shuffled in MC and then rebuilt exactly as is in iTunes
• Playlist is smartlist, both Shuffle and Rebuild selected = Shuffle is ignored, playlist is rebuilt exactly as is in iTunes

Hide prevents the playlist (and any children if it is a playlist group) being seen in MCiS. You can click on the hide/show hidden playlists button to reveal hidden playlists and un-hide them if desired. Even if a hidden playlist is checked, it will not be sync'd.

Untick only appears if Manage ticks with playlists is checked. This unticks all tracks in iTunes that appear in the playlist. All other tracks are ticked.

Remove Tracks will remove all tracks in the selected MC playlist from the iTunes library.

The option Synchronize On-The-Go playlists from iTunes to MC synchronizes all On-The-Go playlists from iTunes to MC under the MC playlist group "On-The-Go" (directly under the playlist root). Caution: if you already have an "On-The-Go" playlist group directly under the playlist root in MC, rename it or it will be lost when using this option.

There is no installation, just unzip the contents of the file and run it. By default on the first run nothing is selected to be synchronized, and MCiS will do nothing until you press the Synchronize button.

Screenshots:





I suggest you backup your MC and iTunes libraries before synchronizing the first couple of times. MCiS doesn't alter libraries directly but through interfaces exposed by MC and iTunes.

The following command line arguments can be used:

• /StartSync - starts synchronization immediately on startup
• /ExitAfterSync - exits once synchronization is complete
• /RunMinimized - runs minimized
• /ExportAggregatesOnlyFrom:MC - Overrides the aggregated field calculations and performs a simple export from MC to iTunes of these fields instead
• /ExportAggregatesOnlyFrom:iTunes - Overrides the aggregated field calculations and performs a simple export from iTunes to MC of these fields instead
• /LibraryName - The name of the MC library to sync
• /ViewScheme - The MC view scheme path to use. Only tracks in this view scheme will be sync'd.
• /Playlist - The MC playlist (or smartlist) path and name to use. Only tracks in this playlist will be sync'd.
• /Settings - use an alternative .settings file, if not specified uses the default MCiTunesSynchronizer.

You can not specify both a view scheme AND a playlist. If neither are specified the whole library is sync'd.

Argument usage:

MCiTunesSynchronizer.exe [/StartSync] [/ExitAfterSync] [/RunMinimized] [/ExportAggregatesOnlyFrom:[MC|iTunes]] [/LibraryName:"sss"] [[/ViewScheme:"vvv"] | [/Playlist:"ppp"]] [/Settings:"xxx"]

Where sss is the name of the library to use, vvv is the name of the viewscheme (e.g. "Audio\Albums\MyView"), ppp is the name and path of the playlist (e.g. "Tasks\Miscellaneous\MCiS Sync Playlist"), and xxx is the name of the settings file.

A few tips for speeding up sync'ing;

• Retrieving lyrics from iTunes can be a costly business and slows the sync down - so only check the lyrics option if necessary
• Selecting "neutral ground" in the iTunes tree can speed the sync up because the iTunes UI won't need to update each time a change is made
• Likewise in MC, if intensive visualizations are running and Playing Now is selected this can slow the sync down

Please also note that, depending on the tag being changed and how your MC and iTunes are configured, the MC and iTunes interfaces will write the new value to the file tag also.

MCiS includes the ability to sync using MC expressions by right-clicking the desired field. However, this should be used with the utmost care. Remember that altering a field in iTunes will in many cases write the value to the tag of the physical file also - and this in turn may then be picked up in MC, overwriting your original values! The outcome depends on your configuration in iTunes, MC and MCiS. You need to know exactly what you are doing to use this option, if you are not sure, please ask about it here on the MC forums or leave it alone. This option is included to allow the user to swap fields over, for instance use Composer for Artist, Album Artist (auto) for Sort Album Artist or such like. That's not all though, any expression, simple or complex, may be entered to be sync'd to the destination file. I personally recommend using this mainly with the iTunes Sort fields or when using the Use Alternative File Keys option.

Tested using MC12, MC13, MC14, MC15, MC16, MC17, MC18 and iTunes 8, 9, 10, 11.

Source

Binary [zip]

[prod]

Added;

• If the track has Mix Album set to 1 in MC, Compilation in iTunes is set to true. If the track has Mix Album set to 0 in MC, Compilation in iTunes is set to false.

[steveklein]

look forward to trying this out 

[prod]

Cool hope you find it useful 

Forgot to mention the first sync is a bit slow because there's a bit more work to do. Subsequent syncs are much faster.

[morrison]

very interesting!

you do not plan to publish the source code? Perhaps this is an occasion to explore the framework for me)

[prod]

you do not plan to publish the source code?

It hadn't really occurred to me, wouldn't have thought many people would be interested in that to be honest. No current plans to, but I'll give it some thought.

[darichman]

One of the reasons I've held off buying an iPod is the issue of MC support... I'll definitely keep an eye on this - nice work prod

[JimH]

One of the reasons I've held off buying an iPod is the issue of MC support... I'll definitely keep an eye on this - nice work prod

iPods will work with MC.  iPhone and Touch will not.

[prod]

One of the reasons I've held off buying an iPod is the issue of MC support... I'll definitely keep an eye on this - nice work prod

Cheers!

[rowens]

Excellent Prod... thanks for your efforts.

Unfortunately, i can't get it to sync for some reason... i run your program, it goes through and analyzes all of the tracks, but then doesn't sync 'em ("successfully analyzed 7648 tracks of which 0 were syncronized" is the message i get).

The program did create the custom data fields in MC13, but didn't write anything to them.

Is there some configuration i'm missing?  Both libraries are on the same drive; the music files are stored on another drive on the network.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[prod]

Yes I think I know what's up. The program uses the filename as a key - so first it gets the filename in iTunes, then looks for that same filename in MC. So if there's a difference between the filenames, it won't find the corresponding file in MC and will just continue to the next file.

Next time I get into it I'll put in some extra logging so you can see what's going on; it'll probably be Tuesday, unless I get a bit bored over the weekend!

[rowens]

Thanks Prod.

Is it possible that the filenames are stored differently in each database?  Both MC and iTunes are pointed to the same music directory on a shared drive on another PC... when i look in the XML for each (assuming i'm looking in the right spot!  ), they are different.  Here's an example:

MC13: <Field Name="Filename">\\Musicserver\mp3\Van Halen\Balance\Van Halen - Balance - 10 - Baluchitherium.mp3</Field>

iTunes: <key>Location</key><string>file://localhost//Musicserver/mp3/Van%20Halen/Balance/Van%20Halen%20-%20Balance%20-%2010%20-%20Baluchitherium.mp3</string>

[prod]

I sanitise the iTunes filename so they should turn out the same.

I did change the way it gets the filename yesterday - are you using the latest version? (v1.3)

[rowens]

Yes, i'm using Version 1.3

[prod]

I've not tested it with network paths - I'm sure that has something to do with it. I'll test it myself and see what happens.

[prod]

Hi rowens I tested it with network paths and it worked fine (for me  ). I'll put some more logging in to give us some more info when this happens.

[rowens]

Hi rowens I tested it with network paths and it worked fine (for me  ). I'll put some more logging in to give us some more info when this happens.

Thanks Prod!...

[prod]

I've made another batch of changes to it now so it is more configurable. See the updated screenshot at the top.

Also, if you go into the About box, there are two config settings;

• Run in Test Mode - this makes no direct change to either library, but it goes through the motions and writes to the log so you can see what will happen if you run it for real.
• Log Files Not Found - writes an entry to the log if a file exists in your iTunes library but the application can't find the file in your MC library

rowens let me know what your log comes up with - run it in test mode first. If you want zip the log and send it to my email address.

[rowens]

Thanks prod.

I ran it in test mode and it seems to be working fine now :-)

It generated a list of 1100 or so files to sync.  I'll run it for real this evening when i'm home and not doing it through RDP.

I do have a question, though.  I was testing some other things (stacks, etc), so i set up a TEST library in addition to my main MP3 library (the one i want sync'd with iTunes).  I noticed that in the MP3 library, the new iTunes-related fields were successfully added - however, in the TEST library, these new fields are not present.

Is there a way to control which library your program looks at?  from an MC13 perspective?  I'm just hoping to better understand so i don't get into problems in the future :-)

Thanks again!

BTW - the new configuration options are great... being able to push down Genre changes is gonna save me a bunch of time!

[prod]

Glad to hear it's working & helping you out ... I had a quick look and I reckon it will just use the current library at the moment, i.e. the library you last had loaded - I think (at least that's the behaviour I saw). I'll stick a text box in somewhere so you can type in a specific MC library name. Looks like I can't change libraries through the COM interface, it always takes the currently/last loaded library.

[bwaldron]

Thanks Prod!...

Seconded. Nice little app!

[prod]

Thx!

Just made a small update - the disc and track counts are calculated much faster now.

[JohnM]

Hi!
Sounds great. A little question about the filename.

Yes I think I know what's up. The program uses the filename as a key - so first it gets the filename in iTunes, then looks for that same filename in MC. So if there's a difference between the filenames, it won't find the corresponding file in MC and will just continue to the next file.

Do you use the file extension also in the key? That is if I sync a ape-file as m4a with only the extension changing, do I get a differnece or not?

BR John

[prod]

Hi, I'm afraid so, the full pathname is used actually - this way the program knows it has the right file in both libraries.

[prod]

Do you use the file extension also in the key? That is if I sync a ape-file as m4a with only the extension changing, do I get a differnece or not?

I've thought of a simple way of implementing this ... basically through a new field in the MC library enabling you to specify any key you like alongside any file. For example "C:\Music\Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone.ape" in the MC library could map to "C:\iTunes Music\Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone.m4a" in the iTunes library.

Is this what you mean?

[JohnM]

Yes, that's what I mean. The general idea is ultimately to be able to sync apes/flacs as m4a:s to my iPhone and keeping the tags. I use neroaac-encoder to encode to m4a but all the tags gets stripped along the process (perhaps there's a way to keep the tags?). I haven't tried your plug-in yet but from what I read one would be able to update the MC-tags into iTunes as long as the names match... Hence my question about the extension.

And yes, I could always use mp3 and get the tags but there's more fun in doing it the hard way (to a point).

[prod]

And yes, I could always use mp3 and get the tags but there's more fun in doing it the hard way (to a point).

I understand completely.

I think it's a great idea to be able to have your MC and iTunes libraries pointing to different locations... that way nothing you do in iTunes will directly do anything to your MC library. Plus, if you have all your APE files in MC (like you do) and your converted mp3/m4a's in iTunes you can easily keep them in sync.

So, new version;

• Added new setting Use Alternative File Keys - when this is checked the program will look for a field in MC called iTunesFileKey. If this field is not empty, the contents are assumed to be a filename to be used to sync against instead of the filename proper (the one the program already has). If the field is empty, the filename proper is used.
  

[JohnM]

Great! Thanks!
Will try, but it will take a couple of days until i may get some computer time granted at home where my iTunes library are (there are 3 users at home with facebook addiction  )
[And extremely stupid of Apple to restrict sync of iPhone to 1 iTunes only]

[prod]

Added Album Rating sync from iTunes to MC, fixed a couple of logging bugs.

[prod]

v1.9.5: Added three more options in the About box;

• Refresh Podcasts before sync - before the sync starts, tells iTunes to refresh podcast feeds
• Synchronize iPod after sync - when sync is finished, tells iTunes to sync any connected iPod/iTouch/iPhone
• Quit iTunes - when the sync is finished, quits iTunes

Synchronize iPod after sync and Quit iTunes can't be used together as the quit command is aggressive - meaning it'll quit before the iPod sync is finished.

Also, the app will not check that all pending downloads have been done (as a result of refreshing the podcast feeds) - it assumes that in the time it has taken to complete the sync process, the refresh was completed, which in the vast majority of cases will be true.

More about Album Ratings:

Two fields are added in MC - Album Rating and Album Rating Calculated. The former contains the Album Rating set in iTunes, the latter contains whether this rating was calculated by iTunes or set manually in iTunes. The app also puts the string "Calculated Rating" in the Category field in iTunes (I believe this is normally only used in Podcasts) for those tracks where the rating is calculated and not set manually by the user. All in all, this makes it possible to make proper use of Album Ratings in both iTunes and MC whilst not corrupting song rating smart lists in either app. Note this is currently a one-way thing - from iTunes to MC.

[MrHaugen]

How exactly does this work? It syncs all tracks in iTunes with all in MC, or is there any way to select what parts to sync?
I'm just thinking that this might take a long time if the libraries are big enough.

[prod]

Very basically, the process goes like so;

• Get all tracks currently in the iTunes library
• For each track in iTunes
  
  • Find the track with the same filename in the MC library
  • Compare the fields the user has chosen to sync
  • Make alterations in each library as necessary

The first sync takes a while (30 mins perhaps longer based on a 11,000 track library) to complete, depending which and how many fields you've chosen to sync. Subsequent syncs are much faster.

On my machine it takes just over a minute to sync approx 11,000 tracks, with on average probably 100 changes to be made per day. Mostly those changes are last played & skipped, play & skip counts and song & album ratings.

[MrHaugen]

Nice. That sounds promising. Just hope there are ways to maintain the two libraries easily when it comes to imports and other tag updates. If there is, I'd most defiantly consider one of those "magical" iPhones.

Thanks for making this. I'm sure you've made the life a bit easier for some.

[prod]

Just hope there are ways to maintain the two libraries easily when it comes to imports and other tag updates.

That's the point of the app really, so I don't need to maintain two libraries. I do all my tagging in MC (except Album Ratings), then run the sync app and I don't need to do anything in iTunes.

In terms of importing files you do have to add any new files into iTunes so the app will know to sync them. Files have to exist in both libraries to be sync'd... the app does not import files to either library.

[MrHaugen]

I see. I'll give it a go when I grow tired of my Nokia then

[prod]

v1.9.6: Added option in the About box: Add Folder.jpg to Podcasts. When checked, for any audio Podcasts in iTunes that have no cover art; if Folder.jpg exists in the same folder it is added to the podcast as album artwork.

[Taxee]

If I understand this corectly, this app would allow my to port my MC ratings over to iTunes 8 and then use iTunes to sync my iPod Touch.

MC apparently won't work with the iPod Touch if you load iTunes 8 (although apparently Winamp will )

Is my understanding correct?

[prod]

Yep you are bang on.

[BartMan01]

Does this require that both iTunes and MC exist on the same machine, or can it read the iTunes libarary from one machine and the the MC library from another?  If they both must be on the same machine, what about the dire warnings about not installing the latest iTunes (required from iPhone/iPod Touch support) alongside MC?

[prod]

Yes, iTunes and MC must exist on the same machine.

As for the dire warnings, I believe the reality of the situation is that it is more of a moral argument, where JRiver are everything good about the world, and Apple are all that is bad.

Seriously though, I run the two together at the same time every day and haven't had any problems.

[JimH]

prod,
You're lucky.  If iTunes decides to update your ipod and changes the database format, MC won't work again.

Apple is fine about many things, but not about this one.  It's good for them and bad for their customers.

[prod]

In my experience iTunes asks me if I want to update the firmware rather than doing it automatically.

When you say "MC won't work again" perhaps you mean MC won't successfully sync your iPod again?

I have set MC to ignore my iPods and have the Options>General>Advanced>Features>iPhone Support option (whatever that actually does) turned off, maybe that's why I'm lucky.

[JimH]

When you say "MC won't work again" perhaps you mean MC won't successfully sync your iPod again?

Yes.

[prod]

v1.9.7: Added command line arguments;

• /StartSync starts synchronization on startup
• /ExitAfterSync exits once synchronization has successfully finished

[lOth]

I'd love to make this work, but I keep getting this error:

Code: [Select]

<Result EndDateTime="2009-05-31T16:16:45">Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'iTunesLib.IITFileOrCDTrack'. This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with IID '{00D7FE99-7868-4CC7-AD9E-ACFD70D09566}' failed due to the following error: No such interface supported (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)).</Result>
using v1.9.7 with MC 13.0.170 and iTunes 8.1.1.10 on Windows XP Pro SP2.

I've tried on two different computer with the same libraries (MC and iTunes) and I get the same error and I think it's coming from something the program doesn't like in my iTunes library.

edit: should have given more info.
This is with a rather large library (about 25000 files) and I kept getting the error after the program analyzed close to 19000 files. Just to see if it was a size issue, I deleted about 7000 files from the iTunes library, but I got the same error very close to the end of the process.

[bspachman]

I'm giving this a whirl for the first time, too....

iTunes 8.2.0; MC 13.0.171

Library size of over 14k tracks, and the following errors:

Code: [Select]

<Result EndDateTime="2009-06-01T22:46:05">Value cannot be null. Parameter name: key</Result>

Code: [Select]

<Result EndDateTime="2009-06-01T22:36:30">An item with the same key has already been added.</Result>
Thoughts?
brad

[prod]

Sounds like you both have files or occurrences in your iTunes library that I've not accounted for. Should be quite straightforward to fix I'll get back here later.

[prod]

v1.9.8;

• Fixed: Instance of MC & iTunes were sometimes not being released properly
• Fixed: Non-physical tracks/tracks with no filename causing exception
• Fixed: Ratings were not being sync'd from iPhone>iTunes>MC in some cases

Let me know if this solves your problems guys ....

[bspachman]

Hey prod,

Thanks for the turn-around! I'm still seeing the following error with 1.9.8:

Code: [Select]

<Result EndDateTime="2009-06-02T09:24:29">An item with the same key has already been added.</Result>
I would assume from reading the discussion above that the 'key' in question is the filename, right? I've looked a lot, but can't seem to find any duplicate filenames--not that the filesystem would allow it....

Is there a way to tell which file is throwing the error? Is it the one immediately prior to the ending notation in the log?

brad

[prod]

Hey prod,

Thanks for the turn-around! I'm still seeing the following error with 1.9.8:

Code: [Select]

<Result EndDateTime="2009-06-02T09:24:29">An item with the same key has already been added.</Result>
I would assume from reading the discussion above that the 'key' in question is the filename, right? I've looked a lot, but can't seem to find any duplicate filenames--not that the filesystem would allow it....

Is there a way to tell which file is throwing the error? Is it the one immediately prior to the ending notation in the log?

brad

Hmm, no there's no telling which file it is unless I put in some more logging detail .... but you're right, the key in question would definitely be the filename - which options do you have selected? (including the About box)