FiiO X7, MMA , and Google Problems and Solutions

Get answers about the current release of MediaMonkey for Android

Moderator: Gurus

joepet
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:28 pm
Location: Oakland, California

FiiO X7, MMA , and Google Problems and Solutions

Post by joepet »

MediaMonkey and FiiO X7; Married At Last

But I can’t say it hasn’t been a struggle. If you are the parents of this proposed marriage, you should read every single word of this because it will save you hours of frustration. MediaMonkey is the most fabulous digital media player and media library application I know of. I have been using it for many, many years. I have it now on my Desktop running Windows 10. I have about 50,000 songs and short movie sound bites mostly in flac which takes up about 470 Gigs. Big music collection, not the biggest, however I do have a unique feature….I have about 40, very long playlists of popular music and in between each song I have a very short sound bite from a movie, it is really quite entertaining. I have the music arranged chronologically by year from 1950 to 1990. Some of these playlists are 1000 files long and it took a long time to create them. So when I decided I wanted a mobile digital player, it had to be one I could just sync to incorporate these playlists and definitely NOT recreate them.

I started out many years ago with an iPod classic which had 120 gigs. So right away a problem: Apple did not like flac and so I converted all my files that I wanted to sync into Apple lossless and using itunes I was able to get my complex playlists from MediaMonkey onto the iPod without recreating them, but it was a long, complex process. Before you say there are easier ways to do that now, please remember this was years ago when MediaMonkey was just a young chimpanzee. Let me say at this point that comparing itunes to MediaMonkey is like comparing a Model T to a Lamborghini.

My old iPod finally died while I was taking off on the runway at SFO leaving for vacation! Grrrr! Sooo I searched for a new digital player and finally bought a FiiO X7. Stupid me, I never noticed that the FiiO X7 was not specifically listed on the MediaMonkey website as a supported device….BTW it still isn’t (except as an Android Device). I figured it was Android and so it would work with MediaMonkey….well it does but it was not without some problems. I have been working with desktops for years so I am very comfortable with them. I am not a big portable device guy….I have an iPhone 3 that was given to me and it spends 99.99% of its life in my desk drawer…turned off…. so the world of Android is foreign to me and I did not know the key role that Google played in all this….so it really it is not a marriage but rather a Ménage à Trois: MediaMonkey, FiiO X7 and Google!

I could not believe I had to go to the Google Play Store to download MMA. I would have thought I would download it from the MediaMonkey site….just like the desktop version. I thought: I don’t go to the Microsoft site to download the desktop version, why should I have to go to the Google site to download MMA? But that is the way it is. The first problem was I had difficulty syncing using USB. I discovered that syncing with WiFi worked better, so that is what I used. I purchased MMA Pro for 4 dollars to WiFi sync……is that why Google has its fingers in the pie, so they can make money?

I eventually got it all working fine and then FiiO offered an upgraded OS from FW2.0 to 3. something. This also upgraded the Android from 4.4.4 to 5.1 and so I upgraded and just resynced everything….like 180 gigs worth. So great, I upgraded and ran into a curious and fatal problem: My music played fine….but as soon as it played one of the short movie bite files, all subsequent files (no matter short or long or mp3 or flac) would execute but with no sound. If I restarted everything was OK until I played one of the short files again and then the problem reappeared. I went around and around and around and around with FiiO on this (I still have all the emails) and I even sent them the files and they said the files played just fine. The only problem was they were not playing them on MMA. They eventually just ignored me and I don’t blame them….they were not duplicating my situation so they saw no problem.

FiiO encouraged me to use their native music App but I would have to recreate my complex playlists….besides that, their native music player does not begin to compare to MMA, I will spare you the details. If I was FiiO I would dump their native music player and embrace MMA, but I suppose there are reasons to not do that as a company, but as a customer, there is no doubt as to the vast superiority of MMA on the FiiO X7.

So I went back to the FW2.0 FiiO OS and Android 4.4.4, resynced everything and all was well.
BTW FiiO offered several subsequent OS upgrades, I repeated what I just described several times and the fatal flaw was always there, so I am stuck with FW2.0 which works just fine.

All was well for more than a year ….remember the third part of this marriage?: Google. Google who I always had the highest regard for…I use Chrome, my email is .gmail.com etc. All of a sudden about a few months ago (the end of 2018), I start getting this message: “Unfortunately, Google Play Services has stopped. “ That would not be so bad, but Google decided to deliver that message about every 2 or 3 seconds and you would have to click OK before you could do anything else. Soooo I just deleted the Google Play Services app….well no good, MMA requires Google Play Services for some reason which escapes me…maybe it is the 4 dollars . So I reload it and, of course, I am getting the $%#^*%^@ message again. Besides being very frustrating, the odd thing was that MMA kept working….so if what you need stops, why do you keep working?

This was a disaster, my wonderful marriage was destroyed….and for once it was not because of something I did….I did nothing.

BTW if you look on the web there are lots of fixes for “Unfortunately, Google Play Services has stopped. “….I tried them all and none worked. I finally figured out that Google auto updated Google Play Services over WiFi and the new version was having problems with Android 4.4.4 (I guess), which I am locked into as I previously explained. So I finally uninstalled the updated version of Google Play Services and installed a previous version (see P.S.) from the website Uptodown. That worked, no more nasty messages…..then a few hours later the messages returned…sure enough good ole Google updated my Google Play Services. So I repeated the process and once I had the old version installed I shut off my WiFi…..it is not a phone, and the only reason I use WiFi is to sync. BTW if you turn off auto updates in Google Play, it still updates Google Play Services which made me want to strangle someone at Google.

Sooo whenever I synced over WiFi, Google seldom missed a chance to upgrade (ha) Google Play Services and then the frustrating and annoying messages would start again…..so I would uninstall Google Play Services and that would stop the messages but then MediaMonkey would not work, so I would reinstall the old Google Play Services (and quickly turn off WiFi!) and everything would be great.

So I did this several times (whenever I synced) and then one time when I tried to install the old Google Play Services, I got this lovely message: “Parse Error-There was a problem parsing the package.” And so no installation and no MediaMonkey, no nothing. I looked up the possible solutions to this on the internet and the easy solutions did not work and the difficult ones, involving downloading a debugging app and really going into the guts of things, scared the crap out of me. I reasoned that the solution should be simple….It was: It turns out that all my downloads (like 20 of them) of the old Google Play Services apk had accumulated in my downloads folder and that caused the parse problem. I cleared them, downloaded and installed the old Google Play Services and everything is fine…..of course I turned off my WiFi. Having my WiFi off is not a problem, this is a music player, not a cell phone….Also I am about at the limit of my 200 Gig chip and I have all the music and playlists that I want and everything is working perfectly….so my need/capacity to sync is very low, and if I have to sync and Googles does its usual dirty work, I know how to fix things. Besides, as we all know, there has been practically no good music created after 1990. 

I am posting this on the MediaMonkey and the FiiO websites and sent this to Google (no, I don’t expect them to change) and I hope it helps someone avoid the problems and frustrations I have had.

Joe


P.S. This is what works on the FiiO X7:

Google Play Services 12.8.80
Google Play Store 12.9.12-all[0] [PR] 224566662
Google Account Manager 4.0.4-299894
MediaMonkey 1.3.3.0842
MediaMonkey Pro 1.1.0008
FW 2.0
Android 4.4.4
joepet
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:28 pm
Location: Oakland, California

Re: FiiO X7, MMA , and Google Problems and Solutions

Post by joepet »

Well all that described in my previous post was OK, until during a WiFi sync Google updated Google Play Services, producing the unending error message I previously described. Only this time I could not download and install the old 12.X version!!!! Kept getting the parse error message because FiiO with Android 4.4.4 does not allow third party downloads. Somehow I was able to do this previously, but no more....I know not why, but believe me I tried and tried.

So I installed MMA from Amazon, which for some reason does not require Google Play Services. Everything was OK for a while until I discovered that some songs, not many, but some, did not play on MMA on the FiiO X7. They play fine on my PC with MM and they also play on the X7 with the FiiO native music program. There is a bug someplace and I am not skilled enough to deal with it.

So I had no choice but to upgrade the X7 to the latest system: FW3.3.7 and not use MMA since (for some reason) Android 5.X produces the bug that short files do not play correctly (see my previous post) they work fine with Android 4.X....go figure!. So I have to use the FiiO native music program. I can't sync to that program from MM on my PC so that makes organization of my thousands of files really awful on the X7....and as described previously I have many playlists that have hundreds of sound files and I do not want to recreate them.

My solution was to use the Folders method in the FiiO native music program, where I could create the exact same, very efficient organization that I have in MM on my PC.
This took many hours of work using the excellent "Auto-Organize files" feature of MM. Besides the enormous amount of time it took to do this it also has the minor drawback that the same song file in two different playlists requires twice the space. Since the latest issue of the FiiO native music system provides support for M3u playlists I may try that....but right now everything works.

Joe
Peke
Posts: 17457
Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2003 7:21 pm
Location: Earth
Contact:

Re: FiiO X7, MMA , and Google Problems and Solutions

Post by Peke »

Hi,
Unfortunately as I explained at https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewt ... 60#p457060 FiiO support is almost none even you put them all into mouth and chew it for them.

Using M7 profile you should be able to Load M3U8 playlists using Folder Browser, but it is sad that they simply ignore to Whitelist MMA.

EDIT: Try using ES File Explorer to download and install APK files.

Also I created https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=15571 to address Playlist issue.
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
Image
Image
Image
How to attach PICTURE/SCREENSHOTS to forum posts
joepet
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2009 1:28 pm
Location: Oakland, California

Re: FiiO X7, MMA , and Google Problems and Solutions

Post by joepet »

Hi,
Thank you for your reply.

Regarding installation of APK files, that problem was a result of FiiO with Android 4.x not having the option to download 3rd party software. FiiO with Android 5.x (which I am forced to use due to Google Services problem with 4.x) has that capability so problem solved.

Regarding using m3u8 playlists, I have sent this to FiiO support:

"Hello FiiO Support,

OK, I have found the playlist, not in “Playlists” but in Folder view of local music. Unfortunately the playlist shows the file name which is often contains information in addition to the title of the song.
Also it shows the art for the song that is selected or playing, but just shows generic art symbol for all the other songs in the playlist (unless that song is selected or Played).
Also m3u playlists yield “no file in this folder” so playlist must be labeled m3u8. I realize that m3u dropper instructions state this but you may wish to change “support for m3u playlists” to “support for m3u8 playlists” .

Here is my solution which may prove useful for FiiO support and your customers:

You should understand that I have many, very long (like 999 songs) playlists. So changing the all file names to the titles on my PC is not an attractive option for me.
So, using the Auto-Organize Files feature of MediaMonkey on my PC, I have simply created a folder for each playlist. The folder contains all the files in the playlist renamed to a 3 digit number (to maintain order) followed by the song title.
This then shows the correct song titles in the folder view of FiiO music. However, the art problem explained above still exists. One minor disadvantage of this solution is that if a song is used in more than one playlist then the same song exists in two or more folders and that takes more memory.

Thank You,
Joe

P.S. As I have explained in previous emails, I have given up trying to use MediaMonkey Android on the FiiO X7 since that combination unfortunately has bugs."

Everything working now, so I am relatively happy.
Thanks...MediaMonkey Is Wonderful,
Joe
Post Reply