If the USB sync is always so slow for you then you might want to use Wi-Fi sync with MMA or alternatively if your phone has SD card then copy the playlists/music/podcasts from the SD card by inserting it to SD card slot in PC directly -- though manipulating SD card is also time consuming.

Another workaround could be to not sync music with the "work computer" att all and play it directly from the smartphone via UPnP/DLNA.

I think I understand. So Rusty was right.

So I've unchecked "Sync playlists (recommended)" from the Sync profile tab, so at least it won't get copied *back* to MMA. I think and hope.

And I guess this means I'll have to do manual copying to the work computer from now on. Which is really annoying, because it means my smartphone has less functionality than my old MP3 players.

Regarding the massive wait times: It's always like that! In the other thread you asked me to test if the podcasts are still deleted even if MMA is closed, so I started a sync, and it's been over ten minutes stuck on "Uploading metadata". It just finished now while I was writing this. (I used to get impatient and cancel the sync, but I've since learned that if I forget about it and go away and come back it'll eventually finish after Android's idiotic, moronic, stupid transfer protocol gets unlocked.)

I hate smartphones so damn much.

Thank you though for all the help throughout this process.

Hi, ok, I think I know where the problem lies.

The problem is that MM5<>MMA sync was not designed for MMA sync with multiple MM5 instances and what happens here is that:

1) The previously synced playlists from MMA to the work computer are also auto-added to the sync-list from the work computer to the MMA therefore in the log I see also copying back (MM5 -> MMA) playlists like

\Playlists\All Collections.m3u 
\Playlists\Added from Galaxy A12 on 2021-12-06.m3u
\Playlists\Chorus-Bridge Counterpoints.m3u

BTW: Uploading the file '\Playlists\All Collections.m3u ' took more than 2000 seconds!!  This is quite curious, there wasn't MTP error but it seemed to stuck for such a long time (for some reason). I remember that such a freeze can happen when a file is deleted on Android and it internally refreshes the content somehow making the transfer protocol to freeze (+ also Windows Explorer is frozen)


2) The main problem causing mixing the track is calling CheckTrackIsPaired during the sync where MM5 is trying to find whether the track exists based on MMW.track.ID in the MMA's database and if it does not exists then it updates the MMW.track.id in the MMA's DB based on the track path.
BUT because you sync also with another instance of MMW then the MMW.track.id can get totally mismatched !

This issue is tracked as https://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=9941 for a long time in Mantis, but has never been implemented.

So unless #9941 is implemented then I am afraid that the only workaround is to not sync MMA with multiple MMW instances, and either:

- sync just with home computer and manually copy the content to the work computer from MMA (i.e. not sync with work computer)

- or sync just with the work computer and manually copy the content to the MMA from the home computer (i.e. not sync with work computer)

Thanks, I'll analyze the logs and reply via the tickets..

Okay, after many attempts I got the device to sync with my home computer again, checked that the podcasts and playlists were all on the device, and then synced with the work computer while debug was running.

Assuming the log captured everything, it should capture:
* The lack of copying playlists from the device to the PC
* The corruption of an existing playlist on the device (only one of them this time, for some reason!)
* The deletion of all the podcasts on the device (from the other thread)

I have just one problem:

For an MTP device, please generate a log of the device's internal structure using the following tool: http://www.mediamonkey.com/beta/testtools/WMLog.exe
To use the tool, save it to the /Program Files/MediaMonkey directory and run it after connecting your device.

I opened WMLog and hit Create Log. And it is running and running and running and running, and I can't even click on the save button.

I opened the ticket anyway in the meantime: https://www.mediamonkey.com/support/?su ... SkflNTsDFn

I purchased the music via the PC, from the Presto Music website. Download the .flac file, save it, open it in MMW5, use auto-organize to put it where I want it, add it to the playlist, then sync to the phone.

Thanks for clarifying.

Syncing, including downloading new podcast episodes and removing old ones, was working fine for the most part until Thursday, when I bought one new music file and tried to sync it and all of this madness started happening.

How did you purchase the Music (i.e. on the PC on on the Phone, and what app did you use)? And if it was via the phone, is MMA > Options > 'Update playlists from other apps' enabled?

-Rusty

The playlists did appear correctly in MMA to begin with. (They're not anymore. Something has gone terribly wrong and I keep trying and failing to copy them into the phone from my home computer. I don't know what's going on anymore.)

My phone is pretty much brand new - I only bought it a few weeks ago, and I don't have any other apps on the phone that involve audio. Syncing, including downloading new podcast episodes and removing old ones, was working fine for the most part until Thursday, when I bought one new music file and tried to sync it and all of this madness started happening. That's why I'm doing all of this syncing stuff today and opening so many bugs in a row.

Regarding the locations of m3u files, for ten years now I've been using paths of the style "\Music\<Path:4>", so that the playlists will always point to the right place no matter what device I'm using.

Everything here has been with USB sync. Sorry about that - I had actually typed that out after Ludek asked, but then all of the playlist corruption started happening and it got lost in the shuffle.

I'm currently running a debug sync from home computer to phone. This sync is taking forever, because it's decided it needs to copy all 2431 tracks even though they're all already on the phone. I hate when it does that.

Hi,

I think I understand what you're saying, and if you can answer the questions that Ludek asked, it would really help us understand what's going on. i.e. it's not clear whether the playlists on your phone appeared correctly in MMA to begin with--if they only appeared partially in MMA to begin with, that that would explain why they were synced incorrectly to MMW. Note: playlists can appear incorrectly in MMA if either:
- the playlists were created in another application on your phone, and MMA > Options > 'Update playlists from other apps' isn't enabled
- 'Update playlists from other apps' is enabled, and other apps are overwriting changes made to the playlists in MMA

Note: I'm not really clear about what you meant when you wrote that you '...copied the m3u files manually and imported them'. You should know, however, that .m3u files will not work if copied from one device to another unless the paths of the files that are referenced by the .m3u file are identical on both devices (which is unlikely to be the case for many of the files).

Ludek was also asking whether you're syncing via USB or Wi-Fi since USB sync can fail with some devices, and if you experience problems with USB sync, then performing a Wi-Fi sync would be advised to see if it solves the problem.

Hopefully that clarifies somewhat.

-Rusty

The files are already in the MMW library, yes - after all, I've been trying to sync the playlists for two days

Please capture the Sync in a debug log (step 4b) and attach the log to a Support Ticket: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=86643

This will help a developer analyze why this happens in your setup.

Are the files on the Playlist in MMA already in your MMW Library too? If not, are they being Synced to your MMW Library or are they failing to do so?

Oh boy. I've gone down a rabbit hole now.

I've been trying to sync these playlists over for the last two days, until I finally gave up about two hours ago and copied the m3u files manually and imported them. So they're obviously in the Imported Playlists folder now. I had briefly forgotten that I did this, so when you asked almost got a heart attack when I found them there. Then I remembered.

So in order to make doubly sure, I deleted the playlists from both the library and the folder on the computer, and started a resync. It copied 7 out of my 13 playlists over before the sync ended; I don't know why it didn't copy the others.

But none of the playlists were copied correctly:

* Playlist A had 86 tracks, but after being copied over only has 7 out of those 86.
* Playlist B had 4 tracks, but after being copied over has 4 entirely different tracks in it.
* Playlist C had 24 tracks but now only has a single track in it.
* Playlist D had 34 tracks but now has only 2 tracks in it.
* Playlist E had 13 tracks but now has only 2 tracks in it.
* Playlist F had 10 tracks but now has only 1 track in it.
* Playlist G had 5 tracks but now has only 1 track in it.

I've noticed that the "surviving" tracks almost always include the first track in the playlist, with the only exceptions being B and E.

But worse has happened: whatever this messup is, it altered the playlists that were originally on the phone.
* Playlist A on the phone now has only 85 tracks.
* Playlist B now has only 3 tracks: one from those that were originally on the playlist, and two from the "replacement" set that appeared on the computer
* Playlists C, D, E, and G are untouched.
* Playlist F now has only 9 tracks.
* Of the remaining six playlists of the 13 (those that were not copied over), three are similarly now missing tracks and three are untouched.

I've resynced the playlists from my home computer (the original original source of the playlists) onto the phone, and then resynced with my work computer, and it happened again. Same numbers, even.

*whimpers* What have I gotten myself into?

Are those playlists visible in MMA ?

AFAIR only those playlists visible in MMA are synced to MM5.
Are you using USB sync or Wi-Fi sync?

Can you check if they're under Playlists > Imported Playlists in the Media Tree in MediaMonkey 5?

Yes - it's copying the music over but not the playlists:


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