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[kstich]

I have a feature request that I would like to see in a forthcoming version of J River. I would like if it was able to keep the main library of music synchronized with a second mirrored library that uses either the same (sync) or a different format (transcode). In my case, I would like to keep my main library of uncompressed songs (flac/WMA pro) synchronized with a second library in aac to copy onto my phone. Another use case may be to simply synchronize a library on one computer with a library on another computer or network drive.

This seems like a simple task, but I have never seen a tool that did this well. I used to have a custom script that I ran to transcode files to wma 9 at 256 kbps, but that was useless once I got my first iPhone years ago.

Converting an entire library is ok the first time but takes some time to process and can be difficult to maintain the second library as new music is added.

I would like to maintain a second library of files as opposed to sync'ing to the phone directly because I have multiple devices to load these on and view a second library as an easy source to load from. I would rather do this in JRiver as opposed to iTunes because iTunes importing does an awful job of organizing the music. Plus, I would rather not use iTunes.

Ideally the files would have all the tags and cover art copied over as well.

JRiver admins, could a feature like this please be added to J River? Timing isn't an issue; it could be in either v19 or perhaps even 20 as it is a nice to have tool, but doesn't ultimately impact the day to day use of JRiver. It would just be awesome if this was added.

Thanks!

[MrHaugen]

You can do on the fly converting when syncing media to devices. Would that not be much simpler than what you're suggesting? You can also stack files, to hide either original or the converted files. You can also make views that hide one type of files, so it's better suited for sync operations. It would however still require that you do the conversion each time you get new music. Perhaps it's possible to automate it somehow?

I just don't understand people that want to have separate libraries So much trouble. And for what? Minimal gain in most cases, with a doubling of maintanance work most of the time. Perhaps not for a full sync operation, but still. I have a hard time believing that most people that want multiple libraries really benefits from that, rather than finding another solution on a single library.

[mwillems]

You can do on the fly converting when syncing media to devices. Would that not be much simpler than what you're suggesting? You can also stack files, to hide either original or the converted files. You can also make views that hide one type of files, so it's better suited for sync operations. It would however still require that you do the conversion each time you get new music. Perhaps it's possible to automate it somehow?

I just don't understand people that want to have separate libraries So much trouble. And for what? Minimal gain in most cases, with a doubling of maintanance work most of the time. Perhaps not for a full sync operation, but still. I have a hard time believing that most people that want multiple libraries really benefits from that, rather than finding another solution on a single library.

OP, have you tried Library sync?  I think it is supposed to do more or less what you're describing, but it hasn't really worked right for me in a similar application.  I'd also be interested in a solution for this (full library sync with or without conversions), and there aren't many good alternatives (that I'm aware of) for my use case. 

I have a laptop that I use as a music player at work and I want it to have all the same music as my home computer but in compressed (MP3) format to save space.  My work has a "no media streaming" policy so I can't just use media server to directly see my home computer.  So my only option is to transfer and convert the files to the laptop at home.  Easy the first time, but updates are harder than they should be.  The "library sync" function doesn't correctly recognize files that are already on the laptop, so everytime I run it, it tries to move and convert all 50,000 music files, which (even over an ethernet connection) takes more than a day. 

So I configure an external harddrive as a handheld in JRiver and use the sync function to move and convert the files (because the handheld sync correctly senses when files are already on the "device"), but then I have to manually move the new files from the external to the laptop because I haven't discovered a "reverse sync" function.  Come to think of it, I guess I might be able to save a step by sharing the laptops music drive and just configuring that as a "handheld", but it's weird that handheld sync works so well at detecting files "on the device" and library sync can't seem to identify any pre-existing files.

[connersw]

You could just create a folder outside of your current library's import folders and use Handheld sync to convert all your audio into AAC and store it in that folder.  You would want to turn off conversion cache so that these files don't automatically end up in your original library.  You could use one of the programs suggested here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=84928.0 to auto-sync.  Then create a second library that imports only from this newly created folder.

The problem with this, and maintaining any second library, is that your library contains all of your settings, not just your files.  So if you adjust settings in one library, you will need to adjust them manually in the second.  I agree w/ MrHaugen that maintaining multiple libraries may just be creating more hassle than you really need.  Creating customized view based on file type or file location may be more work up front, but less hassle over time. 

[kstich]

I will try the handheld sync method add this is probably what I need. I didn't actually realize that I could output to a drive location as the "handheld."

I just did a quick check and it looks like worth the external encoder option it will support the Nero exe, but it appears to not recognize the files that are already in the directory. I will try to re-run the files using this tool and hope it recognizes them the second time.

Regarding the second library, I am not interested in using theses files in JRiver so the library is not really of a concern. I just hope it doesn't fill the directory with other files that are library related as I am not sure whether these will be useful in my phone and deleting them will probably mess us the next sync.

Regarding syncing on the fly, my computer takes about 12 hours to process the files so this really isn't an option. Plus I do want to load these on multiple devices.

Thanks for your help.

[kstich]

It took a few trys to get it to convert my files properly. It was copying over some of the flac or wma files as is even though these were not on the supported type filter list.

Unfortunately though it hung somewhere about half way through the files when I let it run the entire library last night. I was going to start it again tonight, but it is now saying it is going to process all files again and the files from last night are listed as "Delete on Sync". Any ideas? It also is not able to give a decent estimate of the space required for the files, which I am fine with I suppose given I am using an external encoder (Nero AAC). Could this be part of the problem though? The goal was to avoid reprocessing the entire library during synchronization, so I am not any further ahead yet. Is anyone using this successfully?

On another note, I have never really understood why aac wasn't better supported, I wonder if there are licensing restrictions. I don't really want to go to ogg because that is not as widely supported. Any thoughts on these two output formats?