Why is USB shown in the 'library' part of the tree?

[terrypin]

I'm not clear why my USB stick appears twice in the tree, given that Help says:
"Note that tracks that appear in this node are not part of the Library."

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/401 ... USB-01.jpg

Also, if I click on the green icon to 'safely remove...' (which is a handy alternative to using the 'Safely Remove Hardware' tray icon), can I restore the connection within MM, instead of physically removing and replacing the stick?

[MMFrLife]

The "folder one" is a "syncing representation" of your drive. Used for when you do syncing.
You can remove it by unchecking the device in Options.

On Usb safe remove, I think there is a way, but I can't remember. It's not fast or easier than reinserting, though.

[Lowlander]

One (the first) is its representation is syncable location as said above. The second one as a drive in My Computer. My Computer doesn't reflect your Library, instead it reflects your actual computer.

[terrypin]

Thanks both. I think my confusion stems mainly from the references in the documentation (and your replies) to this syncing feature. Is there a more detailed explanation somewhere about what gets copied from where to where please? Or even better, a worked example?

I already had many files on the USB (copied earlier in Explorer). In MM I then dragged my TV Themes collection to it, giving the result shown in my screenshot. To me that was a copy from PC to USB, not a sync, which would end up with both 'sides' having identical files.

Do most experienced users actually use the sync features of MM?

[Lowlander]

Copy & Sync are basically the same thing as sync copies files. With sync you use the Device Profile (Tools > Options > Portable Device Sync) where you set what and how to sync. You can then have it sync when you connect the device or manually initiate sync.

Options like Send To bypass sync and copy (or move if you choose that) files to the device. This may cause duplicates and won't remove files (sync can do this for you).

I only use Sync to get my files on my devices. It is far more convenient. The manual selection (if needed) is done with Playlists. I'll select some Playlists for syncing and can modify them prior to sync to get the files I want on my device on sync.

[terrypin]

Thanks Lowlander, I'll try it until I properly understand it.

[terrypin]

I used sync on that USB stick which now contains about 5000 tracks.

1. What about the JPGs in the original folders on my PC, some of which will be for artwork that wasn't embedded in the music files? Must I now find and copy those to the correct locations?

2. What's the recommended method of preparing m3u playlists for the USB stick?

3. Presumably any playlists that were already on my PC will also have to be copied across in Explorer, as for the JPGs?

I'm not really clear why it would not have been easier to do all the copying in Explorer? And then maybe export playlists from MM to the USB?

[Lowlander]

1) Sync will copy the (first, I think) associated Artwork, no matter if it is embedded or external. So as long as Artwork is associated with your files it should be on the device as well after sync.

2) Select them in the Device Profile to be synced, then use Sync to get them on the device. Particularities of what settings to use depend on what will read the trick. Start with defaults and change if needed.

3) Sync can copy Playlists and their files across. No manual actions needed.

[terrypin]

1) Sync will copy the (first, I think) associated Artwork, no matter if it is embedded or external. So as long as Artwork is associated with your files it should be on the device as well after sync.

That doesn't appear to be the case here. There are several hunderd JPGs within \My Music (the basis of my Music Collection). Of the 5000 or so tracks in Music, just over half now have artwork. Many of those are getting it from JPGs rather than tags. But there are no JPGs at all on my USB stick after the sync. It just contains the music tracks, in their correct subfolders. (Plus that MediaMonkey folder containing StorageInfo.xml, which I've left for now.) So artwork is not showing up on the USB stick for many tracks which have it. I suspect it's because I don't have these set correctly:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/401 ... work-1.jpg

2) Select them in the Device Profile to be synced, then use Sync to get them on the device. Particularities of what settings to use depend on what will read the trick. Start with defaults and change if needed.

Thanks, I'd missed that setting! I checked only the Music box. After doing so and resyncing I now see 22 playlists on the stick. About 1100 more files have bee copied - is that because some of the playlists refer to Classical, which was not part of my original sync?

3) Sync can copy Playlists and their files across. No manual actions needed.

Thanks, understood.

[Lowlander]

1) It depends on your settings in the Device Profile as MM can embed or extract on sync.

2) Likely

[terrypin]

I wasn't clear how to proceed after that last reply.

In an attempt to get the JPG art images onto the stick, I changed the settings in my last screenshot to these:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/401 ... ions-1.jpg

and re-synced.

But I have no idea what's going on. There was a long period during which the status bar displayed 'Removing content'. Why? I haven't deleted any of my 6500 tracks? And at the conclusion of that stage, examining the stick in Explorer, I found my USB contents had been reduced to less than 10% of the previous state. And I didn't recognise the relatively few folders now included.

However, I didn't have long to study them as it appears the sync was not yet over. It's now syncing the 6500 files again and I'd estimate will take several hours.

Any clearer insight into what the detailed syncing options do would be appreciated please. I expected that after the naturally lengthy initial sync yesterday, further minor changes would be quite fast.

[rivorson]

You said earlier that you had previously copied files to the USB drive using Explorer. It's likely that MM didn't recognise these tracks as part of the library so it removed them. Once the files are synced by MM then it will store an index of the files it has synced to the USB drive in its database with a reference to the original track in your library, so it won't delete them again when you run another sync.

[terrypin]

Thanks riverson, but this current exercise was done on a fresh stick that I hadn't used in Explorer. I've been doing various experiments using different USBs so I'm afraid I may have confused things, sorry.To recap:
I did a full sync onto this empty stick, called USB6(32GB) in my screenshots, essentially copying across the Music collection of my library. I revised it quite quickly after Lowlander pointed out how to get playlists synced. But then I found there were no JPGs copied across, despite there being many in the folders on my PC. The very latest step was as described in my last post.

Edit 30 mins later:
The sync isn't finished but it's clear that this is the structure of the result.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/401 ... ture-1.jpg

It's not what I expected. JPGs are getting copied now, and their filenames are as I expected from the default setting I used. But I did not expect to get a folder for every album. Most contain only one or two tracks. I assumed the folder would remain as it was for the initial sync:
Artist, with subfolders for Albums.

Edit: Shortly after sync finished:
During the sync (which took close to 4 hours) I made a few more edits. For example, I changed any occurrence of 'Various' under Artist or Album Artist to 'Various Artists'. I assumed that the sync would handle these, but apparently not. Does this imply that you should do no editing in MM during syncing? And that to get these trivial changes reflected on the USB stick I must manually resync again?


With hindsight I should have restricted this to a tiny fraction of my collection! I'll do so from now on until I'm more confident.

[rivorson]

The exact file path is defined in File Locations under the device profile. It's just a case of changing <Album Arist> - <Album> to <Album Artist>\<Album>. It's strange that the path would have changed between the first sync and the second though.

As for changing the tags, I think MM builds a list of all the files to be synced complete with their tags at the moment that you start the sync, so any changes you make during the sync will not be reflected. Changing tags during the sync doesn't do any harm though. You do have to sync again to update the tags on the USB, but it would hopefully be very fast as it only needs to change the tags and not copy the whole file again, though it's been a while since I used USB sync so I can't guarantee that it does just update the existing file.

[terrypin]

Thanks rivorson, understood. I duly changed the file structure and the result was then as I wanted.

I'm now using a small selection of tracks so that at least my tests take minutes rather than hours.

However, I'm making very slow progress, due to a variety of issues.

1. After the sync which gave that undesirable file organisation I deleted all files on the USB7 stick, using Explorer. But a re-sync (with corrected organisation) copied only playlists across, no music tracks. (And, oddly, at that stage, the Playlists box wasn't actually enabled.) It was only after I enabled the option Delete other files and playlists from the device that any music was copied. Why should that be necessary, given that there were no existing tracks?

2. As mentioned, this USB is destined for the car. Naturally I don't want to have to take it there to try after every test. I would expect that, with the USB open in Explorer on my PC, a d-click on a music track would play it in MM and display the album art, but the latter doesn't happen. Yet the JPG has been synced across as you see:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/401 ... oArt-1.jpg

Adding to my confusion there's now no entry for it in MM here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/401 ... oArt-2.jpg

Same thing using My Computer > F:

But in the main Music node it does appear. If the USB7 node in MM can somehow get out of sync with the main library, obviously the physical USB itself stands no chance! I expect it's something I've done incorrectly, but it eludes me right now.

Edit: I'll leave the above intact, but I have now succeeded in seeing the art when I play that example track. The lesson I've learned is that when odd behaviour arises, one of the first things to try is a full rescan. Presumably the MM database occasionally gets scrambled somehow.

3. Can you help me to interpret and use this dialog window please:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/401 ... ync-09.jpg

4. "...it's been a while since I used USB sync..."
Is that because you don't have a need for music tracks on a USB (or other external device) or because you use other methods?

Thanks for all your help on these no doubt basic points!