MMW/MMA doing full sync every time / buggy playlist sync

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channelsteve
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2014 7:33 am

MMW/MMA doing full sync every time / buggy playlist sync

Post by channelsteve »

Hi all

I've spent the good part of a Saturday getting my LG G4 and Windows PC to sync my selected MediaMonkey playlists. It's finally working reasonably well, but I'm stuck on two issues. Please forgive me if they have both been addressed previously - I searched pretty hard, but couldn't find answers on the forum.

The first problem is that regardless of whether I do an Auto Sync from MMW or a Wifi Sync from MMA, the entire set of files seems to be copied across. Given I've not actually played more than 2-3 tracks today, as I've been busy trying to get the sync config working, the only changes have been a couple of play counts and ratings. For the record, these seem to be syncing across OK.
So, bottom line, instead of MMW checking the MMA database to see if anything actually needs to be copied at all, it's copying approximately 2000 songs across every time. Of course, this takes perhaps 30 minutes each time.

The second problem appears to be random/intermittent. Playlists are copying across OK, and files are populated inside - getting that to happen wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. But, occasionally one playlist remains unpopulated. I can see it on MMA, but there are no files within. The latest example is "Five-star songs". There seems to be nothing special about that particular playlist. It's an autoplaylist selecting random files based on rating, and limiting the number of files inside to 650Mb.

My application versions are:
MMW (Gold): 4.1.9.1764
MMA (Pro): 1.1.3.0491

I'm on Windows 7 and Android 5.1 (LG G4 stock).

So, any ideas?

Steve
Lowlander
Posts: 56505
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: MMW/MMA doing full sync every time / buggy playlist sync

Post by Lowlander »

Are you doing a wifi or USB sync and are you syncing to the internal or external memory?
channelsteve
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2014 7:33 am

Re: MMW/MMA doing full sync every time / buggy playlist sync

Post by channelsteve »

Thanks for your reply.

I was doing both yesterday, but strangely I am today being denied the Wifi sync. Therefore, I've synced 3-4 times via USB today. The reason for so many is that I've experienced all sorts of problems since last night - after I submitted this forum post. The new problems include what I believe to be a known problem - that I can't select folders for granting write access on the SD card, or remove/replace existing entries on the "Choose Library Folders" screen of MMA. Another problem is that MMW kept changing the destination folder on me - it did it twice. After I set up the destination playlist and files folders as being inside the ventismedia folder (so I can update playcounts and ratings) it decided to change it back to the default of SD card root | artist name etc, each time resulting in hundreds of music folders mixed in with my other SD card data. I've had to delete all the files and start again twice.

To answer your questions specifically, full copies (replacements?) instead of updates were happening on both Wifi and USB sync.
I am syncing to external card only.

Furthermore, I've been experiencing empty or non-existing playlists after many syncs today. I finally have my music as I want it on the device now, so I'm not doing any more syncing until I have a bit more free time. Ultimately, based on my experiences combined with many I see in the forums, I can see that this entire syncing process really needs work - it's terribly buggy.

Steve
Lowlander
Posts: 56505
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: MMW/MMA doing full sync every time / buggy playlist sync

Post by Lowlander »

For USB syncs I suggest to capture a debug log (step 4b) and send it to support: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... ?f=12&t=69 Where possible try to capture different problems in different logs.

USB sync can be troublesome for Android devices due to MTP driver issues with many manufacturers. Killing the Explorer.exe Task in the Task Manager when sync starts to hang can often resolve the hung sync.

Obviously the forum is full of failed sync issues as you're not gonna post that it worked. The problem with Android is that there are many manufacturers with many versions of Android. Add in the SD card restrictions Google put in place with Android 4.4 and there is a perfect mix of problems to resolve. Debug logs are very important so the developers can see what in your particular setup is causing problems. Make sure that MMA and MMW are up-to-date (MMA releases often state minimum MMW version required). I personally have been wifi syncing without any big issues for a long time (knock on wood), but I won't touch USB sync.
channelsteve
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2014 7:33 am

Re: MMW/MMA doing full sync every time / buggy playlist sync

Post by channelsteve »

I've switched to exclusive wifi syncs now, and they tend to get through the process without any major hassles. Basically, what I mean is that the files are currently landing in the right spot, updated (instead of full) syncs seem to be happening, and my playlists seem OK at the moment. That said, it's taken about three days of fairly consistent effort, dozens of syncs, and a lot of starting from scratch to get to that point.
I won't touch USB sync again, unless I have no choice. When I went into MMW today to check the device profile it had, again, changed the destination folders back to the default. I don't know if that would have affected the next wifi sync I did, as I don't know where MMA gets it's settings from, but I don't want to find out.

Beyond these issues, there are still plenty more, and I stand by what I said - that MMW and MMA, whilst probably being the best on the market at what they do, are still not robust. MMW freezes often, and crashes on exit for me - has done for a couple of years now. MMA shows empty albums that cannot be deleted. They exist purely in the MMA database, not in the SD folder structure. If I didn't want to update my ratings and play counts, I would definitely use Poweramp for playing my music, as it detects playlists and files flawlessly. If MMW wasn't such a powerful organizer I'd use Foobar, Winamp or even VLC.

Oh well, keeping my fingers crossed for more, and frequent, app updates - both MMW and MMA.
Lowlander
Posts: 56505
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: MMW/MMA doing full sync every time / buggy playlist sync

Post by Lowlander »

Did you capture debug logs for your MMW problems?

As for MMA it may be time to start fresh. Doing many failed syncs you may have ended up with database corruptions.
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