Sync to Blackberry Problems

[BerrySync]

Sorry in advance for the long post ... wanted to make sure all the detials are clear.

I'm trying to use MM to manage all my music including syncing my playlists to my BlackBerry ... All the songs in my lists will sync correctly, but when I try to play the list, nothing happens ... when I view the list, all the songs are listed, but with play times of 0:00.

I have tries a bung of things and (sort of) have it working now .. here is what I did.

Sync all songs to a single folder \BlackBerry\Music and have the track names as <artist>-<Track Name>.mp3 ... I then have the playlist synced to the same folder. The playlist automatically adds the full path to the track name .... for example ... in a text editor the Comedy.M3U playlist file looks like this ...

BlackBerry\Music\Dane Cook - Creepy Guy @ Work_1.mp3
\BlackBerry\Music\Dane Cook - Dream House.mp3
\BlackBerry\Music\Patton Oswalt - The Dukes Of Hazzard.mp3
\BlackBerry\Music\Dane Cook - BAMF.mp3

This does not work ... if I remove the full path so that theplaylist looks like this

Dane Cook - Creepy Guy @ Work_1.mp3
Dane Cook - Dream House.mp3
Patton Oswalt - The Dukes Of Hazzard.mp3
Dane Cook - BAMF.mp3

It works fine ...

So .... here is the question, can I have MM just create the playlist file without the path by itself? If so, How? I have not found a way yet.

And ... is there an easier way to do all this?

Thanks

Marc

[nohitter151]

Unfortunately, no, you can't change the way playlists are made without creating a new plugin. Have you tried just syncing music to the root folder?

If that doesn't work you may have to continue editing the playlists by hand...

[chrisjj]

> Have you tried just syncing music to the root folder?

I've tried that in a similar situation and very much doubt it will solve the problem - MM uses absolute paths for the references regardless.

BerrySync, it might help you to know that .M3U format is correct and all the major Windows players I've tried it play it fine. So perhaps the best place to look for a solution is in the BlackBerry Media Player....

[marc_unwired]

Thanks for the suggestions ... I was the OP but for some reason my login was not working when I posted the question.

Syncing to the root would not be my prefered configuration, but I tried it anyway ... The .M3U file looked like this and did not work, same results as before

\Dane Cook - Creepy Guy @ Work_1.mp3
\Dane Cook - Dream House.mp3
\Patton Oswalt - The Dukes Of Hazzard.mp3
\Dane Cook - BAMF.mp3

Removing the backslash fixed it

I'll give the Blackberry community a shot ...

Marc

[Peke]

I wonder if Script could be made so that script create Playlist for blackberry, due the fact that there is after Sync script Event. You could try to present that in Scripts forum.

[Starlionblue]

Found the solution!

I have had this exact same problem. Exported iTunes playlists with iTunesExport. Imported into MediaMonkey. So far so good. But when I put them on my BlackBerry 8320:
- Playlist thinks songs are in \Music\Artist\songname.mp3
- Song is in \Media Card\Music\Artist\songname.mp3

But it doesn't end there. When I created a test playlist on the BlackBerry, I noticed that it actually saved items thus:
file:///SDCard/BlackBerry/music/Mike%20Oldfield/Mike%20Oldfield%20-%20In%20the%20Beginning.MP3


The m3u list made by MediaMonkey looks like this:
\Blackberry\music\Mike Oldfield\Mike Oldfield - In the Beginning.mp3

I used Word (any text editor will do) to edit the m3u files created by MediaMonkey. I performed the following steps:
- Change all instances of "\Blackberry" to "file:///SDCard/BlackBerry". Note the capitalization of "Berry". If your files are under "\Music" you would change it to "file:///SDCard/Music".
- Change all instances of "mp3" to "MP3"
- Change all "\" to "/".
- Finally, change all spaces to "%20". Do this last.

Voila, working fine. I'll make a little Word macro to speed up the process.

Update: Word macro works fine. But if the MediaMonkey gang wants to spare me the work next time, I'd be happy to let them. Both the conversion of iTunes playlists to m3u and the BlackBerry fix.

[chrisjj]

Exported iTunes playlists with iTunesExport. Imported into MediaMonkey. So far so good.

Which file format, please?

[Starlionblue]

Exported iTunes playlists with iTunesExport. Imported into MediaMonkey. So far so good.

Which file format, please?

m3u.


Here are all the steps I perform now, and the Word macro I use to "convert" m3u playlists from what MediaMonkey thinks my BB can read into what my BB can actually read.

1. Use iTunesExport to export my iTunes playlists into m3u format.
2. Import the playlists into Mediamonkey
3. Use Mediamonkey to sync playlists and music with BB
4. Copy the synced playlists from the BB to a temporary directory
5. Use a Word macro (detailed below) to change the playlists into a format readable by the BB
6. Copy playlists back onto BB
7. Play music


Word macro:

Sub Macro1()
'
' Macro1 Macro
'
'
End Sub
Sub BBSync()
'
' BBSync Macro
'
'
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "\Blackberry"
.Replacement.Text = "file:///SDCard/BlackBerry"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = "\"
.Replacement.Text = "/"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = "mp3"
.Replacement.Text = "MP3"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = " "
.Replacement.Text = "%20"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End Sub

[chrisjj]

> m3u.

I am not an iTunes user but a Mac iTunes with whom i interwork tells me

iTunes provides only three options for "Export Song List:; text, Unicode text, or XML.

so... i guess your Tunes is the Windows version??

[nohitter151]

> m3u.

I am not an iTunes user but a Mac iTunes with whom i interwork tells me

iTunes provides only three options for "Export Song List:; text, Unicode text, or XML.

so... i guess your Tunes is the Windows version??

No, neither mac nor Windows versions of iTunes support exporting playlists to m3u files natively. I believe you have to use some sort of addon i.e.: http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/itunesexport/

[Starlionblue]

> m3u.

I am not an iTunes user but a Mac iTunes with whom i interwork tells me

iTunes provides only three options for "Export Song List:; text, Unicode text, or XML.

so... i guess your Tunes is the Windows version??

No, neither mac nor Windows versions of iTunes support exporting playlists to m3u files natively. I believe you have to use some sort of addon i.e.: http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/itunesexport/

Correct.

[chrisjj]

> neither mac nor Windows versions of iTunes support exporting playlists to m3u files natively.

Thanks, both.

[Starlionblue]

Ideally, an app to do the sync should just read the iTunes playlists. It's just an XML file, after all.

[Snap]

Here is another approach:
1- From MM, export your playlist as m3u.
2- From Windows or WMP, import the playlist into WMP.
3- Use the BB Media Sync that comes with BB Desktop Manager to sync to your BB (this will take care of any needed convesions). Note that the B Medi Sync supports iTunes as well.
I hope this helps.

[Starlionblue]

Here is another approach:
1- From MM, export your playlist as m3u.
2- From Windows or WMP, import the playlist into WMP.
3- Use the BB Media Sync that comes with BB Desktop Manager to sync to your BB (this will take care of any needed convesions). Note that the B Medi Sync supports iTunes as well.
I hope this helps.

Well, of course I can do that, but I want a one-stop solution.

It's all moot now anyway. I bought an iPhone. Spectacular device.