Lowlander wrote:However as both can reference a Static Playlist (to which you can manually add files) you can still manually add files to an Auto-Playlist or Collection (via the Static Playlist).

That's a good point.

lennyb8000 wrote:Well, I'm not sure what to say. It doesn't go back to the selected file for me, ever. It takes me to the very top. Which, again, isn't the end of the world.

One thing I did find that was disappointing is that, while I can group playlists together into categories in MediaMonkey (see my first post), it doesn't translate to my iPod. Of all the things, this might actually be a dealbreaker, since I mostly use just playlists and I love being able to categorize them so I'm not just scrolling through hundreds of them. Is anybody aware of a workaround for this? Maybe it's a gold feature? (I did a forum search and came up empty-handed, my guess is that this isn't a feature used by most people)

Not all iPods support this feature (hierarchical playlists). In fact only a few models do support it. But even then MM cannot sync them in that way. There's an open issue in the bug tracker regarding that particular feature, but hasn't been implemented yet as you know. see http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=5371

Support for nested Playlists on iOS has been entered: http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=5371

Note that in terms of how tracks are added to an Auto-Playlist and Collection works the same. The main difference between the 2 is that a Collection has standard sub-nodes and an Auto-Playlist is just a list of files. Collections and Auto-Playlists both can reference other Playlists (Static or Auto).

Both Collections and Auto-Playlists are criteria based and thus you can't add individual tracks to them. However as both can reference a Static Playlist (to which you can manually add files) you can still manually add files to an Auto-Playlist or Collection (via the Static Playlist).

As Collections are criteria based a single file could be in many Collections (as long as it meets the criteria) or could be in none (other than Entire Library which always includes all the files in the Library).

A work-around might be the ability to assign different playlists to different folders on your device, but that's not possible yet either. Should probably be requested.

I'm with you in feeling that playlist organization is a little weak - although I do like the ability to nest playlists. So I can have one playlist for songs I've listened to and decided to keep, and sublists for specific segments of that collection, theme related or mix CDs or whatever.

MM seems to expect you to use collections (a gold feature) for these purposes.

Lowlander, can you tell us whether it's possible to manually add tracks to collections? It sounds like you should at least be able to have tracks in more than one collection, since they'd be in any collection they met the criteria for. Can you have a playlist node within a collection? That would be the only way for collections to replicate what I do with my playlists.

Those features wouldn't solve the problem of organizing playlists on a device, though.

Well, I'm not sure what to say. It doesn't go back to the selected file for me, ever. It takes me to the very top. Which, again, isn't the end of the world.

One thing I did find that was disappointing is that, while I can group playlists together into categories in MediaMonkey (see my first post), it doesn't translate to my iPod. Of all the things, this might actually be a dealbreaker, since I mostly use just playlists and I love being able to categorize them so I'm not just scrolling through hundreds of them. Is anybody aware of a workaround for this? Maybe it's a gold feature? (I did a forum search and came up empty-handed, my guess is that this isn't a feature used by most people)

psychoadept wrote:Or if I deleted the file I had selected, it goes back to the top anyway.

As it remembers selected files this would be expected. I presume that due to the dynamic nature of the Library that using selected file is the most viable solution (ie. when going back there is no guarantee the same files will be presented).

I recently migrated from iTunes, too, and already registered my wish for that return-to-same-position feature. Using the back button *usually* works for me. But sometimes MM randomly forgets my history. Or if I deleted the file I had selected, it goes back to the top anyway.

I don't think there is a setting that affects this. The only thing I can think of is that you're not letting the list load prior to selecting the file or that you're not using the Back button (go to previous view (Alt+Left)) on the Shortcuts toolbar.

Hmm, well I'm on 4.0.6.1501, even though I just downloaded it from the main site yesterday... I'll try to upgrade, maybe that will work. Or maybe it's a computer setting? I don't know, curious.

Again, not to say that I'm not loving the program. It runs much better than iTunes and is already more usable - and the community is much more helpful, thank you again. It looks like Gold will be worth it, I'll probably be upgrading soon.

I have tried it with the main Music node and the Artist & Album Artist sub-node and it works in both cases if you select a file. Do not that the exact position may differ, but the selected file is in view. I'm doing so with MediaMonkey 4.0.7.1510, but I don't think anything has changed since MediaMonkey 4.0.6.

MediaMonkey does require the use of Various, Various Artists, VA or similar value in the Album Artist field for compilations. However the Artist field remains the Artist that performed the track. You can change the node in the Collection from Artist & Album Artist to Album Artist to only show a list of Album Artists in the Media Tree and thus compilations would all be listed under the same Various Artists entry. Modifying tree nodes in the Media Tree is a Gold feature and can be done under File > Manage Collections.

Yeah... I guess I just have to get used to the artist list on the left rather than the generic "music" tab. It's just a pain when I have to navigate through artist lists with hundreds or thousands of songs in them (The Beatles, Guided by Voices, etc), when I'd like it to just stay in the current position. It's just a little off-putting right now because it shows a huge number of artists, because artists with just one track in my collection, usually do to compilations (I'm looking at you, Nuggets series...), are given their own tab that's just as prominent as an artist where I have dozens of their records.

Speaking of which, is there a way to group compilations together under one tab (again, one of the rare things that iTunes did well) without having to change the album artist of each to "various" or whatever? And even still, wouldn't the artist list still be cluttered with all the one-song-on-a-compilation artists, since the tab says "Artist & Album Artist?" Or is this a feature that I could find with Gold (which I don't mind paying for if it does what I need it to, I downloaded the free version to see how it would work for me first)?

Thanks again everyone for the helpful replies.

Here's what happens for me.

Let's say I am browsing my entire Artist and Album Artist list, and I select a song, then go off and look at playlists or something else. If I click on "Go to Previous View", I go back to the top of the Artist and Album Artist list.

But if I instead use the list of artists on the left to select an artist, so that only that artist is being displayed in the view window, then I can go off and look at playlists and when I click on "Go to Previous View", it takes me back to the artist view that I had selected.

If I had selected a band with many songs or albums, and go and look at something else, then when I "Go to Previous View", I end up at the top of the list of that band's songs/albums.

So what it's doing is taking you back to the top of the list/view you had selected previously, not to a particular point within that view.

Dan

Yeah, still isn't working for me for some reason. Doesn't matter if it's selected, highlighted, currently playing, whatever. Navigating back takes me to the very top every time. It's actually making navigating a huge pain. Maybe I have an option unchecked somewhere?

3) You need to select a file in the view so when you go Back to it, it jumps to the selected file.

1. Perfect... don't know why I didn't think to do that, actually. I'll have to see how this shows up in my iPod.

2. This was just a view option, one that I really liked and stuck with. Basically, each artist had their own graphic tile, you clicked on it, and it took you into a sub-folder with all of their albums. It was one of the few things I really liked about iTunes, and the MediaMonkey equivalents so far will take some getting used to. Not the end of the world, just something I was used to...

...and actually, while looking for an image to demonstrate, I came across a wishlist request for exactly this. So unless it cropped up somewhere, it looks like it's not available for MediaMonkey.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =4&t=45979

3. This didn't work for me, unfortunately. Hitting "back" still took me to the top of my 47,000+ song library.

Thanks for the quick and helpful reply.