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Author Topic: 'Sync handheld': possible to normal hard drive first?  (Read 1322 times)

MarkCoutinho

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'Sync handheld': possible to normal hard drive first?
« on: December 07, 2018, 05:12:51 am »

I've synced MC to my phone 2 years ago: some 16,000 mp3's including 128 mbit-conversion. It took over 2 days to finish it - in the meantime I couldn't use my phone.
Now I want to sync it again (my phone was stolen, so I have to do it all over again).

Is it possible to export the whole bunch to my computer HDD first, so I can copy the result of that to the phone? That would go quite faster I think and that would make it possible for me to use my phone in the meantime.
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Mark Coutinho
Dutch Top 40 collector of lyrics, sleeves and bios

Hendrik

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Re: 'Sync handheld': possible to normal hard drive first?
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2018, 06:34:02 am »

Sure. You can just setup a Handheld in MC that points to a folder on your harddrive, and then manually copy that folder to the phone.
You can create such a "fake" handheld in the options:
Options -> Handheld -> Add Device

Just enter a name and a path on your harddrive, and MC will sync to that path instead of an actual device.

Since MC won't know which format your Phone supports using this method, make sure to manually select an audio format you know works.
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MarkCoutinho

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Re: 'Sync handheld': possible to normal hard drive first?
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2018, 08:13:46 am »

Great, thanks! Gonna try that later this evening.
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Mark Coutinho
Dutch Top 40 collector of lyrics, sleeves and bios

dtc

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Re: 'Sync handheld': possible to normal hard drive first?
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2018, 10:10:42 am »

Are there advantages/disadvantages of doing a hand held sync to a folder versus just doing a standard conversion to a folder?  I usually just do a conversion and tell it to not convert any files that are already there?
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WinoOutWest

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Re: 'Sync handheld': possible to normal hard drive first?
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2018, 12:38:13 pm »

I do exactly this.
Sync to the HDD then user FolderSync app on my Android phone to keep the music/playlists/etc sync'd to phone.
Works great for me.
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BryanC

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Re: 'Sync handheld': possible to normal hard drive first?
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2018, 12:50:12 pm »

Are there advantages/disadvantages of doing a hand held sync to a folder versus just doing a standard conversion to a folder?  I usually just do a conversion and tell it to not convert any files that are already there?

It's better for several reasons.

1. If the folder is eventually going to be transferred to another device for playback then it can sometimes be nice to hardcode the R128 leveling using DSP studio. This is what I do for my car head unit.
2. It can automatically export playlists pointing at the new directory.
3. If you are syncing playlists or smartlists, then subsequent syncs will only transfer new tracks.
4. You can set handheld sync to automatically sync to the external drive when it is available, therefore syncing dynamic playlists (see 3) will keep the external location automatically updated upon connecting the drive (for external backups) or program start up (for permanently mounted drives).

I've synced MC to my phone 2 years ago: some 16,000 mp3's including 128 mbit-conversion. It took over 2 days to finish it - in the meantime I couldn't use my phone.
Now I want to sync it again (my phone was stolen, so I have to do it all over again).

Is it possible to export the whole bunch to my computer HDD first, so I can copy the result of that to the phone? That would go quite faster I think and that would make it possible for me to use my phone in the meantime.

My feeling is that your sync speed is being limited by MTP. I would look into enabling developer mode and using adb push to sync large numbers of files to the phone, in my case this results in a 5-10x speedup.
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dtc

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Re: 'Sync handheld': possible to normal hard drive first?
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2018, 04:49:29 pm »

It's better for several reasons.

1. If the folder is eventually going to be transferred to another device for playback then it can sometimes be nice to hardcode the R128 leveling using DSP studio. This is what I do for my car head unit.
2. It can automatically export playlists pointing at the new directory.
3. If you are syncing playlists or smartlists, then subsequent syncs will only transfer new tracks.
4. You can set handheld sync to automatically sync to the external drive when it is available, therefore syncing dynamic playlists (see 3) will keep the external location automatically updated upon connecting the drive (for external backups) or program start up (for permanently mounted drives).


I am not syncing playlists or smartlists, so that is not an issue.

Convert also  applies DSP studio, so I presume it will copy the leveling information, although my eventual location does not use it.

Seems like there is not much for me to gain by changing to handheld sync, but I can see the advantages especially for playlists.

Thanks.
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