Sync MediaMonkey with an Android device

When MediaMonkey for Windows (the MediaMonkey server) syncs with an Android device, it is capable of syncing tracks and playlists, including metadata such as Artist, Album, Title, and Track#, ratings, volume leveling information, play history, play count, bookmarks, Album Artist, Composer, Lyrics, and Album Art.  Whenever any of these attributes are updated on either the server or the device, MediaMonkey is able to sync the change so that your library appears the same no matter how it's being accessed.  For instance:

• Once a track has been synced, MediaMonkey will notice if you've played a song on your device, added it to a playlist or changed it's rating, and MediaMonkey will then sync this information between the device and server.
  
• If you've added music files to your mobile devices from other sources since the last sync, MediaMonkey can optionally retrieve these files from your mobile phone and import them into your MediaMonkey library.
  
• MediaMonkey can optionally erase media files on your device that aren't selected to be synced.
  

The richness of this functionality depends on whether MediaMonkey for Android is installed on the remote device, what sync mode has been chosen (auto-sync vs manual), how the server and device are connected (Wi-Fi or USB), and what options are enabled.

Sync Options

Software

MediaMonkey for Windows 4.1+ can sync with any Android device, and is able to sync tracks and playlists along with basic metadata (Artist, Album, Title, Track#, Album Art) as it would to any MTP device, but Android players that rely on the default Android media scanner will be limited to viewing that metadata. 

Some Android players may also able to read more advanced tag formats, in which case they may also view ratings, volume leveling information, Album Artist, Composer, and Lyrics, Album Art, and fields that have multiple attributes from tracks that have been synced.  However, changes in the metadata may not necessarily sync back to MediaMonkey for Windows.

To view & sync all of the above content and metadata--along with play history, play count, and bookmarks, MediaMonkey for Android should be installed on the Android device.

Auto-Sync vs. Manual sync

There are two ways in which you can move music files to your mobile device: automatically (Auto-sync) and manually.

Auto-sync uses a pre-defined list of files of your choosing and syncs them with your device. These lists are configured either on the MediaMonkey server or in MediaMonkey for Android, where you can choose what content should be synced (e.g. Entire library, a randomized selection, songs of a certain band/genre/album, or only songs from a specific playlist such as "Driving music", "New purchases", "3+ star Music", "Workout" playlists, etc.). The point is that you define what should be synced once - and every time you Auto-sync, Mediamonkey will update content according to the defined criteria. An auto-sync can either be initiated automatically whenever you connect your device, or by clicking Auto-sync on the MediaMonkey server or in MediaMonkey for Android.

Manual syncing in contrast allows you to pick individual songs/albums/playlists etc and send them manually over to your device. To initiate a manual sync, right-click on the desired song/album/playlist and select "Send to", then select your device. Manual syncing requires a USB connection, although you can download tracks from a UPnP server over Wi-Fi to achieve similar results.

Wi-Fi Sync vs. USB Sync

Wi-Fi syncing is the most convenient way to sync content between a Mediamonkey server and an Android device. However, it is slower than syncing over a USB cable and it requires that you use Mediamonkey for Android as your media player on your Android device.

If you want the fastest transfer speed (e.g. for the initial sync operation), or if you plan on using a different player on your Android device, you should use USB syncing.

Setting up Wi-Fi Sync

You will need:

• Mediamonkey for Windows (MMW), version 4.1, available as beta in the forum, and
• Mediamonkey for Android (MMA), available as beta from Google play)
  
• Both your computer running MMW as well as your Android device running MMA need to be connected to the same WiFi network.
  

To set up wifi syncing:

1. If you've been syncing to your device using MediaMonkey 4.0.7, then before you sync over Wi-Fi using MediaMonkey 4.1, you should do an initial sync over USB in order to update your existing profile for Wi-Fi.
2. On your desktop machine running MMW, go to Tools - Options - Media Sharing, and set up the sharing options for your library--by default, these are already set up for you. When MMA (or any UPnP player) is browsing into the MediaMonkey server, it will see only the libraries and playlists that you share.
   If you use the options in MMA to select items for sync, it will only be able to add items that it can see on the UPnP server.
3. On your Android device, start Mediamonkey (MMA) and enter the Options; scroll down to "WI-FI SYNC." Choose "Select Sync Server" and select the MMW server that you set up in step 2.
   As an alternative to going to Options, you can just hit the "Sync now" tile on the homescreen (or from the menu).

Note: If you don't see your shared library in the list, make sure that MMW is running, that both your computer and your Android device are connected to the same network, and that the Windows firewall has an active exception defined for Mediamonkey.

1. On your desktop, MMW will show a popup notification that a device wants to connect for syncing. Confirm.
2. On your desktop, MMW will create a synchronization profile for your Android device. Go to Tools - Options - Portable Device Sync, highlight your device profile and click on "Configure" to select which Tracks/Artists/Albums/Genres/Folders/Playlists etc should be synced over to your device. Alternately, you can also select what to sync within MMA's options.
   Note: For some devices, there may be two profiles, one for Internal and one for External storage. You can set up one or the other, or even both (each with a unique sync list). If you're only going to use the external profile, disable the internal one.
3. Click on the "Sync now" tile on MMA start screen and wait for for the sync to complete. Note that WiFi syncing will be slower than syncing over an USB cable, so be patient, especially during the first sync. It can take several hours to sync a few thousand tracks.

USB Syncing

You will need to use USB Syncing instead of WiFi Syncing if you don't want to use MMA as your Android player, or if you prefer the higher transfer speeds of the USB cable.

To set up USB sync:

1. Plug your device into a USB port of your computer.
2. go to Tools - Options - Portable Device Sync and create a device profile using the correct plugin for your device: highlight the plugin, the click on "Configure".
3. For devices connected in MSC mode (i.e. as a mass storage device with a drive letter), go to the "Options" tab, click on "device configuration" and tell Mediamonkey how to recognize your device (by USB device ID, by the drive letter, or the drive label).
4. Switch to the "Auto-Sync (-> device)" tab to determine which files should get synced over to your device.
5. Close the Plugin configuration and the Options panel.
6. Now you should see a new node in the tree on the left panel of Mediamonkey for your device. Right-click on it, and select Auto-Sync.
7. Wait for the sync to complete (watch the progress bar) - then safely eject your device before unplugging it from your computer.

Troubleshoot Syncing problems

WiFi Sync problems:

• If your MMA sync gets stuck, reboot the Android device, then re-run the sync.

USB Sync problems:

• Some Android devices have issues with USB connectivity - especially CyanogenMod-based ROMS can be tricky to get working. To ensure that your Android device is recognized by MMW, unlock the screen *before* connecting the USB cable. In some cases, you may need to unplug and reconnect your device.
• If your sync tranfers some tracks, and then fails on all subsequent tracks, your device may drop the USB connection. Simply re-run the sync a few times until all the remaining songs are transferred as well.

See more: Wi-Fi Sync and UPnP/DLNA isn't working

Syncing tips and tricks

• If you want to use BOTH wifi and usb syncing with the same device (e.g. to do big syncs over the cable and small daily syncs over wifi), you should first set up your device for USB syncing, and then in the plugin configuration on the "Summary" tab, check the "grant remote sync/access rights" box to enable wifi syncing for the same profile as well. If you instead set up wifi syncing first, you will likely use a different plugin - causing you to end up with two different syncing profiles for your device - one for wifi, the other for usb.
• You may not want to share all the playlists via the UPnp/DLNA server; selectivity leads to easier browsing. You can still sync playlists that are not shared by selecting them in MMW. Once those have been synced, the playlists will appear in the MMA options; you can then deselect them from MMA.
• Auto-playlists will sync whatever content has changed each time. A randomly-generated autoplaylist will replace all the previous entries with a new set of entries with each sync.