INTERACT FORUM

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1] 2   Go Down

Author Topic: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device  (Read 15169 times)

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964

(I wasn't sure of the best place to post this, but I figured that the beta forum was correct so that I could reference beta builds.)

So I finally gave up on the iPod in favor on using an Android device -- a Samsung Galaxy S3.  Unfortunately, MC 18 is not able to sync it.  The sync runs for a minute or two, and then starts saying "Error" for each track that tries to sync.  This appears to just keep happening until I stop the sync.  I'm not sure of the exact pattern, but it seems that if I let it run this way long enough, MC will lock up and windows will close the program.  Also, once the "Error" messages start, I have to unplug and replug the Galaxy S3 before windows can properly access the unit (it becomes incredibly slow before doing this.)  I don't know what MC is doing, but it seems to have an effect on the unit that continues even after I cancel the sync.

Note that I have access to two different Galaxy S3s, and I see the same issue on both units.

If I instead copy the files to the unit via windows explorer, it works fine.  This appears to indicate that there are no hardware issues with the phone, the micro SD card, the cable, etc.  The copy operation runs for some hours (about 55GB of songs) and completes normally.  It's only when I use MC to sync the files that I run into any problems, and the problems happen fairly quickly after the sync starts.

Is there anything I can do to help get this working -- i.e. send error logs, etc?  The Galaxy S3 is an incredibly popular smartphone, and given that there have been other posts talking about sync problems with MC and this phone (going back to July or perhaps earlier), this could potentially benefit a lot of people.  After dealing with all the iPod issues over the last couple years, I'm really looking forward to going back to problem-free syncing with MC.

The last MC build I tested was 18.0.95, but I didn't see any mention of updates related to syncing with more recent MC builds, so it seems unlikely that a newer build would fix this.  If a newer build addresses syncing issues, I'll try it a soon as possible.  The files are nearly all mp3s (encoded in MC) with a handful of files of other formats that I use just for testing.  None of the files require conversion -- the phone can natively play all of the formats I'm testing.

Thanks for any help with this,

Larry
Logged

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #1 on: December 22, 2012, 07:03:40 am »

Just a couple other notes:

When the sync starts, it immediately says it's 4% complete, and that it will take 6 minutes to finish.  These estimates are obviously WAY off.

It also says it's transferring at around 15MB/s when it starts, but this number drops (as reported by others) and is down to around 0.2MB/s by the the time the "Error" status for each file starts.

Larry
Logged

JimH

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 72444
  • Where did I put my teeth?
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #2 on: December 22, 2012, 08:11:19 am »

It's odd that this phone would have problems.  We don't see many Android sync problems.  Did you check Samsung for a possible solution?
Logged

Craig

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 612
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #3 on: December 22, 2012, 11:30:18 am »

I never got my S3 to sync successfully with MC but that was a few month ago when it was new and we were on MC17.
I've not tried it recently though.

Craig
Logged
MC2Slim - Windows Shell and JRiver Media Center Integration for Squeezebox.

http://www.duff-zapp.co.uk

jmone

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 14465
  • I won! I won!
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #4 on: December 22, 2012, 01:43:41 pm »

Larry - see if either of these two seeings work as the both change how the usb connection looks and works (note: Windows may need to install drivers)
1) USB Mass Storage: Options --> Settings --> Wireless and Networks --> More Settings --> USB Utilities
2) USB Debugging: Options --> Settings --> Sytems -->Developer Options --> USB debugging

The locations may be different (or even hidden depending on the build)
Thanks
Nathan

Logged
JRiver CEO Elect

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2012, 02:06:35 am »

It's odd that this phone would have problems.  We don't see many Android sync problems.  Did you check Samsung for a possible solution?

So far, I haven't seen any mention of general sync/file transfer problems with the Galaxy S3.  I do see several reports of people having problems using MC to sync Galaxy S3s, as well as a few other phones like the Nexus, on the MC forums.  I also found successful reports of people syncing their iTunes library to their Galaxy S3's using software that I hadn't heard of yet.  I haven't tried these other programs since the whole point is to use MC as my music management and syncing application.

As I mentioned, I have no problem copying the files with Windows Explorer.  It's just when I try to do a sync with MC that I have issues.

I know that JR stopped supporting iPods (one of the reasons that I switched to an Android device for my handheld player) because apple was intentionally trying to prevent third party syncing, but what is the JR policy on persuing issues with Android devices like this?  Samsung is not intentionally making this difficult (like apple was), but given that the problem reports date back to July with no resolutions, I can't help feeling a bit worried.  I don't want to end up right back where I started, with a player that isn't fully supported by MC.  The whole point is to be able to use MC for ALL my media needs.

jmone -- I checked the settings, and the only USB-related setting under the settings menu is under "Tethering," and it's simply a checkbox called "Mobile Broadband Connect."  Am I correct that this doesn't apply to my situation?

Once the phone is connected to the computer via USB, however, I can go into the notification menu and click on the USB connection notification.  This brings up a menu with the option of choosing "Media device (MTP)" or "Camera (PTP)."  The following information is provided:

Quote
MTP: Media device. Allows you to transfer media files in Windows, or using Android file transfer on a Mac (see www.android.com/filetransfer)

PTP: Camera. Allows you to transfer photos using camera software, and transfer any files onto the PC that do no support MTP.

The default is MTP, but when I select PTP instead of MTP, the phone shows up as a "camera" instead of a phone in windows.

Does anybody know anything about these tranfer modes, or if MTP mode is something that can screw up MC?  Do android devices normally use PTP mode?  Conversely, are there any potential gotchas with using PTP mode?  It sounds like it's more targeted at phone-to-PC transfers, but I'll test it unless someone tells me that it won't help.

Thanks again for all the help here everybody.

Larry
Logged

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2012, 02:11:20 am »

Regarding MTP vs PTP, the phone reverts to MTP every time it is disconnected and reconnected to the computer via USB, making it more of a "workaround" rather than a "solution" even if it does work (I haven't tested it yet.)

Larry
Logged

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #7 on: December 23, 2012, 07:09:59 am »

I tried to do a sync with using the PTP mode, but when I switch to this mode, MC is unable to detect the device, rendering this mode moot for MC sync purposes.

jmone - Do I understand correctly that putting the unit in "USB Debugging mode" may alter the way file transfers work so than MC could potentially sync it without issues?  I get a couple warnings when I play with that setting (and even when I enable the entire "Developer Options" menu), one of them telling me that programs may not run correctly.  Does this refer to one of the many OTHER "Developer options," or can USB Debugging mode itself cause issues?  In other words, is it "safe" to enable the USB Debugging mode and/or leave it this way?  Is it advised to disable this mode after each sync?

Thanks,

Larry
Logged

JustinChase

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3276
  • Getting older every day
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #8 on: December 23, 2012, 09:03:16 am »

I leave mine HTC set to USB debugging all the time, and haven't had any issues.  If that switch allows you to sync properly, I'd just leave it.  here is a little blurb about it...

USB Debug Mode

    Press "Home" and press "Menu." Tap "Settings." Tap "Applications" and tap "Development." The option of USB Debug mode is checked if the phone user has Sprint transfer the contacts. USB Debug Mode is used with PDAnet to be able to use the Internet on the Android phone for a computer. It synchronizes with a computer automatically. An alert sometimes appears in the notification area with the message "USB debugging connected (Select to disable USB debugging)." Disabling USB debugging will stop the automatic synchronization process.
Logged
pretend this is something funny

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #9 on: December 23, 2012, 10:54:09 am »

My S3 syncs fine with USB Debugging enabled.
When I connect to USB, in windows it shows up as 2 devices as Computer > SCHI535 > Phone and Computer > SCHI535 > Card
Then I open MC and those same 2 show up under drives and devices in the tree
I setup to sync to the Card one and ignore the internal memory.

When I use the notification pulldown on the phone, it is set to use MTP.


Logged

jmone

  • Administrator
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 14465
  • I won! I won!
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #10 on: December 23, 2012, 03:12:22 pm »

I'm a bad example to use as my Andriod Devices are all running non-std versions cooked up over at XDA Dev.  But... I've tended to always leave my phone in USB Debug mode.  That said, I just did a quick test and in either mode I can browse the internal and external SD Cards with Explorer but if I try to do this in MC it just hangs.

I've attached a log
Logged
JRiver CEO Elect

darichman

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1362
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #11 on: December 23, 2012, 04:39:25 pm »

I've been having a few issues syncing with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus (on the latest JB version). I don't want to hijack this thread, so I'll start another one. On 18.0.103.
Logged

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #12 on: December 23, 2012, 06:10:17 pm »

Okay -- I've done a bunch more tests.  I enabled USB Debugging mode and tried a sync.  It finally was able to get through a sync -- which at the moment appears to have worked (based on a quick test of randomly playing a few songs.)  I celebrated too early, however, because I am unable to do a second sync on it once the first sync is complete.   After a sync is complete, when I reconnect it to the system,  the "sync details" screen says "working" for about 30 minutes before the list finally appears -- i.e. the list takes a LONG time to appear.  When it does finally appear, things get REALLY screwy.

There are 10038 songs in the playlist, but the handheld details list shows me 9993 songs "On Device," and 9936 songs "In Queue."  In other words, even though MC sees nearly every song as "On Device," it still wants to re-sync nearly all of these songs.  I have no idea where the discrepancy in the total numbers is coming from, but MC now says that there is not enough room for all the songs even though the list is the exact same list that it was synced with the first time.

If I highlight any of the "On Device" songs, the information at the bottom of the window says "file not found."  This would explain why it wants to resync everything, but the question is why it sees songs as "On Device" while at the same time saying "file not found" for the same songs.  Note that the "not found" songs ARE on the device because the phone plays them just fine.

As you can see, things are really crazy.

My S3 syncs fine with USB Debugging enabled.
When I connect to USB, in windows it shows up as 2 devices as Computer > SCHI535 > Phone and Computer > SCHI535 > Card
Then I open MC and those same 2 show up under drives and devices in the tree
I setup to sync to the Card one and ignore the internal memory.

When I use the notification pulldown on the phone, it is set to use MTP.

zxsix -- your information sounds similar to mine.  I see SCH-I535 with two subfolders -- "Phone" and "Card" -- which sounds like the same thing you're describing.  In MC, I also see two new devices, but they're named "SCH-I535" and "SCH-I535(1)."  I renamed the "card," which was the "(1)," so that I could recognize it as the correct device to sync to.  Like you, I only sync to the micro sd card.  Note that I see the exact same thing in windows whether or not "USB Debugging mode" is activated.

Also like you, the sync worked, but as mentioned above, upon reconnection things get all screwy.  Can you possibly confirm that you are NOT seeing the same behavior I'm seeing when you reconnect your device to MC after it's already synced?  If you aren't seeing this behavior, then I need to figure out what you're doing differently.  Just out of curiosity, how many songs are you syncing?  I'm wondering if this issue is related to larger sync operations.  I plan to test a smaller playlist to see if it still has problems.

Thanks again for all the help here,

Larry
Logged

JustinChase

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3276
  • Getting older every day
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #13 on: December 23, 2012, 06:40:10 pm »

Just to be sure, you do have 'delete any songs not in playlist' checked right, so that it would delete anything not in your new sync list.  that should give enough room for the new songs.  there is also a choice for 'sync if date changed', which might have a hand in this also.

however, i don't have any of those issues with my custom baked Jelly Bean ROM, so I'm just guessing at some things here.

With all that said, i would be surprised if the phone model is the issue, since they are all Android devices, and if MC can see/read/write to the card, there shouldn't be any real difference.
Logged
pretend this is something funny

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #14 on: December 23, 2012, 08:31:42 pm »

Just to be sure, you do have 'delete any songs not in playlist' checked right, so that it would delete anything not in your new sync list.  that should give enough room for the new songs.  there is also a choice for 'sync if date changed', which might have a hand in this also.

I definitely do have "delete any songs not in playist" checked -- that's how I always sync.  That said, the new playlist is the EXACT same playlist that was synced the first time -- there are NO changes whatsoever.  I haven't even added anything to the MC library itself.  What "should" happen upon reconnecting/rechecking the sync is that MC should tell me that the device is fully synced, and ALL songs should list as "On Device."  This should happen regardless of how the "delete songs not in playlist" is set.  I'll look into the "sync if date changed" setting, but again, this shouldn't matter because the dates of the songs/files are not changing.  On top of this, even if the system DID think that the date had changed, or that the file was updated for any other reason, I believe that the songs should still not be listed as both "On Device" and "In Queue" at the same time.  Rather, shouldn't it be saying "Delete on sync" instead of "On Device" for the songs that it thought needed replacing?  That aside, it's definitely not correct that the songs listed as "On Device" are also saying "file not found" when highlighting them.

Something is definitely not working between this model of phone and MC.

Quote
With all that said, i would be surprised if the phone model is the issue, since they are all Android devices, and if MC can see/read/write to the card, there shouldn't be any real difference.

That was my thinking as well.  It is important to note, however, that there are several other posts from Galaxy S3 users (as well as other models) saying that they're having problems with MC syncing, so the problem is definitely not unique to me -- there seems to be a compatibility issue between MC and some popular android smartphones.

Just to confirm, how big is the library you're syncing?  Based on previous reports from other users, it seems like this could potentially be a factor.

Thanks,

Larry
Logged

JustinChase

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3276
  • Getting older every day
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #15 on: December 24, 2012, 08:35:18 am »

Yeah, it definitely sounds like MC doesn't like your phone, for whatever reason.

My library is about 15k tracks, and I only sync about 1500 or so any any time.  However, I don't think size/number of tracks shoudl affect your ability to sync.  Hopefully Matt has some ideas for you when he gets back from their time off this week.
Logged
pretend this is something funny

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #16 on: December 24, 2012, 08:44:19 am »

Yeah, it definitely sounds like MC doesn't like your phone, for whatever reason.

I agree -- although it's not just my phone.  I see the same issues on two Galaxy S3s, and I see similar posts from others.

Quote
However, I don't think size/number of tracks should affect your ability to sync.

My thinking regarding the size was based on both my experiences and the experiences reported by others noting that things only seemed to start malfunctioning after the sync had been going for a little while.

Quote
Hopefully Matt has some ideas for you when he gets back from their time off this week.

Agreed.

Larry
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #17 on: December 24, 2012, 09:35:36 pm »

I decided to start from scratch.  I deleted the \music folder completely off of my phone's sd card.
Reconnected it to MC.  Took about 20 minutes of working before it showed the file list in queue.
It is to sync 3 smartlists that include about 450 songs.
Here is the log file of that initial virgin sync.  It begins right before I click the sync button to start the transfer.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/27111750/Log1.txt

I close MC (library server still runs in tray) and eject the phone from the system tray.
Using file explorer on phone, there are 577 files in 152 folders on the device now.

Reconnect phone to usb and open MC.
Click on SCH-I535 in the tree and it immediately shows all files as on device with 0 sync needed.
I click the recheck sync button a couple times to be sure.
Here is the log for that portion.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/27111750/Log2.txt

I close MC (library server still runs in tray) and eject the phone from the system tray.

Re-attach phone to usb.
Open MC.
Select SCH-I535 in the tree.
List immediately comes up and shows 0 files to sync.
Click recheck sync button to be sure.

So, it seems to be working.

Now I go into the device options and add 4th smartlist to be sync'd.
Now it wants to sync 4965 more songs.
Ok, click sync button and let it work.
Watched it at the very end, transcoding and copying 4 songs at a time. 
Finally the last one's status changed to "complete".
Progress bar says 99% "less than a minute", and stayed there for over 30 minutes.
no more lame.exe processes running and MC is utilizing 5% cpu so just left it alone all this time.
Finally it says "Finished".
Here's the 95MB log file
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/27111750/Log3.txt



I close MC (library server still runs in tray) and eject the phone from the system tray.
File explorer on phone shows 9346 files in 2975 folders.
Not sure why so many, unless MC doesn't include the folder.jpg for each album in it's file sync count.
Also looking at file explorer, I notice that there are only TWO playlist (.pla) files on the sdcard.
Based on the checkboxes I selected to indicate which playlists should be sync'd, there should be



Re-attach phone to usb.
Open MC.
Select SCH-I535 in the tree.
List takes 20 minutes to show up and shows 5382 files to sync.
Yep, there's a problem here.
I didn't bother to click sync button.  Here's the log up to that point.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/27111750/Log4.txt



Logged

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #18 on: December 25, 2012, 07:26:17 pm »

Thanks for the details zxsix -- I really appreciate you taking the time to do that.

Your tests ended up with a similar situation to mine -- i.e. the numbers that just didn't add up -- but your early tests had significantly different results.  Your first "recheck," for example, seemed to work, while my first recheck showed nearly all files as both "On Device" and "In Queue" at the same time.  I never saw a "fully synced" result once the unit was disconnected after the first sync.  Whatever is happening, it's causing "seemingly" random results.

Just to confirm, were you in USB Debugging mode when you did all your tests?

Thanks,

Larry
Logged

MrC

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 10462
  • Your life is short. Give me your money.
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #19 on: December 25, 2012, 11:15:24 pm »

zxsix, are you using at least 18.0.92?

In your log 4, I see items such as:

1833698: 4428: Handheld: CHHUploadHelper::CreateDeleteArray:
   Not deleting 'SCH-I535 - Card (1)\music\Death Metal\Amaranthe\Amaranthe\13-Breaking Point.mp3' because it isn't located in the path
                                                     'music\Rock\Amaranthe\Amaranthe\'

So it seems to me, a) you are using expressions in the handheld audio folder path, and b) the [Genre] metadata has changed, and this has often tripped up MC's sync engine.

Matt fixed some issues related to (a) in 18.0.92, but I'm not sure (b) is yet resolved in all cases.
Logged
The opinions I express represent my own folly.

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #20 on: December 26, 2012, 03:55:48 am »

So it seems to me, a) you are using expressions in the handheld audio folder path, and b) the [Genre] metadata has changed, and this has often tripped up MC's sync engine.

I can't answer for zxsix, but in my case, I don't use expressions, so I don't see how that could effect me.  When you talked about the genre metadata changing, what do you mean?

Thanks,

Larry
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #21 on: December 26, 2012, 08:05:52 am »

This test was using build 101.
Yes, I use expressions in both the folder and filename sections.
I'm at work now and can't pull them up but can post later if it will help.
Meta data (genre or otherwise) hadn't changed.
I did a sync, disconnected phone, reconnected phone, sync'd again.
No tagging took place during the testing.
Logged

MrC

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 10462
  • Your life is short. Give me your money.
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #22 on: December 26, 2012, 12:39:45 pm »

I certainly don't have all the answers, and am relying on some experience trying to understand how the syncing process works, mostly by a lot of log reading, trial and error, conversations w/Matt and a little background in the biz.  So take my comments for what they're worth.

The log line I reference seems to indicate that MC is trying to create a list of files that need to be deleted on sync, but isn't adding some files because they are not found in the place it would expect to find files (that it should delete).  MC is careful to avoid deleting HH files not under its control (for example, you might have your own audio or image files in some directory, not a directory which MC is in charge of).  So a Delete-on-Sync really means delete only what MC has previously placed in the HH.

The log line suggests to me, and again I'm probably wrong, that MC had previously placed the album Amaranthe in the path  'music\Rock\Amaranthe\Amaranthe\' somewhere under the audio base location for the HH.  That album appears to be in your sync list, and MC is trying to determine if it should be deleted.  The path in the sync list suggests 'music\Death Metal\Amaranthe\Amaranthe\'.  Notice that MC wants to delete something from under the 'Rock' directory (an old reference) in order to sync Amaranthe into the new directory 'music\Death Metal\...'.  I've assumed that "Death Metal" and "Rock" are genres, and that at some point, these were changed by you.

After the change Matt made in the .92 version, it was necessary to start fresh with a sync.  This means, deleting the existing Database.mpl file.  That is the record of what is currently on the HH according to MC.

The change Matt made was to make more robust the dealing with how expressions were handled in the path locations in the HH configuration settings.  The log entry to me indicated you had hit this particular issue.  It also suggests that you were hitting another issue, the one where when metadata changes, MC may fail to remove the old, stale entry from the HH and you end up with duplicate files, perhaps in different locations.  This is what I was suggesting with the genre Rock --> Death Metal discrepancy in the paths.

Again, I don't know if any of this is correct for your case.  But certainly, you want to remove the Database.mpl, and start fresh with a new sync.

I've had to employ techniques such as checking both the size of the sync list and the size of the final HH list, and when there is a discrepancy, resort to determining which files create the trouble.  With some useful debugging views of the sync list and the HH list, and some external diff tools, it isn't too difficult to determine exactly which files were problematic.  The log also helps suggest why there was trouble.  Good news is, this has helped locate and eliminate 5 separate bugs from the HH syncing!
Logged
The opinions I express represent my own folly.

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #23 on: December 26, 2012, 04:00:59 pm »

Again, there were no tag changes.  All of these sync tests were done within a 5 hour time span with no library maintenance being done in the meantime.
All Amaranthe songs have been tagged with the genre Death Metal since it was imported several months ago and it set to always be on the phone, as it is one of my favorite albums.
In my test case, there should have been nothing being flagged for deletion.  In the beginning I selected 3 or so playlists worth of songs.  That sync completed properly as far as I can tell.  Recheck sync said there was no work to be done.
Then I went into the options and checked the box for additional playlists to be included on the phone.  Based on the rules, these songs won't appear in the playlists that were already on the phone, so it would be all additional songs to be sync'd, and the original playlists were still checked, so nothing should be wanting to delete.

Note that I had deleted the \music folder, the database.mpl file, and a couple of xml files on the root of the sdcard that appeared by name to be from MC.  Basically starting fresh so I could test for the OP.

I'm going to go ahead and wipe the phone again and just sync my Unrated playlists, which is most important to have on it.
I'll then do any additional testing and logging that's needed until we get this resolved.
I know the JR guys will figure it out.
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #24 on: December 26, 2012, 04:17:52 pm »

Here's my expression for the audio folder path:
music\[Genre]\[Album Artist (auto)]\replace(replace([Album],...,/ ),....,/ )\
Logged

MrC

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 10462
  • Your life is short. Give me your money.
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #25 on: December 26, 2012, 04:36:15 pm »

Offtopic, wouldn't you want to replace the 4 dot case first, and the 3 dot case last?  Otherwise:

   "....Y"  ==> " .Y"
   "X....Y"  ==> "X .Y"

rather than:

   "....Y"  ==> " Y"
   "X....Y"  ==> "X Y"

I suspect you are just trying to remove 3 or 4 leading dots:

   regex([Album], /#^([.]{3,4})?(.*)$#/, 2)

but maybe you really want to strip all leading dots:

   RemoveCharacters([Album], ., 1)

Logged
The opinions I express represent my own folly.

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #26 on: December 27, 2012, 08:41:11 pm »

I changed my file path for the handheld to this:  music\[Album Artist (auto)]\RemoveCharacters([Album], ., 0)\
Android can't have files starting with periods.  This method works better than my last attempt.  Just gets rid of all periods in the folder names altogether.
I deleted the two xml files, the database.mpl and all of the music files and started from scratch again.
So far I have done 5 complete syncs with no crazy business, adding an additional playlist each time that includes more files.
Each sync was between 250 and 500 files.  Have a little over 1200 files on there now.
I'll add the large playlist this weekend when I have more time to leave the phone sit connected.  That'll add about 2000 more songs.

OP, I recommend you follow these steps and then submit logs if it messes up.  That way JR staff will have more to work with next week when they get back to work.
Logged

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #27 on: December 28, 2012, 02:33:24 am »

Android can't have files starting with periods.

I actually have one album that starts (and ends) with three periods (Genesis' "...and then there were three...")  This album shows up normally in Poweramp, and plays fine.  If I try to search for this album in the stock "My Files" program, however, I can't see it.  Nor can I see this album if I use the stock music player on the Galaxy to try to navigate to it via the artist group.  It seems that these files can cause oddities with OTHER apps, but not with Poweramp.  Given all the problems that are happening, however, it doesn't "seem" like this is the cause of the issue.  That said, I'll eliminate this album from my sync list and see if it helps as soon as I get a chance.

Quote
OP, I recommend you follow these steps and then submit logs if it messes up.  That way JR staff will have more to work with next week when they get back to work.

It's been a while since I created and submitted MC logs.  Could you refresh my memory on how to do this?

Thanks,

Larry
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #28 on: December 28, 2012, 12:37:22 pm »

Linux file systems (including android devices) treat files that begin with a period as hidden files.
I suspect that MC copies the file to the device, then upon secondary sync, the operating system indicates the file can't be read, so MC tries to sync it again.
That expression I'm using now will remove all periods within folder names.  I also simplified it by removing the genre field as there was no compelling reason to have it.

For logging, start MC, go to Help > Logging
check the box to output to a log file.
Click the reset log file to start a fresh log.
Attach and sync device.
Remove and reattach device.
Sync again.  Showing the problem?
Then go back to Help > Logging and click the button to submit problem.
email that file to logs at jriver dot com

I really stress starting from scratch like I did to eliminate any other variables.

Logged

MrC

  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 10462
  • Your life is short. Give me your money.
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #29 on: December 28, 2012, 01:52:55 pm »

Linux file systems (including android devices) treat files that begin with a period as hidden files.
I suspect that MC copies the file to the device, then upon secondary sync, the operating system indicates the file can't be read, so MC tries to sync it again.
That expression I'm using now will remove all periods within folder names.  I also simplified it by removing the genre field as there was no compelling reason to have it.

I want to clarify a misconception - as far as the file system is concerned, Unix/Linux do not treat filenames beginning with a dot as special.  They are just files.  Special meaning is only given to them by various utilities such as ls(1); these are coded to specifically ignore presenting dot files by default.

Two special directory entries "." and ".." (always created when a directory is created) are treated specially by the kernel, and these refer to the current directory, and the parent directory respectively.

That Android's various utilities deals with dot files is specific to the coding of the utilities - i.e. it's the same case as ls(1).

Since so many utilities have used dot files as configuration files, over time the default has been for most programs to ignore presenting such files.  It is probably just easier to deal with the edge cases by simply adhering to convention - so no dot files should be used.  Hence, the need to convert dot files to non-dot files.

This has been a public service announcement.
Logged
The opinions I express represent my own folly.

dafloydman

  • World Citizen
  • ***
  • Posts: 101
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #30 on: December 31, 2012, 02:38:40 am »

Try sgs3 easy ums , force phone into usb mode and go back to mtp once sync complete. This seems like an mtp issue , happened with my sgs3 and sgs2 also in mediamonkey
Logged

WinoOutWest

  • Regular Member
  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 358
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #31 on: December 31, 2012, 12:09:17 pm »

See my post here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=75363.msg520619#msg520619
Would solve your sync issues in an indirect way.
Logged

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #32 on: January 01, 2013, 08:27:48 pm »

Thanks for all the replies here.

This seems like an mtp issue , happened with my sgs3 and sgs2 also in MediaMonkey

I don't know whether or not the issue is related to mtp, but it seems important to note that transfers made with Windows Explorer work without any problems -- transfers work at normal speeds with no errors.  Since windows itself has no problems transferring files to the device (and it does so regardless of whether or not USB mode is used), then the problem is not due to any incompatibility between windows itself and the Galaxy S3.  I don't pretend to know the first thing about how MC syncs work under the hood, but I would think that if windows can transfer files without problems, MC most likely can as well.  Workarounds are fine for temporary fixes, but the goal here is to fix the problem so that workarounds aren't necessary.

Please let me know if I should test any particular build, and who I should send log files to (if log files are requested.)

Thanks,

Larry
Logged

helpme

  • Guest
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #33 on: January 04, 2013, 05:51:26 pm »

I'm having all of the sme issues with my S3

Slow transfer speeds, re syncing all the tracks each time and a huge wait for the sync to finish.

Attempting to sync to the SD card rather than the phone memory.

I had hoped that ditching the iPhone would mean the end of work-rounds and third party tools.

I will keep checking back to see if a solution is found.
Logged

helpme

  • Guest
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #34 on: January 08, 2013, 05:15:54 pm »

Apart from the ongoing issue with re syncing all tracks every time I sync there is one specific playlist that will not transfer?

i have three playlists selected but only two end up on the S 3

I have tried deleting all the playlists and adding them back one at a time but my new-tracks playlist will not transfer. No error messages it just does not end up on the phone.

Any suggestions ?
Logged

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #35 on: January 09, 2013, 07:21:31 pm »

Apart from the ongoing issue with re syncing all tracks every time I sync there is one specific playlist that will not transfer?

i have three playlists selected but only two end up on the S 3

I have tried deleting all the playlists and adding them back one at a time but my new-tracks playlist will not transfer. No error messages it just does not end up on the phone.

Any suggestions ?

Is it just the playlist "list" that doesn't transfer, or do the tracks themselves not transfer either?  If the tracks transfer but the playlist does not, are the tracks part of one of the other playlists?  I'm wondering if MC doesn't transfer the new playlist because all the tracks are already on the device.  It's obviously "supposed" to transfer playlists regardless of whether or not the tracks are already on the device -- I'm just trying to narrow in on where the problem is occuring.

Larry

PS.  Would logs help the MC developers?  Nobody has requested any from me, but I'm fine to create and send them if they would help.  Just let me know.
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #36 on: January 09, 2013, 07:52:17 pm »

Logs never hurt.  Make it easy on them and clear the log just before you attach the device.
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #37 on: January 20, 2013, 12:17:07 pm »

Syncing to Galaxy S3 via MTP protocol.
2 static playlists and 5 smartlists are selected to be sync'd to the device.
Only the 2 static playlists end up in the \playlists folder on the device as .pla files.


UPDATE:  Ended up reinstalling Samsung's drivers and changing a setting in Windows 8 to not use Windows Update for device driver updates.
This seems to have calmed down some of the problems I was having as Windows was trying to show the phone as a CD Rom drive.  :-\
I have also been running the phone with the developer option USB debugging OFF and having better luck than when I had it ON.
All smartlists are now syncing correctly.
Logged

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #38 on: January 23, 2013, 09:34:43 pm »

Just wondering if there has been any investigation into these sync issues yet.  I try to keep an eye on the change logs, but I haven't noticed any updates that could address this issue (or did I miss it?)  I understand that there are other issues to deal with, but just to confirm, are there still plans to look into this?  I'm just anxious to finally have problem free MC handheld syncing after leaving the iPod.

Thanks,

Larry
Logged

struct

  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 380
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #39 on: January 26, 2013, 01:51:39 am »


not sure if I have got to the bottom of my phone woes, but I think part of my work's security settings was to shut down access to the SD card.  Meant everything was having trouble accessing phone.

craig
Logged

escaflo

  • Galactic Citizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 409
  • And the answer is.... 42!
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #40 on: February 05, 2013, 11:57:07 pm »

I will add that I also had this problem with Samsung Galaxy S3 last time. The problem is I am having the same issue now with my Nokia Lumia 920. The only thing that is common to both of them are that they both use MTP for transferring songs.

For both of the phone, I can usually get them to sync the first time, but the subsequent time, when I plug the phone back in again, MC just get stuck at "Working..." and will never ever load the phone library.

I can leave it there for an hour and it won't make a difference.

But if I proceed to plug out the phone, I can see a flash of the library before the phone screen disappear from MC. During the flash, I can see that MC has loaded all the songs but it just get hang on "Working..."

Logged
Don't Panic!

helpme

  • Guest
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #41 on: February 08, 2013, 02:20:00 pm »

Is it just the playlist "list" that doesn't transfer, or do the tracks themselves not transfer either?  If the tracks transfer but the playlist does not, are the tracks part of one of the other playlists?  I'm wondering if MC doesn't transfer the new playlist because all the tracks are already on the device.  It's obviously "supposed" to transfer playlists regardless of whether or not the tracks are already on the device -- I'm just trying to narrow in on where the problem is occuring.

Larry

PS.  Would logs help the MC developers?  Nobody has requested any from me, but I'm fine to create and send them if they would help.  Just let me know.


The tracks transfer - just not the "list"

some of the tracks are not on either of teh other two playlists that are transferred.

Hope that helps..
Logged

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #42 on: February 11, 2013, 08:43:05 pm »

I certainly don't want to be a pest here, but there haven't been any official responses to these sync issues in several weeks, so I'm just curious if this has been looked into yet, or if there are any plans to look into it at some point in the relatively near future.  I'm sure that like myself, the people experiencing these issues are fine to wait their turn for this particular problem to be addressed, but at the moment we have absolutely no idea how far down the list this might be, or if it's even ON the list.  Based on the reports, there are a number of Galaxy users who would love to be able to use MC to sync their music.

Any feedback at all would be greatly appreciated just so we're not "totally" in the dark.

Thanks,

Larry
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #43 on: February 27, 2013, 04:02:13 pm »

I'm still having trouble with the S3 sync.
I can sync 1700 or so songs, close MC, unplug S3, plug S3 back in, wait for S3 to show up in Windows Explorer, start MC, Click sync.
Most songs say delete on sync and then it puts them right back on.
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #44 on: February 28, 2013, 06:31:09 pm »

Started looking for smaller details to figure out the sync problems.
I sync, disconnect device, then sync again later and it wants to transfer a ton of the files again.
When I connected the device, I decided to narrow my focus down to the smallest subset of files possible.
Here's what I discovered in the portable device screen.
As you can see, it wants to sync the same songs again.
The converted mp3 files on the device have at least 2 discrepancies in the tags (genre has been modified and rating is missing).
I have no idea how the genre field is getting changed. I initially presumed by the default music app on the S3, though I can't find anything via google indicating that it should automatically modify file tags, especially when the songs in question were not played since the sync.
So, I disabled all access to internet on the phone by turning off wifi and putting it in airplane mode.
Resync'd.
Checked the device screen in MC again and the discrepancy in genre tag is still there!
That indicates to me that MC is somehow putting the wrong tags on the device during the conversion from flac to mp3 and transferring to the device.

Hope this helps us narrow down the issue.

Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #45 on: March 13, 2013, 06:50:49 pm »

I'm also seeing this in MC's registry, many variations for the Galaxy S3 via MTP connection.
A couple of these may be legit caused by ROM updates, but some were same O/S version.

Logged

pwwaring

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #46 on: April 26, 2013, 03:10:11 pm »

Interesting, I'm having the same problems with a Motorola Droid RAZR M. 

I'm syncing a single smartlist with 5219 songs.  After the first clean sync everything was on the phone's SD card correctly. 

When I rechecked the sync, it showed 449 "in queue" that it wanted to reload, and 249 of the 449 were set to "delete on sync". Syncing resulted in 249 deletes, 249 files reloaded, and 200 errors for the files that tried to load but hadn't been deleted.

One oddity I noticed is that some of the tags appeared to be changed.  I say appeared because the MC listing for the "delete on sync" items shows nothing for genre or date; however, when I check the files themselves on the phone both genre and date are present.

I also have the problem stated above where MC will seem to hang for an extremely long time after the last file has transferred but before MC will show the sync as being complete.

Using MC 18.0.158, Android 4.1.2, and syncing with MTP and USB debugging on.
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #47 on: May 24, 2013, 07:29:41 pm »

I updated to the newest Samsung USB driver 1.5.22.0, formatted the phone's SD card, and let MC sync.
It appears that all the mp3 files are there, but it didn't put a .pla file in the playlist folder for all of them I had checkmarked to sync.
The .pla files that it did put on there are 0 bytes and are completely empty when viewed with a text editor.
The music player softwares on the phone see no playlists.
Logged

lalittle

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 3964
Re: Finally dumped iPod for Galaxy S3, but MC unable to sync the device
« Reply #48 on: May 24, 2013, 08:07:32 pm »

I updated to the newest Samsung USB driver 1.5.22.0, formatted the phone's SD card, and let MC sync.
It appears that all the mp3 files are there, but it didn't put a .pla file in the playlist folder for all of them I had checkmarked to sync.
The .pla files that it did put on there are 0 bytes and are completely empty when viewed with a text editor.
The music player softwares on the phone see no playlists.


Do you see any oddities when reconnecting the phone and letting MC check the sync status, such as MC thinking that not all the songs are present even though no new songs were added to the sync list?

Thanks,

Larry
Logged

zxsix

  • MC Beta Team
  • Citizen of the Universe
  • *****
  • Posts: 1753

Do you see any oddities when reconnecting the phone and letting MC check the sync status, such as MC thinking that not all the songs are present even though no new songs were added to the sync list?

Thanks,

Larry

Yes. Synced complete a couple of times, then next time it wants to sync over 5000 files again.
Logged
Pages: [1] 2   Go Up