INTERACT FORUM
Devices => Androids and other portables => Topic started by: SteveG on April 16, 2004, 03:46:24 pm
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Hello All,
For anyone who is new to MC, please be sure to get the latest version from our downloads page or from the first thread on this board.
An excellent help file (thanks Adam) on using MC and iPod can be found here:
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ashawley01/
For additional information, please check the previous help thread at:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=8;action=display;threadid=20309;start=0
For any issues not covered, please post below and someone will respond ASAP. Please copy and paste your system info from MC Help and include the version of the Portable Drive Plugin you use.
Thanks,
Steve
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When I try to sync using MC 10.0.110 to my iPod, MC crashes after putting 1203 songs (of 9800 or so) onto the iPod. It's done this twice at the same number. Then MC can't read what's on the iPod either.
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Please try the latest build posted at the top of the MC board.
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SethK,
Yes, please get the latest build of MC, but if you are seeing a crash during the transfer, are you doing on the fly conversion? If not, try to isolate what file 1203 is so we can figure out what the problem is. If you figure out what file it is, try copying it directly to iPod from Explorer to see what happens. If it succeeds, delete it from iPod and let me know.
Thanks,
Steve
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I have changed a bunch of my tags in MC. When I sync to iPod, new tags don't transfer. Is that some setting that I need to use?
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The new build sees the files on the iPod, but it crashed after about another 1200 songs or so. I do convert my mp3s from 256 to 128 for the iPod.
What's the best way to figure out if it's crashing on a particular file? Are any logs produced?
Thanks.
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jweiser,
The changed files will retransfer if you modify the name, artist, album, genre, track number, composer, comment or rating.
sethk,
No logs are produced, but drop me an email at steve @ jriver.com and I can send you a plugin that will give us some info to sort this out.
Thanks,
Steve
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Evening all,
May I suggest having a sticky topic within this forum that tells you everything you need to know about making itunes, mc, aac, and the ipod all play nicely together.
Forgive me if this is already in the MC help files, but I assumed it wouldnt be. And though a forum search would probably reap results, it is inconvenient.
Example things that i have read in passing but never paid attention till now because I've never needed to know them before (I never bothered using itunes):
the copying one aac file accoss to the ipod in itunes before synching with mc, thing.
the steps to do in itunes to stop it stealing the ipod every time, and how to stop it automatically taking control (moving and renaming) of all of your files.
getting ratings etc in mc after they've been altered in itunes.
what is acceptable/unacceptable to change in itunes.
etc. etc.
I realise that you have no obligation to extend such support to a third party program, but considering it is gonna be on almost every ipod owners machine (until they see the light) from the day of purchase, I think it would be good publicity for MC's excellent ipod support.
Maybe making it locked would prevent it from getting cluttered too.
Cheers,
Night.
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Steve,
I'm now seeing the same problem that I saw previously. Using build 116, I rated a number of albums on my iPod and then synced back to MC with the Sync Data to MC button checked.
None of the ratings were transferred. Indeed, the null ratings from MC overwrote the ratings on the iPod, undoing my hard work.
For info, of the four albums I had rated, I had also modified one of them within MC (changing track numbers) so I wasn't necessarily expecting this one to work properly. I know that MC doesn't sync if the album has changed on MC since the previous sync. However, the other three albums hadn't been touched on MC at all and should have transferred correctly. Any idea what's going on?
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Madcow,
Ratings from iPod should only ever transfer to MC when the date modified on the file in MC is less than the last synchronization time (which is stored whenever you start a sync) and the rating on iPod is not 0 and you have checked 'Sync data to MC'.
One of the few ways to explain what you saw is that the files in MC were modified after the last synchronization. Even though the files 'were not touched' the possibility exists that they were modified somehow. In testing try checking the date modified value to be sure it is not changed.
Let me know how it turns out. I may need to send you a test to verify what is going on. I cannot duplicate it here.
Park,
If you ever fully format your iPod (not just initialize it) and you want to enable AAC playback, you must transfer one AAC file one time using iTunes. This creates a license file on iPod which will enable playback. Even if after that you intialize iPod, playback will still work.
If you want iTunes to stop grabbing iPod, click on the iPod icon at the bottom of iTunes (when iPod is attached) and deselect the checkbox for 'Open iTunes when attached'.
In regards to using iTunes and iPod and MC and AAC, it is not recommended to do a lot of switching back and forth. Someday I will put a bunch of time into making them all play together more seamlessly, but our focus for now in regards to iPod is to make it work well with MC.
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One of the few ways to explain what you saw is that the files in MC were modified after the last synchronization. Even though the files 'were not touched' the possibility exists that they were modified somehow. In testing try checking the date modified value to be sure it is not changed.
For one of the albums in question, where the ratings were amended on the iPod but which were not transferred back to MC, the files have a "date last modified" in Windows of 23rd January 2004, well before my last sync. So I don't think this is the problem.
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Thanks a lot steve.
Actually I dont really want to use itunes and only did once because i couldnt get a cd to rip in mc. I cant buy music (living in japan) and have now finished ripping my music collection, so itunes is pretty useless to me.
Just thought it was a useful idea and might stop some repeated questions coming up.
:) :) :)
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I just upgraded to MC10.0.116 from 9.<something>. When I would sync my ipod with MC9, CDs with multiple artists would show up on my iPod under (multiple artists) - just the way I like it. Now that I've upgraded to MC10 this is no longer the case. Now each and every artist shows up under artists on my iPod. Any idea what I'm doing wrong and how to get back to having them listed under multiple artists?
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ndwek,
The 'multiple artists' option was removed as part of the overhaul of how portables interact with MC in 10. It may come back in the future.
Steve
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** MOVED FROM MC THREAD**
Rating changes on an iPod aren't reflected in MC like they used to. I don't know if I can reproduce this, but first, I upload songs to the iPod, then I import to the library using the iPod as the source with subfolders. Then I synchronize to put my smartlists on. I have the smartlist for unrated songs; I go through the list and listen to each one and rate it accordingly. After that, when I try to synchronize, MC deletes all the songs with the changed ratings and then it gives an error about not being able to find the files it just deleted. Going further, I reupload the songs that were deleted (I started testing using only one song with a rating change so there's less to re-upload). I restore a backup library that just has the smartlists already made but nothing imported yet. Then I import again. And no matter how many times I sync, rate, sync, rerate, every time I rate a song then try to sync that change within MC (sync data to MC is always checked) the rating is reset to have no rating.
Everything was working fine for me at least a month ago, before problems erupted about the database being corrupted or having all songs and smartlists visible in MC10 but not in the iPod. I'm really unsure of the build because there were so many, but I'm pretty sure it was just before tag altering through the iPod database screen was disabled. If MC10 doesn't seem to be going where someone like me would want it to go, can you let me know that version of MC10 and let me download it somewhere? Everything worked brilliantly before, mostly. Cleared the library every time I uploaded new files, reimported, synced, synced again whenever I changed ratings. I only occasionally had a problem with file duplicates showing up and I'd happily trade that problem with this.
ForsakenArdor,
Fundamentally you are going about this in a way that is making life hard for you. Can you try the following, or let me know why it is advantageous to attempt to do it like you are doing? I think all of what you need is already build into the synchronization process.
I would like to see you remove these steps from what you are doing:
1) The reimport of files in your MC library after you transfer them to iPod.
2) The way you are rating songs and synching
3) Clearing the library
Try this..
1) Create your smartlists/playlists in MC.
2) Synchronize your files to iPod
After that, if you want to change ratings for songs on iPod, go ahead. If you want those changes to update MC, simply check the box in the synchronization dialalogue for 'Sync data to MC'. If you prefer to have MC keep its ratings, deselect this box.
No need to reimport and clear and update the library in MC.
Please let me know if this process breaks down for you.
Steve
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Thanks for responding, Steve. I do it this way simply because I want to keep my hard drive uncluttered. I only want to keep backups of downloaded stuff and keep everything I encoded from my own CDs on the iPod. I have a program called Sharepod that'll backup everything if something with MC becomes wonky so I don't have to deal with Windows Explorer crashing after copying files and the iPod diretory structure for an hour or so. I found a workaround for this issue. After rating unrated songs or changing a rating, clear the library, or restore a backup like I described above, then import again. All the new ratings will transfer. I did this today. Only one song didn't get a rating, but I think I just forgot to.
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MC10 didn't recognize my pod today. It did yesterday. I'm up to build 118.
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ForsakenArdor,
Thanks for the clarification of what you are doing. I do not think many others are doing this. If others are, please post and I will make this process more user friendly. In the meantime, it sounds like you have a workable solution. If you hit snags with it, please let me know.
Bendra,
Did not recognize it as an iPod (as compared to a removable drive) or did not see it at all? If not as an iPod, use Windows Explorer to look and see if there is a file called 'iPod_Control'. If it is not there, you should reformat your iPod. If you do not see iPod in Windows Explorer, you have a hardware issue.
Steve
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I saw iPod in windows explorer. I re-booted and it came back to MC10. Sorry for the stupidity, as I do know that "kicking the tires" helps a lot.
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With the last several builds my IPOD does not synchronize (currently using build 10.0.122). The IPOD does show up under drives and devices. Everytime I try to synchronize the IPOD MC crashes. I have tried reformatting, etc, with no help.
Using the 'send to' and then transfer does work in getting the song transferred into the IPOD.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
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Zeke,
Does the crash occur before the file transfer begins? If before, try transferring the exact same files via 'send to' as are in the selected playlists for synching and my bet is it will crash as well. The next thing to do if you can is to confirm what I predict and then narrow down what file(s) are causing the crash. You mention that send to works for a song (as opposed to songs). Can you create the crash with one specific song?
Steve
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Hi all. I'm banging my head on the wall using the eval copy of MC v10.0.122 and my iPod. :o
I'll try to outline the various issues I've run into tonight:
1. I don't see it listed in my Windows Explorer, but I've been syncing with iTunes successfully for months, so I know the iPod can connect to the PC. It seems like this is required. I've disabled the auto-connect within iTunes.
2. I installed the iPod plug-in, but it then comes up and tells me that I'm using v9 plug-in with the iPod.
3. After installing the plug-in, MC told me I had to initialize the iPod, which it did.
4. I then tried to synch the iPod by dragging 'all' Audio onto 'handheld player'. When I click transfer, it tells me it was successful 2 seconds later. Of course, nothing happened and the iPod is still empty.
It seems like it almost works. I've read through pages of discussion threads and the FAQ. My iPod is a second generation 20Gig unit.
Any thoughts? I really like what I've seen so far of MC and I'd like to use it.
-Steve S
UPDATE >> After going back into iTunes to restore my iPod, I saw an option for manually disconnectiong the iPod. That was the ticket to solving the entire lot of issues I was having. Once I did that, it showed up in Explorer, I renamed the devide to 'IPOD', (is that still necessary in v10?), did a restore, MC format, and now I'm uploading tunes from MC.
Maybe this will help someone else someday.
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WARNING - IPOD Newbie alert!!
Just got an Ipod as a gift and am trying to get it going with MC.
I followed the instructions to reinitialize it with MC.
It shows up as my E drive under drives and devices.
I can select playlists to sync to it.
If the playlist is empty there is no problem, also no tunes obviously.
If the playlist has tunes in it, it starts analysing files and then MC crashes with a Media core error.
This happens with Firewire (4 pin) and usb 2.0 connection.
I cannot be relegated to Itunes!! I have everything set up in MC, please help. I did searches in the ipod threads for Media Core, Firewire and USB and came up with zippo.
What am I doing wrong?
System info:
Media Center Registered 10.0.122 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2381 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 654 MB, Free - 340 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1400 / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive D: PHILIPS DVD+RW SDVD6004 Mode:Normal Type:Auto Speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive D: PHILIPS DVD+RW SDVD6004 Addr: 0:0:0 Speed:2 MaxSpeed:16 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: Yes
Use playback settings: Yes / Normalization: None
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Hello.
I have MC 10.0.116 (just updated to 122, same problems) running and a third generation 30 GB iPod (v. 2.0.1). I trashed everything on my iPod and went through the steps outlined by Adam to get my iPod set up for MC. My main problem is that I tried to transfer my library and it filled up my iPod. My library is only 13.2 GBs, and I was only able to transfer about 2/3rds of it as MC is telling me my iPod is maxed out at 27GBs and some change. My iPod says it has only about 8 or 9 GBs on it--which is what I would expect given the files.
I know I saw some post about a similar problem, but couldn't find it this evening in the forum--I looked through everything. I imagine I'll clear all the files out again and try it over, but I was hoping someone could give me a fix before I go down that lonely road.
Thanks.
Brian
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Update: Tried a rebuild, no luck. Still hoping to get any easy fix.
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Update: Put in 122, same problems.
B
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Steve S,
You do not need to name the iPod anything special, MC will auto detect it. No plugin is listed for iPod under MC 10 because no plugin is necessary. Installing MC 9 plugins for any MC 10 version will not work.
bjsolem,
For starters, try drag and dropping a few files from MC onto the iPod drive letter and then initiate the transfer by selecting 'Transfer' from the Action Window. If that succeeds, create a playlist with 10 files in it and try synching just that playlsit. Let me know the result and lets go from there.
brian,
MC is telling you the iPod is maxed out at 27GB. What space available do you see when iPod is viewed via Windows Explorer? The similar problem was caused when a customer transferred files to the iPod backed up the iPod using some backup software, copied the backed up files back to iPod and reimported them into MC. I doubt that is what you did, but it is definitely not recommended.
If your library is only 13.2 GB and you start with a reformatted iPod which shows approx 30 GB of space, there is not a reason MC should fail to transfer all files. The test of the space when iPod is viewed in Windows Explorer will tell us more.
Steve
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bjsolem,
For starters, try drag and dropping a few files from MC onto the iPod drive letter and then initiate the transfer by selecting 'Transfer' from the Action Window. If that succeeds, create a playlist with 10 files in it and try synching just that playlsit. Let me know the result and lets go from there.
I did try the Playlist with just a few songs in it, same result, media core error.
I will try dragging a few songs over tonight or tomorrow.
Do I need to uninstall the Portable Drives plugin?
Thanks for listening....
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bjsolem,
If you installed a Portable Drive Plugin, that may be your problem. MC 10 automatically installs the correct plugin and you may have installed an incompatible version. Check in Tools->Plug-in Manager->Handheld->Portable Drives. You should see version 9.0.116. If you have 9.0.116, please let me know the results of the drag and drop test.
Thanks,
Steve
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Yes, Explorer also says that my iPod is maxed out.
I was using iTunes. I got rid of that, cleared everything off my iPod, formatted iPod for MC, and dragged and dropped files into my iPod via MC. That's where I am now. So MC and Explorer are telling me the iPod is full, whereas my iPod says it has plenty of room.
My guess is that you'll tell me to clear out the iPod again and reformat. If you say so, I'll do it.
Any other thoughts?
Thanks for the help.
Brian
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bjsolem,
If you installed a Portable Drive Plugin, that may be your problem. MC 10 automatically installs the correct plugin and you may have installed an incompatible version. Check in Tools->Plug-in Manager->Handheld->Portable Drives. You should see version 9.0.116. If you have 9.0.116, please let me know the results of the drag and drop test.
Thanks,
Steve
Portable drive plugin is 9.0.116. I didn't reinstall or anything, it's just there and that's what I think I used to use with my palm pilot's sd card.
Drag and drop worked to a point. One or two albums at a time worked. Large list of mixed songs, all 4 star rated, 5+ gigs, didn't work. No media core crash, MC simply vanished, quit with no messages.
Anytime I use the smartlist sync window, mc quits, either with a media core message or no message at all. No smartlists are on my ipod at this point.
While messing around over the weekend I went back to itunes, transferred some songs. Went back to MC and it reognized the ipod and the songs on it.
I have since re iniitialized the ipod in MC though.
Drag and drop works to a point.
Transfer works to a point
Synchronize - not at all - Bummer
will try send to.
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Brian,
Probably the best thing to do is to format your iPod from within Windows, disconnect and reconnect your iPod and start over. From your description there appear to be file(s) which are taking up space on your iPod but which aren't recognizable by the iPod database and the rebuild is unable to retrieve them. You could check for large numbers of files outside of the Music folder F00-F19 folders which is probably where the problem is. To save time, if you can, just format, reinitialize and start over.
bjsolem,
You most likely have a corrupt file which is causing problems. I will drop you an email on this.
Steve
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Hey Steve,
Yup, you're on to it. Although my ipod says it only has 9 GB of music on it, when I get into my files I see that most albums have most tracks on there multiple times. This is weird because MC shows no repetitions. So, an album of say 12 tracks may actually have 70 files with the repititions. Hmmm. Still a problem, but I'm not sure how that happened. I defintely didn't accidently duplicate these files and there seems to be no pattern to what file sthis happens to or how many repetitions there are. No other, non-music files, seem to be taking up space.
Anyway, I'll clear it all out and start over. I'll report back too, if you're interested.
Thanks for the help.
Brian
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Two Feature Reuests:
Now that it seems that the rewrite of the Portable code is rather stable and most of the bugs have been ironed out, I was hoping to get some info on when any of this might be implemented:
1. command line sync - I would LOVE the ability to synch via a command line. I know that it's been brought up before, but nothing has come from it.
mediaex.exe /sync
mediaex /sync_close
Those would be 2 great options that would greatly improve my iPOD (& MC) use. That way I could just plug in my iPOD click an icon & walk away knowin that it would sync and then eject the iPOD & close MC (& then charge the iPOD overnight).
2. Dynamic Smartlists - I know you're working on it, was just curious how it was coming along. Is this something we might see in the next month or so or is this months out?
Thanx
Snuffy2
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Brian,
An older version of MC 10 or another application could have caused this. I think you will be good to go after the format. A report back would be great. Thanks.
Snuffy2,
I can't really give you a timeline on these yet, sorry. I am not currently working on these, but when I come back to them I will give you an estimate.
Steve
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Hello, I'm using version 10.0.122 and this problem has been around for dozens of builds. After uploading songs into the iPod, the database would be corrupted and have all or most song titles, album titles and artist names showing a box character and then z in place of the original two letters. MC detects everything is fine unless I disconnect and then reconnect the iPod, or probably if I restarted MC. If you look at the tags from another program or through a playlist or the library, they're fine and unaltered. Rebuilding the database from the iPod usually corrects the tag problems in iPod, but, in MC's iPod database screen, all the years are off. From three digit years to 50 years in the future to every number in between. I've tried formatting and initializing and reuploading all the songs, but the same thing happens again. Corrupted database, rebuild, year display becomes off. The year problem is only for MC's iPod database screen and the tag display from selecting songs within that screen. Please help.
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ndwek,
The 'multiple artists' option was removed as part of the overhaul of how portables interact with MC in 10. It may come back in the future.
Steve
That was a great feature! My artists list on my ipod is unmanageable without it.
What is the last build of MC9 that had it?
Norman
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Norman,
Multiple Artists was not removed until MC 10 so any version or MC 9 would still include this.
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I would love to see the "multiple artists" option come back for the artist listing on the iPod. My artists list on my iPod is otherwise unusable. What was the thinking behind removing that option?
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When we made the synchronization smarter (i.e. matching existing files in MC against files on Portables) we established a generic way to match files for all Portables. We create a match based on certain tag fields, namely Name, Artist, Album, Genre, and Track Number. If we allow shifting Artist names, this becomes hard. There are solutions and we can look to improve this in the future.
Steve
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Hi Steve, me again!
Sorry to keep pestering you but my ipod niggle is still happening, not the major no files listed in iPoddb prob, (which still happens but found a workaround for that).
Specifically if I retag tracks (name, genre, album) in MC that already exist on iPod, a sync then ADDS the new track to iPod, not replacing it like it should. (all my new music gets retagged & moved to a artist - album folder structure once downloaded therefore this problem is very noticable & extremely reproducible) Thought you might want to know, oh running 10.0.124 & problem is still happening... Not sure if it's just tags or ratings that do this as well.
This may be what Brian is suffering from...been doing much tagging recently?
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Penfold,
I am guessing you do not have 'Delete unselected files' checked, that is why the files are resent. If you click this option, MC will delete the files from iPod and update with the newly tagged files.
Steve
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Please would someone help me with upgrading from MC9 to MC10? I just did this, and it doesn't recognise the files on my iPod anymore. What do I need to do - a complete restore / re-transfer, or just a 'rebuild DB'?
Many thanks,
Mark.
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D'oh, sorry Steve, my bad, I left that option off when I was having the db problems as it seemed to delete more than it should have. ::)
On another note is there any way we can 'silence' errors on non-transferrable files or just stop MC from attempting to transfer non-transferrable files, such as OGG, jpg, mpegs etc as everytime I sync it generates error windows telling me files could not be transferred then telling me MC can't add those files to various playlists, not that I was trying but MC seems to want to do it for me...
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Mark,
A rebuild should do it. You will lose your playlists, but they should sync quickly once the rebuild is done.
Penfold,
I can make this better tomorrow.
Steve
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Amazingly I used the force convert for the first time ever. It went without a problem (apart from my PC rebooting for a totally unrelated reason).
Once I've done the convert does MC retain the MP3 versions of my APEs for future transfer?
-=Tim=-
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Steve,
let get some of the old Kurt spirit going;
please give us mjextman.exe /iPodSync !
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Penfold,
I have had second thoughts about implementing what you suggested. If I suppress the error for incorrect filetypes, you will gain the convenience of not having to look at the error, but lose the underlying flaw that you are trying to send files that aren't going to get to iPod. This throws off the calculations for available space, size of sync, etc, which leads me to suggest that you create smartlists/playlists which won't cause this error.
TimB,
MC does not retain the files in order to save space on your PC. If you want to keep a second copy of the files, you should do the file conversion within MC and keep both sets of files. You could create playlsits and smartlists with the converted files to better organize which files are to go to your iPod. After the files are on iPod if you resend them, they will be detected and skipped.
pank2002,
Sometime, sometime.....
Steve
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Oh OK, fair enough, was thinking that myself, but thought a tick box on the sync screen would be the preferred option to 'suppress unsupported filetype errors', but no matter, I see what yer saying.
Not having reached my iPod capacity (yet!) nor needing to create a iPod sync smartlist, I assume I create a smartlist/playlist with the music/albums/artists I want iPod to have & then sync that smartlist alone?
On another note, the last few builds have seen sync speed drop from 13-14Mb to around 8-9Mb, is this permanent? as the longer sync is noticable on a 40GB iPod. (Using USB2.0 btw)
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Penfold,
Thanks for understanding regarding the suppress error. Even though that might be helpful, it starts down the path of becoming too confusing and specialized of an option in the bigger picture.
Anway, definitely start creating smartlists/playlists, they are great tools for organizing what you will listen to on iPod. If you don't select 'Delete unselected files' during synching, the playlists will just be added. In your case, where you don't appear to have any playlists on iPod, this would be a good option. Eventually if your tunes exceed the iPod limit, you may want to get all of your tunes in different playlists, and then the sync will take care of removing and putting your selections on iPod.
In regards to the slowness, nothing has changed for many builds regarding this. It may be hardware related or moon cycle related ;). Seriously, check if you are getting similar speed with either applications or by dragging and dropping files directly on iPod from explorer (if you do the latter, delete the files after you transfer them).
Steve
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Steve,
I don't know if this is your account or somebody els'. Well, I wanted to see the artist on my iPod, and a realised that one is only able to see it in the tree view. I would be awesome to see it in the panes. Would ('cause I'm sure you could) imply panes in the iPod view? Please :-*
It would be great to have panes in playlists too.
Thanks in advance
- Rasmus
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Rasmus,
This is a change that is planned for a future version, but not immediately. Thanks for bringing it back up.
Steve
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Steve,
been away for a while but things are surely progressing very nicely.
What are the current plans for dynamic smartlist on the iPod - as far as I recall this was the number 3 or 4 priority for version 10 ?
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ugilt,
It is still on the list, but holding a little steady behind some other things. Sorry for the delay.
Steve
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Steve,
Would be nice to know what the current 'to do' list for iPod is looking like. Understand that there can be no timings attached, but would get us very excited I'm sure!
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Mark,
Dynamic smartlists are at the top of the iPod specific to do list but behind changes to MC that affect all players. Other changes are broader and affect all players and the time line for them is harder to guess at.
Steve
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For some reason which I can't fathom, I can't seem to download the iPod update from 4-28. Can/Will someone send it to me please?
Thanks,
ranwill
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Gundan,
I am running build 130 of v 10. I just noticed that any of the ratings that I do to my songs in the ipod are not transferring back to MC. I synchronize the playlists and this feature used to work very well before. Unfortunately right now it doesn't seem to work.
Try the latest version of MC 10. I have not had other reports of this not working recently. After you sync the files to iPod and detach the iPod and make rating modifications on iPod, are you modifying the files in any way in MC? If so, the ratings will not sync.
Secondly, is there any way for me to convert my ratings of songs to something itunes compatible.
By default, MC writes the rating info into the tag, so iTunes should be able to find it. We do not write to the tag for AAC files, so if that is the filetype you are after, there is not a way to do this.
...lack of support for Audible files
We support Audible files. What problems are you having?
Steve
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Steve,
I will update to a new build and try it out later tonight or tomorrow. The support for Audible has to do with the field name. Currently as you are using Win Media Player, the field names are not being transferred over, but rather I just see the entire file name. You told us that this is an audible issue and those guys have to do some fix before MC 10 will see the fields properly.
Cheers,
G
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Mark,
Dynamic smartlists are at the top of the iPod specific to do list but behind changes to MC that affect all players. Other changes are broader and affect all players and the time line for them is harder to guess at.
Steve
Waiting unpatiently since early MC 10 versions for this to happen !!!
99% satisfied MC user ;-)
1% is still missing ;-)
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G,
Please let me know how it is working out, and be sure not to modify the tracks in MC in between if you want ratings to transfer back from iPod.
bobrock,
Thanks for the gentle reminder ;) Will get to it when I can.
Steve
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I had an issue with some protected AAC files from the iTunes music store over the weekend and am wondering if anyone can shed any light on the situation. First, a little history:
1) Downloaded 4 tunes from iTMS (on my Mac).
2) Imported & played songs in iTunes (on my Windows machine w/MC installed). This required the authorization step.
3) Put all 4 songs on my iPod with iTunes.
4) Deleted all 4 songs from my iPod w/iTunes.
5) Imported all 4 songs into MC. Some of the tags needed adjusting, so I did that.
6) Played songs in MC -- worked fine.
7) Put all 4 songs on my iPod w/MC -- worked fine.
At this point, all was well. Some time passed & I had acquired 12 more songs from the iTMS (you know, they give a free song away each week). I downloaded them with the Mac & imported them into MC, but didn't put them on my iPod.
This weekend, I finally got around to putting the songs on the iPod, and lo & behold, none of the new songs played! If I selected one to play from the iPod, the iPod showed the track info, then skipped the song.
I sighed, then followed the steps I used earlier for all my m4p tracks. This time, only 3 tracks would play on the iPod (but they were not 3 of the original 4).
I then initialized my iPod w/MC & tried just using MC to download the songs, again, only 3 of the 16 played.
Finally I got drastic. I updated the firmware on the iPod to the latest version & used MC to initialize & download again. Again, only 3 songs played.
I gave up. Reformatted the iPod to factory defaults. Followed my initial steps (downloaded all 16 tracks to iPod w/iTunes, delete, download all 16 tracks w/MC). This worked! I then restored the remainder of my music.
Sorry for the long post, but here come the questions...
1) Any idea what was going on here?
2) Any idea why some iTMS tracks don't have their tags read by MC10?
3) Any idea why (even after successfully downloading my m4p tracks to the iPod w/MC) MC can't play back all my m4p files from my iPod?
Best,
Brad
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Brad,
I cannot readily reproduce what you are seeing. The variable I am not testing is the download of files with a Mac. On a cleanly formatted iPod if I transfer a purchased iTMS song, I can subsequently copy any iTunes purchased or free files and they play without issue. If you can, remove the Mac variable from your tests and see if you still have problems. If so, we can chase this further.
Thanks,
Steve
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Steve,
Thanks for checking into things...
I'm sure that it was something with my setup that hosed the m4p playback. If it happens again, I'll try to be more deliberate in my testing.
I will try downloading my next free iTMS song with the PC to see if it exhibits the tagging problem I've seen with other iTMS songs.
Keep up the great work!
Best,
Brad
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I'm using a Smarlist (iPod List) to limit the amount of music xferred over to my iPod during a Sync. I've got a 20gb iPod and >20gb Music.
The iPod Smarlist has a Limit Command of 18900mb. When just this smartlist is selected, everything fits.
The rest of my smartlists all have a command Playlist: iPod List. From what I understand this should limit the smarlist to only songs on the iPod List. However, when I attempt to sync my iPod List and a number of other smartlists (which all have the Playlist iPod List command) the space available is negative and the iPod wont sync.
I had a thought as to why this may be happening, but I could be totally off base here.
When the static playlists (to be xferred to the iPod) are generated, does it use the same iPod list each time or will it generate iPod List for each smartlist?
The reason being is that iPod List with out the Limit is too big, so that the Limit command arbitrarily cuts off some songs (Different ones each time). If iPod List is generated differently for each smartlist that references it, it will have a different song list for each one and thus has the potential to exceed the limit on iPod List.
Is this whats going on? Any way that you can resolve it (say by using a static iPod List for each smartlist)?
Or am I totally offbase?
Thanx
Snuffy2
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Snuffy2,
I had a thought as to why this may be happening, but I could be totally off base here.
You are on the money.
When the static playlists (to be xferred to the iPod) are generated, does it use the same iPod list each time or will it generate iPod List for each smartlist?
A new iPod List. This is the problem, but it is how smartlists are designed to work. One solution would be to limit the files in the sub smartlists so that the total number of files never exceeds the limit of the iPod or to use static playlsits.
Steve
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I was wondering if there was a timeframe for the return of Multiple Artists to the iPod?
I searched the board and found answers that range from: "It may come back in the future," to "There are solutions and we can look to improve this in the future," to "Adding support for 'Multiple-Artists' is on the 'to do' list."
Anything in stone?
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A new iPod List. This is the problem, but it is how smartlists are designed to work. One solution would be to limit the files in the sub smartlists so that the total number of files never exceeds the limit of the iPod or to use static playlsits.
So are you getting sick of this problem yet Steve? I count at least 3 users in about 3 days (myself included) to have the same issue with smartlist syncing. ;D
And as noted in numerous places, MC isn't doing anything wrong, it's just us end users (myself included) not thinking about how searches work......
Thanks for putting up with us ;)
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packyb,
Nothing in stone, but it will be part of a more major overhaul which won't happen immediately.
bjsolem,
Not sick yet, but interested in improving this in the future. Thanks for your detailed response in the other thread.
Steve
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Hi Steve,
With build .141 we seem to be having the same types of problems with ipod firmware 1.3 that were present a month or so ago. Last played data and spin count information is not being saved properly.
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Seviien,
Nothing has changed recently. Either it hasn't worked for a while, or it is something you are doing. Can you try to create a simple replicable test and post it, and I will see if I can duplicate what you are seeing?
Thanks,
Steve
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My bad.
Did some digging and fixed the problem. Dont know how it started though... but it's fine now.
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Steve,
I ripped some files in APE. Can I somehow convert the lossless files on-the-go to my iPod, but still keep my mp3 and aac files as is ?
Thanks in advance,
Rasmus
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Rasmus,
The obvious answer is that you could transfer just the APE files with the option set to convert files during the tansfer enabled. I presume that you are wanting to transfer a batch of APE, mp3, and aac files at the same time. If so, there is an option to set for skipping files of the same file type. This will skip your mp3 files, but if you are sending a mix of AAC, mp3 and APE, both the AAC and APE files will convert. Probably your best solution in this scenario is to get the files on iPod and then rearrange them based on smartlists/playlists and the files will not be resent/reconverted.
Steve
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I found out that I won't work if I drag the files to the handheld player action window and set the option to convert files. Mc dosen't do anything and the bar isn't moving. CPU is low too.
The force during upload of all files won't work 'cause I have both mp3 and mp4 files and you can only specify one type of files which isn't converted.
Thanks,
Rasmus
BTW here my sys info:
Media Center Registered 10.0.143 -- C:\Programmer\J River\Media Center\
Microsoft Windows 2000 5.0 Service Pack 4 (Build 2195)
Intel Pentium III 1102 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 261 MB, Free - 83 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1400 / Shell32.dll: 5.00.3700.6705 / wnaspi32.dll: N/A
Ripping / Drive G: LITE-ON LTR-48125W Mode:ModeSecure Type:Auto Speed:Max
Drive H: Mode:ModeSecure Type:Auto Speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: Yes / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive G: LITE-ON LTR-48125W Addr: 1:0:0 Speed:48 MaxSpeed:48 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None
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I found out that I won't work if I drag the files to the handheld player action window and set the option to convert files. Mc dosen't do anything and the bar isn't moving. CPU is low too.
Does the Action Window clear and the files don't transfer? If so, the files are possibly being skipped becuase they are already on the iPod. If not, what happens after you click 'Transfer'?
Steve
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Well, I messed a bit around with the settings, and I turned out that it will transfer if 'show only quede files' and 'skip files of same type' er highlighed. I just didn't convert before I turned these on. Strange...
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Rasmus,
The 'Showed queued..' setting should be irrelevant to this. If you deselect 'Skip files of same type' more should convert rather than less.
Steve
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Well, It seems like I just screwed around.
I found you another bug though ;D
When converting an ape file to the iPod and convert via a external encoder the bitrate will be the same as the ape file. I'll check if this is also true for mp3 files.
also, the newer, faster on-the-go encoding sysetem only works with internal encoders, eh. That explains the >2h to convert and transfer 1:30h worth of music ;D
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also, the newer, faster on-the-go encoding sysetem only works with internal encoders, eh.
Yes.
When converting an ape file to the iPod and convert via a external encoder the bitrate will be the same as the ape file. I'll check if this is also true for mp3 files.
What external encoder are you using and why?
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I use Ahead (nero) AAC encoder v2.5.9.3 (included with Nero v6.3.0.3,) because... well same sound at lower bitrate (compared to mp3) and Nero have aac VBR unlike QT.
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Steve, this is also true for files encoded with internal mp3 vbr encoder. Here's a pic of what I'm talking about. Note the bitrate and the filename. The files have the size they suppose to have.
And yes the album is really THAT good!
(http://fire.prohosting.com/pank2002/bit.jpg)
In case the (free) hosting is being weird here's a direct link:
http://fire.prohosting.com/pank2002/bit.jpg
edit: changed the name of the file on the server
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When I attempt to see your link, I get an error that I do not have permissions to access it.
Steve
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well, apparently they don't like direct linking. I need a new hosting place at some point.
Okay I've put it on the front. Just go to
http://fire.prohosting.com/pank2002/
it should be a wee bit down the site.
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I found a bug that causes the bitrate information to be incorrectly written to the iPod database after the transfer, even though the file is converted correctly. This is fixed and will be in the next build of MC. This will also correct any issues with VBR bitrate reporting.
Thanks,
Steve
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I'm the one who says thanks, Steve. Wow this gotta be the first useful poste I've posted on this board :)
I also got a really cool idea, when you imply /iPodSync command to mjextman (wink, wink) one will be able to start a sync from the Monkey Bar (Or whatever it ended up being called) ;D
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Just noticed the handheld transfer progress window moved to the Action Window. Cool! Works well.
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I'm running the most recent build of Mediacenter 10, 10.0.144 . I'm no longer able to sych imported playlists with my Ipod. It's been a while since I tried this feature, so I'm not sure at what point this stopped.
If I try to send an imported playlist to my ipod, all the mp3 files contained in the playlist transfer, but the actual playlist itself doesn't transfer. Is there something special I need to do to get these to transfer?
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vdubgeek,
What kind of playlist have you imported? I don't think this ever worked. You will need to create the playlist within MC in order to synch it. I will confirm this tomorrow.
Steve
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I'm importing Winamp playlists. I've not used this functionality much, but I thought this worked at one point.
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vdubgeek,
If you import a winamp playlist into MC, it should appear as an available playlist in the synchronization dialague. If it does, you should be able to select and sync it without problems.
Steve
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The playlist does show, and I do select it. The files contained in the imported playlist, do get synched to my ipod, but the playlist itself does not.
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vdubgreek,
Maybe it's this?
not sure which version you were using before, but sometime recently they added a checkbox in the Synch dialogue -- you have to check it to have Playlists synched. If you don't, the songs will come over but the playlists themselves won't.
You probably already saw that, but I just thought I'd make sure.
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vdbugeek,
In the synchronization dialogue, be sure you have checked 'Send Playlist Data'. This is what tlongacre is referring to (thanks). If that is deselected, no playlists will be sent but only the files within them (in other words the fact that it is a winamp playlist is irrelevant).
Steve
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I will double check the "Send Playlist Data", off hand I don't recall seeing that as an option. I'll check this afternoon,
thanks
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Something happening that I don't understand:
In the sync dialog I do NOT have "Delete Unselected from HH" checked, so I would expect to only add tunes to the ipod.
I click on sync and the first thing that happens is that a whole bunch tunes are being deleted, anywhere from dozens to hundreds.
Sometimes I do check the delete box, but when I don't, I'm not understanding why things are getting deleted?
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Files will delete if you have files that match Artist, Album, Name, Genre and Track #, but have different Comment, Composer or Rating, MC will delete and resend these files so MC and iPod have the same files.
Steve
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Files will delete if you have files that match Artist, Album, Name, Genre and Track #, but have different Comment, Composer or Rating, MC will delete and resend these files so MC and iPod have the same files.
In my library that would happen for a few dozen songs at most, not the hundreds that I have seen more than once.
Including Album and Track Number makes most everything unique for me.
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Try to see if you can find a pattern. Unless you are modifying information on the iPod or in MC for these files, they should not delete with the 'Delete unselected' unchecked on subsequent synchs.
Unless.......
Are you seeing warnings about duplicate files when you are synching? If so, this is your problem and I can explain.
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is there anyway to store audio files in flac or ape preferebly flac and convert to wav automatically when syncing with ipod. I am very serious about my audio quality and dont want to degrade it when i am listening on Ipod
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marcmen,
Click on 'Options' in the sync dialogue or in the Action Window and you will see an option to 'Force file conversion'. This will convert the files during the transfer to the iPod.
Steve
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Are you seeing warnings about duplicate files when you are synching? If so, this is your problem and I can explain.
I see a whole bunch of warnings every time I sync. Is the problem that each song isn't supposed to be on more than one smartlist/ipod playlist? Because that will never be true for me, having songs on more than one Ipod playlist is a key strength of the ipod (and MC) as far as I'm concerned.
I'd love to hear your explanation...
Have I mentioned that JRiver rocks? :)
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i did not see wav listed can you convert to wav when sync ipod wma is listed. can you store the files in flac format in your program how do you do it
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marcmen,
You are correct. Uncompressed wav is not currently an option. I will add it in the next version of MC.
Here is some information on implementing flac and MC....
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=18343;start=msg151785#msg151785
bjsolem,
The duplication warnings are telling you that you have multiple entries in MC that have the same Name, Artist, Album, Genre and Track Number. This is acceptable within MC, but not acceptable when interfacing with Portables. MC uses these fields to attempt to uniquely identify songs on a Portable device and make decisions on what to send and what to delete. When you have duplicates (in regards to these fields), MC takes its best guess and the result is that some files delete and are resent. If you want to resolve the Portable issue, either sync only smartlists/playlists where the duplicates have been resolved, or resolve the duplicate issue in your library.
Steve
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are you going to support flac where i can store all the files this way and convert to wav upon syncing or is ape the only losseless compression you support. I currently use the kenwood music keg that only supports flac. by supporting flac I could use your product to support the music keg as well as ipod as well as my home roku media player something to think about. As an audiophile the only losseless compresion that seems to be supported by hardware is flac. Wav is okay but there is no way of tagging the files with the song and artist information
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when will the release support ipod with wav come out
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marcmen,
Here is the link to the info on MC and FLAC....
http://www.monsterfang.com/MCinFLAC/Encoding.htm
From my reading of it, this will enable encode and decode capabilities for FLAC within MC and so you should be all set.
Support for on the fly wav conversion to portables will be in MC 11 which wil not be for a while.
Steve
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how long until mc 11
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how long until mc 11
I'm gonna guess that you won't be seeing an answer to that question.... :)
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is there a way to store the audio files in flac and wav at the same time. is there a way to store the files and wav and by selection mass convert the files to flac
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Am I missing something or is there no Ipod plugin for MC 10? If so why not?
NM - Reinstalled lastest ver. and saw that plugin incorporated in ver.
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The duplication warnings are telling you that you have multiple entries in MC that have the same Name, Artist, Album, Genre and Track Number. This is acceptable within MC, but not acceptable when interfacing with Portables. MC uses these fields to attempt to uniquely identify songs on a Portable device and make decisions on what to send and what to delete. When you have duplicates (in regards to these fields), MC takes its best guess and the result is that some files delete and are resent. If you want to resolve the Portable issue, either sync only smartlists/playlists where the duplicates have been resolved, or resolve the duplicate issue in your library.
I took a closer look at the error messages I am getting and they are all missing files errors (I 'moved' files to my palm memory card a few times instead of copying, and haven't re-ripped yet). I have only seen the Duplicate file warning once or twice and have cleaned up my smartlists so it shouldn't happen again.
I still get a number of files deleted (10-20) when I sync and do not have Delete Unselected checked. So I guess I'm still confused why songs delete when I start to sync, since it does not appear to be the duplicate file issue.
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marcmen,
We don't know when 11 will be available.
is there a way to store the audio files in flac and wav at the same time.
I am not sure I follow. You can have both copies of the files but that seems too obvious.
is there a way to store the files and wav and by selection mass convert the files to flac
You can convert numerous wav files to flac. The files queue and convert one at a time.
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Hi all,
1.
I periodically (every few synchs) have a crash midway through the synch. An error message comes up in a bubble down by my clock saying "write error, failed to transfer F19. Please try to save this file elsewhere, it may be corrupt or missing on device" or words to that effect. Then MC has fun repeatedly connecting and disconnecting the ipod while it tries to transfer the untransferrable file. Eventually I have to force close MC, start it again and do a full initialize and full synch.
This has been happening for me ever since the way files are transferred to the ipod was changed. I have the latest build (10.45). I have done all the tips to stop itunes messing with the ipod. I am only synching mp3s. i have enough space for the synch.
There is nothing else going on on my computer while i transfer that would interfere with it, and i am sure its not one particular file thats causing the problem. my cables are in good condition and havent been tampered with or treated badly, so i dont think that the connection is the problem. Bythe way, i transfer using a usb2 cable.
2.
If i decide to cancel a synch by pressing cancel on the portable synch window (with all the playlists inside it which you choose to synch with), MC still synchs the playcounts, ratings etc to mc, regardless. This isnt totally unwanted behaviour but i do find it a little unexpected. I would expect cancel to cancel and do nothing whatsoever.
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Hi.
I have an Ipod that is doing my head in. >:(
I install MC as per the instruction in the support.
The problem is I can't transfer music from Mc to Ipod... nothign at all. I first thought that it was because most of my music had been copied with windows Media, but I tried now to rip a Cd in MC and I still can't pass it to Ipod.
IIt gives an error message saying: File Error Information
the following is a list of files that failed to transfer with an error code.
the it gives the location and name of each of the songs I tried to transfer and says in the end Unsupported File Type.
Can you please help me ? I've had my Ipod for a month and I still can't transfer music to it... :(
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wma is a Microsoft format. do you really thinkyour lovely little Apple plaything is going to allow you to use an enemy's technology on their hardware? no. MC isn't lying to you. You really can't send wma files to your ipod (not if you want to be able to listen to them, anyway). It's worth doing a little bit of reserch before you splash out that kind of money on a gadget.
so what now? either you convert your music to mp3 (VBR is best) or the other formats supported by the ipod (e.g., AAC, etc) - ideally you'd rerip your cd's because you will egt better sounding mp3's, or you take your ipod back where it came from and get something instead.
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Steve,
After synching my Ipod last night in the usual way with 145 I found that "last played" in MC10 library looked very strange. About 2/3rds of the tracks are showing a date of "-312638.52.02", some are "never played" which looks right and a few are showing dates up to 271 days ago which look right.
Can you help me here?
TIA. John.
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park,
Can you post a screenshot of the error you are seeing? After the crash, can you browse through Windows Explorer and see if there are files on your iPod in the iPod_Control\Music\F19 folder? If not, try to manually copy a file there and see what happens.
The synching of playcounts and ratings happens to MC happens before the file transfer starts is you have that option enabled.
sgermino,
ph_bradley is on the money. Thanks ph.
John,
Check the date and time on your iPod and confirm that it is correct. It sounds like it may have gotten set wrong and some point.
Steve
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Steve,
The date and time are fine.
Noticed that the number of plays has been corrupted too - some with negative 11 digit numbers, some with positive 11 digit numbers.
Do you know any way to reset these? and the "last played" figures?
Thanks again. John
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John,
To reset them in MC, hightlight the files and select File Properties->Tag info in the Action Window. Then, slect the 'Last Played' or 'Number Played' tag and click on 'Clear'.
This still won't tell us what went wrong to give you these values. Nothing has changed in this code for a week or two.
Do you see any patterns in the files that got messed up? Were they ones you had recently played on iPod?
Steve
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Steve,
"To reset them in MC, hightlight the files and select File Properties->Tag info in the Action Window. Then, slect the 'Last Played' or 'Number Played' tag and click on 'Clear'."
Thanks for that - worked fine.
"Do you see any patterns in the files that got messed up? Were they ones you had recently played on iPod?"
No I didn't see a pattern. The files contained some that I'd listened to on the Ipod since the last synch - but 2,000 plus that I hadn't. All playlists were affected too. Most strange! I hope it doesn't happen again.
Thanks. John.
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ph-bradley and Steve G. thanks. I know got an MP3 encoder and hopefully that will work.
Or I have to re-rip all my tons of CDs again...
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I'm having the same problems with the negative numbers in Last Played, and in addition it doesn't seem as if my ratings are being updated correctly.
Here's the problem.
Had 214 mp3s in Five Star Playlist when there should only have been between 100 and 110. Went through all of the songs and changed the ratings on the bad ones and got it down to 110. Resynced, played the smartlist and I still have 214 mp3's in the smartlist.
Also, none of the songs that were played last night had the last played updated. They are still negative.
Time on iPod is the same as the time on the computer. Timezone on computer is set to Central Time Zone, and iPod to Central Time Zone (DST). Could this be causing the problem?
Bill McNair
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Bill,
"Had 214 mp3s in Five Star Playlist when there should only have been between 100 and 110. "
In MC or on iPod? If you are saying you have a smartlist which has 100 files in MC but 214 on iPod, check that you have 'Delete unselected files' checked in your sync options and verify that you do not have other rules in the MC smartlist besides a selection for 5 star files.
Also, none of the songs that were played last night had the last played updated. They are still negative. Time on iPod is the same as the time on the computer. Timezone on computer is set to Central Time Zone, and iPod to Central Time Zone
I cannot duplicate this. On your PC, do you have the option checked to 'Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes'?
Did this problem just start occuring for you? If so, look to other changes you may have made recently. Nothing has changed in the relevant code for a few weeks.
Steve
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Regarding my previous post:
Seems I broke my ipod. its not an MC issue. It wont stay connected to windows at all, even to do a restore with the apple software. oh dear. warranty has just finished and brian is going to be paying lots hethinks.
Tip; avoid dropping ipod.
Another tip; when getting changed at a gym etc. be careful when you pull your trousers out of the locker.
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Tip; avoid dropping ipod.
Another tip; when getting changed at a gym etc. be careful when you pull your trousers out of the locker.
Duely noted. Sorry for the cost of your tuition for learning this.
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<<
After synching my Ipod last night in the usual way with 145 I found that "last played" in MC10 library looked very strange. About 2/3rds of the tracks are showing a date of "-312638.52.02",
>>
This has been happening to me for some time(I posted about it a couple months ago). Its the reason I stopped using MC in favor of iTunes- my playcounts and Last Played dates were getting pummeled on a regular basis making most of my playlists useless.
Have you guys thought about using the iTunes COM interface for syncing between MC and the iPod? Its pretty slick and I believe it provides a mechanism for syncing. I wrote up a quick app to export my playcounts, LTP and rating into iTunes( I'm hoping to write another one going from iTunes TO MC if MC gets fixed ;) ) and it was really quite simple. I'm not sure if they provide an interface into the dynamic playlists or not, but it might be worth a look.
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rhaehnel,
Can you recreate this problem in 10.0.146?
Steve
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Bill and rhaehnel,
Tonight there will be a new build of MC. It includes modifications I made to hopefully eliminate strange behavior with Last Played and Playcounts. If you can test it out, that would be great. When synching, take note if the information is displayed correctly in the MC view of iPod before you sync and after you have disconnected your iPod and played/modified songs on iPod. If it is, after you select 'Synchronization', cancel the sync and check if the file information has been updated correctly in MC (assuming you have 'Sync data to MC' selected).
Thanks,
Steve
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Everyone,
Tonight's MC (10.0.148) includes some changes to continue to improve any problems with Last Played and ratings. Upon further searching, this is what I found...
Prior to this version there could have been problems with Play Counts and Last Played if you viewed your iPod in iTunes after making changes on your iPod and then went to MC. The reason is that as soon as iTunes sees your iPod, it rewrites the iTunesDB file which both MC and iTunes use to store data. The catch is that iTunes does not write the info in the way that I was set to check for it in regards to Last Played and Ratings based on the unofficial documentation of what fields are where in the iTunesDB. This would explain why Last Played and Rating behavior would have been fine using MC, but would get incorrect data if iTunes was introduced.
Anyway, I resolved this by standardizing on the iTunes way which should make this problem go away.
Steve
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Last Played seems to be fine now thanks Steve. John.
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I've tested a couple of syncs and it seems to be working properly- thanks.
Steve-
Now that MC is working again I'm writing a program that will import my itunes data(last played, play count, ratings) into MC. Everything works bu the 'last played' field. I cant for the life of me figure out what MC expects for the Last Played field. The only thing I can figure out for certain is that 0 is 'never played'- everything else I try end up as '34 years ago' or worse! Can you give me a little explanation as to what MC expects here?
One last question: Does the MC automation interface support access to the ipod database? Speciifically I'm looking to update the 'Play Count' and 'LTP' when playing songs on my iPod thru MC. If not, could this be a future enhancement?
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rhaehnel,
MC stores the last played time as Unix system time and iTunes stores as MAC time. To convert, MAC to Unix time subtract 2082844800 from the MAC time.
The MC automation interface does not support the iPod database. It would be possible in the future.
Steve
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Steve,
I'm sorry but "last played" has gone haywire again. Without going near Itunes, I did a synch this morning and every single track apart from the ones I imported last night has been overwritten into MC's Media Library by the Ipod with a series of negative numbers. I always synch wih the "synch data to MC" checked.
I knew something was wrong when a message came up "saving tag changes to 7,256 files"!
Can you help again please? TIA. John.
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SteveG-
I now get the same problem as sirshambling and I think I see why its happening. I did a sync after having played 12 or so songs and the count and dates updated in MC just fine, however, the ipod view in MC showed that the songs LTP was still at 2 hours or so- the play count had been cleared but the LTP date was still there. Because of this after the next sync the 12 tracks that I had played(the ones for which the date had not been cleared) all showed negative numbers for LTP.
Anyone else see this?
-
Sorry for the delay. I will try to take a look at this today.
Steve
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Blasted! After three or four good syncs, the negative numbers in last played are back, and I didn't go anywhere near iTunes. Oh, and they are all of music I played yesterday, and I know that the dates and times are the same on the iPod and computer.
Bill
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Everyone,
Tomorrow there should be a new build of MC (10.0.150) in which I extended the recent changes to safeguard against corruption of Last Played and Rating syncs.
Thanks,
Steve
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Wow! I've got songs on my iPod that I haven't played in over 38 years. Call me forgetful, but I didn't realize I had owned an iPod for 38 years. But then you do get to be forgetful when you are 80 years old.
I think I'll go back to my rocking chair and listen to Lawrence Welk. ;D
Bill
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Bill,
That bubble machine is something else.
Steve
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During snchronization i got this error on single file:
D:\Path to the file\Shavn Lee - Happines (Ashley Beedle's West Coast Beach Bossa).mp3 - 2
What does mean exit ERROR code 2 ?
TIA for explanation.
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SteveG - I just had a hd crash and lost all my music on my PC. I do have about half of it on my iPod. What is the easiest way to get it back on my PC? I browsed the iPod, selected all the tracks and hit Download to PC, but it just dumps them all in the destination directory. How can I get it to create the artist\album directories like it does when ripping?
Thanks...Brian
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Hi Brian,
You can try a tool like MP3 Collector.
I beleive it's capable to organize directory structure and RENAME in a batch your files recovered from iPod...
Wish you success
Bob
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alternatively - you could just use MC to do it!!
right click your selected files and select Rename Files from properties. In there, you have the option to set directory structures - it's very easy. Do this on the files you have downloaded from your ipod.
-
bobrock,
That error means "The system cannot find the file specified. " . Most likely that file no longer exists at the location that MC thinks it should. Try playing the file in MC to confirm this.
Brian,
ph_bradley's advice is on the money. Good luck. Thanks ph_bradley.
Steve
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Thanks Steve,
Indeed I have create a "coaster" CD ;-)))))))
I was importing CD's with mp3's and m3u Playlists and apearently it had incorrect path to some files.
This happend becouse CD was inproperly burned, in other words long filenames were truncated length of 64 characters and entry in m3u playlist was incorrect for files with longer name than 64 chr.
It will be nice if the Error messages in MC would be more descriptive and one have option to cut and paste them.
Thanks for answer
Rgds
Bob
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So, I'm definately not new to this iPod/MC synching lark but I am new to iTunes, now that we have it in the UK. If this is a dumb question I apologise.
I purchased 1 song from iTunes to give it a try.
It's m4p, plays in MC OK and transfers to iPod OK. I can play it from the iPod within MC but it won't play on the iPod itself. It just skips to the next track.
I have deleted it and resynched with the same result.
I'm running .146.
Any ideas?
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Ashley,
You must transfer one AAC file one time to iPod using iTunes. After that, the files should play. iTunes writes some information to iPod which authorizes it to play AAC.
Steve
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Problem:
When I try to sync my iPod with MC, I get the following messaged:
Media Center was unable to initialize the desired handheld. check that it is plugged in and turned on.
When I click ok mc crashes.
I use v11 build 11.
I can't initialize it again, as the messaged comes, even when I right click on the iPod.
It's at file 2141. don't know if that helps.
I haven't synced the iPod synce v10 by the way (I think... might be wrong.)
Please help as I need to add some new albums ASAP.
edit:
Thanks in Advance,
Rasmus
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Rasmus,
Do you get the message when you first click on the iPod drive in the tree?
"It's at file 2141. don't know if that helps."
Do you mean that MC starts to count up and show the files on iPod but at 2141 it crashes?
If so, I do not think it is a v 11 problem, but rather a problem with your database. I can confirm this if you send me your iTunesDB file.
steve @ jriver.com
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It starts counting the files when I click on the iPod; "Reciving file info (2141)" I think it says.
The problem is as you describe.
I'll send my iTunesDB file in your direction.
Thanks,
Rasmus
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Tomorrow there should be a new build of MC (10.0.150) in which I extended the recent changes to safeguard against corruption of Last Played and Rating syncs.
Still eagerly awaiting it, nearly a week later (and 11 days after build 149). Any idea what the hold up is?
-
Bill,
Sorry for the delay. There are many projects going on here at once. My best guess is there will be a new build before the end of the week.
Steve
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Thanks ph_bradley and everyone else, worked great.
-
Steve, any idea at all when 150 is coming out? Having spent several weeks trying to help you track down the ratings bug, I'm now mad keen to get hold of the fix and get back to rating my tracks. It's been an awfully long time between builds.
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Madcow,
Sorry, but I am not sure. We keep thinking any day but it has been delayed.
Steve
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Steve,
Been waiting for Build 150 to sort out my strange negative and "year" problems in the "last played" field so after d/loading it went straight to connecting the Ipod.
I cleared the field in MC10 so that all my files now showed "never played" and synched to the Ipod wit hthe "send data to MC" option UNTICKED as I believed that MC would then overwrite the gibberish on the Ipod. But it didn't - still the same silly numbers.
So I tried to clear the filed on the Ipod while it was still connected and although the filed showed "never played" when I synched with "send data to MC" option TICKED the "never played" field in MC was overwritten with gibberish again and the Ipod showed the same false data.
So I don't where to go from here - can you help me to get both the Ipod and MC at least showing "never played". Also will the Ipod now keep proper records of "last played" so I won't get into this state again?
TIA. John.
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Sorry to cross post, but i figure my bug post should be here too:
Still seeing negative numbers for last played on ipod.
When viewing the contents of the ipod iteself (not tried synching), the last played dates for my recently played songs show -5****** and then songs that havent been played show from 4-30 years ago.
This happens whether i set the time zone on the ipod to Tokyo or Tokyo DST.
(However, if i switch between these time zones the last played dates do seem to change. In Tokyo time zone some of my files show as never played, but in Tokyo DST all of the files appear to have been played within the last 36 years. Pretty good going considering I'm 25)
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John and park,
The problem is that there is old corrupt data in your iTunesDB file. One solution would be to reinitialize your iPod. If you don't want to do this, try deleting your Play Counts file (in iPod_Control\iTunes) and then do a 'Rebuild database from iPod' in the right click menu for your iPod in MC. This will remove your playlists and reset your files with no play count and no last played time. Subsequent syncs should then be OK.
Another option is to delete the files with the messed up values and then resend them to iPod (assuming the values are corrected in MC).
Steve
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Thanks Steve.
Tried the deletion of the playcount file but "upload info from Ipod" stuck at aboout 20% and froze MC - got the "not responding" message from Task Manager.
So I've initialised and starting again.
One thing I thought was strange though - the "number plays" field which is populated correctly in MC shows a zero on the Ipod. I've synched with the "send data to MC" unticked so I thought the number of plays would be transferred correctly.
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John,
The playcounts data does not sync from MC to iPod. Number of plays implies the number of times a file has played on iPod since the last sync. After the data is synched into MC, the count is reset to 0.
Steve
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Thanks again Steve, I understand.
-
Steve,
I'm sad to report that - even after a new initialisation yesterday - all the files on the Ipod are again showing massive minus numbers in the "last played" column.
The exceptions are the tracks I played today which seem to be showing the right time. Everything else is completely up the spout! Again!
I haven't been near Itunes - just initialised yesterday, synched all my tracks and playlists from MC, played a few tracks from a playlist on the Ipod and reconnected it.
Can you suggest anything else? Getting a bit frustrated by this now as it worked so well for so long with previous builds of MC10.
Thanks. John.
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John,
Lets narrow down the scope of what is different between what you are doing and what I am. Here is a test that works flawlessly for me. Please try it and let me know the results....
1) Initialize iPod.
2) Create a playlist with 10 files.
3) Remove all Playcount and last played date info for the 10 files.
4) Sync.
5) Unplug iPod and play some files.
6) Reconnect iPod and look at the files from within MC. Verify that playcounts and last played times are correct
7) Open the sync dialogue. Note that the "Sync data to MC' box is checked.
8) Start sync.
9) Look in MC to verify that files in the playlist are all accurately updated with the correct last played time.
10) Disconnect iPod.
11) Play some additional songs.
12) repeat steps 6-9.
Please let me know the results of this test and lets go from there.
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First sync
Played Songs 1, 2, and 3 completely, and they were updated correctly on the sync. Song 4 was stopped before it was completely played, and ended up getting a negative number in the last played.
Second Sync
Played songs 4 and 5 completly. All songs in playlist except the most recently played now have a negative number.
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Hello Steve,
Thanks very much for the detailed instructions.
Followed them to the letter and:-
steps 1 thru 8 (ie the first synch/play/check/synch) worked fine. Files on both Ipod and MC10 showed the correct data in "last played" and "number plays" fields.
but repeating the process as you suggested (ie steps 6 thru 9) for the second time showed that all the tracks on the Ipod had the correct 1 or 0 in the "number plays" field, but only the ones played had the correct time in the "last played" field. The others (ie the ones that I HADN'T played with 0 in the "number plays" field) have got minus numbers ranging from -278512:36.44 to -578566:23:18 on them in the "last played" field.
Really weird how it worked once then didn't work a second time!
In view of this I haven't synched these back to MC again.
Hope this makes some sense and that you can figure out whats happening! Thanks once again.
John
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SouthsideIrish,
When you say songs 1, 2 and 3 played you appear to have gotten to step 5. At step 6, when you reonnected, did song 4 or any file appear with an incorrect time when viewed in MC before you synched?
Thanks,
Steve
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I have done an initialize and synhed too. Then before even playing any files on the ipod. I did a resynch because I changed my mind about some albums i wanted on the ipod. But I got negative numbers come back again.
I will try Steves steps again later.
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Before the sync, all files appeared with the correct time in MC10. After the sync the only file that had a negative number was the one track that was not completely played.
The next time, before the sync, tracks 1,2,3 had a correct value in last played on MC10, and track 4 had a negative number. I had played tracks 5 and 6 to completion and stopped track 7 early. On this sync, all last played values were set to negative numbers, including the onese never played. The only correct one was track 6, which was the last one played.
Bill
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park,
Did you reset the values in MC before the sync. If they were corrupt before the sync and after the intialize, they will continue to be wrong.
Bill,
Before the sync, all files appeared with the correct time in MC10. After the sync the only file that had a negative number was the one track that was not completely played.
I want to clarify this point. Before the sync , when you viewed the files on iPod with MC 10 they had the correct time? In other words, when you clicked on the playlist under iPod in MC 10 you saw the files with the correct times reflected for what you just played on iPod before you reconnected?
Steve
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Everyone,
If you are having any problems, please click on this link and get the latest update to make sure you have Plugin 9.0.125.
http://ftp.jriver.com/pub/downloads/music/tmp/hh_portable.mjp
Thanks.
Steve
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After I installed the new plugin the problems have seemed to go away. I'm on the fifth sync, and everything looks good.
Bill
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Everyone,
FYI.. Bill (SouthsideIrish)'s problems appear to have gone away with the latest plugin. So in trying to solve this, please be sure you have Plugin 9.0.125.
Steve
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Steve,
The new plug in seems to have done the trick - many thanks.
I've synched/resynched a couple of playlists now and all is well.
Further more extensive testing over the weekend.
John.
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Steve,
I get a messaged telling me that the DB is too new for this version of MC (v11 build 29) and afterward MC will close down (not crashing.)
I don't know what the problem is. Last version I used was build 23 but it's outdated. I will try the build prior to 28 and see if I can transfer with it.
Thanks,
Rasmus
BTW: I tried to use the plugin you posted earlier but it didn't work.
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Rasmus,
Is that message as soon as you try to open MC, or when you click on iPod?
Steve
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I get it when I click on the ipod. I think I got a chrash if I tried to go through the action window, I'm not sure as I have downgraded. build 28 hat the same problem btw. but build 25 seems to work.
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Rasmus,
Could you check it out with the next build of MC 11 and let me know if it is still there for you?
Thanks,
Steve
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My music is stored on my hard drive in .ape format and is converted when I send it to my iPod. Normally, I convert to .mp3 at 192 bitrate. I decided I wanted to send some music in .mp3 VBR - to try it out. After sending the music to the iPod - converting to .mp3 VBR - I look at the filetype field for those songs, they still read .mp3. Is that correct or should the read .mp3 VBR?
Also, in the Handheld Encoding options at the "Transfer" button stage, there is a choice to set the encoding as "MP3 Encoder VBR" and I have selected the quality as "High." However, next to "MP3 Encoder VBR," there is an "Options" button and when I select that I can choose "Normal," "High Speed" or "High Quality?" Not sure what to do there?
Thanks.
-
MP3 VBR is still .mp3. VBR=variable bit rate
You should use custum (As quality) and click option and type --aps or --alt-preset fast standard
-
MP3 VBR is still .mp3. VBR=variable bit rate
You should use custum (As quality) and click option and type --aps or --alt-preset fast standard
Thanks for this repsonse. I was mostly trying to confirm that the filetype field didn't indicate that it was .mp3 VBR - but I realize that I can actually just look at the bitrate. why use alt-preset fast standard?
I am still hoping for an explanation of media center's various handheld encoding option settings. Basically, I am willing to sacrifice # of songs, for quality, and just want to know the best way to set that up. (For example, when I chose the 192 bitrate for my .mp3 files, it was considered the minimum bitrate for audiiophiles.)
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Hi Steve,
I decided to bite the bullet and try MC 11 but I am having problems connecting my Ipod. Here is what I have done:
1) Installed MC11 Build 29 alongside my MC10
2) Started MC11
3) Connected my Ipod. Windows XP Home Edition recognises it as an Ipod and I can see the Ipod_Control, notes folders etc. Windows assigns drive letter K:
4) Click on the + next to Drives and Devices in MC11. MC shows Ipod (K:)
5) Click on Ipod (K:). MC11 states "MC11 has not stored file information for this device. This may take a while but will only need to be done once".
6) Click OK. The view scheme is blank and nothing appears to be happening.
I assume MC should be reading the files on the Ipod but there is no progress bar and even after leaving it for 5 minutes nothing shows up. If I right click on Ipod (K:) I don't see any of the Initialize Ipod or Eject Ipod entries that I am used to from MC10.
Enable WMDM support is NOT checked in options.
I have installed plugin 9.0.125 that you refer to above but that has not helped.
Any ideas? Sorry for the length of the post but I wanted to try and cover everything that you might need to know.
-
packyb,
I am still hoping for an explanation of media center's various handheld encoding option settings.
Sorry for the delay.
What would you like to know?
wickesy,
Plugin 9.0.125 will definitely not work. You will need to install the next build of MC 11 (11.0.30) which unfortunately is not happening today. Please look for it next week.
Steve
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What would you like to know?
if i am encoding music into .mp3 VBR, i have been told to select custom and use alt-preset fast standard (both of which i have done). just curious what that means, and how it relates to selecting "High" as the quality?
also, if i were to select "High" as the qualiuty, next to "MP3 Encoder VBR," there is an "Options" button and when I select that I can choose "Normal," "High Speed" or "High Quality?" Not sure what the difference is.
all of this is based on my perameters of sacrificing # of songs for increased quality. (prior to this i encoded my music as .mp3 at 192 bitrate.)
-
packyb..
here is info on VBR from our help file....
VBR Encoding. You have five bitrate choices to balance compact size vs. sound quality:
o Low. Highest compression. This might be a good choice to fit the maximum number of tracks on a portable MP3 player for example.
o Normal/Low. Near CD quality. This would also be a good choice for portable MP3 players.
o Normal. CD quality. This may be the best choice for most people especially for listening to music on your computer.
o Normal/High. CD quality. This might be a better choice for listening to music on home stereo equipment.
o High. Archival quality. This would be a good choice for top quality home stereo equipment.
If you selet the 'Options' button you can add custom settings to what you selected in the first option.
Steve
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thanks steve.
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Hi Steve,
Just installed MC 11 Build 34 and I can now sync playlists using the Action Window. There is however no synchronize option when I right click on the Ipod under the Drives & Devices branch of the tree. Is this intentional?
-
Yes. The thought was to make the synchronization more obvious by moving it to the Action Window and then remove the duplicate functionality from the right click.
Steve
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I dont believe MC is updating the playlists on ipod properly.
I have some lists that shuffle in 15 random songs. The playlists are designed to stay at 50 songs apiece, but since installing the lastest build or so, they've been incrementally increasing each time i synch.
I can post my itunes and mc databases if it would be at all helpful.
-
Here's the link for for my ipod and MC databases.
http://home.comcast.net/~zbryanknight/iPodTest.zip
-
Seviien,
I can look at this more closely tomorrow, but when you are synching, do you have the option for 'Delete unselected files' (or something similar to this) checked? If not, this is why the playlists are increasing in size.
Steve
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I'm fairly certain that MC is set to delete unselected songs. Upon every synch, a group of about 150 songs is deleted.
I believe the problem has to do with how the itunes db is written too, since the ipod is misreporting how many songs it has on it. i.e. the number in its "about" page differs from what MC is reporting.
-
I have some lists that shuffle in 15 random songs. The playlists are designed to stay at 50 songs apiece, but since installing the lastest build or so, they've been incrementally increasing each time i synch.
Lets focus on this. Are you saying you have a smartlist with a limit of 50 songs but after a few syncs to iPod with 'Delete unselected files' checked the playlist appears on iPod with more than 50 songs?
Steve
-
yes.
firmare 1.4 if that helps.
-
Seviien,
Is this a relatively new problem for you?
I cannot duplicate it with firmware 1.4. Try creating a playlist of 10 files. Sync it. Replace the 10 files in MC with another 10 files. Sync it. Do you have 20 files or 10 on your iPod in that playlist?
Steve
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hmmmmm...
I can't seem to reproduce the error using 11.0.47
I suppose that's a good thing.
Though i do feel rather silly...
;)
Thanks Steve
-
Okay...
I'm not crazy.
After a full day of use, my problem is back. I took my ipod to work today, and listened to a handful of different playlists. Upon synching, smartlists configured to have only 50 songs (chosen at random) had more than 50 songs in them. I cannot replicate this error when synching and then *immediately* resynching the ipod after an initialization. It only happens when i use it in a real world context. Which is kinda odd.
Steve, if you would please take a look at the databases i posted earlier. Specifically, look at the "Play 50" grouping of playlists in MC and then in the ipod; they're set to limit to 50 songs within MC, but in the itunes DB they appear to have many more.
I can confirm that songs are being deleted from the ipod each synch.
My thinking is that the songs are being erased from the HD, but that the itunes DB file is not being alerted to the fact they're no longer there.
-
Seviien,
I looked at your library and see what you report, but I cannot duplicate it here. Please try the following. Connect the iPod and sync. Click on the 50 song playlists on iPod from within MC and verify they have 50 files only. Then, disconnect iPod and verify the same on iPod. Repeat this. Before you do this, be sure that 'Delete unselected files' is checked.
Thanks,
Steve
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I can confirm the "Delete Unselected Files" option is enabled. I can further substantiate that every time i go to synch, i get a dialog box that songs are being deleted.
The P50 lists appear to have more then 50 songs on them while viewing them on the ipod through MC. Clicking on songs i know to be deleted, however, results in an error message that the song cannot be played.
The problem appears to be on both smart and regular playlists:
Lucy Nation's "All Right" should not be on the ipod version of P50 - Rock (alt.)
Ruby Tuesday should not be on the ipod version of the playlist "Hottness"
Moreover, the problem does not seem to occur all the time; i deleted Ruby Tuesday from the MC version of the "hottness" list and i also removed one other song. The other song was removed from the ipod version yet Ruby Tuesday was not.
The zip file below contains both databases and a screen shot of the error message.
http://home.comcast.net/~zbryanknight/MC/iPodTest2.zip
-
I am having almost the same problem with v11. I can't get any of my playlists to properly update, but I don't think they are increasing is size.
Edit
------
I went back to .47 of MC11 and the playlists are being updated correctly, so something is definitely seems to be wrong with .52.
Bill McNair
-
Bill and Seviien,
I found and fixed a bug that I think was causing this behavior in MC 11. Please get the next version and let me know if you are still seeing the problem.
Thanks,
Steve
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Hey Stev(i)e Wonder (;) )
Would it be possible to let more than one kind of files (ie mp3 and aac files) slip though w/out getting reencoded when using force convertion on upload? This would be great as I currently have some apes which needs to be converted when added, but I would rather keep my mp3 and mp4 as-is.
Thanks,
Rasmus
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Rasmus,
This can be added, but not at this time. In the future I could present a check list for file types to let through or skip.
Steve
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WAIT! I've got it.... I seemed to have the wrong/old version of the handheld player plugin installed... I found a help file elsewhere on the forum that the generic "Portable Driver" plugin Version: 9.0.126 should be used for the Ipod in MC10... that wasn't in the other help files, so I guess this must be the culprit of the problem I was having. Thanks!
------------------------------------------------------
OLD MESSAGE:
Okay, so I followed all of the directions at http://www.home.earthlink.net/~ashawley01/ and they were very helpful. Eveything went fine (although I'm using MC 10.0.155, not the MC 9 version listed on the help site -- most things matched up cleanly).
HOWEVER, after I actually tried to transfer files, nothing actually worked. Oh, it SAYS it's working. No errors or crashes... If I transfer a file manually, it quickly transfers and says "transfer complete"... but the file is not actually on the Ipod and cannot be view via either the Ipod or MC. And When I tried auto-syncing toa playlist, basically the same thing happened -- it seems to work, but nothing actually happens (it says "analyzing devices" and then acts like everything is sweet -- but no files ever actually end up on the ipod).
What am I doing wrong?
(I'm using a new Ipod Mini with the latest MC 10 on a not-so-hot Dell Windows 2000 Professional. And Itunes worked fine with the Mini, so I'm confident the USB connection and hardware are okay).
thank you,
Luke
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Luke,
Please get MC 10.0.161 from here....
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=22999
and that should install the correct plugin so that things work well for you.
Steve
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Steve,
After a rather long and drawn out story involving CompUSA putting up huge resistance to the honoring of the TAP they sold me for my G2 iPod, I am now the proud owner of a G4 20GB unit running firmware 3.0.1. Everything has worked well in MC so far. I couldn't get MC 11 to properly recognize my ipod with MC 10 uninstalled. That was a minor hassle, but so long as MC 10 is installed, the iPod functions just as before.
Unfortunately, my playlist problem from before persists. MC is not properly updating playlist contents following a synch. If a song is deleted from a playlist, it would appear that MC does not always remove that song from the ipod's version of that list upon synch. I have the ipod configured to delete songs not in synch. Songs are physically removed from the ipod properly, but the playlist entries get all screwed up.
The problem might be that if the song still exists on a playlist somewhere in the ipod, and therefore is not deleted, MC does not remove it from the playlists that the song is no longer on. But that wouldn't explain why some songs which i know to have been deleted from the ipod persisted in playlists after their removal from the player.
Another possibility is that i'm using smartlists which draw random samples of a handful of songs from other lists in MC. In theory, and in MC itself, these random samples are different each time I look at the list. Synching to ipod, however, additively increases the songs that appear in the playlist even though some of them get skipped because they've been deleted on subsequent synchs.
Yet more troubling, though, is that i've stumbled across another problem that may not be related. I had a song on a regular list in MC. I then changed it's rating to 4 stars and removed it from the playlist. Changing the rating should cause it to show up in a "4 Star" smartlist automatically. I saw that it was deleted from the ipod and properly removed from the playlist upon my first subsequent synch, yet failed to reappear in the smartlist as it should have.
More puzzling, is that another song removed from the same playlist and deleted from the ipod during synch, remained in the playlist in the ipod.
Upon a second synching, the song appeared in the "4 star" star list as it should have.
Also, when i de-select a playlist for synching, it remains on the ipod.
-
Seviien,
Do you have MC 10.0.161 installed?
Unfortunately, my playlist problem from before persists. MC is not properly updating playlist contents following a synch.
See if you can regproduce this behavior with Playlists rather than smartlists. If you have smartlists which are dynamic (e.g. 'limit of 1 hour' , ' 100 random tracks') these tracks will change on every sync, but the rules should always be honored. For example you should never end up with more than 100 tracks in a smartlist with a limit of 100 tracks as a rule if you have 'Delete unselected files' checked.
In regards to the ratings issue, MC will resend a file with a changed rating if the rating change occurs after the last sync and the rating has not changed on iPod in the interim. Otherwise, the rating from iPod will be synched to MC (assuming you have 'Sync data to MC' selected).
Also, when i de-select a playlist for synching, it remains on the ipod.
This should not be the case. Please confirm what version you have.
Steve
-
Also, when i de-select a playlist for synching, it remains on the ipod.
I had that happen to a Smartlist running on build 161.
-
I'm running the latest alpha of v11 (.070).
I have seen the behavior on playlists as well as smartlists.
However, I cannot reproduce it readily on playlists as it appears to occur randomly. As I said before, i deleted 2 songs from a playlist, one did not appear in the ipod's version of that playlist after synch, one still did.
Smartlists seem to be more of a problem, though, as their rules are not honored. A playlist which is set to draw 5 songs each from 5 different playlists does not remain at 25 tracks. It increases each time i synch.
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With the latest build of 11 I can't do anything with the iPod without MC crashing. If I rightclick, sync it chrash. If I chose actions windows sync it chrash. Whatever I do it chrash. I tried to initialize it to see if it helped. It didn't so now I got no music on my iPod and I can't sync. Annoying!
For some reason, which is unknown to me, the iPod is called a not permanent disk rather than iPod in MC. I've also gotten a Nero fast burning plugin. How do I remove it and how has it comed around in the first place?
Thanks,
Rasmus
edit: okay now it works when I go action windows -->sync playlist. 40 out of 2200... I'm holding my breath.
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I am majorly overhauling the MC 11 Portable code. Please hold on MC 11 issues until the reworked version is released and we can troubleshoot from there.
Thanks.
Steve
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Good for you!
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Steve,
Thanks for your work.
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I recently bought a 3G 40gig Ipod which is causing me a problem syncing with both itunes and anapod explorer which I have just bought. Having looked at it in some detail, for a non techie, it seems a number of song/ albumwraps I've already got don't have any info in itunes under format/ channels ID3 Tag. This means they are on the Ipod and can be seen but when I try to listen to them the Ipod simply reverts to the main menu.
This is really frustrating me.
Any ideas please. ?
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Nigel,
Try another board for issues with iTunes or Anapod Explorer. This board deals with issues regarding Media Center.
Steve
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Thanks for this but I'm a bit of a beginner. Can you give me a clue as to which board I should use
Thanks
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www.ipodlounge.com is a good one.
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Thanks
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Hi, Im having issues with 3g ipod and MC11 072
It keeps telling me I need to initialise my ipod but fails to do so, often causing MC11 to crash leaving me with a "send details of problem to Microsoft form" I have tried this with a freshly restored ipod image aswell.
MC10 build 157 works flawlessly on the same pc.
Any suggestions or should I simply wait for a later build?
Thanks
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jimbo_boy,
Please wait for the next build with the Portable Device rewrite and we can troubleshoot from there.
Steve
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Hi,
for the quick readers here is my question: How can I keep the library in MC updated without music files copies on a PC and work just like the iPOD would be my harddrive?
I recently bought a 40GB version of the iPOD and successfully downloaded my entire collection from the former Archos Jukebox 20GB to the iPOD using MC10. This seems to be no problem.
Now, I would like to get rid of my Archos and work solely with the new iPOD. This means I also intend not to keep any copies of my music on my computer or the Archos.
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How can I keep the library in MC updated without music files copies on a PC and work just like the iPOD would be my harddrive?
Could you clarify this question?
Thanks,
Steve
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I can clarify the question...only because I would be interested to know if there's a way to do it:
How can you store the actual MP3 files on the iPod without also having them on the computer?
If that is possible, how can we use MC to manage, file & tag the files?
Best,
Brad
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Could you clarify this question?
Yes, I am sorry if I tried it too complicated. "bspachman" phrased my question in his words and this is what I want as well. I want to keep all my MP3's solely on my iPod and none on my PC (occasionly I butn CD's for backup copies). With this concept and MC10 I currently fail to update tags, rename files etc. Actually in MC10 I can only work in the handheld folder and my library is empty.
Sure I can copy all MP3's from iPod to PC and then import them into the library. But I bought the 40GB version since I do not have enough space on my PC. Formerly I used the Archos 20GB which hooks up to the PC just as an external drive (not as a handheld). By this my library always was linked to this drive. With the iPod this does not seem to work due to their strange file system.
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Brad and Chinaman,
This is possible but there are some potential pitfalls.
If you store your files on iPod, for MC to see them, you will need to import files from the iPod into MC. The file paths will all be relative to the current iPod drive letter. If you disconnect and reconnect your iPod, and the iPod is assigned a new drive letter, MC will not know where the files are.
Assuming you solve this, this could work although there may be some hidden issues which will become apparant along the way. Give it a try and I will help if you run into issues.
Steve
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Everyone,
This thread has grown large. I will lock it and start a new one.
Steve