I have Windows XP SP3, MM Gold 4.0.3, Android 2.3 (on a Samsung Droid Charge for Verizon) and I sync with USB mode, not MTP. I sync by choosing several Playlists in Auto-Sync settings. On the phone, I use both the factory Music Player and PowerAMP. (Any PowerAMP users who have figured this out, I would be really grateful for your PA-specific tips)
When you sync to a device, you can sync Playlists (Options > Portable/Audio Devices > Options > Playlists ). In that Settings screen you have some other options, most of which I can mostly only guess at their function. MORE BUBBLE HELP, please.
Generate Device Playlists for:
- Library Playlists - so I assume that this takes the Playlists shown in MM Library, under Playlists, and creates a Playlist file for each of those. From what I can gather from various forum posts, it will generate a PLA or M3U list depending on your device configuration. It will put the file(s) in the "Destination Directory" a few checkboxes below. Right?
- Artists, Albums, Location - I'm not using, and don't expect to every use, these.
- Destination Directory - I have \Playlists\.
- Organize Playlists by: - I have no idea what "prefix for each playlist type" might mean. No bubble help here.
- Force relative paths - I would assume that this would be either ON BY Default, or otherwise handled during the creation of the Playlist. The paths to the file on the PC will never have even a vague resemblance to the path on the device, right? D:\Library\Music is rather different from \sdcard\Music. Without these relative paths I would expect to have the playlist on the device come up as empty, since it would not have a valid path. Am I missing something?
- I don't care about the last three options here.
WHAT I WANT: I want the music in my selected playlists to appear on the device. I want the Playlists to be shown in the music player application on the device.
ISSUES: In my various experiments and mistakes I have spawned a number of playlists that now show as IMPORTED PLAYLISTS. This is not desirable behavior. Since I have settled on MM, I would like to have a more seamless experience.
QUESTIONS:
- If I manage to clean up all my MM LIbrary playlists, and manually delete all IMPORTED playlists in MM, and remove all current Playlists on the device, WHAT SETTINGS should I have, in MM, to accomplish WHAT I WANT from above?
- In Android, is it the system media scanner that finds the playlist files, and incorporates them into the device media database? That's how the music player app 'learns' about the playlists?
- In the Device settings, under Auto Sync, we have option to Auto-Sync files from device to the PC". This sounds like it would recognize updates music and playlist files that have been modified (new album art, or entry removed from PL, for example) and update the MM Library. (Once I get everything else stable, I will likely want these ON). So, in the case of Playlists, the Sync-er would update the Playlists in the Library based on what it sees in the Playlist that is being synced back from the phone? Powerful! And, of course, therefore, dangerous. Screw it up on the phone and you could make a mess in your MM Library)
Seems simple, but dang it, I'm tired of spending so many hours just trying to figure out what this thing does - because the documentation is so lacking (it's state of the art, I'm sure. I'm not knocking Ventis, per se. This is an industry-wide problem).
Side Note: I am using various M3U related scripts to manage all of this, and to clean up the messes that various experiments have caused.
Thanks in advance for your help, info, tips and patience for reading all of that!
-- Don
