Syncing with Palm Pre?

[pchrist]

http://forums.precentral.net/showthread ... ost2273263

ok i found this thread on precentral that talks about syncing the pre with media monkey. They get album art and playlists. What if you copy a playlist from a m3u file and use that to create a new one. Is there a way to get that to sync with album art with no issues? I am at work right now and can't get my media monkey to work here or i would try! Looking for any and all solutions. It's nice to have the artwork show up on the display.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[petvas]

I have read this thread and there are some mistakes in the guide. I managed to get everything on my Pre running 1.4 by doing configuring it as an iPod (Media Sync), using the iPod file structure and embedding cover art in the songs.
It works great now! I don't know if the reason 1.4 is, because with the same settings it didn't work on 1.3.5

[pchrist]

Petvas could you tell me what the mistakes are? I am trying to get this to work but can't. I have the playlists showing up but i don't have any of the album art there. trying to get it cleared up so it works and looks correct

[petvas]

I would propose the following:

* Delete the ipod Control folder from your device
* Enable Media Sync if you are running 1.4.0
* Configure sync in Mediamonkey and enable the iPod file structure. Enable also embedding Album Art in the tags. (do not copy in separate directory!)

Did you try the above?

[petvas]

Ok, guys, something curious is happening. I just replugged my Pre to sync it and now the album art is gone!!! I am trying to figure it out myself...

UPDATE: Ok, I think I know what happened here. I plugged my Pre to a different USB port and it seems that the config is gone...I now deleted the ipod control directory and syncing again. I will post again when sync is finished (about 30 mins)

UPDATE 2: Sync has finished and everything worked great. I had problems before because I accidentaly connected my pre to a different usb port and mediamonkey didnt recognize it as an ipod and I forced a sync again...that destroyed my album art...After I deleted everything and resynced everything is back. I even tried syncing twice and everything is ok

[greenawayj]

Until now, I have been syncing MM with my Pre using the USB method (as a USB drive). I'm evaluting whether or not to use MediaSync approach, but USB MM sync has worked well for me so far. In following the PreCentral thread referenced above, I got to thinking about the two alternatives and why I might want to move from USB to MediaSync.... in the end, I don't want to lose album art (I can't tell from all of the posts if this issue is still happening - I know it's happening to at least PChrist.

Anyway, I'm leaning towards the USB approach.... only m3u playlists are holding me back (but I have a workaround that works 100% of the time). So, regarding the USB approach to syncing to the Pre:

Album art come over just fine and I do not use the ITunes folder structure (and don't want to). All of my music goes to one /music folder on my Pre. Coincidentally, my m3u Playlists also sync over perfectly to that folder (that where I told them to go). As I understand it, the Pre's built in music player will only find music in playlists which reflect the "Relative" path to the music (relative to the Playlist location) rather than the Absolute file path to the music files (Relative to the Root directory USB:\. However, when MM syncs M3U playlists to my Pre's USB:\Music directory, the path listed for each playlist file is the full absolute path USB:\Music\filename.mp3. My fix to this issue has been to edit the M3U playlist on the pre in a text editor to remove "USB:\Music\" Doing this leaves just a text list of music files Song1.mp3, song2.mp3, etc.. Once I've done this, the M3U playlists show up in the Pre Music Player (& Music Player Remix) and play just fine.....

The only inconsistency in my statement above is that putting the playlists in the Root directory should theoretically yield the proper path to the file \Music\song1.mp3, etc... but doing this does not work. Maybe the playlists just MUST be in the exact same directory as the music files and MUST NOT have any path, just the file names.

So my point in this long post is: Is there another way to do this? (first of all) And can MM have an option in the playlists (or device managment) tabs to put the M3U playlists in the same (common) folder as the mp3 files and list the files by absolute path?

Thanks to anyone who can comment on any of this.

[greenawayj]

The only inconsistency in my statement above is that putting the playlists in the Root directory should theoretically yield the proper path to the file \Music\song1.mp3, etc... but doing this does not work. Maybe the playlists just MUST be in the exact same directory as the music files and MUST NOT have any path, just the file names.

So after further testing, the Pre's built in Media player (and Music Player Remix) can only play m3u playlists which meet the following criteria:

• All music to be played by the playlist must be in the same folder -- no hierarchical folder structure with artist\genre\album\song.mp3, etc...
• The .m3u playlist itself, must be in that same folder
• The .m3u playlist must literally just list the file names of the songs. No folder structure or path whatsoever.

The only way currently to accomplish this with MM would be to sync your music and playlists to the Pre's Root \ directory. While this is a technical solution, it's fairly impractical from a disk organization standpoint.

For now, I can accomplish this with a simple text edit using Notepad++ once MM finishes syncing my playlists.

Personally, I would love to see a MM update with settings in the Device Config settings (Copy Playlists options) to force: All music to one folder (no hierarchy allowed), all playlists to that folder as well, and all .m3u playlists to include just the song filenames with no leading path.

I realize, it's possible that MediaSync might overcome these issues, but personally, I don't use ITunes and I'd prefer to keep m3u playlists rather than IPod playlists

[nohitter151]

Personally, I would love to see a MM update with settings in the Device Config settings (Copy Playlists options) to force: All music to one folder (no hierarchy allowed), all playlists to that folder as well,

Seems to me that both of these are already possible via the device options under "Device configuration" tab of the device.

and all .m3u playlists to include just the song filenames with no leading path.

It will be available when MM4 is released.

[greenawayj]

Personally, I would love to see a MM update with settings in the Device Config settings (Copy Playlists options) to force: All music to one folder (no hierarchy allowed), all playlists to that folder as well,

Seems to me that both of these are already possible via the device options under "Device configuration" tab of the device.

First of all, thanks for the reply. I really enjoy MM and I'm definitely a big supporter among the Pre community (wish that community was bigger, but it is what it is!!)

Yes... I should have been more clear about the priorities -- the most important missing element (requiring manual manipulation to get playlist sync working on the Pre) is the one below. I agree that adjusting the "Sync Tracks to" and "Copy Playlists [options]-Destination Directory:" settings as-is can make this work. I guess I was just imagining a checkbox or something in the Playlist dialog box that says "Use Music directory" (but that would require that the music directory is just a 1-level directory and not hierarchical). I'm sure I'm just overthinking this - clearly most people wanting the power and sophistication of MM can handle this on our own within the current customization settings.

and all .m3u playlists to include just the song filenames with no leading path.

It will be available when MM4 is released.

Awesome. Have you released a timeframe for MM4 and have you decided upgrade pricing for MM3Gold licensees?

[nohitter151]

There will probably be an alpha release of MM in 1-2 months, upgrade pricing will likely be similar to the transition from 2 -> 3, but don't quote me on it.

[greenawayj]

There will probably be an alpha release of MM in 1-2 months, upgrade pricing will likely be similar to the transition from 2 -> 3, but don't quote me on it.

Too late, I already quoted you on it.... sorry. I couldn't resist. ^^^^

Anyway, thanks for the support and the continued development. MM is definitely the most full-featured and flexible media manager available today. You should be proud of the product and more importantly, I hope you are making money on it!!!

Thanks again.