Which Build of MMW and MMA are you using?

Just wanted to chime in here in 2023 to say this issue is alive and well 2 years later.

• Syncing from MMW to MMA on a Samsung device, so the Samsung list of culprits is still on the docket

• I am not playing any music from the desktop, so that does not appear to be a pre-requisite

• I changed computers, so I'm trying to sync the same library from a different laptop (to the same old phone), and that is when this issue began

• USB sync only grabs about 70% of my library. On second sync, it grabs the rest, but begins replacing .mp3 files with empty .m3u files

• Some synced music is just removed on re-sync rather than being replaced by .m3u files. I have an album, then I re-sync and it's deleted

• Iterative deletion of .m3u files and re-syncing seems to help

• Giving the phone ample time to read its updated library before re-syncing seems to help

• I don't know how to generate a log but if there are other users with this issue and devs still looking at it I can try.

To clean up the M3U situation based on my experience with a Samsung Tablet running on Android 10:

1). With the device connected using USB, open Windows File Explorer and search for "*.M3U" when viewing your equivalent of SDCard\Music.

2). Delete ALL the 0 byte M3U files. [To assist with this I place all my Playlists in SDCard\Playlists and all MP3s in SDCard\Music\Artist\Album...]

3). Run Media Monkey Android and let it update it's library - monitor using the Folders view until the number of files is at a minimum.

4). Re-Open Media Monkey for Windows and you should find the under the Device / Music node that the Windows information bar matches the number of MP3 files as given in the Media Monkey Android folders view.

5). Now re-sync and it should add MP3 files for all the M3Us you deleted.

During the re-sync and after the music files have been sent, you can check for the number of MP3s / lack of M3Us etc in Windows Explorer. I often do a *.* search of SDCard\Music (sorted by file type) as this will show ALL files and other minor issues. For example, music files where the track number or disc number is missing. [I have my Sync / Options / Sync Files To for Music as "\Music\<Album Artist>\<Album>\<Disc#><Track#:2>-<Title>"]

After the re-sync MMA should be allowed to update and the number of tracks in the MMA "folders" view match both MMW4 and Windows - this can take a while! Probably not a good idea to do another sync until MMA has completed this update.

I have an identical problem. Unfortunately I'm a fitness instructor who relies on playlists very heavily. In keeping with other comments in this thread, this did not occur using old Honor phone, only since I've moved to a replacement Samsung Android 10 phone. I've not found a workaround yet either other than manual copying of files and cleaning up the M3U files. I also suspect it's either some Samsung or Android software causing the issue.

There is a chance that either Music Center, Voice Recorder or Samsung Music are the cause of this issue.

I am having the exact same issue with one device, a Samsung Galaxy Tab A. This has happened several times in the past three months. The device then will only see the m3u file instead of the mp3 file, thus those songs cannot be played. I have to remove the card and then delete the m3u files. Reinstall the card and after syncing again, usually it will get down to a couple of hundred corrupted files out of 5000+. This morning, it jumped back to over 1000 bad files. I am now trying to sync directly to the card, but this caused me to have to delete all mp3 files first because of space. They were the same files, should not have been a problem. I do not have this issue on other devices including a Samsung Tab E or a Lenovo Tab 4.

Lowlander wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 11:37 am The current suspect source is an App on the device doing this. However which App isn't mentioned unfortunately.

I tend to agree that it is more likely to be on the device side. Not a technical comment more based on my experience.

Have just done a clean install of Windows 10 on a new SSD then re-installed MMW4.

The first sync of my Sony Xperia XZ resulted in no 0 byte M3U files in the Music folder of the device.

However, the second sync of my Samsung Tab S5E resulted in 4096 M3U files in the Music folder.

The phone (XZ) and the tablet (S5E) have very similar installations of software but the tablet is Android 10 whereas phone is Android 8.

The current suspect source is an App on the device doing this. However which App isn't mentioned unfortunately.

It seems to come and go. Not certain what is causing the creation of M3Us.

It has been less of a problem recently due to the almost weekly release of new versions of MMW5.

For each new version I do a clean portable install of both the debug and normal version. I tend to start afresh with a device synchronisation and follow:

https://www.mediamonkey.com/support/kno ... c-profile/

I separate music / mp3 files from playlists i.e. \Ian's Galaxy Tab S5e\Card\Music\Artist\Album vs This PC\Ian's Galaxy Tab S5e\Card\Playlists. If and when M3Us appear in the "Music" folders, I just delete and re-sync selectively.

So I have sort of managed the situation but intend to take a closer look after doing a fresh / clean Windows 10 install. Just waiting for the new SSD to arrive!

Well, while my search of the Forum didn't turn up anything prior to my original posting, I see the moderator found a similar thread to place it within. Now reading that this issues isn't unique to me, and seeing the other items, I just wanted to add some additional information:

This is all recent, as I haven't had any issues with syncing in the past couple years I have had the Samsung Galaxy 10+ phone. It has had the same 512 microSD card and I have used MM on both my PC and my Android phone since. All are up to date versions.

The files that were converted to M3U were almost all of them (10K+). Even files I haven't listened to on the device at any time since they were added there. Last night, when this happened and I noticed this happened, the MM on my PC was performing differently, i.e. it was utilizing nearly all of the processor power and as it synced, the status message as it changed from song to song was stating most of the time "converting" though I honestly didn't watch it to see the full message at the time.

Not sure what it was converting, but in retrospect in the morning when nearly all the files were M3U, makes me wonder! I tried manually syncing after the automatic sync finally finished over night. Some MP3 files were added (leaving the M3U files as well), but not all (really just a handful). In frustration and the need to have my music portable, I deleted all the music folders on the card through windows explorer. I started MM on the PC and it auto-synced about 7600 of the almost 11K I have. Not sure why it only did 7600 (which is what it showed in the process bar in MM) when all nearly 11K songs are shown in MM and chosen to sync with this device.

Not sure there has been a definitive cause identified or solution to this issue based upon the posts. Can someone help me understand what has started happening and what to do to fix it? I didn't pay for these products to not be able to utilize them properly! Thank you!

When I connect my Android phone to my PC, MM is set to autosync (has been since I got the phone 2-years ago). Always has worked without an issue, until recently! It happened a few weeks ago, but I didn't spend time looking at the issue, just re-synced and moved on. However, last night when it synced I noticed that the autosync had converted all my MP3 files to M3U files? This renders all my music useless on my phone. I clicked the manual sync button and it seems to be copying all the MP3 files back to the phone, but trying to understand why the autosync would be spending hours converting all the files to a different file type to begin with. Sorry, tried to post an image from a box link, but it will not let me.

You could catch this in debug log and submit like LowLander suggested above, but I have been already solving this issue with IanRTaylorUK and his logs has proven that it was not MMW that was changing the MP3 to M3U. It was an app on Android side:

Correct, I have not been able to replicate since removing some apps from Android and formatting the SDXC cards.

I am fairly certain the problem is on the Android side and happens during sync rather than after.

It happens to anything I've played on Media Monkey on my computer between syncs to my phone.

Are you sure that this is the trigger? Do you play the files from the phone in MMW (MediaMonkey for Windows) or the original files that were already copied to the device? Does this happen during USB sync or Wi-Fi sync or both ??

Why is this marked solved??? this is not solved!!

The problem occurs during syncing. It happens to anything I've played on Media Monkey on my computer between syncs to my phone.

Hi Ludek,

Correct, I have not been able to replicate since removing some apps from Android and formatting the SDXC cards.

I am fairly certain the problem is on the Android side and happens during sync rather than after.

Have repeatedly tested synching over days since 2271 was released and so far Zero M3Us with 0 bytes.

My test is ~11.8k MP3 files from 742 playlists or about 60 GB each time. I sync then add / change a few files then re-sync so that files on the SDXC card should get updated.

So for me (so far) format the SDXC card and sync is the solution. Hope this helps.