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[GaryD9]

I haven't had the chance to completely test/confirm this, but I suspect that (at least under some circumstances) the .256 build is NOT sync'ing ratings from the iPod to MC.  Playcounts and last played times ARE sync'ing back to MC, however.

Some notes:  

I've only tested this two times, with songs that originally had no rating at all.  I'd change the rating to something, mount the iPod, and sync the iPod with PC.  MC didn't get the new rating, and if I sync'd from MC to the iPod, the rating would be cleared.

I did _not_ re-initialize the iPod after installing .256.  The previous version installed was .253 (I think.)  I missed a couple versions due to no electricity and all my UPS's being drained.   (It was a VERY boring 3 days with no power - thank god I can charge my iPod in my car.)

Take care
Gary

[SteveG]

LI-S4,

What is the Volume Label name for your iPod? I do not know why you cannot rename this from within Windows, that seems fishy. In MC, try going to Tools->Plugin Manager->Portable Drives and click "Configure". Enter whatever is the Volume Label name for your iPod and then retry. MC is set to recognize anything you enter in this field.

pufftissue,

I retested iPod with 1.3 and playcounts always show as 0 after synching files from MC. This is by design. After the iPod is disconnected and files are played, they should display the updated playcount info which can be synched to MC (incrementing the MC count) before resetting the iPod count to 0.

John and Paul (what about Ringo and George ),

I am unable to duplicate the Artist , Artist Album problem you are reporting. Can you give me a very simple reproducible test to confirm this problem. I started with a clean iPod and created a playlist with 5 files. I changed the Artist field 3 times from Artist, to Aritst Album and to Artist Album(auto). Each time the correct information was transferred. I did this with synching  and with file drag and drop.

Bob007,

I will try to implement a solution for this for you soon.

Adam,

I have seen this issue (i.e. All music playlist) before on occasion, but have been unsuccessful duplicating (therefore fixing) this. I think a likely reason for some files not appearing is that they are not a supported iPod file type. For anyone who sees a file count different than the filecount for All music in MC, check if you have any filetypes other than mp3, wav and .aa.  If anyone can give me a pattern to reproduce, that would be great.

Gary,

What if you deselect the Playlist, but just "Send-To" or drag and drop the files in the Playlist to the iPod?  If you can give me more detail to confirm a situation where the Ratings are not being sent from iPod to PC that would be great.  Glad your power is back up. Isabel be gone.

Thanks.

[schwaa]

In the last few builds (.254-.256), when I click on the G: for my Ipod (30 Gb) I get the Information box pop-up "Error reading the database. Please rebuild database from iPod. It will not allow me to synch until I do so. After I rebuild the database, everything works fine. Is there a build (possibly .250?) that I should revert to until this is resolved? It appears from the thread that this has become an ongoing issue...

[SteveG]

Schwaa,

After the Rebuild,  everything works fine.  What happens when it stops working fine? Do you disconnect and reconnect the iPod? Have you tried a reinitialize with 256?

Steve

[schwaa]

After the Rebuild,  everything works fine.  What happens when it stops working fine? Do you disconnect and reconnect the iPod? Have you tried a reinitialize with 256?

Once it stops working, there seems to be no way around rebuilding the database in order to make all well. One sure way to duplicate the error: I have to unmount and then unplug iPod and close MC.  I then replug iPod into its stand (and it automatically remounts).  I fire up MC and click on G: again and I am required to rebuild the database...  If I attempt to synch at this point, I get a small red X box popup with h. in the title bar of it.  It does show populated albums, artists, and genres under G:, though nothing under playlists. I have not gone so far as reinitializing with .256, but will if you think it may be helpful.

Also, my plugin is version 9.0.55 and I have noticed that the current version posted appears to be 9.0.38.  Could that have something to do with this?

Lastly, I have not been able to rate a song on iPod and after synching have that rating transfer to MC.

[SteveG]

schwaa,

If you can, try the reinitialize. I can not think of a reason why if after a rebuild everything is OK that disconnecting and reconnecting would screw things up unless you have MusicMatch installed and it is trying to write into the Database. Anyway, please try the reinitialize and lets go from there.

Steve

[sirshambling]

Steve,

I didn't try with a clean Ipod - I synched from an Ipod that was clean from build 255.

I'll start from scratch tomorrow and see if I can replicate the problem.

Thanks again. John.

[GaryD9]

What if you deselect the Playlist, but just "Send-To" or drag and drop the files in the Playlist to the iPod?

While that's certainly possible, it creates a ton of manual labor for something that can be automated.  I'd then have to go on the ipod itself, and manually delete any song which I changed to a rating of "1", go through MC and manually 'send to' any newly added songs with a rating of {empty,2,3,4,5}, and hope that I manage to keep it all under the 13GB I allocate on my iPod for music files.

(The ability to automate all the above things was the primary reason I bought MC.)  Having the strangely named playlist is an annoynace, but not a disability.. I merely was making a suggestion to improve the product.

Take care
Gary

[GaryD9]

Just got 257, and I'm going to initialize and resync all my mp3's to the ipod so I can test the ratings issue I had with a "clean slate."

In the meantime, however, I have another SERIOUS request:

Please, please, please, please move the two "destructive" options on the plugin's right-click menu to the BOTTOM of the menu.  I'm referring to the "Initialize iPod" and "Rebuild database from iPod" options.  While I realize that both of these have confirmation message boxes, the "sync ipod info from PC" option ALSO has a confirmation messagebox.  Someone in a hurry (such as myself) can easily select the wrong option - a destructive one with a long name instead of "sync ipod info from PC", and just hit 'OK' on the message box - without really paying much attention to it.

I think a good UI rule of thumb is that the most used options should be the ones closest to the cursor.  In the case of a popup menu (as well as menubar menus), that means the top of the menu...  That implies that "Sync FROM iPod" and "Sync TO iPod" should be near the top.

Take care and thanks...
Gary

[ashawley]

Steve:

I'm with GaryD9 on the "hide playlist" thing.  Many of us have playlists that we use as master playlists.  These are used to manage the content of our iPod and are not played (typically).

Having an option to load a playlist but no have entried made for it in the iPod database would be cool.

Not as cool of course as say, one-click sync (both ways) or changing the look of status bars.  

But you get my drift.  I think I'm losing out on the status bar one...darnit.  I hate that outdated looking "updating tags status window.    

Adam

[pcbonn]

Steve,
  I played around with my "Multiple Artists" synchronization problem some more, and was able to narrow it down to the following symptoms.  I'm still on build 255.  I can synchronize as many times as I want without this problem happening, until I drill down into the iPod, and actually select something other than the drive letter to view.  Once I select something else (say, my test playlist), then the next time I synchronize, the Artist field says "(Multiple Artists)".  The only way I can get this to work properly again, is to close Media Center, and re-open it.  I have sample screen shots if you would like, that I could e-mail to you.

I tested this with a 3 song play list, to keep my synchronization times quick.

Thanks!

Paul (can't speak for the rest of the Beatles...)

[udeups]

Steve,
  I played around with my "Multiple Artists" synchronization problem some more, and was able to narrow it down to the following symptoms.  I'm still on build 255.  I can synchronize as many times as I want without this problem happening, until I drill down into the iPod, and actually select something other than the drive letter to view.  Once I select something else (say, my test playlist), then the next time I synchronize, the Artist field says "(Multiple Artists)".  The only way I can get this to work properly again, is to close Media Center, and re-open it.  I have sample screen shots if you would like, that I could e-mail to you.

I can verify that this behavior occurs as described. I noticed this a few builds ago as well.

[Snuffy2]

A couple questions regarding last played (.257  & 3rd Gen 20 gig btw):

1.  When transferring data from the iPOD back to the PC, does it selecively overwrite the last played tags or does it overwrite all of them?

ex.  All tracks are 'never played.'  I synch up my iPOD and remove it.  On MC9, I play Twinkle Twinkle. On my iPOD I play Happy Birthday.  I synch the data from the iPOD to the PC.

Do Twinkle Twinkle & Happy Birthday both have last played or is Twinkle Twinkle reset to never played?



2. Is very related to 1:

ex.  All tracks are 'never played.'  I synch up my iPOD and remove it.  On my iPOD I play Twinkle Twinkle at 2:30 pm On MC9, I play Twinkle Twinkle at 8:30 pm. At 9 pm I synch the data from the iPOD to the PC.

Does Twinkle Twinkle have a last played of 2:30 or 8:30? (I know its in minutes ago, but you get the question)

I know I could run tests to verify this, but honestly I really don't have the time right now to synch & check this while at home.

Thanx.

[GaryD9]

update:  with .257, after a re-initialize, with limited testing, ratings now seem to be sync'ing from the ipod to MC.

Maybe I just hit a fluke before...

Take care
Gary

[mclaugh]

Another playcounts question:
Last night, I forgot to "sync Ipod info with PC", instead I just synced my playlists up as I've always done.  For songs that I listened to yesterday, that are still on my Ipod after that sync, were their playcounts reset to zero?  In general, are all playcounts reset when we sync (hence why we must "sync info" before we can sync playlists?).
Thanks.

[SteveG]

Gary,

The requests you made for the Right-Click menu are implemented in today's build.  In regards to the hidden playlist, am I correct that the way things are now, everything works the way you need it to (i.e. all the files you want on the iPod are there), but the drawback is that you have an extra playlist in your list of playlists on iPod that you never intend to listen to? If I am correct I would prefer to leave it as it is rather than create a magic hidden playlist. If others feel strongly about implementing this request, please chime in (Adam, your yes vote is noted ).

Paul and udeups,

Your bug is found and fixed. Some code that affects the iPod got changed about 3 builds ago and it is now fixed.

Snuffy2,

1.  When transferring data from the iPOD back to the PC, does it selecively overwrite the last played tags or does it overwrite all of them?

It overwrites all the last played data.  I will change it so that in your examples if the MC last played is more recent, it will remain.


mclaugh,

Playcounts on iPod are always reset to 0 after synching in either direction. The one click synch should resolve this ambiguity.

[iqat]

i have searched for the answer to this question and didn't find it:

i have a 3g 30g ipod and i just upgraded to MC9.1.257 last night in order to get audible files onto my IPOD.  Here's what I did:

First i tried using AudibleManager to copy the audibles to my ipod.  it worked, but then i couldn't play them on my ipod.

Then i launched MC9.1.x and it had "error reading ipod db.  please rebuild...."  so i did that and kept getting errors.  i re-initialized my ipod and that seemed to fix that problem.

Then i tried to import audible files into MC and it didn't seem to work.  I used the library-import function and pointed it to my audible directory and it said it scanned the files but did not import them!  No error msg.

Q:  how do i import audible files into MC?  what do i need to do with them to clean them up when i import them?

Then I "navigated" to the audible folder in MC and right-clicked on the files and imported them.  it sort of worked:  the files seem to appear in MC only if i search for them using the text-match search.   they don't seem to play when i click on them, either.   MC seems to think they are just documents, not audio.  What am i doing wrong?

So next i set genre/artist/album tags and created a playlist and added the audible files to it.  I tried syncing that playlist to ipod, but the ipod shows only the other songs in other playlists.  wierdly, it showed songs in the audible playlist instead of the audible files.

What am i doing wrong here? ?

Thanks!!

[GaryD9]

Gary,

The requests you made for the Right-Click menu are implemented in today's build.  In regards to the hidden playlist, am I correct that the way things are now, everything works the way you need it to (i.e. all the files you want on the iPod are there), but the drawback is that you have an extra playlist in your list of playlists on iPod that you never intend to listen to?

Thank you, and yes - you are correct.  One possible workaround is for me to have that "master" playlist use illegal characters... Perhaps a "|" (vertical bar) in the beginning of the playlist name.  Several builds ago, that resulted in the contents of the playlist being sync'd, however the playlist itself wouldn't be created on the iPod.  Unfortunatly, that also resulted in the plugin popping up an error message (which seems to be harmless.)  Thoughts?

Being that your in a generous mood, how about a command-line parameter for MC that would start MC (hidden or not), sync iPod to PC, sync PC to iPod, and then exit MC...  

Take care
Gary

[Kurt Young]

Being that your in a generous mood, how about a command-line parameter for MC that would start MC (hidden or not), sync iPod to PC, sync PC to iPod, and then exit MC...  

A command-line switch, eh?  That sounds like a sweet idea!  Don't ya think so, Steve?

[iqat]

i have searched for the answer to this question and didn't find it:

i have a 3g 30g ipod and i just upgraded to MC9.1.257 last night in order to get audible files onto my IPOD.  Here's what I did:

First i tried using AudibleManager to copy the audibles to my ipod.  it worked, but then i couldn't play them on my ipod.

Then i launched MC9.1.x and it had "error reading ipod db.  please rebuild...."  so i did that and kept getting errors.  i re-initialized my ipod and that seemed to fix that problem.

Then i tried to import audible files into MC and it didn't seem to work.  I used the library-import function and pointed it to my audible directory and it said it scanned the files but did not import them!  No error msg.

Q:  how do i import audible files into MC?  what do i need to do with them to clean them up when i import them?

Then I "navigated" to the audible folder in MC and right-clicked on the files and imported them.  it sort of worked:  the files seem to appear in MC only if i search for them using the text-match search.   they don't seem to play when i click on them, either.   MC seems to think they are just documents, not audio.  What am i doing wrong?

So next i set genre/artist/album tags and created a playlist and added the audible files to it.  I tried syncing that playlist to ipod, but the ipod shows only the other songs in other playlists.  wierdly, it showed songs in the audible playlist instead of the audible files.

What am i doing wrong here? ?

Thanks!!

Update:

I managed to get my audibles to play within medacenter although I'm still not sure i imported them correctly.  what i did was, installed Real Player and then added an audible to my realplayer library, then played the audible file within real player (which forced the download of a real plug-in).  now, in MC i changed the media type on the files to "audio", and MC now plays my Audibles!!

Still, how do i get them into my Ipod, and did i import them into MC correctly??

:-/

[Macavity]

Having the "master" playlist on my iPod doesn't bother me. In fact, it allows me to randomly listen to all my songs without leaving the Playlists screen.

Now, one-click syncing would be great! I always have to slow down before I make my selection now, to make sure I'm doing what I think I am.  

Once again, thanks for all your great work, Steve!

Mac

[GaryD9]

...and now for something completely different:

MC can be used for something OTHER than as an iPod manager.  I haven't figured out what, exactly, but I was looking in the help file, and it seemed to have information regarding things outside of playlists and handheld devices...

Shame it doesn't work for managing my image files.... (which are all in Canon RAW format).

[SteveG]

Everyone,

Tonight's build includes an all in one synch option. Proceed with caution if you want to try it for now (meaning a reinitialize is a possibility for the short term). All you need to do is click on the little iPod icon at the bottom of MC and you will go to the synch dialogue which now has an option to Synch iPod info to the PC.

Gary,

I do not recommend using illegal characters, this could cause problems in the database. A command line switch may be an option in the future ( I hear you Kurt ).

iquat,

If the .aa files are imported into MC correctly, try reinitializing your iPod (right click on your drive letter) and then either drag and drop or synch the files. The problem you were having before was an issue with getting the files into MC. Now that you are over that hurdle, I think you will be all set.

[ashawley]

WOOT unto you sir!!!!!!  

Can't wait to try this Steve!!!!!

Adam

[Kurt Young]

Clicking iPod button on toolbar to bring up synch dialouge == THANK YOU, WOOHOO!

Can't wait to try the one-step sync (after I back up my library, of course, )

[mclaugh]

SteveG-
by newest build, you mean 258, right?

[eappell]

A quick question:

1. I would like to create a "recently added" smartlist that would just list tracks I've added to the library in the last few days.  Otherwise I have to go through the entire library to pick up the few tracks from the last few days.  I've tried to do this and haven't had much luck.  I can't find any parameters for smartlists that address "date added"...  Is this possible?

Thanks!

Eddie

[brgale]

Eddie,
What you're looking for is Date Imported, not added.  And there's a recently imported item under the smart audio playlists already made for you.  I believe there are 3 actually, imported today, this week and last 100 tracks.   You can also make your own smarlist using the date imported parameter to set it up for however long you want.  I think it wants a time measurement in seconds if you do.  

-Brian

[eappell]

Thanks Brian, that was it, right in front of me...  

Eddie

[markp99]

[homer]  mmm....one button sync... [/homer]

Worked like a charm on a freshly initialize iPod...  Very nice!!  Simplicity!

Only *observation*... The little iPod icon at bottom of screen is difficult to discern until you mouseover...

[markp99]

Small suggestion for One-Button-Sync:

Add option to "Eject device upon completion."

You could launch the sync, come back ~1hr later and simply un-doc the iPod and run...

[Kurt Young]

Downloaded and installed .257.  Mounted my iPod.  Clicked the iPod button on the bottom toolbar.  It started synching,

I loved it!  Talk about true one-step synching.  And it used the set of playlists that I'd most recently used, it seems.

It did not, however, download the iPod info to the PC.  My playcounts were not updated, nor were last played dates.

[GaryD9]

Dowloaded .258, and the menu looks much better (and easier to NOT make mistakes.)  Didn't try the checkbox for one-step syncing.  (Didn't have enough time last night to reinitialize and copy everything back to the ipod if something went wrong...)

BTW, there wasn't a 'new beta' type message posted, but .258 was definatly there anyway.  I wonder what other changes I managed to download...

Take care
Gary

[jgourd]

I got build 257 and it appears that my complaints about the "Force conversion..." options have been addressed, thank you. There is still a problem.

In order for me to garuntee that MP3s wont get re-encoded I have had to set the bitrate to 320. This means that the OGGs that get converted are huge and are eating up way more space on the iPod than they need too.

How about a checkbox that says: "Only re-encode when the source file will not play on the handheld" or something to that effect. This would allow me to keep the bit rate set to something space saving live VBR Normal or 160 CBR.

If Apple would release an OGG firmware update this would be a non issue.

[ugilt]

Been away for a few build - now trying to catch up with the rating/playcount stuff  

Any chance to get a sticky note stating what's working and how to use it ? (ie. what's getting updated and the source)

thx

[Phil Lee]

I just synched my iPod for the first time in a month or so and have a couple of comments on the latest build. First off here are my system details:

MC 9.1 build 258, handheld plugin 9.0.57

10Gb Gen 2 iPod, firmware 1.3

First I initialised my iPod using MC. I then synched 256 tracks to the iPod. Some of these tracks had been played in MC but most hadn't. These were shown with "Never played" in the Number Plays column.

Next I played one track on the iPod (the shortest). After playing it right the way through I connected the iPod to the PC and did another synch. The synch went through very quickly since no files were being uploaded.

I then checked the last played time and playcounts. The playcount had been incremented by 1 for the track I played. The last played time was set correctly too. The playcounts for the other tracks all remained the same. Unfortunately the last played time was set to -19128589.0 (and counting) for all tracks, even those I'd played before on MC. For example, a track which I had last played 243 days ago is now shown as -19128589.0.

As a postscript, I love the new one-click synch dialog and the work on playcounts/last played is fantastic too. I need to start thinking of new smartlists to take advantage of this facility.

[bd6675]

I posted this on the ipodlounge board as well.  I am using MC9.1.256 and I have a 40gb (2.0.1) winipod running WinXP. My message concearns smartlists:

Okay, I have done some testing to try and get this smartlist to work and I am not sure that it is working the way it should:

1) After getting my library clean, restoring my ipod and playing a bunch of songs, I noticed that after I synch it has removed the songs that I played from my "last played smartlist" in MC9 (which I am assuming it should do). In the Media Library it shows the last played dates and the number of plays, however, after I do part two of the synching process and look on my ipod at that playlist the songs are still there (this is on the actual ipod and in the ipod view in MC9) in the playlist. I noticed that before step two of the synching process everything looked good in the Media Library.

Is it a situation where even though the songs are still in the last played smartlist on the IPOD it will not play them when you play that playlist because it knows that the song has been played in the past 4 weeks? Or should the songs be removed from that playlist on the ipod?

2) In the "synching progress" window when I do step 2 it shows that it is not synching the songs that I just played, however, like I said above....nowhere on the IPOD does it show it has removed them. When I look at the songs in the IPOD view it shows the lastplayed date, however, it does not show the number of plays.

The formula I am using is: [Last Played]=>40320 I noticed on other posts that this formula was used: [Last Played]=>=40320 (this one adds an extra (=) sign after the (> ). I was unable to get anything to work with the second formula so I am assuming that the one I am using was the correct one. Also, after the first step in the synching process I tried to just synch the smartlist on its own and then I tried to synch both the smartlist and all my other playlists together and the result was the same with both methods.

Anyway, I am not sure if this is working correctly. These are the things that are confusing:

A) In the synching progress window it shows that it is not synching the songs I just played (removing the ones that have been played in the past 4 weeks), however, when I look on the ipod at that playlist the songs are still there. When I look at the playlist view under the ipod view in MC9 the songs are still there.

B) When I look at the last played smartlist in the playlist view in MC9 it shows that the songs have been removed.

C) When I look at the songs on the ipod in MC9 the lastplayed date is there but the number plays field is still at zero.

I am not sure what should be happening. Sorry for the long message.

Any info would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

[iqat]

SteveG,

Thanks, you were right:  after I imported the Audibles and set the tags including media type, the ipod re-sync worked.

Now, on my Ipod, I can play and pause the audible tracks.  However, it does not seem to be letting me advance or rewind the track using either the <</>> buttons or the jog dial.  The display shows 0:00 on the lower left and -0:00 on the lower right.  Even worse, every time I turn the Ipod back on and play the Audible, it resets to the begginning of the file!  This is unusable...

Any clue what I'm doing wrong now?

[ugilt]

Major Sync issue!

Running .257 build + clean slate.

Sync'ing 13,8 gig on a 15 gig slate. Stops with a size exceeded..

I then have corrupted playlist on the wiPod
- One is correct
- one is ""

Looking at playlist through MC on wiPod I see the content of sync'ed playlists are wrong.

Buttom line - HELP!

[SteveG]

Everyone,

Last night there was a build 9.1.258 which was made available on our FTP site but not officially on Interact. Some of the missing funcitionality mentioned by people from last night is a result of the versions not being entirely up to date. Tonight there will be a build 9.1.259 which I recommend anyone who is helping nail down the one step synch, get and test (keeping in mind the caveat that this is new and may result in a reinitialize) this version.

I want to take a moment to explain the logic going on behind the recent additions so that you will be able to help dig for problems with the code in a more informed manner.

When synching iPod to MC, the iPod playcount should increment the playcount in MC and then reset to 0. When synching MC to iPod the iPod Playcount is also set to 0.  When iPod is disconnected, the iPod increments playcounts internally only when the file is played to the very end. This data should be reflected when the iPod is reconnected and viewed from MC and the changes should be added into MC as I mention above.

When DateLastPlayed data is synched from MC to iPod it overwrites the iPod DateLastPlayed if UpdateTags is checked, if not, it leaves this data alone.

When DateLastPlayed data is synched from iPod to MC, it overwrites the MC data only if the DateLastPlayed is more recent than what is in MC.

The Rating info is overwritten during MC -> iPod synch if Update Tags is checked if the file is already on iPod. Ratings from iPod to PC are always updated with what is on iPod.

The One-Step synch should be consistent with all the above rules. In the event that the synch from iPod to PC option is selected, the order of the synching is iPod to PC then PC to iPod.

Also, for people with problems synching Last Played data from iPod to PC, please remember to verify that your iPod clock is set correctly. If it set to some weird day and time, this will negatively affect the synching back to MC.


markp99,

Your suggestion for the eject is noted, but will not be included right now.


Kurt,

Please try again with 259.


jGourd,

Your request is addressed in 259. Click on Options and you for uploading and you will see an additional checkbox for 'Skip files of the same type'. If you enable this, files of the same type will be skipped during conversion regardless of bitrate.

ugilt,

Hopefully the notes above get you caught up.  I cannot recreate your corrupted DB issue. Please try again tonight. When you say..

I then have corrupted playlist on the wiPod  
- One is correct
- one is ""

Do you mean after the size is exceeded (which is most likely accurate) you have two playlists listed, one which is correct and one which is blank?? The content is wrong how? Anyway, try again tonight and then if you still see it, please try to give more detail.  

Phil,

I cannot verify this with .259, please try again tonight, possibly after a reIntialize. Your last played times may be screwed up from an older build.

Chris,

Please try again tonight with .259 and with a clean iPod or at least check the last played times on iPod, they may be bogus values from an older build. Also, check the date and time on your iPod.

iqat,

I cannot verify this with my .aa files. Are the durations and sizes for these files listed accurately in MC?

[GaryD9]

Steve -

With the one step sync, are smartlists repopulated after the ipod->pc sync, but before the pc->ipod sync?  

Example: If I have a list which includes all non-rated (rating==empty) songs only, will songs which were non-rated in MC, but rated on the ipod, be removed from the list on the ipod after the one-step sync completes?

Thanks
Gary

[thtv01]

iqat -

I'm not sure why you're having such a problem with your Audible files but I would check a few things.  First you mentioned that you originally couldn't get MC to import them into your library.  When you tried to import them did you make sure that in the import window you had 'Audible audio .aa' files selected.  Second if that is true and it didn't work then make sure your Audible files are in deed still of the .aa files type.  In the future, only use Audible Manager to down load the files to your pc, never use it to sync with the ipod.  Third,  you mentioned something about doing something with Realplayer that eventually helped you import the files into MC.  Is it possible that Realplayer modified the files?  I'm not sure why you attempted that.

What I would recommend is that you delete a few of the Audible files from your pc and MC's library and then use Audible Manager to re-download them.  It doesn't cost anything to re-download files from Audible.  If it helps, put them in a completely different folder so they don't get mixed up with any older ones.  Then in MC attempt to import these new Audible file and make sure that the .aa files check box is selected in the import window.  Then once the new files are imported, delete the old Audible files from your ipod and do a sync with the ipod to put the new files on it.  Then give it a try.  Hopefully you won't have the same problems.  It really sounds like your .aa files were altered in some way or they weren't actually .aa files.  I have read somewhere that you shouldn't even change the tag info on audible files but I have never tested that myself.  Also make sure when you download the Audible files that you choose only format 2, 3 or 4 because those are the only ones that the ipod supports.
Good luck and keep us informed!
Thanks
Tim

[SteveG]

Gary,

I do not think that currently the Smartlists get updated after the iPod to MC synch. I need to change that.

Tim,

Thanks for answering that in such detail and with such good advice.

[Kurt Young]

Gary,

I do not think that currently the Smartlists get updated after the iPod to MC synch. I need to change that.

Great catch, guys... so, if I want to see my updated smartlists on this build, I should synch twice, aye?

[pcbonn]

Steve,
  Regarding the issue I was seeing with the "(Multiple Artists)" - it's fixed!  Thanks a bunch!

Paul

[roadrunner562]

I'm interested in using the bookmark function. I have a few audio books on cd. I've ripped them to mp3 and put them on my ipod, but can not figure out how to start off where I left off on the book. I've tried to do a search here for some info on it but could not find it.

1. Do I need to rip the cd a certain way?
2. Do I need to put all the tracks on each cd into one   file?
3. Is it just a setting that I need to turn on?

Thanks for any help.

[ashawley]

Steve:

Happy to report sucess...here's my list of things that need cleaning up if/when you can get to them

• As stated, the smartlists need to refresh before the sync MC9>iPod, I'm sure you got this one covered
  
• Propose that you combine the syncing options from the right-click iPod menu so it just says "Synchronize" and brings up the new dialog box. Would result in let confusion
  
• I know I mentioned the problem w/the All Music Auto-Smartlist, I haven't been able to duplicate this
  
• Others should chime in on this one, but I'd like to propose removing the "Select All" and "Select None" buttons from the sync dialog.  New users get confused and go ahead and click the Select All button.  This is causing problems as 1) some of the playlists don't make it over, and 2) the Task Smartlists make it over and are confusing to folks.  It's just asking for trouble IMO.
  
• It would be great to leverage the Action Window somehow.  Either through making the "Tools" button display the normal right click, or enabling clicking on the iPod icon to bring up the sync dialog (as an alternative to the toolbar).  
  
• Next we have to try and figure out how the iPod creates it's own dynamic playlists. As Kurt pointed out, if you have a "Recently Played" smartlist on a MiPod, it will update w/the tunes you played without a resync of the MiPod.  Not sure how they're doing it.  I think Jim needs to get you a Mac so you can test this out.  
  
• Change the updating dialogs to match the Sync progress bar.  See, I just had to throw that in.  Actually, you could change all the status windows in MC9 to match yours.  I posted that as a change request...went no where.  I guess I'm a total loser.  
  

GREAT WORK!  Whoopee.

**EDIT**

OK, I did find a bug, maybe it will help point out the All Music bug as well, not sure.  

The result of this bug was that upon sync, none of my playlists showed on the iPod (what happens w/the All Music bug), although they were on the iPod in MC9's iPod View.  Also, the iPod Toolbar (after the sync resulting in no playlists) no longer launched the Sync dialog, it launched the old version of what clicking that button would do (i.e the sync progress bar if you had songs selected to upload).  

OK, here's what I did exactly...
1. I was testing the All Music bug, so I created a new temporary library
2. From a clean iPod (my other one), I clicked on iPod toobar and clicked "Select All".  
3. Things uploaded fine to that iPod.
4. Deleted that temp library, and opened my Default Library
5. Hooked up my normal iPod, clicked on iPod toolbar, click "OK" to sync.
6. Received error, no files to sync (this is where things went downhill).  Hadn't realized that when I switched libraries my playlists that I normally sync where auto-selected for me
7. Selected my standard playlists and synced.  Look on the iPod...no playlists.  All the Songs were on the iPod, just no playlists.
8. Reconnected, sync'd again, same result
9. Looked at the playlists in iPod view in MC9, they were there.  So I deleted all of them.
10. Clicked on the iPod toolbar..weirdness.  It wouldn't give me the Sync dialog.  It asked me to select some files to sync.  I selected a file and it uploaded it.  This is the old way this button used to work.

So, somehow the plugin got "reset".  I eventually fixed things by rebuilding the iPod database, restarting MC9, sync'd and all was fine.

Very strange....

Adam

[Kurt Young]

I didn't have a lot of time to play, so I just initialized and synched normally... want to make sure I have music tomorrow.  But tomorrow night, I'll be looking forward to one-stepping a whole days' worth of listening!

Quoting Adam's post but didn't want to do it all in a quote box...

<snip!>

• Propose that you combine the syncing options from the right-click iPod menu so it just says "Synchronize" and brings up the new dialog box. Would result in less confusion
  <snip!>
  I think that both options should be available in the right-click menu until the one-step process is totally clean, for those who want the functionality but aren't risk-takers.  I strongly suggest changing the verbage, since the current phrases can be taken either way.  I suggest "Import iPod data into MC" and "Synchronize Playlists" as phrases that would, as my Drill Sergeant liked to say, eliminate all doubt.
  
  <snip!>
  
• Others should chime in on this one, but I'd like to propose removing the "Select All" and "Select None" buttons from the sync dialog.  New users get confused and go ahead and click the Select All button.  This is causing problems as 1) some of the playlists don't make it over, and 2) the Task Smartlists make it over and are confusing to folks.  It's just asking for trouble IMO.
  <snip!>
  I agree.  Also, perhaps consider two additional edits:
  1. Put checkboxes next to the playlist group nodes that select/deselect child objects -- it would ease the loss of the Select All/None buttons.
  2. Remove the top-level "Playlists" node completely, for two reasons:  we know they're playlists, and the node takes up screen real estate.
  
  <snip!>
  
• It would be great to leverage the Action Window somehow.  Either through making the "Tools" button display the normal right click, or enabling clicking on the iPod icon to bring up the sync dialog (as an alternative to the toolbar).
  <snip!>
  I like putting a "Synch Now" button next to the iPod pic, but would agree that any way you can use the Action Window to sync would be good.
  
  <snip!>
  
• Next we have to try and figure out how the iPod creates it's own dynamic playlists. As Kurt pointed out, if you have a "Recently Played" smartlist on a MiPod, it will update w/the tunes you played without a resync of the MiPod.  Not sure how they're doing it.  I think Jim needs to get you a Mac so you can test this out.  
  <snip!>
  I'll be happy to keep bringing it up as often as y'all'd like.  My friend Bill Olsen (Hi Bill!!) is a Mac-using 30gb'er.  I am envious of his offline smartlist updating (OSU hah!).  Not to mention that iTunes for Windows will, most surely, give WinniePods this functionality.  Oh, and about the last bit there... me too, me too!!  
  
  <snip!>
  
• <nested snip!>I guess I'm a total loser.  <nested snip!>
  <snip!>
  Too..... many..... jokes....  vision.... getting.... blurry....  must.... mock.... Adam....  *gurgle*
  

[BlueGlow]

Whoops!  I bought a USB iPod cable for the office PC and things got weird. They got weirder when I tried it at home and things got ugly when I tried the one touch sync earlier this evening with 257 and wiped out my playlists on the iPod. No problem, fiddle with various fix attempts for an hour then tear down the whole setup and start from scratch. Reninstall anything iPod related, restore the iPod, install MC 259 and start the long first sync before I go to sleep. I'll do more testing tomorrow when things are fresh and clean .


[Edit] Just in case it isn't clear, the problem seemed to be with my setup, not MC.

[Phil Lee]

I've just tried 9.1.259 and playcounts and last played work a treat with my 10Gb Gen 2 iPod running 1.3 firmware.

Here's what I did to get things working. First I initialised my iPod using 9.1.259. Next I reset the Last Played date in the tracks that got corrupted yesterday so that they were displayed as Never Played. Next I did a small synch to the iPod and played one track on the iPod. I then did another synch. The last played date and the playcount for the track I played were updated and all the other tags were left the same.

Woohoo!!!!

Great work Steve.