Syncing Windows to Android

[graphicjazz]

So this is more of a question about how MM works and not that I need help with using it.

I am trying to find a simple way to have a media library sync between my Windows 10 PC and my Google Pixel over WiFi. I see that MM supports syncing over WiFi but only with a paid version.

My question is how reliable and thorough is the sync. For example will it sync a file that I needed to remove an extra space in the title tag?

Also how does it deal with renaming folders and files? Will it see that I renamed a file and rename its respective file on the other platform or will it see it as a file that doesn't exist on the other platform and make a new file essentially creating a duplicate?

My apologies if this has already been discussed as my searching did not produce any results related to this topic.

[Lowlander]

Depends on your settings. If you enable it tag changes are synced both ways. As for filenames, as long as you changing them with MediaMonkey it should work.

[Rednroll]

Let me 1st start by saying is that MM is by far the most powerful media player/organizer on the planet. It will be able to do everything you could imagine, and more. However, it may not do exactly what you want by default where it may take some configuring on your part to get it to do what you want.

My question is how reliable and thorough is the sync. For example will it sync a file that I needed to remove an extra space in the title tag?

In this department it excels in syncing tags. If you make any changes to a songs tag it will transfer those changes by altering just the tag information on the device you are syncing. No special configuration is needed here, it works this way by default.

Also how does it deal with renaming folders and files? Will it see that I renamed a file and rename its respective file on the other platform or will it see it as a file that doesn't exist on the other platform and make a new file essentially creating a duplicate?

This is different. Changes such as renaming files and folders on the MMW server side will not by default sync to your device but it can be configured to do so. By default, MM uses each file's tag information to create file names and folder structures when copying them onto the device you are syncing and the great thing about MM is that it allows you to configure each device differently on how it syncs the file names if you choose. Each device you sync to from MMW has what is called a "device profile" where you can define how MMW syncs to each device.

To take full advantage of some of the power features of MM in configuring it to your preferences, it may be in your best interest to learn about how to use "Masks". Here is a link to the Mask quick reference guide.
http://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index.p ... ormats/4.0

I would say MM's specialty is in using a song's tag information to configure it to do what you want. However, additionally even if there isn't a tag by default that provides you exactly what you want, then you can create custom tags within MMW and use those custom tag fields to configure MM to do what you want including file naming manipulation. Also when you look over the available masks, you will see the actual file names and file paths in MMW are defined masks that can be used to copy those file names to your sync device. Also MM has a lot of available scripts you can install, where someone has typically already written a script to do most any task that you can think of.

Here's an example of a custom configuration I setup in MMW in customizing the file names which get named according to these custom settings when the files are copied onto my phone's SD card during the sync process.

MMW Main Window screen (as a reference)


MMW Device Custom Profile Settings (one example of what can be done)



So breaking down that line that I have highlighted in the custom profile settings, here's what happens during the sync process.
1. A top folder is created named "Music" onto my phones SD card.
2. MM then creates a sub folder under that Music folder using the information which is entered into each songs "Album Artist" tag field. I'm using the "<Album Artist>" Mask.
3. It then creates another sub folder under that using a combination of the "Year" tag and the "Custom 1" tag fields. I created the Custom 1 tag field which is the Album name without the [year] entry that I have entered into the actual Album tag field.
4. Then it creates the name of the file using a combination of the Track#, Artist, followed by a "-" and then the "Title" of the song.

For the Song I have highlighted in the Main referenced screen image, the end result of the path and file name for that song on the device I'm syncing to would be the following.
Music\Pearl Jam\1991 Ten\01 Pearl Jam - Once.mp3

So for your specific question you could use a similar configuration but instead of using the Masks I have for #4 above, you could use the "<Filename>" mask which by that mask's definition would copy over the current file name for that song in MMW to the device you are syncing to using the exact same file naming as the source file.

So does MM do what you ask? The simple answer is "Yes" as Lowlander stated but it may take some configuration on your part, but once it's configured to the way you want it to work, it will work that way every time you sync to that device since that configuration gets saved within the device's profile settings.

[graphicjazz]

Thank you for your replies. Seems like MM is a very powerful and comprehensive media library manager. And it does seem like it can do what I'm looking for with a bit of tweaking.

One last question, it is more of a general question though, does MM handle Unicode in file names and tags? I have some songs with Japanese and Korean text so I want to make sure that won't hinder MM's capabilities.

[Peke]

Hi,
Short answer is yes, MMW have full Unicode support.

Long answer due the specific nature of some Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese language standards in case (haven't seen one for years) that MMW do not read tags correct we would need sample file for analyze otherwise MMW is known that fully support Unicode both on filenames and tags.

[graphicjazz]

Thanks for all the information. I'll give MMW and MMA a shot and see how it works out.