Stream music directly from Dropbox

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Luke6
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:27 pm

Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Luke6 »

Hi, I was really surprised not to find any recent info on this topic in this forum. All I found was stuff dating back to 2014 and the answer back then to whether one could stream music directly from Dropbox seemed to be clearly, "No."

Is this still the case? It would seem amazing if so. I hope this is now possible. Please let me know.

Thanks,

Luke
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Lowlander »

Try MediaMonkey 5 Beta with cloud support.
Luke6
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Luke6 »

Thanks. I'll try, and then post the outcome here.
Luke6
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Luke6 »

Hi all, ok, so I tried. At first it was very encouraging. I added Dropbox as a Location by going to File>Add, Rescan files to library. The scan results show that I now have 28,884 files and no import errors. All my music references synced with Dropbox right away. It did seem suspiciously fast, though, so I was not surprised when I pressed play on a song and nothing happened.

I simply can't seem to get my music to stream from Dropbox. I can see the songs in all my playlists, but I can't play them. Can anyone tell me why?

Thanks!
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Lowlander »

With MediaMonkey 5? Did you setup through Devices and Services in the Media Tree?
Luke6
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Luke6 »

I didn't do it thru that portal but when I go to it now, I see Dropbox and I am logged in. I have "Scan Dropbox content to the local database" ticked. I see all my playlists and songs in the playlists but when I try to play anything, nothing happens.

Tx
Ludek
Posts: 4945
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:00 am

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Ludek »

I see all my playlists and songs in the playlists but when I try to play anything, nothing happens.
Hi, I wonder how you got DropBox playlists into your library ?
Did you sync the music and playlists to the DropBox using MediaMonkey5?
You need to copy the music and playlists using MediaMonkey5 to the DropBox to have all the metadata and playlists there.
Or are you referring M3U playlists?

Nevertheless even if you don't scan any DropBox content to your library you can still access all the content like this, go to Devices & Services > Drop Box and click Folders, I mean this screen: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q5cbdcatbg35b ... 5.png?dl=0

By the Folders you can access all your DropBox content and stream/play from it using MediaMonkey5 like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rlkh5y4upal3c ... 0.png?dl=0
i.e. I double-clicked the song "A Player For England" and MM5 plays it directly from DropBox even if it was not uploaded by MM5.
Does it work for you this way for you?

EDIT: A tip: You can also download the DropBox music to cache it locally, either manually via right-click > Download like this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3yq7pof1kmqcp ... 7.png?dl=0
or automatically by checking the '[x] Download DropBox content that is not accessible locally' here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q5cbdcatbg35b ... 5.png?dl=0
Luke6
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Luke6 »

Hi, thanks for this useful reply. Sorry I dropped this conversation for so long. Life got in the way. I have been able to play tracks from my Dropbox via Devices & Services>Dropbox>Folders, so that's great. But what I'd really like to do now is to be able to use the playlist files I exported when using MM with files located on the local hard drive to play the same songs now located on Dropbox. Is this possible? If not, can I recreate playlists linked to the files on Dropbox via the Folders access?

Also, I'd love all this to sync to my Samsung Smartphone via the MM app. Any recommendations as to what version (I imagine pro) of the App I should use and how to get this to work? Will edits I make to the playlists there or via the PC update across devices?

Thanks a lot. Look forward to hearing back.
Luke6
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Luke6 »

When trying to create playlists by sending files I search for and find via the Folder function, I get an error message all the time: There was a problem querying the database. Error excecuting SQL INSERT INTO Songs...

Thanks
Last edited by Luke6 on Sat Mar 21, 2020 7:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
Luke6
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Luke6 »

BTW You asked
I wonder how you got DropBox playlists into your library ? I guess they came when I did Scan Dropbox content to the local database. Part of my dropbox content are the playlists I saved when I had all my music on local drive.

Did you sync the music and playlists to the DropBox using MediaMonkey5? No, I had the music and playlist files up on Dropbox already. I simply told MM5 where the content was via Dropbox>Sync Profile>File Locations>Other media files. There I clicked on Add Folder and pointed to where my music folder was on Dropbox.

Thanks
Luke6
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Luke6 »

Update: I get the same error message as described above when trying to sync Dropbox to my local database.
Ludek
Posts: 4945
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2007 9:00 am

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Ludek »

Re the error message:
- which version of MediaMonkey 5.0 are you using ? Is it the newest build 2233 ? If not, then please try with 2233.
- when the error popped-up, does it suggest you to submit the error and you submited or not? Could you at least attach screenshot of whole the SQL error ?

Re syncing the playlists:
If you set up the Dropbox content to scan into your library then also the playlists are imported and you can play them together with local files, you will find them under your Playlists node.

But note that if you have the same tracks accessible also locally then MM5 will pair the tracks (to prevent from importing duplicates into your library) and the imported playlist (Ludek's playlist in my case) will look like this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ebo287z9gab4 ... 5.png?dl=0
i.e. the track has two sources: local + dropbox

You can also select the imported playlist(s) to sync them to your Android device, i.e. select those playlists in Devices & Services -> <<MyAndroidPhone>> -> [Auto-Sync (-->Device)] tab and press [SYNC NOW]
Luke6
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Luke6 »

Hi, First of all, thank you very much for getting back to me so quickly. I appreciate your stick-to-itiveness.

I am running version 2233. I even loaded the codec pack found here: https://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewt ... 86639&sd=d.

I submitted the error each time. I tried to attach a screenshot, but this forum doesn't make it obvious how to do that. When I tried inserting an image this was all I got: Image No menu came up attach a file or anything.

Perhaps I'm being thick and that once posted an option will appear to attach a file if I've put in a Image reference in my text. I'll try it with this message. If it does work I'll attach the various messages I got after the error. Image[/img][/img]In the end, when I get to the message that says Restart, restart in safe mode etc. The programme ends up freezing no matter what I click and then I just have to do Alt+Ctrl+Delete to call up the trask manager and shut it down.

After the various failures yesterday, I decided to revert to linking my MM databse to files on an external HDD containing all my music files. So I linked my Dropbox to that location (using selective sync to have only the music folder sync). Just to clarify, up to that point my Dropbox was NOT synced to this external HDD or to the laptop I'm using to run it. I was hoping to avoid having to sync it at all, which is why I was hoping to have MM5 simply read the files from my Dropbox location online. But as this seems to be out of reach for now, I decided to revert to a local source.

So when I launched MM5 after syncing my music folder on Dropbox to the external HDD, MM5 did something it had not done up to now: it synced Dropbox. I saw this because, up to that point (i.e. when I had no local music files), the label I saw under Devices & Services>Dropbox was "Never synced". This time it synced right away and automatically, without my even having to point MM5 to where Dropbox was (on the external HDD).

Thanks for the help. Just to reiterate, my goal is NOT to link MM5 to a local Dropbox folder, but rather to link it to music files stored Online in my Dropbox. I'm so surprised that a long-standing, reputable, well-developed media player like MM has not made it faaar easier for people to do this. In this day and age it seems obvious that millions would want to read their music off Dropbox online (which lucky for you guys has decided not to come up with its own media player) rather than off a local folder.

My dream would be to have MM installed on my PC and on my Samsung Android system on smart phone and be able to modify playlists on either location and have the result sync to both devices. I would particularly like to be able to order a deletion of music files from the online Dropbox source from either device, because I sometimes decide to ditch songs for good, but doing so is tedious if you have to each time go into Dropbox and track down the song, rather than just deleting it off the MM app, whether on PC or on smart phone.

Thanks for the help. I look forward to hearing back from you on all this.

Cheers
Luke6
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Luke6 »

Ok, so when I posted my reply, no option came up to attach screenshots. I have no idea how to do this. Please advise. Thanks
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Stream music directly from Dropbox

Post by Lowlander »

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