MM4 - Worst upgrade ever

[MediaMan]

Just upgraded from 3.2.5.1306 to 4.0.0.1459. Worst upgrade experience ever.

- no ipad2 support (see error message attached)
- music libray not found
- settings lost
- no idea where the ini file
- no idea was DB it is using

Why is this upgrade so different than in the past?? I used to be seamless.. Now, its like starting from scratch. I really did not want to spend hours on this. And no ipad support really irks me. Major dissapointment.

[nohitter151]

iPad/iPhone/iPod touch with iOS 5 support is planned, but Apple makes it as hard as possible. Please see:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 33#p317184 and also note there is an announcement about this on the front page.

Regarding the screenshot you posted of the scan - this usually indicates that you haven't checked the applicable file types to scan, since it found files but did not import them.

Settings: most should be retained on upgrade. What kind of settings were lost?

INI file and DB are upgraded from the MM3 version, and saved in a new location:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/inde ... ticleid=17

[MediaMan]

Thanks for the tips. That did the trick.

Previously the ini file was C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\MediaMonkey\MediaMonkey.ini ; suddently its in C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\MediaMonkey\MediaMonkey.ini .

I was able to edit the latter to point to my DB file, which it recognized. So things apperar a little closer to normal now, though I have not had time to go through everything.

I dont think Apple has the monopoly on making things as hard as possible. Why this needs to be so convoluted is beyond me.

That's really too bad about MM4 it still not seeing my ipad2. I thought MM4 would do precisely that. And I see there is no ETA on this either. This is making it more and more difficult to adopt MM4 and my only music manager. The ipad is fairly criritcal part of the music solution! Looks like Itunes needs to stay in the mix for while longer to help manage music.

[Lowlander]

Well, as said Apple makes it hard for third parties to connect with their products. They purposely lock out third parties to protect their universe. This means that third party developers like MediaMonkey have no documentation to rely on when trying to make their products compatible with Apple devices. This means that there is no ETA as it isn't known as to what needs to be done to get it working. Thus it is simply done when it's done, and it would seem that iOS5 is making it particularly hard.
When buying Apple you're expected to stay within the Apple universe, if you stray out of it you'll have to deal with the wrath of Apple. This is why I'm hoping Android itself and Android support/player catch on as it would provide a much better option for MediaMonkey users.

[nohitter151]

That's really too bad about MM4 it still not seeing my ipad2. I thought MM4 would do precisely that. And I see there is no ETA on this either. This is making it more and more difficult to adopt MM4 and my only music manager. The ipad is fairly criritcal part of the music solution! Looks like Itunes needs to stay in the mix for while longer to help manage music.

If you haven't tried it, you might want to look into the iTunes device plugin:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/brows ... or-itunes/
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... start=9999

Basically the way it works is to sync all your tracks to a folder on your PC (auto-conversion, volume, etc all supported), which are then automatically imported into iTunes. Then you can set up wifi sync with iTunes. Playlists, ratings, playcounts are all supported, and synced between your device, iTunes, and back to MM. Best of all, since it uses iTunes for sync there is no worrying about iOS firmware support. The plugin has been around for awhile but I decided to set it up today -- it works great.

[wgardenhire]

Worst upgrade ever - Oh, Yeah - It is a MAJOR pain in the ass. All media imported well enough and imported is a very accurate word. You would think that this was a brand new install of an application that had never been seen before. Seemed to take forever to build the new version database. I have to admit that it seems to be one great media manager - with the emphasis on MEDIA. In that respect I'm sure it is everything the developers want it to be. But dang it, why did MM have to abandon every setting I had. From toolbars to skins absolutely nothing was imported. I really don't have time for this kind of BS. Every time a song is highlighted, there is an arrow next to the artist's name; clicking on the arrow brings up the artist node for that artist - handy to some I suppose but I'd really like to get rid of it. Thanks for allowing me to vent.
<<Figured out the arrow 'problem'. This is a powerful program. I'll just shut up now. Blame thing wouldn't even import my license key.

MediaMonkey Gold - Lifetime - Version 4.0.0.1459 - Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Version 2002, Service Pack 3 - Intel Pentium III 500 MHz - 768 MB RAM - MediaMonkey Player

[MediaMan]

If you haven't tried it, you might want to look into the iTunes device plugin:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/brows ... or-itunes/
http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... start=9999

Basically the way it works is to sync all your tracks to a folder on your PC (auto-conversion, volume, etc all supported), which are then automatically imported into iTunes. Then you can set up wifi sync with iTunes. Playlists, ratings, playcounts are all supported, and synced between your device, iTunes, and back to MM. Best of all, since it uses iTunes for sync there is no worrying about iOS firmware support. The plugin has been around for awhile but I decided to set it up today -- it works great.

That first link, http://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/brows ... or-itunes/ implies one "buys" the plug-in. Is that correct???

[Jake Ames]

Any way to roll back to 3.25x? recover all my old settings and personalizations?

My biggest issue is that the version 4 display is a huge waste of screen real estate. What the hell was wrong with having now playing and playlist windows moveable over under the director trees?

Why do I have to rebuild all my settings and personalizations? It didn't even keep my gold version key!

Glad I am only go to 'upgrade' one computer to this version.

[Jake Ames]

Had a copy of 3.24x from mid 2011, installed it, went very fast, all my prior settings were preserved, database Ok, now playing window back where it should be. The universe has now returned to a calm and orderly state.

I'll pass on version 4 for now.

[nohitter151]

That first link, http://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/brows ... or-itunes/ implies one "buys" the plug-in. Is that correct???

No. This addon is free.

[GSV3MiaC]

I'd LIKE to pass on MM4 as well, although the DLNA server is very nice function to have (right now I have a NAS box, but it doesn't have near the power of MM w.r.t playlists and auto format conversion etc.). However MM3 is terminally broke WRT the Amazon interface, so I may have no choice.

Like you, I am affronted at the cavalier way the 'upgrade' basically tossed away everything (well, =nearly= everything) I had taught MM2/3 over the last few years, as far as where files go, what formats to use, what my last.fm UID was, how many copies of USBMass it needs to have, etc. It also seems to have dumped the 'synch device with different path formats for each playlist' feature, and I can't actually find any simple page telling me 'what are the changes from MM3 to MM4' (I can find pages telling me how wonderful all the new features are).

I await with interest what's going to happen when my VBA programs try to access the database. 8<.

And no, I'm not your average Luddite - I have beta tested previous versions, recommended MM3 to all sorts of people, and come fully equipped with a CS degree and willingness to try new stuff (right now Win7/64 bit, on a PC I've assembled myself) .. but I'm not going to recommend anyone upgrades MM right now, because I'd spend the rest of the year digging them out and restoring their masks etc.

[nohitter151]

Any way to roll back to 3.25x? recover all my old settings and personalizations?

My biggest issue is that the version 4 display is a huge waste of screen real estate. What the hell was wrong with having now playing and playlist windows moveable over under the director trees?

They are still movable. Right click > View > Show titlebar.

Yes, some settings are lost on upgrade. It takes all of 20 minutes to reconfigure even the most complicated settings.

[Jake Ames]

Nohitter - thanks for your comment.

When you have MM deployed on several computers, it takes a LOT more than 20 minutes to reconfigure every setting. Why that should be needed is another issue.

The Now Playing window may actually be moveable but I'll hold off on putting MM4 on any of these systems until there is a lot more discussion and perhaps a primer (clear disclosure note?) on all the changes, etc.

This upgrade is really out of character for MediaMonkey. I have been following Rusty and Peke since the old Song DB days and was an early adopter of MediaMonkey. I don't think I have ever experienced this kind of unexpected result from a version of MM. No doubt after the dust settles things will be fine but at the moment, 3.2x manages all my music very nicely thank you.

[GSV3MiaC]

They are still movable. Right click > View > Show titlebar.

Yes, some settings are lost on upgrade. It takes all of 20 minutes to reconfigure even the most complicated settings.

Yes, they are moveable, but why didn't MM4 just start them off where MM3 left them? Not only did my 'now playing' pane move, but even the search box had gone walkabout.
And figuring out =how= to move things back is not trivial - there are LOTS of changes, and very little useful 'readme first' type help.

As the previous poster said, fixing it is not '20 minutes work' - it took me 24 hours to even find out that the 'different destinations synched from each playlist' is broken on purpose, and I still haven't managed to fix =everything= on even 1 computer. 'Synch to device' being broken is not funny when you are synching 6k tracks, all of which are being auto converted, and they don't wind up where they should (MM4 was not, apparently, able to remember what MM3 had put where, so it had to read 36GB of tracks before mis-writing them back again). I'm still waiting to hear why <playlist name> is now (for some purposes) expanded to 'Playlist - <playlist name>'.

Near as I can tell MM4 has been rushed out as an alternative to fixing the Amazon API problem in MM3 .. much of the supporting documentation has yet to be updated.

[Lowlander]

Because a lot of core components got updated in MediaMonkey 4.