Sync a USB stick?

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I have been trying for some time to have my MediaMonkey playlists and songs play on a flash drive. So far the only way I know to set up a flash drive is to simply copy all folders with enclosed songs to the drive using XP. This results in the stereo playing music from folders alphabetically, and ignores my playlists. I would like to use the method in this thread

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52221

to 'sync' my MM music to my flash drive so that my car stereo will play the songs from the folders in the order I wish. In trying to follow the above topic with 4.06, I don`t get the option to 'configure' my flash drive as the instructions direct because there is no 'configure' option available. Is there a newer method?

It seems my car stereo will play songs from a folder in alphabetic order if they are copied over at the same time but if they are copied over at different times, it will play the newest first. However, I shudder at thinking of moving files over to the folders one at a time to ensure my playlist is honored by the car stereo and wanted to try the numbering method if it is still valid.
Or might there be a way to alter the timestamp on each file as it is copied to the flash drive so that it follows the playlist. This would be ideal if you could do it by some scripting magic or something like that.

Thanks for any help.

And by the way. I think MediaMonkey is the greatest!

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[nohitter151]

Instead of right-click > configure, click on the device in the tree. It should show 3 tabs at the top, click "Options" then "Destination". Then you enter something like <Playlist>\<Auto Number> - <Artist> - <Title> next to the Music box.

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Well, that wasn`t the result I had hoped for but it worked perfectly. I had wanted to have only one folder for each playlist with the songs on the flash drive copied in the order in which MM had randomized them for me on my computer. However, I did learn something more about MediaMonkey so it wasn`t wasted on me. As it is I still have to go through a second layer of files which are organized by artist.

Maybe in a future rendition of MediaMonkey we can go for something like I have mentioned. I know there are a lot of people looking for a simple way to do this by the amount of questions I Googled so there is a need. Just have to be patient.


Thanks nohitter151.

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Okay all.......... with justsomeguy6575 and nohitter151`s help I have finally found out how to sync my flash drive so that my music files are in the same order they are on my computer and my car stereo will play them as I wish. I want to thank you guys for your help. It made a lot of difference!

1. Make sure your playlist is ordered as you wish. The first time I was successful in moving music files to my flash drive the way I had been instructed, I had forgotten to randomize my playlist so that they were in alphabetical order because that is how they were added to the original playlist.

2. Plug in the flash drive you are going to add music to. In MM 4.06 it will show up over in the left hand side in the Media Tree. If you don`t see Media Tree, go to View and give it a check mark.

3. Click on the flash drive and a window will appear to the right that allows you to do all sorts of stuff to the device which you are going to sync. In this case the flash drive. For my Lexar flash drive I have 3 tabs at the top of the page; Summary - Which tells you all the interesting stuff MM knows about your music device, Auto-Sync List - Which lists all the stuff MM can get to and manipulate (Music, Podcast, Playlist etc.), and finally Options - Which gives you all sorts of ways to arrange your auto-sync desires.

There are choices to be made on each tab so you can experiment any time and see what you can do. Right now though, concentrate on the flash drive.

4. On the Auto-Sync List tab, choose the Playlist option and to the right, all your playlists will show up. To clear them so you can choose what you want, uncheck the Playlist box. Check the playlist(s) you want on your flash drive.

5. Now click on the Options tab of the window that has your media storage in it. (In my case, Lexar Jump Drive)

5. Now in this thread viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52221 , justsomeguy6575 says "In the "Synchronize track to:" box I enter: <Playlist>\<Auto Number> - <Artist> - <Title>". Well, in MM 4.06 this turns out to be "Sync Music Files To:" under "Destination" on the Options tab of the Auto-Sync window for my Lexar.

6. It took me a little while to figure out MM WILL sync your music to the device you have chosen so you don`t need to put the device in your path (e.g. "E:\") . In fact, in order to only have one folder per group of music files what I did was to leave the path without any instruction except this... "<Playlist>\<Auto Number> - <Title>" and MM wrote my music files to a newly created folder (named the same as my playlist by the way.) on my flash drive, in the same order as my playlist. I figured if it scattered them all over the flash drive I would just create a folder later and put them in it. My main goal was to have them numbered as I wished.

This worked well for me. I think on longer playlists since all my files will be numbered I will just divide them up and create numbered folders to put them in based on however many in each folder I wish. Since they are already numbered per the playlist the rest is all downhill.

So if you are using a different version of MM or whatever, don`t give up. Be patient and you will succeed.

Thanks justsomeguy6575 and nohitter151. You guys rock!

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