Will 3.0....? questions

[Agrajag]

Does anyone have any input on any of the following sync'ing issues for 3.0?

1) I have an iPod and one of the things I liked about the Sveta product from Illustrate was that it would do a quick analysis and show you what the differences were between what was on the iPod and what files you were about to sync. Immediately you could see differences and problems and deal with them. Will something like this be in MM3?

2) I have a "Playlist" I've created that's a subset of my overall library that MM knows about. This list represents the songs I want on my iPod. I also have another list for my wife's iPod and one for my son's Rio. Now I'm thinking I might like some real playlists to use on the iPod. Will MM3 let me create an iPod playlist in MM3 and transfer just that playlist (not the music files) to the iPod to be triggered from there?

Thanks.

[Agrajag]

No one knows anything about this?

[gege]

2) I have a "Playlist" I've created that's a subset of my overall library that MM knows about. This list represents the songs I want on my iPod. I also have another list for my wife's iPod and one for my son's Rio. Now I'm thinking I might like some real playlists to use on the iPod. Will MM3 let me create an iPod playlist in MM3 and transfer just that playlist (not the music files) to the iPod to be triggered from there?

If you want MM to create playlists in iPod, you need to create them in MM first and then select them to be sync'd. MM will copy the playlists themselves as well as the songs they contain.

In your case, I think the best way to handle this is to create three empty manual playlists ('Dad', 'Mom' and 'Son' for instance). Then you create auto or manual sub-playlists for each one of them. Once all playlists are populated, you set up your iPod to auto-sync to all Dad's sub-playlists, your wife's to Mom's and so on...

Was it clear?

[Agrajag]

gege, thanks for the reply.

A couple things.

If I read that right you're saying that what I did so far wasn't the best choice (no problem there as I'm a complete neophyte when it comes to MM).

The teams "manual" and "automatic" as applied to playlists is new to me.

Are you saying that, for "Dad" for example, I take what I have now, which is a playlist that contains ~1600 songs and move all of those out of that "root" and into playlists that appear under that main playlist?

So I might, in this case have:

Dad Playlist (0 songs)
--- Workout (120 songs)
--- Rock (1100 songs)
--- Holiday (80 songs)
--- All (1600 songs that were what was first in the main playlist)

What is the impact of "auto" versus "manual" at this point? I guess I'm stuck thinking "manual" is my guess here.

When I sync do I just select the Dad Playlist, just select the subs (assuming you can choose more than one) or all five in the example above?

Lastly what will this show up as on the iPod?

Again, thanks. I love the sounds of this already.

[gege]

The teams "manual" and "automatic" as applied to playlists is new to me.

"Manual" is a normal playlist. You create it, giving it a name, and then you manually add tracks to it (drag-and-drop, send-to>, whatever...).
"Auto-playlist" is a playlist populated automatically using some search criteria. Example: "All songs with rating >= 3" or "All songs with Genre=Rock and Mood=Aggressive"

Are you saying that, for "Dad" for example, I take what I have now, which is a playlist that contains ~1600 songs and move all of those out of that "root" and into playlists that appear under that main playlist?

So I might, in this case have:

Dad Playlist (0 songs)
--- Workout (120 songs)
--- Rock (1100 songs)
--- Holiday (80 songs)
--- All (1600 songs that were what was first in the main playlist)

Exact! This is the idea!
For your information, you can drag one existing playlist over another to define this hierarchy. Example: drag Rock and drop it over Dad supposing they both already exist.

What is the impact of "auto" versus "manual" at this point? I guess I'm stuck thinking "manual" is my guess here.

It depends on your tastes. If you like to populate your playlists choosing every song individually, "manual" is your choice. But if you prefer populate them based on generic criteria, like Rating, Genre, Mood, or something, you better use "Auto-playlists".
It also depends on the level of organization in your Library. The more organized it is, the more accurate playlists you'll get. My Library is very organized, so I use almost only Auto-playlists.

The 'root' playlists (Dad, Mom and Son) MUST be manual playlists, because they will serve only to group the sub-playlists together. Only this.
MM doesn't sum up the contents of sub-playlists to the father playlist.
(OK, I just thought about something to emulate this, but it would be an "advanced trick")

When I sync do I just select the Dad Playlist, just select the subs (assuming you can choose more than one) or all five in the example above?

Lastly what will this show up as on the iPod?

You'll select only the subs. As I said, Dad serves only to group then visually. It's an empty playlist.
Each playlist selected to sync will appear as a playlist in iPod.

Oh, and I assume you understood that this selection of playlists is made in devices's configuration dialog.

[gege]

One more info regarding "Auto-playlists": they are 'auto' only inside MM. Once copied to the iPod, they will be saved as static playlists in the device database, so iPod will see no difference between a manual or an auto-playlist. They will be all just Playlists!

[Agrajag]

BTW, I tried Send To and it must have a bug.

I'm doing Christmas music at the moment which I realized was sitting on my hard drive but wasn't in the library. I got it into the library and then did a Send To and the only option was "New Playlist".... Huh? I have playlists. None showed up there.

[gege]

BTW, I tried Send To and it must have a bug.

I'm doing Christmas music at the moment which I realized was sitting on my hard drive but wasn't in the library. I got it into the library and then did a Send To and the only option was "New Playlist".... Huh? I have playlists. None showed up there.

Which version of MM are you using?

[Agrajag]

FYI, my library, I believe is pretty organized. Everything is in there using the following layout:

[Album Artist] \ [Album] \ [Artist - Track]

Keeps everything nice and tidy for me at least.

I realized afterwards that simple searching by genre or by album name would have gotten the playlists pretty easily done via automatic but manual was easy enough for now.

I still don't like the way MM seems to "syncronize". For example, I'd first put 3 CD's onto the iPod and realized I was missing 3 others. I got those in the library and then went to send the playlist over again and it wanted to send all 6 CD's. Synchronizing shouldn't do that in my view.

In answer to the above it's currently 2.5. I'm trying very hard to wait until 3.0 is official before moving to it. The long list of bugs even in RC4 is a bit depressing to those of us waiting as it gives the impression that there's still a LOT to catch yet.

[Agrajag]

Hmm.... Something wrong.....

Okay, sent over my first official playlist, Christmas.

I go into my iPod and the songs are all there but the Playlist selection is empty except for the On the Go default ones.

Any ideas?

[gege]

I still don't like the way MM seems to "syncronize". For example, I'd first put 3 CD's onto the iPod and realized I was missing 3 others. I got those in the library and then went to send the playlist over again and it wanted to send all 6 CD's. Synchronizing shouldn't do that in my view.

In MM3, all my iPod syncs are done incrementally, as expected.
Are you using the Auto-Sync feature to this? That's the way I sync...

In answer to the above it's currently 2.5. I'm trying very hard to wait until 3.0 is official before moving to it. The long list of bugs even in RC4 is a bit depressing to those of us waiting as it gives the impression that there's still a LOT to catch yet.

I use ONLY MM3 since Beta2! And I don't regret...
Regarding the Send-to in 2.5 I can't say if it is a bug or not... sorry...

[nynaevelan]

In MM3, all my iPod syncs are done incrementally, as expected.
Are you using the Auto-Sync feature to this? That's the way I sync...

The Autosync feature is much, much better in 3.0 but if you want to sync a specific playlist that has songs in another playlist on the device, MM still will remove all references to those songs. The only way to ensure you do not lose any references is to complete an autosync, which is very inconvenenient when you only want to add additional playlists.

Nyn

[Agrajag]

Okay,

Still not sure why I'm not getting Playlists to generate on the iPod after the sync. (UPDATE: I think I might have figured this one out. It appears to have autosync setup up playlists I need to have selected the playlists via the syncing options for the device itself. I assumed just copying the playlists over was all that was needed. Upon looking at these settings I noticed none were chosen. I then chose two--General and Christmas, and now the Auto-sync appears to be pull the exact number of songs expected. We shall see.)

The other thing I don't get is that if I choose Autosync I don't have the option of choosing which playlist to send. It just starts working on ALL my library including all the songs I don't want. If I select a playlist then the only option seems to be a normal Sync. What am I missing here?

Are you also saying 3.0 will still cause me to have to re-sync an entire library even if only 3 songs have been changed?

I also just installed RC4. So far so good.

[Inspired]

Are you also saying 3.0 will still cause me to have to re-sync an entire library even if only 3 songs have been changed?

Hi there,
I am wondering, are you having the issue whereby when you perform an auto-sync it will recopy over ALL the tracks you have in your sync list? (however you have set up your sync list... perhaps various manual playlists, auto-playlists, etc.) ?

This is a problem myself and a number of other people face. I am yet to figure out if this is "NORMAL" behaviour for MM (2.x and now 3.x).

In MM3, all my iPod syncs are done incrementally, as expected.

Gege, please tell me what you mean by this. When you perform an auto-sync does it ONLY change (Add/remove) the files you have added/removed since your last sync?
I am trying to figure out if MM is capable of this. For myself and numerous other people it sends over ALL files in my sync list EVERY time I perform a sync. I am yet to figure out if this is a "feature" or a problem with my configuration.

Cheers,

Jonathan

[Agrajag]

2.5 was sending over everything all the time.

3.0 is now improved but not right. I just looked today and every song on my iPod is listed twice even though only one is correct. The other either plays nothing or plays another song entirely.