Save Settings Please

[geno42]

My settings are not saving. When I close MM, the next time I open it back up things are different. During my search for a way to save my settings I discovered that this seems to be a pretty common theme in the forums. So, I suggest a “save settings” button. Also, tell me where the settings file is so I can back it up for obvious reasons.

[nohitter151]

If you read the other topics that you searched on, you should have seen some tips about how to figure out why this is happening.

Usually, it happens when the program crashes or hangs instead of closing normally. You can verify by checking the windows task manager "Processes" tab to see if MediaMonkey.exe is still running after you close it. If so, that is your problem. Hangs on closing can be caused by addons.

[geno42]

Thanks for your response, you have helped clarifiy things. I understand why these things happen - and they will. My point is, we should not be relying on what was saved during the last session (glitch or not). We should have a well defined "Save This, It Is What I Want" file. An INI file for example.

[Lowlander]

ini file is located here: http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/inde ... ticleid=17

[nohitter151]

Thanks for your response, you have helped clarifiy things. I understand why these things happen - and they will. My point is, we should not be relying on what was saved during the last session (glitch or not). We should have a well defined "Save This, It Is What I Want" file. An INI file for example.

As Lowlander said, there is an INI file. Other settings are also saved to the registry and database.

[geno42]

Great, thanks guys. Knowing where some of these settings are will certainly help.
Now, all we need is the button. And another while I'm on a roll… (Save Settings) (Restore Settings).

[nohitter151]

Great, thanks guys. Knowing where some of these settings are will certainly help.
Now, all we need is the button. And another while I'm on a roll… (Save Settings) (Restore Settings).

The point is that save settings is not necessary, because it saves when the program closes.

[Guest]

If you read the other topics that you searched on, you should have seen some tips about how to figure out why this is happening.

Usually, it happens when the program crashes or hangs instead of closing normally. You can verify by checking the windows task manager "Processes" tab to see if MediaMonkey.exe is still running after you close it. If so, that is your problem. Hangs on closing can be caused by addons.

The problem is much deeper than that. I am experiencing the same problem as the OP, but it feels much worse. My Media Monkey will revert back to the original preferences frequently during use, it doesn't even wait until I quit the program. I'll change songs, put in a CD, go to the options menu and click "cancel" and all of my user preferences are reset and all of my classical music disappears. It's very maddening. I maybe get 10 or 15 minutes of use out of the program before the reset occurs. On the plus side, I'm becoming very good at changing the settings.

I run the latest build of Mediamonkey on Windows 7 SP1 on an i5-2500K with 8GB of RAM, a 640GB HDD, and an Sapphire AMD 6770. I've tried reinstalling Media Monkey. I've done the manual uninstall (removing all ini files and databases manually in the applications data folders) and reinstall. I've checked to make sure there are no background processes with the Task Manager. I don't use any plugins or scripts that aren't bundled with the distribution. I've run it with Administrator permissions. I made sure I don't use a portable installation. Nothing seems to help me at all.

Don't get me wrong; I love the program. The out-of-the-box functionality in Media Monkey 3 was fantastic; it satisfied every need we had. I've been a user since version 2 and a lifetime gold member since version 3--it's definitely worth the money. I can't move up to version 4 until the bugs get ironed out though. Someday when I have time I will try to download the debug version and send some logs, but for the moment I wanted the OP and the other posters in other threads know that other people are having this problem too and it's not easily fixed, at least in my case.

[nohitter151]

My Media Monkey will revert back to the original preferences frequently during use, it doesn't even wait until I quit the program. I'll change songs, put in a CD, go to the options menu and click "cancel" and all of my user preferences are reset and all of my classical music disappears. It's very maddening. I maybe get 10 or 15 minutes of use out of the program before the reset occurs. On the plus side, I'm becoming very good at changing the settings.

If you hit "Cancel" to get out of the options menu, then none of your options that you just set will save. That's the point of the "cancel" button.

[Lowlander]

Classical Music is in the Classical Music which can be enabled/disabled under the Tools > Options > Media Tree. If you change any settings here you will need to OK the Options to actually have them saved.

There are some bugs related to column settings being lost under specific situations, but music being lost has not been reported before (other than people not looking in the correct Collection).

[Guest]

If you hit "Cancel" to get out of the options menu, then none of your options that you just set will save. That's the point of the "cancel" button.

Mate, seriously? I can give you my processor model number and know what the task manager is, but somehow managed to forget what the "cancel" button does? I select the options and then change my mind and click "cancel", and yet my entire setup gets sent back to the original installation. I'm merely illustrating the variety of scenarios over which I observe this bug.

Classical Music is in the Classical Music which can be enabled/disabled under the Tools > Options > Media Tree. If you change any settings here you will need to OK the Options to actually have them saved.

I very much know that. And it works, for about 15 minutes to a half-hour. Sometimes it will wait until I exit. I've already reset it multiple times today. And then it reverts back to "enabled" and everything disappears. And it's frustrating.

[auralarch]

Disappointing that there has been no further responses after the guest user succinctly clarified that he indeed understood the correct meaning and usage of the terminology he was using and that was not the issue.

This seems like a fairly serious problem that I would hope would be getting more attention (and resolution) especially for those who have paid for the gold version (who lose all their paid for features each time the settings "reset" themselves).

I am experiencing similar symptoms. My settings will revert to default during what seems like normal use to me, although it is much more sporadic for me, not as quickly or frequently mentioned above (15 minutes). I'm not losing my settings during each MM session, and if it does happen, it's usually after hours of use. I have found that my settings do seem to be "lost" or reset about 50% of the time after I shut down or restart my system which is puzzling to me.

If I understand correctly, ALL the settings were reverted to default/original settings when the user decided to cancel a few changes- BUT this is after settings had already been changed and saved at least once. So cancel should not "reset" all settings, it should just not apply the changes made that instance of options window being opened. Correct?
In any case, what I described above has happened to me, but it does not occur every time. And although I work as a troubleshooter in IT with a good rating for speedy effective resolution; I can not pinpoint what circumstances may possibly be the catalyst or cause of this unexpected behavior and I am unable to reproduce it at will. But it continues to happen which is rapidly becoming increasingly frustrating.
And of course each time my settings are reset I lose my "gold" status which is also quite a pain- although it didn't take long before I saved a text file on my desktop with my registration information!

Anyway, it seems that the point it: even though there shouldn't be a need for a "save settings" command due to the way the program works, apparently it doesn't actually work that way all the time- in fact the errors seem to be fairly widespread and frequent. So, regardless of how things are supposed to work, we really do need this feature as an explicit command for when things break down- especially in regards to add-ons & plugins (which are inherently externally maintained) whose malfunction undermines MM's ability to close properly resulting in the loss of settings.
The "restore settings" command would also be a logical, useful & needed element of the solution to this issue/new feature. A "backup" and/or "export" settings commands are also obviously an intrinsic part of this constellation as well and should not be left out. Whether or not both options were to be included, I would propose that "backup settings" would call a 'save location' dialog window for the ini file, while the "export settings" command would create & save a zip file containing the ini file, the db files as well as the registry entries as reg files- and any other settings or data files aside from the media files of course.

Any insight, ideas, advice or alternative, potential explanations/solutions would be greatly appreciated! My primary objective is to MM gold without regularly being forced to completely reconfigure it or as I just learned, manually backup & restore the settings (this will be quite helpful saving me time & frustration- THANK YOU for posting those most helpful links Lowlander!)

[nohitter151]

Anyway, it seems that the point it: even though there shouldn't be a need for a "save settings" command due to the way the program works, apparently it doesn't actually work that way all the time- in fact the errors seem to be fairly widespread and frequent. So, regardless of how things are supposed to work, we really do need this feature as an explicit command for when things break down- especially in regards to add-ons & plugins (which are inherently externally maintained) whose malfunction undermines MM's ability to close properly resulting in the loss of settings.

The point is that if your settings are reverting to the default, and not to what they previously were, a "save settings" button won't do any good anyway. Because the situation you describe is a complete loss of settings, even previous ones, and indicates that you've lost some key files on your PC or some key registry entries. Having an explicit "save settings" command is not going to prevent whatever is happening on your PC that totally clears those settings, because its happening from the outside by another program, and not by MM.

[Guest]

Anyway, it seems that the point it: even though there shouldn't be a need for a "save settings" command due to the way the program works, apparently it doesn't actually work that way all the time- in fact the errors seem to be fairly widespread and frequent. So, regardless of how things are supposed to work, we really do need this feature as an explicit command for when things break down- especially in regards to add-ons & plugins (which are inherently externally maintained) whose malfunction undermines MM's ability to close properly resulting in the loss of settings.

The point is that if your settings are reverting to the default, and not to what they previously were, a "save settings" button won't do any good anyway. Because the situation you describe is a complete loss of settings, even previous ones, and indicates that you've lost some key files on your PC or some key registry entries. Having an explicit "save settings" command is not going to prevent whatever is happening on your PC that totally clears those settings, because its happening from the outside by another program, and not by MM.

Since a number of us have had the same problem and this seemed to be an active thread, it seemed to be a good place to talk about our collective experiences. Obviously, a save settings button isn't the solution, but I'd rather not start a new thread. As a guest, I'm not even sure I'm allowed to. Now, I tried a new build of MediaMonkey and have the same problem I had before. My settings--including but possibly not limited to the layout of the program, nodes, and preferences--reset to the defaults after about 15 to 30 minutes of usage. This problem still happens. I have a friend at work who also owns MediaMonkey gold with future upgrades, and he has the same problem too (although he's less motivated to fix it). I am happy to download and install a version to assist in debugging. But for the moment, I have to stick with 3.x in spite of purchasing a lifetime license.

[Lowlander]

There has been no report that it resets after 15-30 minutes (thus a debug log would be useful: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=69). The problem described here and this goes for all versions of MediaMonkey is that settings aren't saved until you exit MediaMonkey instead of when you make the setting changes. This means that plenty of people will run into lost settings or Now Playing at some point during their use of MediaMonkey.
For some this problem is worse as a plugged in portable device or addon is causing MediaMonkey to fail to exit properly, thus never saving the settings.
MediaMonkey 4 is improved on save settings front, I think it may be done earlier in the exit MediaMonkey process, thus resulting in less cases of lost settings. However an actual save on settings change hasn't been implemented (hopefully yet).