Topic: POST IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 43942 times)

Grimmi · « **Reply #150 on:** September 09, 2003, 07:31:08 pm »

I was doing just that, after initializing my iPod, I sync'd my lib to it, then ejected and played a few songs on the iPod...as well as changed some ratings around. After that I synced IPOD with PC, then played some songs on MC, and sync'd PC with IPOD. After the last sync I ejected, and was looking at an empty iPod.

ashawley · « **Reply #151 on:** September 09, 2003, 07:42:36 pm »

Here's what I've found..

1. At first I thought that I wasn't suffering from the disappearing songs issue, but I got it. What I did was:

Connected iPod, Sync'd iPod info w/PC
Sync'd iPod..everything OK
Initialized iPod, reuploaded..everything OK
Played some tunes, connected iPod, Sync'd iPod into to PC, all data was lost in MC9 and on the iPod. I'm guessing the iTunesdb got corrupted.
I then did a rebuild iPod database from iPod and all seemed to be OK.
Did another sync, and all is OK. I'll try and reproduce it again

2. Ratings are working fine in both directions.

3. Playcounts seems to be working fine.

4. Strangeness abounds with the Last Played. I've done a few tests, my results are:

It seems pretty critical that your iPod clock be set to at least an earlier date than your PC clock. I had a number of entries that had negative values in them after the sync.
I updated the MC9 library so that all my songs where "never played" to do my tests. I noticed that a lot of songs are coming over w/a Last Played date of 33.7 years ago. This seems to be the default for songs that haven't been played on the iPod. Perhaps that's stored in the iPod's database, either way, that should probably be translated to "never played" I'm guessing
Even though my iPod clock is set correctly, I still get strange readings w/negative values. Not sure what that's about. For example, most of my tunes have -19149701.2 minutes ago. The value after the decimal changes (it tends to go down by one) if that's any help.

*EDIT* After doing a rebuild of the iPod database these have disappeared.
Some songs were correct though, maybe it's all a matter of starting off w/a clean iPod database?

5. I tried to do an update w/a 1.3 formatted iPod and the sync iPod info to PC produced a crash of MC9 (Media Core error)

6. If you play a song in MC9, then sync, the Last Played information isn't updated on the iPod. The result is that the next time you sync iPod w/the PC, your Last Played values in MC9 are overwritten (with 33.7 years ago) even though you haven't played the song on the iPod.

**UPDATE**
OK, I did another sync of the iPod w/the PC to test Last Played. This was after I did a rebuild of the iPod database in MC9. The songs that were played all had the correct last played time. The songs that weren't played all had 33.7 Years Ago. So, it looks for sure that this value should be translated to "Never Played".

P.S.: I'm amazed at the speed w/which it syncs to MC9. Really so fast that you can't even tell it did its work.

All in all, some AWESOME work Steve!

If I get more I'll send it to ya!

Adam

PaulH · « **Reply #152 on:** September 09, 2003, 07:48:17 pm »

OK,

Here is my experience with.248:

1. I marked some songs with 5 stars that were not marked in MC9 at all.

2. I docked the ipod after loading .248 and then chose "synchronise ipod info with PC" but when i checked on the media library view I got the dialog box saying saving tags for about 1038 songs (turned out is was all the songs that were marked with any stars on MC9). So when that finished, the 3 songs that I had marked on the ipod were the only ones that were marked on MC9, lost all the ratings but I have a backup.
Also all the last played dates were wiped completely.

3. I then did a synch and gor the same problem that has been mentioned previously here, i.e. it synched and then there were no sings on the ipod when I undocked it, even though it showed there were songs in the MC9 view.

4. I initialised the ipod again and re-synched all the songs. Some of the songs that I had rated in MC9 now transferred the ratings to the ipod and showed up there.

5. I played a few in the ipod, rated some new ones and then uploaded files again from ipod to pc. This time it recognised the playcounts, but not last played date or the new ratings.

In summary:

Playcounts are going from ipod to mc9.
Ratings are going from mc9 to ipod
last played date is not going from ipod to mc9
ratings are not going from ipod to mc9

I will keep experimenting and let you know.

Cheers,

Paul

System info as follows:

Media Center Registered 9.1.248 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows 2000 Workstation 5.0 Service Pack 3 (Build 2195)
Intel Pentium 4 1693 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 334 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2600.0000 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.81 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2600.0000 / Shell32.dll: 5.00.3502.5436 / wnaspi32.dll: 4.60 (1021) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1999 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.60 (1021)

Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:ModeSecure CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive E: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No

Burning / Drive E: IOMEGA CDRW19202EXT2-B Addr: 2:0:0 Speed:40 MaxSpeed:40 BurnProof:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: Yes / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None

UPDATE

I now managed to play some songs on the ipod and rate them and they have transferred to the ipod. I did do what Adam said and changed the ipod clock to be a minute behind the pc clock which seemed to help.

I have the same thing as Adam, however, with all my songs saying the same as he stated with different decimals that seem to fluctuate for different songs.

However, after I managed to get lasy played and ratings to upload and then changed a few songs in mc9, when I synched again, I have the disappearing songs syndrome again. I have now re-initialised the ipod again and will try again.

Cheers,

Paul

ashawley · « **Reply #153 on:** September 09, 2003, 08:49:26 pm »

Paul:

If you're still working, check out my updated post. Instead of reinitializing the iPod, select Rebuild iPod Database, much faster and it cleaned up a lot of stuff for me.

Adam

PaulH · « **Reply #154 on:** September 09, 2003, 08:54:08 pm »

Second Update

I finished re-initialising the ipod and tried again.

I played 4 songs on the ipod and rated them. They had not been played on MC9 at all.

I then uploaded file infomration from ipod to PC and all information was uploaded, lat played date showed correctly for all songs, all ratings showed up and all playcounts showed as one.

However, when I now rate some songs on MC9 and then snchronise with the ipod, the same thing happens. all songs disappear.

I am now reverting to .246 as I know this one works and will wait for this one to be fixed. I hope this has been of some help.

Cheers,

Paul

Note: same settings as before

PaulH · « **Reply #155 on:** September 09, 2003, 09:43:11 pm »

THIRD UPDATE

OK,

Following Adam's suggestion, I tried again.

I put on .248 again and did it all over again, played and rated on ipod and uploaded data. All data uploaded perfectly.

Synched again and soings disappeared again

I rebuilt the database as Adma said, but it had the songs on there, but when synched again, effectively loading the playlists on, it wipes everything again.

I have now gone back again to .246.

Steve,

In summary, everything seems to work from the ipod to the pc, however when synching back again I presume that something with the changes in mc9 trying to update the ipod is wiping everything.

Notwithstanding this, I must say this is awesome, Steve, excellent work.

I play mostly on the ipod and so this is the best feature of mc9 about to be realised.

I will try again with the next update.

Cheers,

Paul

Kurt Young · « **Reply #156 on:** September 09, 2003, 10:10:07 pm »

Played music all the way home, installed .248, docked, synched iPod info to PC. Dig:

(Note to self: next time, test with songs that don't have naughty titles)

Ratings and Number Played increments went perfectly!

Songs that I played on my iPod had their Last Played updated perfectly!

Every song in my library that I did not play on my iPod since the last dock had their Last Played set thusly, bwaaaaahahahahahahahahaaa!!

Bring on the next build, bro!

PaulH · « **Reply #157 on:** September 10, 2003, 12:42:47 am »

Kurt,

Exactly the same thing happened to me as you can see above.

Have you now tried synching again?

What happens? Make sure that you have rated something on MC9.

Cheers,

Paul

Jonny5 · « **Reply #158 on:** September 10, 2003, 06:24:57 am »

I'm using version 9.1.247 and I've got stars on theiPod too!!

It also syncs without any problems. No last played info yet. Think I'll wait a for the next version before I upgrade again...

SteveG · « **Reply #159 on:** September 10, 2003, 10:03:53 am »

Everyone,

Thanks for the feedback. In tonight's build I fixed the 33.7 year problem and I think I got the disappearing database fixed as well. FYI the problem was that if you ejected iPod from within MC one time was OK but on reconnect the database got corrupted.

The large negative values for the Date Played I think will resolve if you start with a cleanly formatted iPod. If your iPod date is set ahead of your PC clock and you play a file, you will get a negative number for date last played, but it should be the correct negative number accounting for the fact that your iPod thinks it is tomorrow already.

For anyone playing Audible Files, a while back someone requested getting bookmarking working for files. This is now working. Enjoy War and Peace knowing that you won't have to start over.

In regards to testing with the older firmware, my iPod with the old firmware is recharging. I will edit this message with more info later.

**EDIT** All seems good with old firmware. Playcounts and Last Played Date seem to work.

I hope all is well after tonight's build.

Steve

Macavity · « **Reply #160 on:** September 10, 2003, 10:15:40 am »

Thanks for all of your hard work on this, Steve! Your dedication to implementing these features is one of the reasons I decided to puchase MC9.

I can't wait to try out tonight's build.

ashawley · « **Reply #161 on:** September 10, 2003, 10:55:39 am »

WOOT!!!!!!

Great work Steve.

I do (as usual) have a question/comment though.

Hm, how do I phrase this? Am I right that when you sync iPod info to the PC your grabbing info from every song regardless of whether it was played or not? Meaning, your grabbing ratings and lastplayed from the iTunesDB regardless of whether or not a song shows up in the Playcounts file.

If so, as I stated, did you make sure to write MC9's last played value to the iPod database when syncing? As I stated in my earlier post, it looked like that wasn't happening. And it needs to to make syncing work right.

And now for my comment: is this a wise strategy (to process every song regardless of whether it's in the Playcounts file)? Especially considering that larger iPods coming out?

Also, if we think about this down the road when it's all automated (i.e. say sync is a one step process). You run the risk through user error of folks wiping out their ratings in MC9 on a freshly formatted iPod (where there are no ratings applied.

Not sure how the upload/sync works, but is there a difference for example, between what data you write to the iPod when you sync vs. when you use the "upload" feature. If so, there could be some problems.

It's making my brain hurt thinking about all the scenarios, but I'm basically imagining an iPod database w/no ratings or last played dates getting sync'd w/MC9 and MC9 losing all rating/last played info since you're processing all tunes.

Do you get my drift or am I rambling. Sorry, great work so far, but it kept me up last night. I know, pathetic right.

Adam

CautionESPN · « **Reply #162 on:** September 10, 2003, 11:39:42 am »

Quote

For anyone playing Audible Files, a while back someone requested getting bookmarking working for files. This is now working. Enjoy War and Peace knowing that you won't have to start over.
Steve

What's funny as hell is that on my last subscription date for audible I decided AGAINST War and Peace because the bookmarks weren't working! Seriously! Thanks so much Steve.

Chris M

SteveG · « **Reply #163 on:** September 10, 2003, 12:04:03 pm »

Adam,

We can't have you losing sleep, we need you sharp to maintain that help file.

The PlayCounts file contains information about all your iPod files regardless of whether they have been played or not. Whenvever you select "Synchronize iPod data with PC", the Rating and Date Played data will overwrite what is in the MC database. The goal is to get this working perfectly so that when this happens there are no errors resulting in your MC library getting messed up. This has not been working perfectly yet, but I am hopeful for tonight.

In regards to Play Counts, whenever the PC synch is selected, the Play Count in MC is incremented by the iPod PlayCount and the iPod Play Count is reset to 0.

Whenver files are transferred to iPod the Rating is written to the iPod DB and Play Count file.

There is no difference between Upload and Synch as to what data gets to iPod.

I hope that puts your mind at rest. Please get tonight's build and we can work on it more once you see the state of affairs with the progress today.

Chris,

Man, I hope I got the bookmarks right. I can't live with the thought of keeping you from the literary classics. If it works, order your copy of Ulysses today.

JimH · « **Reply #164 on:** September 10, 2003, 12:19:11 pm »

Quote

Man, I hope I got the bookmarks right. I can't live with the thought of keeping you from the literary classics. If it works, order your copy of Ulysses today.

And get a tanker truck of Guiness too, so you can follow it.

ashawley · « **Reply #165 on:** September 10, 2003, 01:17:01 pm »

Thanks for setting me straight Steve. That now kernel of knowledge (that playcounts has all your songs in it) sets me straight.

On last thing...are MC9 LastPlayed getting written to iPod? So that when I sync back to the PC a song that hasn't been played on the iPod will still have the same last played data?

God, this is confusing.

I'll get on that help file, I've got a ton of work to do on it, but I wanted to wait until 9.1 is out and we get some of the cosmetic stuff done on syncing (you know, one step syncing

)

Adam

SteveG · « **Reply #166 on:** September 10, 2003, 01:48:41 pm »

Quote

On last thing...are MC9 LastPlayed getting written to iPod? So that when I sync back to the PC a song that hasn't been played on the iPod will still have the same last played data?

That is how it should (and appears to) work.

I was just kidding about the help file. You have already exceeded the call of duty for that.

kadish · « **Reply #167 on:** September 10, 2003, 05:32:29 pm »

So far this build looks very promising!

I am, for the first time, able to synch iPod->MC (and yes I was using 'Synch iPod info with MC' in previous builds).

Also MC->iPod looks to be working.

If I remember correctly I wasn't having any luck at first until I chose the Rebuild iPod database option. Does that make any sense?

I'll keep testing but so far very promising! Kudos!

Eugene

roadrunner562 · « **Reply #168 on:** September 10, 2003, 07:33:40 pm »

Just loaded 249 and I'm still getting an media core error from window xp when I click on sync ipod to pc, and then MC closes. I also had this problem with 243.

Is this just me? Is there a way to fix this?

Thanks

ashawley · « **Reply #169 on:** September 10, 2003, 07:39:55 pm »

roadrunner:

I think we need to start w/a clean iPod. Either reinitialize or if you don't want to reload everything, try the Rebuild iPod Database option.

But if you can't get either of those to work, you'll need to do a Restore w/the iPod updater and then reload everything...

Adam

thtv01 · « **Reply #170 on:** September 10, 2003, 07:44:58 pm »

Steve -

That's excellent news about the bookmarks. I can't wait to give it a try. Many, many thanks to you and your team for all of the great work that you guys have put into this wonderful software. You Rock!

Thanks
Tim

Update: I installed the new version, restored with v1.3 , initialized with MC then synced all files. Then on the IPOD I set my Audible files to the place I left off. Then ripped a couple of new CD's while my IPOD was playing some mp3 files. After the CD's were done I then 'synced IPOD info with PC' and was able to see the 'last played' info was now in MC. Very cool! Then I wanted to test the bookmarks so I did a 'synchronize files' to add the newly ripped CD's. Started the Audible file and was TOTALLY THRILLED!!! The book started right where I left off. This is totally awesome. I can't thank you enough for figuring this out and the speed at which you accomplished it. I just posted my question about bookmarks a week or two ago and you've already got it working.

One quick question though. In order for the bookmarks to work do I have to 'sync IPOD info to PC' first and then 'sync files' Or will if work if I just 'sync files' only?

I didn't know if the bookmark info had to be sent back to MC first so that when you do a sync to the IPOD it would have the bookmark.
Either way is fine I just wasn't sure so I thought I would ask. Thanks so much for your help!
Tim

ashawley · « **Reply #171 on:** September 10, 2003, 08:16:38 pm »

Steve:

Looking good! Have two little bugs to report

1. The LastPlayed date is still showing up as 33.7 years ago when you view in Media Library. Here's what I did:

Restored iPod w/the Apple Updater, initialized, loaded all my tunes.
Played some tunes, sync'd iPod info to PC
Checked last played date in iPod view. All looked good, the songs I didn't play said "Never Played" the songs I did had the correct time
Checked the same tunes in Media Library view, the songs I didn't play had last played dates of 33.7 years ago, the songs I did play were fine

So we still have that last played bug going on. I even attempted to clear all my Last Played dates, sync'd with the iPod and updated PC, same problem. I would have expected that the syncing would have updated the last played date to "never played" but it didn't. It left them at 33.7 years. To clarify, in iPod view they show up fine (Never Played), but in Media Library view (or any non-iPod view) they show up w/the 33.7 years.

2. This one is minor. When you right-click and select Sync iPod info to PC the right click menu persists for a bit until the process is complete. Probably no need to clean this up since you're surely already thinking about that one-step sync deal.

(sorry, I have to throw that in on every post).

GREAT WORK.

Adam

PaulH · « **Reply #172 on:** September 10, 2003, 09:49:16 pm »

Steve,

Works like a dream.

I re-initialised the ipod and then loaded all the tracks onto the ipod.

All the stars were there

I then went out to get the morning newspaper and then came back having played a few songs and rated some new ones.

I synched the ipod with the pc, but no data uploaded :-/

I thought about it and then shut down mc9 and re-opened and then synched ipod with pc data again and all was well.

All the information is there, last played, play counts and ratings.

FANTASTIC WORK

As Adam says there is still the minor problem with the 33.7 years, but I am now doing a few more tests on that. I have reset the lasp played to never played and will upload to ipod and then play some more and try again.

Brilliant

Itunes...eat dirt

Creating new smartlists that will work properly for me as we speak...

Cheers,

Paul

TimB · « **Reply #173 on:** September 11, 2003, 05:15:23 am »

Steve, with a Gen 2 iPod:

I loaded the current batch of songs probably under a build between 235 and 242. If I sync the iPod to the PC will it update playcounts or will that only work if I reformat and load the songs under a later build?

Thanks!

-=Tim=-

indevelopment · « **Reply #174 on:** September 11, 2003, 05:41:58 am »

I had the disappearing file problem with the .248 build but for the first time, .249 shows me stars!

Really impressed, thanks.

Grant

Postscript

Played a few songs and attempted to synch info back to mc and got a media core error. Rebooted, playcounts & ratings (!) then synched fine, every track that was on the pod updated its mc equivilent recent played time to 19146566.4 minutes ago.

One quirk: as of tonight, when I dock my pod and open mc, the pod is ejected. I have to manually mount through ipod manager.

other than that: brilliant!

_{win xp, 2.0.1 15gb ipod}

SteveG · « **Reply #175 on:** September 11, 2003, 05:45:15 am »

Quote

One quick question though. In order for the bookmarks to work do I have to 'sync IPOD info to PC' first and then 'sync files' Or will if work if I just 'sync files' only?

You sould not have to synch the iPod for Bookmarks to work. That info is stored exclusively on the iPod.

Roadrunner,

Adam's advice is great. Please try cleaning reformatting the iPod and start over if you can.

Tim,

Quote

I loaded the current batch of songs probably under a build between 235 and 242. If I sync the iPod to the PC will it update playcounts or will that only work if I reformat and load the songs under a later build?

This will probably work, but not entirely sure.

Everyone,

I will recheck 33.7 year issue today.

Steve

Iplod along · « **Reply #176 on:** September 11, 2003, 09:05:09 am »

Battery Life

Can anyone tell me whether the usage of the battery is influenced by the number of tracks stored on the Ipod?

At present I have approx 2,500 tracks and the performance of the battery is apprx 3-4 hours. I am virtually recharging it every other day.

I look forward to hearing your comments.

Iplod along · « **Reply #177 on:** September 11, 2003, 09:08:35 am »

Last 20 seconds or so not recorded

Me again with another questio.

Some tracks on various cds are cut short in the last 20 seconds or so. The timer ticks away to the end without any sound.

Has anyone experienced this or is it a case of deleting the old file. If so does one have to check that some of the tracks are not on a playlist beforehand?

?

SteveG · « **Reply #178 on:** September 11, 2003, 11:01:04 am »

Everyone,

Tonight's build will solve the 33.7 year problem. Also, I am going to close this thread and start a new one because this has gotten so big.

IPlodAlong,

I do not know the answer to the battery life question.

Quote

Some tracks on various cds are cut short in the last 20 seconds or so. The timer ticks away to the end without any sound.

I assume you mean the tracks are cut off when playing on the iPod. Do the files play correctly in MC without using iPod? If so, can you email me one of the failing files? (steve @ jriver.com)

indevelopment,

Hopefully tonight's build will solve the recent played time for you.

Quote

One quirk: as of tonight, when I dock my pod and open mc, the pod is ejected. I have to manually mount through ipod manager.

When you say the pod is ejected, do you mean you do not see the drive letter? If so, can you see it from within Windows Explorer? Sometimes it takes a while for the PC to detect it.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: POST IPOD SUPPORT QUESTIONS HERE (Read 43942 times)