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[Louis]

From time to time I go back to MC to see if any of the Android Sync problems have been resolved and this time I discovered one cause that may be implicated in other sync issues.

When the Artist and Album folders are created on the Android device (mSD card) the library fields are used to name them, but if these fields contain certain Unicode characters or even just trailing periods, in say an album title, this will result in the creation of an invalid folder that is not possible to delete, except in some, but not all cases, from the Android device (eg using ES Explorer). The only way of getting rid of the invalid folders for sure is to reformat the mSD card.

This led me to discover the (related?) cause of random playlist errors where not all playlists are synched to the Android device appears to be resolved by deleting the playlist folder or reformatting the mSD card.

This invalid folder problem may also be the cause of MC ignoring some file paths and dumping the music files into the root as it does from time to time.

I’m also hoping this invalid folder problem may also be the cause of MC forever trying to resync files that haven’t changed, a problem that others have also reported here (that is, putting existing unchanged files into the sync queue, which results in an error on sync).

This invalid folder problem may also be the cause of the 30min+ wait before MC displays the details of the Android device contents also reported by others here. I don’t know yet because I still have to track down and try to fix the artist and album titles that result in the creation of invalid folders.

I’m certainly not interested in upgrading to MC20 until I see some evidence that Android Kitkat and portable devices in general are better supported as I’ve not seen any significant change to address the many woes since MC17, which is tragic since I listen to most my music on the go.

[JimH]

Which Android device are you testing with?  Thanks for reporting this.

[Louis]

I'm currently using the Sony Xperia Z1 (Model C6903) Android Ver 4.4.2 (Build no 14.3.A.0.757), but the symptoms are the same as for the Xperia Z and the model S before that.
Current version of MC19 is 19.0.158 on Windows 7 x64

Also just to add; the mSD card is 64gb and formatted exFat.

Earlier versions of Android used to have a choice of MTP and MSC modes, but that choice seems to have gone and like the Astell & Kern AK240 there is only the MTP mode.

[fauxfreshness]

To add to this, Android Kit Kat (4.4.x) prohibits applications from deleting files and directories from external storage unless the directory and nested files/directories were created by the application.  I use iSyncr for other devices to sync from iTunes to my Android devices, and once they were all at 4.4, this became a problem they were trying to work around.  For example, their Rocket Player music application couldn't edit tags of files copied to external storage by iSyncr, as they're separate applications.

However, if the device is rooted, then ES Explorer, Astro, and other file managers can edit/delete files anywhere on the card.  Likewise, other applications can work with this as well.  In addition, certain OEMs (like on my Samsung Note 3s) have stock file managers that can, in fact, edit and delete anything from external storage.  So I used that to get rid of directories that hung up from artists being so "1337" with their bizarre character usage in the directory and file name properties.  I was also able to delete those directories and files by connecting the device to a Windows machine and letting it delete the files in MTP and USB 3.0 modes.  Once can, if necessary, dismount and eject the microSDHC card and just use it in a reader with a Windows, Apple, or *nix system that's aware of the reader and file systems and edit as needed without formatting.

[JimH]

To add to this, Android Kit Kat (4.4.x) prohibits applications from deleting files and directories from external storage unless the directory and nested files/directories were created by the application.  I use iSyncr for other devices to sync from iTunes to my Android devices, and once they were all at 4.4, this became a problem they were trying to work around.  For example, their Rocket Player music application couldn't edit tags of files copied to external storage by iSyncr, as they're separate applications.

However, if the device is rooted, then ES Explorer, Astro, and other file managers can edit/delete files anywhere on the card.  Likewise, other applications can work with this as well.  In addition, certain OEMs (like on my Samsung Note 3s) have stock file managers that can, in fact, edit and delete anything from external storage.  So I used that to get rid of directories that hung up from artists being so "1337" with their bizarre character usage in the directory and file name properties.  I was also able to delete those directories and files by connecting the device to a Windows machine and letting it delete the files in MTP and USB 3.0 modes.  Once can, if necessary, dismount and eject the microSDHC card and just use it in a reader with a Windows, Apple, or *nix system that's aware of the reader and file systems and edit as needed without formatting.

Thanks very much for posting that.  I added it to the "Weird Problems" thread.

[fauxfreshness]

Thanks very much for posting that.  I added it to the "Weird Problems" thread.

Yeah, it does seem like a perfect fit for the weird problem category.  Any Android user will see countless apps that are getting updates, or just comments, regarding issues with modifying files with mounted storage like microSDHC and microSDXC cards.

http://www.androidcentral.com/kitkat-sdcard-changes