Trying MM5 After MM4

IanRTaylorUK · Post by **IanRTaylorUK** » Wed Jun 24, 2020 8:02 am

Having spent a bit of time of the last few weeks getting my MM4 library and files in order, I thought it would be interesting to try MM5.

My initial feeling was that MM5 is slower than MM4 BUT I can see that MM5 seems to do a lot more. After a few uses, I could see that MM5 spent quite a bit of resource creating artwork "tiles" to replace the initial alphabetic ones. It seems I have almost as many publishers as I have artists and way more composers than artists / albums or playlists.

So my initial thought was to not use this functionality, but it seems quite a bit more than just a portrait / logo of the composer / publisher.

Is there anything that explains this functionality in a but more detail. New users and switching users may benefit from this information as - initially - the application appears sluggish. After the MM5 software has populated all the artist / album / playlist / composer / publisher then it is comparable.

Thanks in advance for any help / explanation.

Voeglein · Post by **Voeglein** » Fri Jun 26, 2020 1:03 pm

Hear, hear!

Ludek · Post by **Ludek** » Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:04 pm

Is there anything that explains this functionality in a but more detail. New users and switching users may benefit from this information as - initially - the application appears sluggish. After the MM5 software has populated all the artist / album / playlist / composer / publisher then it is comparable.

Hi, I am not sure which explanation are you requesting?

Yes, MM5 is downloading the artist/composer images for the grid and caches it for the future (when browsing).
But all this MM5 doing in background threads so it shouldn't degrade performance on muti-core systems while I understand that caching all the images on first visit of the Artists node can result in the initial feeling of MM5 being slower than MM4.

Are you suggesting that MM5 shouldn't look up for artist images by default or there should be a prgress bar indicating what MM5 is doing ?

IanRTaylorUK · Post by **IanRTaylorUK** » Sat Jun 27, 2020 4:40 am

Thanks for reply.

This may be an unfair comparison as:

1). With MM4W my library has grown over several years and so looking up information has not been particularly noticed.

2). With MM5W I am working with a mature library of files and so looking up information has been noticed as ALL done after initial install.

Now that the MM5W database has been established, the performance is better. Also, to be honest I never really used the art view for publisher / composer in MMW4.

Not certain what would be the best way to communicate this but I could imagine new users might be put off a little.

musziqluvher · Post by **musziqluvher** » Sat Jul 11, 2020 1:37 am

Ever since WinAmp went belly up I've been lookin for a solid replacement. I eventually settled with MediaMonkey and I've been very happy for the past few years, especially after WIFI sync finally started working properly.

I'd still like to see an option to have sync start automatically when I'm connected to the network....but I digress.
I am really interested in switching to MM5. However, I'm one of those people who like continuity.

When upgrading I would like to transfer my old database, all comparable settings, file history (play count, etc).

How much, if any of that is possible?

What major changes in functionality can I expect?

drakinite · Post by **drakinite** » Sat Jul 11, 2020 9:17 am

MediaMonkey 5 actually does have the option to completely copy the entire database from MM4 when you install it!
I've been using MM5 for a few weeks and I think it's great. But it's still got some bugs here and there. The biggest difference between 4 and 5 is a UI overhaul. It looks really pretty in my opinion.

musziqluvher · Post by **musziqluvher** » Sat Jul 11, 2020 9:37 am

drakinite wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 9:17 am MediaMonkey 5 actually does have the option to completely copy the entire database from MM4 when you install it!
I've been using MM5 for a few weeks and I think it's great. But it's still got some bugs here and there. The biggest difference between 4 and 5 is a UI overhaul. It looks really pretty in my opinion.

Alright. I tried it once a few years ago but wanted to wait a bit until a full DB port was possible. I don't want to lose all of my track history, hehe. I had to start all over when I switched to MM4 years ago. Any notable bugs that you can think of? My primary concerns are wifi syncing and DB stability. I don't use any of the auto manage options. I've always prefered to do that externally.

drakinite · Post by **drakinite** » Sat Jul 11, 2020 10:57 am

When I first installed it (build 2258) I had a ton of crashes while WiFi syncing, forcing me to completely uninstall it; however, after I reinstalled it, I couldn't reproduce the crashes. So far, wifi sync has worked fine since then.
The majority of the bugs I see are UI and performance related. (if you're interested, these are a bunch of the ones I've reported xD https://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic ... 30&t=96907) But it is definitely usable for me.

musziqluvher · Post by **musziqluvher** » Sat Jul 11, 2020 2:31 pm

drakinite wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 10:57 am When I first installed it (build 2258) I had a ton of crashes while WiFi syncing, forcing me to completely uninstall it; however, after I reinstalled it, I couldn't reproduce the crashes. So far, wifi sync has worked fine since then.
The majority of the bugs I see are UI and performance related. (if you're interested, these are a bunch of the ones I've reported xD https://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic ... 30&t=96907) But it is definitely usable for me.

Ooooooo. Just checked out that thread. Yea, I think I'll wait a bit, hehe. Thank you!

drakinite · Post by **drakinite** » Sat Jul 11, 2020 2:53 pm

Okay no problem! (Strange, I don't know why this thread was merged with another guy's thread)

musziqluvher · Post by **musziqluvher** » Sat Jul 11, 2020 3:57 pm

drakinite wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 2:53 pm Okay no problem! (Strange, I don't know why this thread was merged with another guy's thread)

The mods do that every now n then, when threads are very similar. I wasn't sure if my issue would apply anywhere (I did some searching first) so I made a new post. Since they made the determination that my issue was related to the one in the previous thread, they merged them.

musziqluvher · Post by **musziqluvher** » Sun Jul 12, 2020 3:36 am

How do I perform a clean install of MM5? I tried it a long time ago and uninstalled but it seems like it's still remembering the old database/options that were there. I tried uninstalling and re-installing but I don't get any option to import from MM4 n start fresh.

Barry4679 · Post by **Barry4679** » Sun Jul 12, 2020 4:24 am

Since you are only evaluating MM5. I suggest that you check the Portable Mode option in the MM5 installer. This will install MM into a folder that you nominate.
Its database will be a file named MM5.db, and it should be created in the folder /Portable within the folder that you nominated.

I say "should be" because Portable mode currently has a problem at the moment if you have your MM4 database stored in a custom location ... if so your MM5.db file will be created in the custom database location that you are using for the MM4 db. ... Unexpected and unhelpful IMO, but it is OK because MM5 uses a separate file name to MM4 (ie. MM5.db vs MM.db) ... But make sure that you use the latest version of MM5 (version 5.0.0.2260), because the previous version screwed things up for anyone whose MM4 was in a custom location).

I don't know why you are getting the problem that you describe, but someone from MM will be able to help you with that.
In the meantime, a portable install will workaround that problem ... and if you decide to uninstall, it is easy ... you just need to delete the directory that you nominated, because all MM5 is confined to just that folder.

musziqluvher · Post by **musziqluvher** » Sun Jul 12, 2020 4:57 am

Barry4679 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2020 4:24 am Since you are only evaluating MM5. I suggest that you check the Portable Mode option in the MM5 installer. This will install MM into a folder that you nominate.
Its database will be a file named MM5.db, and it should be created in the folder /Portable within the folder that you nominated.

I say "should be" because Portable mode currently has a problem at the moment if you have your MM4 database stored in a custom location ... if so your MM5.db file will be created in the custom database location that you are using for the MM4 db. ... Unexpected and unhelpful IMO, but it is OK because MM5 uses a separate file name to MM4 (ie. MM5.db vs MM.db) ... But make sure that you use the latest version of MM5 (version 5.0.0.2260), because the previous version screwed things up for anyone whose MM4 was in a custom location).

I don't know why you are getting the problem that you describe, but someone from MM will be able to help you with that.
In the meantime, a portable install will workaround that problem ... and if you decide to uninstall, it is easy ... you just need to delete the directory that you nominated, because all MM5 is confined to just that folder.

T'ank ya. I wasn't paying attention to the page I was on when I downloaded the MM5 installer. The installer I had didn't even allow for a portable installation. So far, so good. We shall see...

drakinite · Post by **drakinite** » Sun Jul 12, 2020 10:56 am

Also, if that doesn't work, you can go into your AppData folder(s) and delete the folder named MediaMonkey 5.

Trying MM5 After MM4

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