Portable install loses settings.

[stimresp]

Hello,

I purchased Mediamonkey Gold yesterday with the intention of using it as a portable music organizer, loaded onto the same LaCie 1TB USB harddrive as my music. I am using the latest version available for download (4.02).

I ensured to check the portable installation, and encountered no problems in setting-up and sorting my music, skins and a few plugins/scripts.
I made sure that Mediamonkey was terminated before I removed the USB drive. Auto-organize is off.

The problem is, when I now move my USB drive to another PC, the work done earlier had disappeared and I was back to square-one. Even my registration details needed to be re-entered.
I've tested on 3 machines - 2 are win7 and one running XP.

I understand that the portable version stores the database and .ini files in the portable folder, so in principle the data should still be there, but it is not restoring.

I would like to:

-Possibly restore my earlier database - I am not sure how this can be done.
-Ensure future integrity of my portable installation.

It must be something I am doing wrong or not doing correctly, though I have followed the instructions. I would be very grateful for any advice offered.

Kind thanks in advance


EDIT: I tried changing the drive letters so that they are all the same but still no joy.

[Lowlander]

The ini, DB and registry files should be in the Portable folder inside the install folder of MediaMonkey. If you did a Portable Install MediaMonkey should be looking for the files there.

[stimresp]

The ini, DB and registry files should be in the Portable folder inside the install folder of MediaMonkey. If you did a Portable Install MediaMonkey should be looking for the files there.

Hi,

yeah i know that, and I definitely selected portable install.
I did some more reading around and found that the db and ini files were being created in the Appdata.roaming folder. I will mess with the ini file...

cheers

[nohitter151]

and found that the db and ini files were being created in the Appdata.roaming folder. I will mess with the ini file...

cheers

In that case you did not check the option for a portable installation during the install.

[Lowlander]

Did you try reinstalling on other PCs? Maybe that's when Portable Install wasn't selected.

[nanite2000]

This just happened to me too.

I plugged my portable USB drive in today and MediaMonkey has lost all settings and preferences, and reverted back to a default version.

The old MM.DB file is still there (in G:\PortableApps\MediaMonkey\Portable), it's just being ignored.

I've completely removed MediaMonkey and reinstalled v4.1.0.1962 (I was especially careful to ensure I selected the 'Portable Installation' option), but the new install of MediaMonkey insists on using my local AppData folder instead:

C:\Users\rphillips\AppData\Roaming\MediaMonkey

If I restore my old MM.DB file to the original Portable location, it is still ignored in favour of the local AppData database.

Why isn't MediaMonkey behaving as a Portable App anymore, even after reinstalling??

Please help - I've lost all my playlists, some of which are for a wedding this weekend. I hope they're still in the MM.DB file.

[Lowlander]

Check if you still have

Code: Select all

[Portable]
IsPortable=1

in the MediaMonkey.ini in the same Portable folder. Also check that DBName isn't set (by default it shouldn't be present in the ini).

[nanite2000]

Check if you still have

Code: Select all

[Portable]
IsPortable=1

in the MediaMonkey.ini in the same Portable folder. Also check that DBName isn't set (by default it shouldn't be present in the ini).

The MediaMonkey.ini file is still there, but it's first 5000 characters appear to be corrupted as they just read as garbage. The first readable line in the .ini file is:

Code: Select all

DefaultView=

followed by a massive hexadecimal string. I can find no reference to 'IsPortable' in the remainder of the file.

I'm guessing the corrupted characters were previously settings that were specific to the Portable Installation...? Because if I compare this .ini file to the new one in AppData, this section does not exist.

That's fine - if I can reinstall MediaMonkey as a portable app and create a new .ini file, I should be able to copy/restore my original settings and DB. But the problem right now is that I cannot get MediaMonkey to install as a portable app.

Why might that be happening?

[nanite2000]

Why might that be happening?

I figured it out. The corrupted text at the start of the .ini was forcing MediaMonkey to use the local AppData folder.

When I tried reinstalling MediaMonkey as a portable app, I overwrote the new 'Portable' folder with my old one, not realising it had a corrupted .ini file, and this forced MediaMonkey to revert to the local AppData folder again.

I did another portable install, and this time restored all the old 'Portable' files except the corrupted .ini file. For the .ini file, I only restored the portions of the file that weren't corrupted.

I restarted MediaMonkey and bingo! It worked! I have all my files back.

Phew! Disaster averted.

Thanks for your help lowlander. I hope someone finds this thread useful in future...

[Lowlander]

DefaultViewSettings= is supposed to have that string, all my installs do.

[DickSledge]

Sorry to necro this thread, but I'm having the same issue. I made a portable install on a USB drive, copied my DB and ini files to the Portable folder on the USB drive, and MediaMonkey just ignores those files and makes a new folder in my Roaming Appdata. Tried clearing the registry key and appdata folder and only copying the .db file (to avoid potential problems with the .ini), and same result. This is incredibly frustrating. I know for certain that I clicked "portable install." Tried it twice. Anyone have any ideas?

Edit: Fixed. When migrating from a local install to a portable install, do not follow the instructions on "moving to a new computer" that tell you to copy the .ini file. Only copy the .db file and the Metadata Cache folder. Overwriting the .ini file in the portable install will cause that install to look to your hard drive for the database.

Hey MediaMonkey, please update your instructions so others don't have to figure this out for themselves like I just did.