Syncing Playlist Removes Tracks From my MMA and Other Playlists

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ginaz
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2019 10:00 am

Syncing Playlist Removes Tracks From my MMA and Other Playlists

Post by ginaz »

I have the Android pro version 1.4.3.0950 on a Samsung S10 and Windows 10 Gold (4.1.31.1919). Both are up to date with most recent versions (not Beta). In the MMW Options for Portable Device Sync for my S10 SD card, Sync to Device, I do not have the Delete Other Files option checked (subsequent syncs performs like it is checked). For Playlists I have all of the ones I created checked.

I deleted all the files on my SD card because I had not set up the structure the same as on my Windows. I did a USB sync using Tools Sync Device. All files transferred OK, Android structure matches Windows. Although I had marked to sync Playlists, they did not transfer to my phone.

I discovered by right clicking on a Playlist in Windows, one of the options is Send To with my phone SD card as a choice. I did this for a Playlist and it worked perfectly. I continued to do this for other playlists and they appeared to be syncing OK.

Then I noticed that tracks that were not in the newly synced Playlist had those tracks removed from any existing Playlists on my phone (I have discovered the tracks are removed from my phone also). It was late so I disconnected my phone to continue trying to resolve the problem today. I just started MediaMonkey on my phone (not yet connected via USB) and only one of the several Playlist are still on my phone and it includes only 6 of the 23 files that are in the same Playlist on Windows. The other Playlists have vanished.

Detailed example:
On MMW I created a new Playlist with selections from my songs rated 5 Stars. It has 54 tracks.
I connected my phone via USB.
I right clicked on the Playlist and sent it to my phone. The Playlist has all 54 tracks.
On MMW I switched to another Playlist that has a mixture of track ratings (23 tracks).
I right clicked on the Playlist and sent it to my phone. It has all 23 tracks and my original Playlist still has all 54 tracks.
I then switched to a MMW Playlist with all 4.5 tracks (102 total). There should be no overlaps with the original Playlist with 54 tracks.
I right clicked on the Playlist name and sent it to my phone. The 4.5 star Playlist has 101 of the 102 tracks but now the original Playlist only has 49 tracks. This is consistent with what happened yesterday.
I verified that at least one of the tracks in the original 54 tracks Playlist is now removed from the list of all tracks. The track was also in the 23 track Playlist.
Resending the original Playlist, it now has 54 tracks on MMA and the track that was missing is back in the list of all tracks. However, the Playlist that had 23 tracks, now only has 11 and the non-5 star tracks are no longer in my list of all tracks.

I next did a Tools: Sync Device: Auto-Syncronize. I now have all of my MMW Playlists on my MMA, but the content is not correct. The Playlist that should have 54 tracks has 5. My 4 Stars Playlist has only 3 of 43 tracks. The 5 Stars Playlist has only 163 of 242 tracks. Many tracks are missing from my list of all Tracks.

Without Playlists on my phone, MediaMonkey is useless on my phone.

I have searched for a solution but I haven't found one. Thanks for any help if I have an incorrect setting or my method is not valid.
ginaz
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2019 10:00 am

Re: Syncing Playlist Removes Tracks From my MMA and Other Playlists

Post by ginaz »

Thanks to all readers of this post, although no replies

I've been researching my files.
On my S10\card\Playlists there is a playlist named Music.mu3 that has an entry for 4,466 mp3 files. The entry format is ..\Music\[folder]\[artist]\[name].mp3. The .. references the next higher directory, which would be the Card.
I have 4,466 mp3 files in my MMW library, so one for each song.
My S10 Music folder only has 395 of my mp3 files!
My MMW Top50 Playlist, which actually has 54 tracks in it, on my MMA has entries for all 54 files. The entry format is ..\Music\[folder]\[artist]\[name].mp3.

Using two examples of songs that are in the MMW Top50 Playlist: Changes in Latitudes,Changes in Attitudes, and Margaritaville. They are in Z:Music\Calypso\Jimmy Buffet and there are 10 mp3 files. Looking in that folder on MMA, the folder contains 6 mp3 files and 10 M3U files, all M3U have zero content (0 bytes).

Remember, I deleted my entire S10 Card Music Folder then did a MMW USB Sync Device to the S10 card. Looking at MMA only a couple of the playlists synced. Then I synced individual playlists and noticed tracks disappearing from playlists (Top 50 went from 54 to 5 tracks after syncing a different Playlist). I then discovered that S10 tracks also vanished, although I didn't realize I only had 395 out of 4496.

This seems to point to syncing a Playlist is erasing all tracks not in the Playlist, even though that options is not activated with a checkmark in the MMW Options Portable Device Sync for the S10 Card (I don't have sync checked for any other device).

The MMW database format m3u8 is:
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:250,Jimmy Buffett - Margaritaville
Z:\Music\Calypso\Jimmy Buffett\Margaritaville.mp3

I then copied all of my Z: Music folder to my S10. The copy merged the existing folders (the music structure is the same on MMW and MMA). The Calypso Jimmy Buffet folder now has all of the tracks it should contain. However, the Top50 Playlist still shows only 5 tracks.

I disconnected my S10 USB then had MMA Check for new/changed media (MMA wasn't aware of my copy). Still only 5 tracks in Top50. I then restarted my phone, still only 5 tracks. There doesn't seem to be any way to have MMA check for tracks to refresh the Playlist known tracks.

Storage on my S10 is not a problem as there is over 50GB free on my Card.

At this point I think it is a bug rather than an error in my sync actions. I probably need to submit this to support as a bug.
ginaz
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2019 10:00 am

Re: Syncing Playlist Removes Tracks From my MMA and Other Playlists

Post by ginaz »

On MMW with my Top50 playlist open, I did a Send to a m3u playlist. Then I renamed it Top54. Using an editor, I replaced the ..\..\ path with the correct ..\ path for my S10. I then copied that playlist to my S10 (using Windows copy). MMA did not see the new playlist. I changed the MMA option to Update playlist from other apps. MMA then included the top54 Playlist with 54 tracks. Surprisingly, it also updated all the other playlists, although still not correct. My Top50 went from 5 to 32 of the 54 tracks it should have. My Music playlist now shows 2790 tracks but there are still 4669 mp3 tracks in the Music folder. The 3 Plus playlist has 702 of the 941 tracks it should have. All the playlist are missing some of the tracks they should have.

In MMW I created an All Music playlist. Then followed the same process to edit and copy the playlist to my S10. MMA did not see the new play list. I had to uncheck the Update playlist option, exit MMA, start MMA again, recheck the Update playlist option, MMA then searched and I have all the tracks in my MMA All Music playlist. However, it did not update any of the other playlists with additional tracks they should have.

Not perfect, but much better.
Snofru
Posts: 239
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2016 8:12 am

Re: Syncing Playlist Removes Tracks From my MMA and Other Playlists

Post by Snofru »

I don't have solution for your issues but a few suggestions. I am using a Galaxy S9 and am syncing about 10000 titles, currently without issue.

Point 1: I'd suggest to delete everything on the smartphone in connection to MMA and start anew. It definitely seems to be screwed up. This also includes manually deleting the "MediaMonkey" folders both on the SD card and the internal memory.
Point 2: It could be that other music apps on your smartphone interfere with MMA. Better not use them and uncheck "Update plalists from other apps" in the MMA options.
Point 3: Only use WIFI sync, USB sync caused me a lot of trouble in the past.
MMW Version 5.1.0.2827 Portable
Samsung Galaxy S23+, S9 and Sony NW-A105 with MMA Beta 2.0.0.1156
IanRTaylorUK
Posts: 536
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2019 4:41 pm

Re: Syncing Playlist Removes Tracks From my MMA and Other Playlists

Post by IanRTaylorUK »

So it looks like you are getting 0 byte M3U files created when you sync rather than the equivalent MP3 files.

I have experienced this also. Systematically try the following:
1). Install the beta version of MMA and latest version of MM - version 1.4.4.0951 MMA; MMW5.0.0.2337/8; MMW4.1.31.1919
2). Ensure your Music files and Playlist files are in separate folders on the device SD card e.g.:
SDCard:\Music\<Album Artist>\<Album>\<Disc #><Track #:2>-<Title>
SDCard:\Playlists\
3). Remove ALL 0 byte M3U files from the device's SD card that are under the SDCard:\Music\ folder
4). Re-sync and note the status bar information e.g. Synching Device (Copying xxxx/yyyyy: Artist - Track)
5). Check the contents of the SDCard:\Music\ & \Playlist\ folders using Windows File Explorer
6). Repeat as necessary until you have NO 0 byte M3U files and total number of MP3 files matches (or very close to) yyyyy.

This is based on my experience synching 867 playlists and ~14000 MP3 files into 1000+ artist/album folders with the album artwork also saved in the device album folder.

Sorting the full list of MP3 files can also be useful to identify files where you might need to update the disc and/or track number!

What version of Android are you running on the device?
Ian Taylor
ginaz
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2019 10:00 am

Re: Syncing Playlist Removes Tracks From my MMA and Other Playlists

Post by ginaz »

On S10
Uninstalled MMA MediaMonkey Pro.
Uninstalled MMA MediaMonkey
Deleted all Music and m3u files
Deleted all Playlists
Restarted phone
Created Music and Playlists folders
Installed Media Monkey for Android
Opened MediaMonkey and gave access to SD card (It would be nice to be able to limit this to specific folders, like Music and Playlists)
Restarted phone
Installed MediaMonkey Pro
Opened MediaMonkey Pro

On Windows 10
Started MediaMonkey MMW
Connected S10 to Computer via USB (recommendation is to do first time sync over USB due to data volume)
Verified AutoSyncDevice. Music location (Z: drive (NAS) Music, no checks marks to sync Artist & Album Art, No check marks to sync Composers, All Genres checked to sync (this is my first level under Music), No ratings synced. No additional checkmarks. No checkmarks for AutoSyncLibrary. Options checked for Any audio above 192 convert to 165 and volume level.
Music File Location: Music\ <Genre>\<Album Artist> <Title>
Classical set the same (don't know why this exists)
All others default.
Other media files all unchecked
Remove artwork if > 300K
Use only first Genre
Sync Playlists
Playlist format only m3u
Force relative paths (not sure if needed)
Use Unicode
Destination \Playlists\
Check the playlists I have created to sync (3 Stars, 3.5 Stat … 5 Stars, Abba Plus CD, All Music, Top 50)

Ran Sync Device Auto-Syncronize
Got c:\Users….file already exists, replace it? Yes to all
Got transfer appears frozen: OK [transfer was stopped while I tried to snip the above message but coulnd't, continued OK]
Got problem with autoconverted file (c:…), selected Ignore [Not sure why it is copying files to C. Action line on MMW says copying to S10 - Card. After about a dozen of these I clicked Retry and did not get a repeat message for the same song.
Stopped with 4463 of 4466 songs. Indicates it is converting a track to mp3. MMA showed spinning circle for a period of time, then it went away. MMW still sitting on 4463 converting track to mp3.

After waiting more than an hour, I terminated the sync. There were no playlists on MMA. Using Windows search for Music mp3 files, 4,414 files of the 4,466 were found. MMA did not see any playlists. The playlists folder was empty. However, searching the MMA music folder there were 22 m3u files, each 0 bytes, and for the list of songs that I had used Ignore above.
I did another Sync Device Auto-Synchronize. Sixty-seven files were copied and playlists. The auto-synchronize completed normally with no warnings. After the spinning symbol stopped on MMA, all the playlist selected to by synced were present. All playlist had the correct number of tracks except two were missing one file and the All Music had 4,451 tracks instead of 4,466.

I believe this is a good outcome but a lot of steps and time to get to this point.
IanRTaylorUK
Posts: 536
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2019 4:41 pm

Re: Syncing Playlist Removes Tracks From my MMA and Other Playlists

Post by IanRTaylorUK »

Yes it is a lot of steps / time!

Keep an eye out for the number of 0 byte M3Us after each sync!

Sometime I repeat the sync until there is nothing to sync - if that makes sense.

Hopefully things will improve with the next version of MMA.
Ian Taylor
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