MMA sync over wifi performance aspects

[kjegou]

After a month of use of MMA, i am having some comments on the sync function:
-sync over wifi works ok, but is extremely slow -it relies on wifi, and pushing MP3 over any wifi is not optimal.
-major uploads of library (i have a library of about 7000 songs that i upload by pieces of 500 to 1000 songs to my android device) can't be decently done through wifi: you need to keep the PC idle over hours, prevent andoid to sleep, etc..too restrictive
-so MY solution is:
1/ for large (500+) uploads of songs to android, prefer high throughput network path. personnaly i am taking the SD card out from my device, plug it to the PC directly, and sync with MMW through ethernet. Basically avoid wifi compltely here. This is the fastest i have experienced.
BTW i am getting issues with album art not being uploaded in this case
2/ for small updates (playcount, edits or small song additions in one way or the other) wifi works great for daily changes, say. This sync generally fixes also my album art issues.

Any experience comments welcome

[Lowlander]

If you're not using wifi sync you should use USB sync directly to the device. This will allow MMW to update the MMA database. Taking the SD card out won't allow for this and thus MMA relies on Android Media for file information (this lacks tags).

[anMonkey]

I'm just getting started with MMA so I've only tried syncing one time, but I also ran into a similar issue. After 20 minutes or so it was only about 5% across the progress bar, and then I needed to shut down the PC, so I don't think any sync actually happened.

I have a question about how sync is handled for a large number of files, that is a small subset of a bigger number of files.
For example, I have about 50Gb of music on my PC. Previously, with USB sync, I had it set up to sync 'A random subset of files, with higher rated files syncing more often, and leaving 12Gb free on my 32Gb SD card. This meant around about 10Gb of music from 50Gb got synced.

Will those existing rules still apply over wi-fi?

With that setup, it seems like each time I sync it is likely that a large number of files will change. (say, 6Gb of 10Gb will change, and 4Gb will stay the same).
This seems like it'll be very inefficient and slow, and if I sync the next day then it might change another 6Gb (potentially returning a lot of files that were removed 1-2 days before).

Is there any way to set it up so it will do minimal changes each time?
I'm not sure what the best algorithm would be, but it seems like one would be needed.

For example, I'd really like it to transfer any newly added music to my phone, and remove some of the existing music (based on lower ratings), and then maybe swap 10% of the remaining music (to keep things fresh).
This would mean only about a 1Gb transfer, instead of a 6GB (total guess) one.

Alternatively, you could track how many syncs a file has remained on the phone for, and not swap them out until they've been there for a while.

Anyway, is there an easy way to get just new files added to the phone via wifi?

[Lowlander]

There is no easy way to accomplish this, however AutoPlaylists may get you close to it if set with the right criteria.

[rusty]

One possible approach: if your playlists include criteria re. when tracks were last played, you can ensure 'freshness' and by tweaking the amount of tracks played you can limit the amount of unnecessary synchronization (e.g. if you exclude tracks played within the last 1 or 3 months).

-Rusty

[Aff]

There is an auto-playlist property "Synchronization Status", this could be used to keep a certain amount of files on the device, e.g. combined with the condition that they were not yet played. A second auto-playlist could add new content.

I think I'll do something similar. Previously I did some tag only syncing with my sync script in between, having a random playlist where auto-syncing really takes some time, so thanks for the idea to anMonkey.

[kjegou]

If you're not using wifi sync you should use USB sync directly to the device. This will allow MMW to update the MMA database. Taking the SD card out won't allow for this and thus MMA relies on Android Media for file information (this lacks tags).

Can you elaborate on this ?

that sounds very intersting and potentially explains some other issues i am facing. Do you mean that the SD card only contains the MP3s, and the MMA database is not refreshed once the SD card is loaded back to the android device ? If this is really how it works, it is more or less a bug because the functionality is incomplete. A sync should update both files and the DB, regdless if uses wifi, USB, taking an SD card out, etc..
is there any topic that explains these aspects of comparing wifi / USB / SD syncs ?

thanks a lot

[Lowlander]

That's the current implementation. If you load a SD card in your phone MMA relies on Android Media to get tag information and Android Media lacks the ability to read many tags. If you sync directly to the device (SD card in device, device connected to PC or wifi sync) MMW will write to the MMA database and thus many more tags will be available.

This is the current implementation. For a future release of MMA it may get its own tag scanner.

[rusty]

More details about limitations of copying media without a corresponding Database sync here:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/inde ... icleid=168

-Rusty

[Guest]

Thanks for the advice. I'll see if I can get something set up with autoplaylists.

However, I'd recommend implementing some simpler way to accomplish syncs with minimal changes. This would make things more accessible and probably reduce a lot of hassle.
(eg: some built in sync options, such as 'sync newer files only' or 'replace only regularly played/unplayed/skipped' or 'swap only x% of library')
This'd be something easier to set up for users.