MediaMonkey forum

Hi,

I've read basically every thread there is searching for the keywords "ipod" and "lyrics" and all the threads either say that everything is working, everything is fixed or there are no answers.

So here is my problem:
I have a few mp3 files for which the lyrics are correctly synced to my "old" 30GB iPod but for most of my files this doesn't work. When I change to the "lyrics" page on my iPod only the title of the current song is displayed - so the iPod does seem to recognize that there should be lyrics...

I tried (using mp3tag 2.41) copying the "UNSYNCEDLYRICS" field from the id3v2 tag from a working to a non working file but it did not help. ID3v2 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 mixed but it doesn't seem to matter.

The only common thing for the non working files seems to be that I used MediaMonkey to edit or add the lyrics (manually or using the Lyricator Script) the other files came "pretagged" or I used another program to edit the lyrics. But not all "other" files work so I am at a loss as to what can cause this.

Please tell me if I can be of any help in investigating this problem.

I emailed a log file, SysInfo and iTunesDB to your support e-mail address.

As I wrote in some older threads here, so far I don't know about any issue in MM. The only problem seems to be that iPod FW can't read lyrics from ID3v2 tags in some cases (it isn't yet clear when).

Jiri

Okay. I'll do some further tests with all kinds of ID3 tags and let you know if I find out anything useful.

I did some tests:

The kind of tag doesn't seem to matter. I tested with and without ID3v1, with id3v 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 using different encodings (ASCII, UTF-8, UTF-16 where possible).

What I did:
1) Restore iPod
2) Use MediaMonkey to sync my library
-> Lyrics work fine for every single track

3) Change any tag at all in one file that contains lyrics (what I actually did was to open the properties window and press the arrow to switch through my songs, MediaMonkey will "update" the tag).

3) Auto-Sync - the songs I "updated" are resynced to the iPod
4) The songs that were synced have the lyrics problem now (only title is shown) all the other songs still work perfectly.

This seems to be reproducable. I have copied iTunesDB and iTunesControl (don't know if that is useful) after step 2) and after step 3). Don't know if that would help?

Dodger,

I've just tested this out with a range of Tracks all tagged with MM and Lyrics seem to display correctly on the iPod (Nano 3g).

Also, a couple of possible causes of the problem are:
-faulty tags. Try selecting the problematic tracks and Cleaning ID3 tags, and then Synchronizing the tags (these functions are available via Tools > Advanced Tag Management > ...
-the tracks weren't resynced to the iPod. You might want to try deleting the tracks from the iPod to be certain that they're resynching.

If the above doesn't help, can you send me 2-3 tracks that have the problem you describe? Best way is to send the tracks via yousendit.com to support att... mm... dot com (don't send the attachments directly).

Thx.

-Rusty

Thanks for the suggestions:
- faulty tags: Tried as you suggested, problem persists - no lyrics
- deleting the track then resyncing worked but this supports what I found out: Everything works fine on the "first" sync (when the song in question has not been on the iPod before) but on an update the lyrics are lost.

The cause of the update doesn't matter. I "forced" a resync by just updating any field (comment...) in the tag and did not touch the lyrics field at all.

I still can send you some of the tracks in question but I'm fairly certain that I can reproduce this behaviour with any MP3 now.

Is there anything else I can help you with?
It is an iPod video 30 GB (I think those were called 5.5g), firmware 1.30 no modifications whatsoever.

Anyway: Thanks for looking into this problem!

I realized that I did not make myself clear

the tracks weren't resynced to the iPod. You might want to try deleting the tracks from the iPod to be certain that they're resynching.

- Without deleting the songs from the iPod first I still can see the progress bar and it says something like "copying file...." and any tags that I have updated are correctly synced to the iPod but the lyrics seem to be...corrupted (only title of the track is shown)

- With deleting the songs in question first Mediamonkey behaves exactly like above (copying, progressbar, ...) but the lyrics work as expected

Even more information:

1) I used MediaMonkey to get the path to two mp3-files on my iPod. Both have lyrics in MediaMonkeys library and in their tags. I copied both files to my harddrive.
2) I used Mp3Tag to check for the UNSYNCEDLYRICS field and it is gone in one file and still there in the other file.

So what happens seems to be this:
1) MediaMonkey detects a new song to sync, detects that it has lyrics attached and sets the flag in the iTunesDB file accordingly and copies the track including the UNSYNCEDLYRICS field
2) I change anything in the tag - the timestamp in the Songs table is updated and upon the next synchronization the file is stripped of its UNSYNCEDLYRICS field (all others are preseverd) and copied onto the iPod but the lyrics flag in iTunesDB is still set (hence the empty "lyrics page" on my iPod)

I now believe this is a bug in MediaMonkey.
I have these files from before and after a sync if and I can send them if they'd help you:
- The mp3 from my harddrive
- The mp3 from the iPod
- DB Dump for the row in the Songs table for this song
- iTunesDB from the iPod

I hope you understand everything I'm trying to explain as english is not my native tongue and I'm struggling at times

_dodger_
I think you've made a great job with all this "research".
The problem you described is exactly what I have with my iPod Video 80GB (5th gen), but I never took the time to track the cause of it.

I just can say that "it looks like" your conclusions "seem" correct, because the steps you describe are the same that cause my lyrics to be lost.

My pleasure
I am relieved to see that I am not the only one with this problem.

I just hope I provided enough information and that this bug can be fixed easily.

It seems that I reproduced it - but only when the option to store album art to tag, or remove it from tag is turned on for the iPod (in its configuration dialog). Is it your case?

Jiri

jiri wrote:It seems that I reproduced it - but only when the option to store album art to tag, or remove it from tag is turned on for the iPod (in its configuration dialog). Is it your case?

In my library, all album art is linked.
And in iPod config dialog, both "store album art to tag" and "remove images from tags if greater than..." options are disabled.

In my library all album art is stored in the tags.
And the options are the same as gege's. I have uploaded a screenshot but I believe the options are all default values.

Also no auto-conversion? Or anything else non-standard? Otherwise MM just makes a plain copy of the track on PC to iPod and there can't be any diff in tags...

Jiri