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[tom-erik]

Hello,

I'm experiencing that Media Center 18 is crashing when I'm importing my 698 MB large iTunes Library (iTunes Music Library.xml) through the import playlist feature as advised by the internet and what you'd do in iTunes to import this.

It happens after maybe 10 seconds of processing the file. I've sent log files to logs@jriver.com (?) and a link to this thread with it. (I can send the database to the devs. if necessary because I have a feeling the logs won't exactly be useful)

I've followed the Stability wiki article as to what to pre-prep before generating logs / complaining. This is a brand new laptop and fresh install of Media Center 18.

I will say that the reason I'm using Media Center 18 in the first place is because iTunes can no longer handle this gigantic database and now refuses to save anything further to it because it complains about lack of memory.

Thanks.

[Matt]

Welcome.

It's normally best to just import your content using the regular import mechanism.  If the files are tagged (they should be), all metadata will come along.  It should be fast.

It's still bad if a 700MB XML file is crashing.  My guess is we do the parsing in-memory, and this is a problem for such a big file.  Would you be able to 7-zip the XML file and provide a sample to matt at jriver dot com?  You might need to use Dropbox if it's still over 30MB.

Thanks.

[Matt]

I got your email.  Thanks for the playlist.  We're closed until Monday, so it might be a little before I can download and step it in the debugger.

Could you try a regular import in the meantime?  I'm hopeful it will work well for you.

[tom-erik]

Hey Matt,

Great, thanks for the notice.

Good advice on the metadata. They are indeed tagged; even with albumcovers as well. I have several other playlists in iTunes however, what would happen if I exported those and imported them to Media Center? Would they match up?

The library contains ~459000 songs so I'm not even sure if your program will handle it, I'm really hoping it will however.

Side-question: In iTunes you have the ability to choose which songs are supposed to go to your iPod by clicking a checkbox beside the song, which doesn't seem to be an exact feature of Media Center. What would be the equivalent feature for this? (Playlist?)

Thanks

[Matt]

I'm sort of amazed you got 500k files into iTunes.  You might appreciate these benchmarks:
http://jriver.com/speed.html

You can configure handheld sync in Media Center using playlists or smartlists.  It's different than iTunes, but hopefully better once you're used to it.  However, depending on your iPod, you may still have to use iTunes to do the actual transfer.  You might search here for more instructions.

[tom-erik]

Per reference I just wanted to say that Media Center 18 is doing fine in importing all the 495000 songs (and some I previously had forgotten about and the addition of 1.5 TB of music I have yet to import) of mine which is exquisite!

It'd be interesting to hear what you have to say about the import process of the iTunes library in the unlikely event that someone else would switch over to using your Media Center over iTunes for the same reason I have.

I will link to a thread in the apple discussions forums about the same issue I'm encountering with iTunes so that maybe someone some day, will move over to your software; https://discussions.apple.com/message/18555658#18555658

I am also still looking for an answer on: I have several other playlists in iTunes however, what would happen if I exported those and imported them to Media Center? Would they match up?

EDIT: I used an application called iExport which exported all my playlists quite nicely (Windows 8 only?) and I managed to import them into MC without any hassle. Further on I just want to acknowledge to the world that this program works wonders and I am now maintaining a database of 700,000+ songs.

Thanks

[Matt]

EDIT: I used an application called iExport which exported all my playlists quite nicely (Windows 8 only?) and I managed to import them into MC without any hassle. Further on I just want to acknowledge to the world that this program works wonders and I am now maintaining a database of 700,000+ songs.

That's great to hear!

I want to reply to the original question of importing everything from a 680MB iTunes Music Library.  Unfortunately, it's just more than the current system can handle.

The 'Import Playlist...' feature is designed for a more normal playlist (ie. a few thousand files).  It does in-memory parsing.

This thread makes it obvious that it would be better to switch to incremental parsing from disk so memory usage was not an issue.  However, this will require a biggish architecture change.  We'll put the change on our long term 'to do' list, but it won't happen for a while.

I'm glad you found a work-around with iExport.