More Help needed, bringing MM4 library into MM5 [#18690]

[maxxuk]

*** WAS HOLDING OFF POSTING THIS AS MM5 IS DOING 'something' - just not suew what?

I thought this would be straightforward but not so I'm afraid. Hoping someone can help.

I HAVE searched the forums and actually did this over year ago with the MM5 beta but not working for me now, unfortunately.

I have continued to use MM4 since I had those sync issues with MM5, adding files, updating files, etc. etc. now that I have MM5 working and able to 2-way sync I need to update the MM5 library to match the current MM4 library (both MM4 & MM5 are on the same machine)

I'm pretty sure when I did this originally it would have prompted me to import the MM4 library and it did this perfectly. I'm not sure I ever did it again but the advice seems to be from forum posts to :-

DELETE (rename) the MM5.DB,
Relaunch MM5 and it will again prompt to import from MM4

It does give this option and the open dialogue does go to the correct folder but when I click OK I get an error message to either Relaunch , [something else] or Continue. I have seen this come up before but usually do a re-launch.

This time I pressed Continue, MM5 is doing 'something' but no idea what, it says "loading" at the bottom left of the screen and the 'progress circle' is circling round and round but nothing else on screen. I have looked in the MM5 folder and no NEW MM5.DB looks to be being created (It's been like this about an hour now).

I don't want to kill it 'just yet' in case it IS actually working. MM does seem to be using some CPU resource (goes between 1 & 2 in Task Manager) and 'memory' on 1 process (there are 4 in total), 1 x MM and 3 x MM engine) is going up slightly (between about 246k and 250k

Also I remembered I had the DEBUG version installed, maybe that is the reason it's taking a long time but having no indication of if it's working or not is frustrating.

If this is NOT THE BEST METHOD (or if it no longer works in latest MM5) I'd appreciate some guidance on what to do next.

Many Thanks

[Lowlander]

What exactly does the error state and which Build (Help > About) of MediaMonkey 5 are you using?

[maxxuk]

What exactly does the error state and which Build (Help > About) of MediaMonkey 5 are you using?

Hi Lowlander, thanks for responding. I'm using 5.0.2.2528 Debug version (as have been working on another issue)

Sorry, I pressed continue and neglected to note the error, I have seen this a couple of times before but as it's been running for over 2 hours now with no indication of what it is doing I have killed it and started again.

I did try and rerun, bottom line was it WAS importing the MM4 library as when I went back in it is now there ... but not all of it

MM4 library 114,675 file -> MM5 library 108,177 files. Just 6,000 files short if I'd only waited another 10 mins or so.

Grrrr! problem was there was NO indication what it was doing and I kept checking in the MediaMonkey5 folder for a 'new' MM5.DB but nothing there (clearly was being built up elsewhere).

So, will have to start from scratch again.

[Lowlander]

So, MM5 doesn't import, instead it converts the MM4 Library to a MM5 Library. This means the file counts should be the same (unless a different MM4 database was used).

More: https://www.mediamonkey.com/support/kno ... r-windows/

[maxxuk]

Grrr! this is so frustrating, renamed the MM5.DB and restarted it, gave an error that the file existed, clicked continue and it's 'doing something' again, hopefully copying the MM4 library to a new MM5 library.

I 'think' it was the MM.DB file (what is this?) I did rename that on a previous attempt but it then gave no option to import from MM4 so renamed it back.

Hopefully it is working, will check back in 3hrs.


(was just a screengrab of the error message but doesn't seem to work)

[Lowlander]

It may be the easiest to copy the mm.db from MM4 to the MM5 database location and rename the mm5.db to mm5.db.old. Then starting MM5 should update the MM4 database.

Make sure you verify date modified to make sure you got the right MM4 database. Sometimes it helps to run File > Maintain library, then check “Optimize database” in MediaMonkey 4 before having the MM4 database updated.

Default database locations: https://www.mediamonkey.com/support/kno ... ini-files/

[drakinite]

MM.DB is a database file. In layman's terms, it stores all of the information about your library -- A list of all tracks and their metadata, albums and playlists, etc. (If you're moving your database file around and renaming them, be sure to make a backup just in case!)

[maxxuk]

It may be the easiest to copy the mm.db from MM4 to the MM5 database location and rename the mm5.db to mm5.db.old. Then starting MM5 should update the MM4 database.

Make sure you verify date modified to make sure you got the right MM4 database. Sometimes it helps to run File > Maintain library, then check “Optimize database” in MediaMonkey 4 before having the MM4 database updated.

Default database locations: https://www.mediamonkey.com/support/kno ... ini-files/

Thanks again, I have started the process again but I suspect that is what MM5 is doing?

There is/was an MM.DB in the MediaMonkey5 folder which was 'perhaps' a copy of the MM4 MM.DB file (the program would have done this). Yes, just looked, I now have another large (same size) MM.DB that I had before.

Ah, OK, something odd.

I did a search for MM.DB, the one CURRENTLY in the \users\me\appdata\roaming\MediaMonkey folder is 288Mb, the one (new one that MM5 must have created) is only 276Mb

Not sure where MM5 is getting the newly created MM.DB from??

I've bitten the bullet, killed MM5 off again, copied the larger MM.DB into the MediaMonkey5 folder and restarted the conversion, it did give me the 'file already exists' error bit I just opted to [Continue] - doing something again, don't know what, hopefully doing as I hope, will check back in 3hrs

Thanks again.

[maxxuk]

MM.DB is a database file. In layman's terms, it stores all of the information about your library -- A list of all tracks and their metadata, albums and playlists, etc. (If you're moving your database file around and renaming them, be sure to make a backup just in case!)

Thanks, yeah, lesson learnt from years ago, copy/rename/backup.

[maxxuk]

Somewhat disappointing update but MM5 has been active now for 4 hours, 'loading' and progress circle spinning but no sign of an MM5.DB in the MediaMonkey5 folder. Off to bed now and will see what we have in the morning.

[IanRTaylorUK]

If you are running the Debug version of MMW5 then you can run DebugView v 4.90 downloaded from the web site https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysint ... /debugview and "see" what MMW5 might be doing for many hours.

You could - for example - Edit then Clear Display in DebugVIew, then run DebugView for a number of minutes and then File Save As to generate a log.

Another approach is the start DebugView before MMW5 and then you will see MMW5 start and get information in the log confirming the Version of MMW5, the location of the DB Path etc. etc.

Should you need, you can then either post a copy of the DebugView Log(s) or put then on cloud storage and post a link.

Hope this helps. This has helped me a few times in the past.

P.S. Typical time for Media Monkey to start and complete initial scan for a 40,000 MP3 file library is now under 5 minutes for my rather old PC.

[maxxuk]

If you are running the Debug version of MMW5 then you can run DebugView v 4.90 downloaded from the web site https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysint ... /debugview and "see" what MMW5 might be doing for many hours.

You could - for example - Edit then Clear Display in DebugVIew, then run DebugView for a number of minutes and then File Save As to generate a log.

Another approach is the start DebugView before MMW5 and then you will see MMW5 start and get information in the log confirming the Version of MMW5, the location of the DB Path etc. etc.

Should you need, you can then either post a copy of the DebugView Log(s) or put then on cloud storage and post a link.

Hope this helps. This has helped me a few times in the past.

P.S. Typical time for Media Monkey to start and complete initial scan for a 40,000 MP3 file library is now under 5 minutes for my rather old PC.

Thanks Ian, just about to post an update.

[maxxuk]

Well, how a mood can change in an instant.

Came back to it this morning after 14hrs and it still appeared to be doing something (i.e. bottom left said 'Loading', top right progress circle still circling) so no choice but to kill the process.

Thinking it may have finished I restarted MM5 and it came up with :-



((images don't seem to be working for me, tried a couple of hosting options, can view them in a browser ok))
[ essentially it's this dialogue box]

"Do you want to use the database and settings from Media Monkey 4"
" [MediaMoney4] [Cancel]"

So I was pretty dejected ... as I thought it hadn't worked. However, I pressed CANCEL and it started a process converting my library from MM4 which completed in under a minute and I was left with all 114,675 files in MM5 that I had in MM4.

So now ecstatic!

Still got a long way to go as I need to 'fully sync' what I have on the iPod with the library BUT I've been adding bits and bobs over the last 15 months so will all have to be done manually (can't do a full library sync as iPod is only 160Mb), or I could just wave goodbye to any ratings.

I can get a fair bit back as one thing I have done since having sync issue last Sept was to create dated 'added-on' folders so I can just do the 'send to' option so I can sync all those I've created since Sept 2020, that will catch a lot.

I can't see any way of automating a full re-sync of everything on the iPod, I did look at exporting to a sort of file that I could use in some way but that doesn't look possible?

[IanRTaylorUK]

I find it best to put images etc. onto OneDrive / Dropbox / Google Drive and just post a link.

Would be interesting to see what DebugView is saying right up to the dialogue box!

I am not certain why you would want a "full sync". The approach I use with Android devices is to drive the sync using Playlists (typically whole album). But you could use Genre / Rating etc. to set the Playlists up and control what get sync'd. Just a thought.

[IanRTaylorUK]

Hi MaxxUK,

Manage to repeat your experience!

Installed MMW4 onto slow laptop with music on external hard disk, scanned and created the MMW4 library / MM.DB. for 35k files.

Downloaded MMW5 2528 to install over 2523 that was already there but removed the MM5.DB and put copy of MMW4 MM.DB in its place. MMW5 got stuck with "Loading..." so closed MMW5 and restarted. I gave a minute or two before restarting MMW5 and it began the conversion of the MMW4 database to MMW5 immediately.

This "second" attempt started at 14:07 and finished 14:22.

Was the error message you referred to something like:

Access violation at address 0168DCEF in module 'MediaMonkeyEngine.exe'. Read of address 00000008, query: There was a problem querying the database
Access violation at address 0168FC26 in module 'MediaMonkeyEngine.exe'. Read of address 00000008, query: There was a problem querying the database