I uninstalled MMA and deleted all associated folders on both internal and external storage with the exception of the Music folder on the SD card which holds all the tracks. Restarted the phone, logged into Google Play Store, then downloaded and installed MMA and MMA Pro. I granted all internal and external permissions, then set MMA to find the media on the SD card. It immediately started scaning files into the library.

It had been scanning for over an hour and a half when I started scrolling through the Tracks list. I could immediately see there are already hundreds, if not thousands, of duplicated tracks and it's only about half way through scanning the physical tracks. Since I granted all permissions, that clearly is not what was causing all the duplicate entries to the database.

This is a brand new 2025 unlocked US Samsung Galaxy A16 5G. It's been connected to the Verizon network and has been fully updated to the latest available versions of all software. I have only loaded a few optional apps, but have uninstalled or disabled several of the preloaded ones that won't be needed. Are there any unusual app dependencies needed by MMA during the newly installed scanning phase ? Where else might I look for clues to get this issue resolved ?

Hi,
You need to grant MMA access to internal Memory, but you disable Sync for it.

MMA saves general settings to internal memory and as SDcards are considered external storage (Which can be damaged or missing) MMA needs backup solution for accessing/creating library even it is not in use.

I'm a long time user of MMW and just installed MMA Pro from the Play Store on a new Samsung A16. I have a music library of 16k+ tracks in MMW. I installed a 128GB SD card in the new A16 specifically to store all the MMA tracks and associated files. When I set up MMA Pro, I specifically granted permission only to the SD card. I used MMW to sync to the SD card in the A16 with any track larger than 256kbs reduced to 256 Constant in order to fit the entire collection on the SD. It took MMW about 2 hours to copy all the tracks to the A16.

When I opened MMA on the A16, I was again asked to grant permission to use all storage, but only granted the SD card. MMA opened to the Home screen and showed that it was syncing. This process took about 6 hours to complete. When I started looking at the results, I was surprised to find that MMA showed 60k+ tracks available ! After a couple hours exploring in MMA, I found that it had randomly added 2-25 duplicate entries for thousands of tracks into the database. Using a file explorer, I found that the actual tracks had been placed on the SD card in exactly the same number and structure as on my PC with no duplicates. However, I also found that MMA had placed a MediaMonkey directory on both the internal and SD storage. There was also a thumbnail directory with all the track art on the internal storage even though I had not granted MMA permission to use it. I have not found where MMA has stored the MMA database.

I'm not that familiar with MMA, so I need help understanding what happened and how I fix it. Thank you so much for any help anyone can provide.