Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[hcm3]

I cannot find a current playlist [Playlist] variable for file folder syncing.

Basically I would like to sync to a USB flash drive for my car stereo. (It doesn't support .m3u or .pls files, I wish it did). I only supports files in a Album\Song.mp3 format. I've gotten around this with playlists by doing Playlist\01-Song.mp3 format, but there isn't a [Playlist] variable.

I tried the mask

Code: [Select]

[Playlist]\counter(1) - [Artist] - [Name]\
I want:

Code: [Select]

Electronic\
    01 - Noisia - Tommy's Theme (Original Mix).mp3
    02 - Porter Robinson - Unison - Mikkas Remix.mp3
Metal\
    01 - Parkway Drive - Carrion.mp3
    02 - Unearth - Watch it Burn.mp3

Where "Electronic" and "Metal" are genre based Smartlists
What I get is:

Code: [Select]

[Playlist]\
    01 - Noisia - Tommy's Theme (Original Mix).mp3
    02 - Porter Robinson-Unison - Mikkas Remix.mp3
    03 - Parkway Drive - Carrion.mp3
    04 - Unearth - Watch it Burn.mp3

Anyway around this?

[MrC]

There's no [Playlist] field as you've discovered.  I believe that MC simply views the collection of files or files referenced by lists in the sync list as one singular list.  So there is no name available.

Since tracks may be in more than 1 playlist, and syncing can select from one or more playlists, it isn't clear what should be done in the case where you sync to a device from say five playlists and a track is in several of them.  Should the track be duplicated to the single device in each of the relevant [Playlist] folders?

I'm guessing that [Genre] won't work for you and that your description used a simple example.  Maybe there is some other field that is unique and useful.

You could simulate your own [Playlist] property in the simple case (but this method will have serious shortcomings).  Create the user field, something like [Playlist Name], select the tracks in that playlist before syncing, and assign a value to the tracks.  Do this either in-column (add the [Playlist Name] column for easy identification), or in the Tag Action Window.  This clearly won't work for automatic syncing when a sync list is comprised of more than one playlist and any track is one more than one list.  Also, it requires you to pre-set the [Playlist Name] field before syncing.

[hcm3]

Yes that's what I figured.
I thought about trying what you suggested. It would work great with static playlists that don't change. I would just select all the tracks and assign a custom user field the name of the playlist. Unfortunately it would be very cumbersome with Smartlists as you would have to assign that data every time the list changed. Forget Auto-sync.

I couldn't use the [Genre] field for all the synced playlists. I also have multiple Charts (Top 50 Played, Top 50 Rated) and Temporal (Last 50 Added, Last 50 Played) etc.

I think I may have found a workaround for this problem. It's not the most elegant solution, but it should work. I'm creating a separate handheld device for each Smartlist I want to sync. I'm just specifying the path the sync to as an already created playlist folder. For instance, I use a PNY 32GB flash drive as a handheld device. Instead of syncing everything to root relying on one handheld device profile to use one path expression to build the folder structure, I'll use multiple handheld device profiles for each playlist folder under root. So I have a handheld device profile for PNY 32GB: Electronic and one for PNY 32GB: Metal and so on. Their sync folders would be Electronic/ and Metal/ respectively. The only problem with this is if I rename a Smartlist, it won't rename the destination folder.

I'm testing this now.

[hcm3]

Yes that did work.

It can be streamlined a bit more by using one handheld profile for all the genre based playlists, and using one for all the artist based playlists.

I pretty satisfied with the results. Thanks for your help.

[MrC]

That's a good way to do it.  I hadn't thought of that method (but should have, darn it!).

Now if you could only Clone a virtual HH and modify the clone...