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[Matchbox]

I just moved from 12.465 to 12.534 and I'm trying to deal with handheld sync issues and stacks.

Before I connect my ipod, I'm trying to just sync to a local directory and create the stack.

How?  I created a handheld device to be J:\Backup

In options I have

Conversions

  CHECKED Cache converted file via a stack
  Stack Location is custom J:/Cache
  Directory Rule is mid([Artist])\[Artist]\[Album]\

When I start to sync, the files are copied/converted and stored in J:\Backup as expected.

BUT... there are no files written to the Stack Location J:\Cache directory, and they are not being stored with the originals either.

Does anyone know what I may be misunderstanding?

[marko]

In the handheld option, under 'Files and Paths', set your 'supported types'.

The default is * which means everything is 'supported'. If you change that to mp3, then anything that's not mp3, should be converted when you sync and then the stacks will be created.

-marko.

[Matchbox]

In the handheld option, under 'Files and Paths', set your 'supported types'.

The default is * which means everything is 'supported'. If you change that to mp3, then anything that's not mp3, should be converted when you sync and then the stacks will be created.

-marko.

Marko,

I changed the * to "mp3" and still I see no difference.  My existing mp3 files are copied to the back up dir without being added to the cache, as expected

My ape and flac files are converted and copied to the backup dir as expected, but there are only a few files written to the cache dir.   Very few, a couple of high bit rate mp3's that were down converted.

I'm still missing something here, thanks for the help, do you have any other ideas for me to check?


-------------------

When I connect my ipod and try to sync, it converts both ape and flac files to mp3 to be copied to the ipod, but only caches the flac->mp3 files??

[marko]

In the handheld settings, under "Conversion > Audio" there's a setting there that allows you to choose what's converted. Click on "Mode" to see the available options.
Perhaps "always convert" is what you need?

[Matchbox]

In the handheld settings, under "Conversion > Audio" there's a setting there that allows you to choose what's converted. Click on "Mode" to see the available options.
Perhaps "always convert" is what you need?

I'll try that,  please see my mod to the previous post I made about how the ape and flac files are handled differently when using the ipod.

Nope: always convert doesn't change anything.

I tried stacks a while ago and gave up and reverted to 465 and tried the lastest version today, I know I must keep up with the versions, but I just can't get stacks to work for ipod sync, there must be something so obvious to others that I am missing.

Weird how it handles ape and flac files different on the ipod when syncing.

If I select build the cache from options, it seems to be storing converted mp3 files for both ape and flac in the cache dir...

And yet, it seems to be building cache'd files that are not in the selected play list for the ipod.

Something is very wrong, either in my understanding or how this is working.  V465 worked just fine before stacks.  What could I be doing wrong here?

[Matchbox]

Bump - does anyone have any explanation for this?

[Alex B]

A bug?

[marko]

Bump - does anyone have any explanation for this?

I think I may have a theory for you to try out...

I Have an iPod (5G 60Gb), and that's it.
In an effort to understand your difficulties, I set up a local folder as a 'handheld device', set it's supported format to just mp3, and set it to keep a cache file as a stack, in a custom location. I made this a different location to that of my iPod

I then set about syncing some files, take a look at the screen shot below...


The middle of the three columns is the stack icon column, and as you can see, some of these files already have a converted file cached by virtue of being included in an iPod sync.
What I expected to happen was for MC to create a second cached file in the location I'd specified for this handheld, but what appears to be happening, is that where a cached file already exists, even if it's from a different handheld's cache, it is used instead, rather than create a second file. In the name of saving disc space, I suppose this is a good thing, if a little confusing, and I've yet to test how it deals with different conversion settings...

You said that you'd tried using stacks a while ago, and I'm wondering if you still have old cache files laying around?

Could you..:
Load up a view scheme that shows all of your audio along with the filename field.
Select all files.
Hover your mouse over the view header untill the menu displays.
From this menu, look for the option to expand stacks and click on it.
Now, type the following into the search bar: -[stack tag]=[]

Everything that is in your list right now is a converted, cached, handheld stack file.
Have a look at the filenames... are the paths to these files as you would expect?

-marko.

[Matchbox]

I think I may have a theory for you to try out...

I Have an iPod (5G 60Gb), and that's it.
In an effort to understand your difficulties, I set up a local folder as a 'handheld device', set it's supported format to just mp3, and set it to keep a cache file as a stack, in a custom location. I made this a different location to that of my iPod

I then set about syncing some files, take a look at the screen shot below...


The middle of the three columns is the stack icon column, and as you can see, some of these files already have a converted file cached by virtue of being included in an iPod sync.
What I expected to happen was for MC to create a second cached file in the location I'd specified for this handheld, but what appears to be happening, is that where a cached file already exists, even if it's from a different handheld's cache, it is used instead, rather than create a second file. In the name of saving disc space, I suppose this is a good thing, if a little confusing, and I've yet to test how it deals with different conversion settings...

You said that you'd tried using stacks a while ago, and I'm wondering if you still have old cache files laying around?

Could you..:
Load up a view scheme that shows all of your audio along with the filename field.
Select all files.
Hover your mouse over the view header untill the menu displays.
From this menu, look for the option to expand stacks and click on it.
Now, type the following into the search bar: -[stack tag]=[]

Everything that is in your list right now is a converted, cached, handheld stack file.
Have a look at the filenames... are the paths to these files as you would expect?

-marko.

Marcko,

I have totally deleted all that was in my cache dir from a prior stacks test.  My target dir is also empty.  There are no leftover files in the original locations, like old stack files stored with the originals.

MC will simply NOT create a cache file from an ape-mp3 file, but will from a flac-mp3 file.

Each time it needs an ape file, it reconverts, if it needs a flac file, it gets it from the cache.

[marko]

Fair enough, as long as you're sure they've gone

Something else must be up at your end because ape-->mp3 conversion is working as expected here, both with my iPod and this local test handheld I created on your behalf.

I'm out of ideas at this point, and the best I can suggest is that you turn on logging (under the "Help" menu, try sync'ing some ape files, then post the last 30 lines or so from the log file into this thread. There may be some clues in there that enable JRiver staff to better understand the problems you're experiencing.

If you do do that, remember to turn logging off once you have the sync logged as in some scenarios, such as thumbnail building, logging can seriously affect performance and it's all to easy to forget that it's enabled.

Sorry I couldn't help more.

-marko.

Edit: One last thought... you don't happen to have id3v2 tags in your ape files by any chance? I don't know how that might affect things, but do know that some software writes them in, and they're not really supported...

[Matchbox]

Fair enough, as long as you're sure they've gone

Something else must be up at your end because ape-->mp3 conversion is working as expected here, both with my iPod and this local test handheld I created on your behalf.

Marko,

Some of the things you've written and suggested nagged at me a bit...

I normally have "auto import" turned off.  I ran it today.  It found well thousands of files for update ??  And then afterwords, I had thousands of duplicates in the db.  I deleted all the dups and re-ran auto import and only a single copy of those files were imported, I think the library was correctly showing what I had.

Then I tried a clean sync to my on-disk-handheld and now it seems to be working as expected.  All ape and flac files are being converted and copied to the "handheld" and also to the cache.

I'll conclude that somehow, my db was somehow corrupted or out of sync and my action got it right again, so MC can now make the right cache decisions... just a guess, darn computers.... (I'm a software developer...).

Thanks for your help and suggestions, they did help.