Multiple users, same windows account

[bkenobi69]

I have my MMW installed on my WinXP based file server running as a service. So far, I am the only user and primarily access files by syncing my Android phone to it via WiFi. My wife has finally accepted that iTunes iSucks and is going to start using MMA and, by extension, MMW. I currently have one profile set up on MMW but think it would be smart to have a second profile for her own music.

I'm aware that MMW can have multiple profiles by having different Windows profiles, but that's not really what I wanted to do on the file server. Any suggestions would be great.

[Lowlander]

You can run one MediaMonkey and use Collections to separate content (can be done on Path). You can also do Portable Installs of MediaMonkey which run independently from each other.

[bkenobi69]

Portable would mean multiple instances running concurrently I assume, so collections sounds more promising.

[Lowlander]

Yes, but they run isolated from each other.

[bkenobi69]

A point of clarification. It looks as though a collection is intended to split a single set of media into multiple groups (collections) such that each can be accessed differently. It does not appear that this can be used to set a different rating based on different people/tastes/moods/etc. Also, it appears that it allows for multiple instances of the same track if both users have the same track in each directory. I guess my goal would be better described as having a single set of metadata for each user with ideally no redundancy in the file storage and yet multiple metadata for the same song in some instances (duplicated tracks by each user). I think collections can work, but it would allow for excess storage needs unless symbolic links are used. That sounds more complicated than I wanted to get into, so I'm not currently considering it.

[Lowlander]

Yes, a single Library only has 1 set of metadata for the files it contains, just like the files themselves do. You'd need multiple databases (thus you're back with Portable Installs) to have different metadata for the same files (and you'd still need to manage this well).

[bkenobi69]

Since I don't really want to require my wife to RDC to the file server, I was thinking it would be better to set up MMW on the laptop. We have different user accounts there, so I can configure hers and mine differently with different databases. I had it set up with my MMW database on the file server with a copy running there as a service to connect the MMA to but a crashed laptop OS/reinstall last year currently has me doing everything over there. I'm going to set up my MMW locally again and get her MMW profile running for her. As for her database on the server, I assume the best approach is as follows:


My DB -> \\file-server\MyMM.db
My MMW for managing -> laptop user ME
My MMW for syncing Android via WiFi -> file server full MMW w/ service enabled

Wif'e DB -> \\file-server\WifeMM.db
Wife's MMW for manageing -> laptop user Wife
Wife's MMW for syncing Android via WiFi -> file server portable MMW w/ service enabled


I assume this should work but if I need to tweak anything please let me know. Also, if this won't work for some reason, knowing before wasting my time with a bad approach would be great too!

[Lowlander]

Portable Install can't run as service. I'd keep the wife all local to the laptop (database and sync). Also make sure that she has no write access to the files on the fileserver (or at least on files shared between both) so that any changes she makes (like Rating) aren't updated in the files themselves. Then you still have to deal with the fact that any changes made by you to the files would show up in her Library on rescan.

[bkenobi69]

I thought ratings were stored in MM and not in the file's metadata? I understand that artist, genre, etc will be in any file with an id3 tag, but that will not be the case for flax at least, which is the vast majority of my collection.

[Lowlander]

Rating is stored in the tags too. FLAC also has all tags stored: http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... erties/4.0

[bkenobi69]

it looks like rating is "non-standard" in flac. But at the bottom it says MM reads Musicmatch but doesn't write. Maybe I'm reading it wrong.

[Lowlander]

† Non-standard tag format originally implemented in MusicMatch is also read, but not written.

Which only applies where † is shown (not with Rating for FLAC) means that that tag can be read from files tagged by MusicMatch. This means moving from MusicMatch is facilitated. However MediaMonkey won't write to that tag if you make changes to it in MediaMonkey.