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[MusicHawk]

I'm reporting a problem with MC 12.0.179 similar to what others reported a while back, but with different details.

MC is doing a perpetual sync with my iPod Video 80GB.

Each time I click Sync, it works for quite a while -- 2 hours tonight. Then it finishes syncing. Except, with NO CHANGES anywhere, if I click Sync again, MC finds another big batch of files to sync, maybe 5 minutes worth. I can keep clicking Sync and MC finds more work to do, less and less each time, but always more to do.

Looking through the Sync list after it "finishes" I see songs that are "In Queue" ready to sync. Why didn't they already sync? I click Sync again and they change to Waiting, and it says each is being loaded. But when it finishes, while some are loaded, quite a few are still "In Queue".

Clue: At the end of the sync process, all the In Queue files say Complete. Then MC says "calculating transfer", and a bunch of In Queue songs appear. I believe the "calculating transfer" step causes some of the On Device files to be switched to In Queue. This could explain why it never syncs 100% -- maybe it does, then it switches a few Complete songs back to In Queue.

Also, I see a bunch of "Delete On Sync" songs -- exactly the same songs that are set to In Queue.

Big Clue: For every song that gets switched from Complete to In Queue, I find a "twin" set to Delete On Sync. Right now, I have find 32 same-name files with each setting. After clicking Sync, MC runs for a minute, and these songs all switch to Complete. But a NEW set of 32 songs now is set to In Queue AND Delete On Sync.

But these are NOT (or shouldn't be) duplicate files. They aren't duplicated in MC, they are getting duplicated in the MC Sync process.

Biggest Clue: Each time I click Sync, a DIFFERENT set of files get set to In Queue and ALSO set to Delete On Sync. This feels like an internal pointer problem, where MC is losing track of which files it has worked on. Just a guess.

Keep in mind, I'm not making any changes to anything between syncs, just pressing the Sync button again and again.

What is the secret to getting MC to sync EVERYTHING the FIRST time, every time?


ALSO, MC sometimes puts album art or some other unwanted stuff on the iPod. How do I prevent MC from sending anything but pure music files to the iPod? (Even better, how do I prevent MC from getting and storing album art; I have no need or desire for it?)

[prod]

Sounds to me like an iPod database issue. Try initialising your iPod using MC (right click on device->Initialize) and syncing from scratch. For the sake of completeness and if you have the time or inclination restore your iPod back to factory settings with iTunes first (which should also install the latest firmware on your iPod).

You can stop MC from sending album art by deselecting Tools->Options->Handheld->Enable album artwork support. Anything else sent, MC is explicitly instructed to do so by you in Tools->Options->Handheld.

[JimH]

I agree on initializing it.  Also try a smaller sync (as a test).  There may be an issue with calculation of size needed on the iPod so that a sync that leaves a little more space might work.

[gvanbrunt]

Had this exact issue. Never seemed to quite sync everything. I did a restore on the iPod (80GB Video) and resynced everything (ouch). Then all was good.

[gvanbrunt]

I was going to post this as a new thread but, I read your post more thouroughly this time and you are having a similar issue to me. I'm having this issue even after the restore mentioned previously.

Ok first some background. The ipod is freshly restored. Media Center is a fairly fresh install. (I was one of the guys that reported Vista sometimes uses and old version of the library for the the library server).

At any rate I alway have two video's show up in the sync list that are NOT on any smartlists in the sync. I've triple checked this. I also have MC reporting a whole slew of "duplicate" pictures and a couple of songs that are NOT duplicates. Is there any way to determine what it is a "dupllicate to"? In other words "what is it a duplicate of?"

[gvanbrunt]

Nobody else is having this issue?

[0239666]

I second this. The same thing happens with me. It started happening with version .164 and I initialized the iPod and it went away. Then I upgraded to .179 and it started it again. I don't really want to initialize everytime I upgrade. It takes ages.

What happens with me is it syncs a load of random files that are already on the iPod. Everytime I connect the iPod it syncs for 30-45 minutes even though I have made no changes to the iPod playlist.

It will more than likely go away if I initialize but if I upgrade to version .185 it might start again.

60GB Video Ipod 5G.

[0239666]

I am also having the duplicate problem with my music on the iPod. Some artists are listed numerous times and each listing contains the exact same tracks.

I am running the latest firmware from iTunes.

[SwellGuy]

What type of files are you transferring? Are they being converted? Are you using the handheld cache? Is it possible auto-import is importing files in the handheld cache directories?

Are you syncing a Smartlist? If so, what are the Smartlist rules? If you eliminate Smartlists from the sync (save as playlists, sync to the playlists instead) does it have any impact?

[gvanbrunt]

- The files are either mp3 or jpg.
- No conversion
- No cache
- ALL are smartlists
- Rules: 1. Rating:4,5 and sort random. 2. Media Type:Auto, [NoIPodSync]=[],[false], 3 Media Type: image (thats kind of ulgy looking, but you get the idea)
- If I eliminate smartlists, there will be nothing left.

[JimH]

Try eliminating smartlists, just to help identify the problem.

[gvanbrunt]

K this is weird. I've played around with this a bit and here is what I found:
I created one smartlist and one playlist that contained all of my audio. I only used one of them at a time (and nothing else) to look at the sync list. It does not matter which I use, the same issues keep happening - I have random tracks being selected as "delete on sync" (yes the problem came back when I played with the lists  see above) and a bunch of files that are said to be "duplicates" (which they are not). Is there any debug setting etc that would allow me to know what MC thinks is a duplicate of the file?

Sorry about the edit above. I just changed the sorting and it appears that all the track to "delete on sync" were also "in queue" so they will be synced. Still - that is really confusing. It shouldn't be listed twice....