On Metadata and Albums

[SpinCycle]

Preface:
I have been DJing with MP3s since 2002 (MixMeister!), so I am pretty anal about tags and metadata. My tag editor of choice is Mp3tag (very nice tool). But I have learned over the years that the ID3 tag standard involves a lot of flexibility, including the ability to add your own custom tags, etc. So, moving music between products involves some unpredictability. Moreover, even if you use the standard tags, e.g., album, artist, album artist, title, etc., you cannot always predict how a music player will behave.

I have found this unpredictability even between the same product on different platforms, i.e., MediaMonkey on Windows v. MediaMonkey on Android. I use MM Gold 4.1.20.1864 on Windows, and MM Pro 1.3.1.0751 on Android

Details:

I have learned that many players will treat songs in the same album as being in different albums if the “album artist” in all the tracks is not identical--even though the “album” tag is identical. For example, if you have a compilation album, the artists can all be different in the “artist” tag, but you must make the “album artist” tag identical, such as “Various Artists” - OR you will wind up having a different album listed (each with the same name!) So, I’m careful to avoid this problem.

Nevertheless, in MMA, I will occasionally get multiple listings for a single album. When I do, I check the files and make sure (and often re-write) all the album, and album artist tags are identical. I even make sure the album art is identical. For some albums, the problem corrects after a few hours (is there some kind of caching of the database?), for others, it persists. And yes, I use “Check for new/changed media” under Options to force a library refresh.

Note: the albums that should list as one album do so properly in MM on Windows -- yet do NOT on MMA.

So, this is probably a question for the developers or someone really in the weeds on the details of how MMA handles tags in its database. Here are the questions:

1. What tags are used to determine whether n files are in the same album or not? Are any timestamp or other non-obvious tags used?
2. Is there a better way to force a complete scrub of the library?
3. Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

Thanks

Jim (SpinCycle)

[Lowlander]

Did you sync from MMW to MMA when you see this (you shouldn't) or did the files end up on the device using a different method? in that case you'd be relying on the Android Media Scanner which is probably why you see the discrepancies. For now direct MMW to MMA sync is recommended as MMW directly updates the MMA database with the correct information.

[SpinCycle]

I don't use the sync. I use an SD card on my phone to store the music I want to listen to.
MediaMonkey for Windows and MediaMonkey for Android are two separate products. I paid for each them separately.
The reason I bought MM for Android was because I was fairly happy with MM on Windows, and I wanted a consistent experience.
MM for Android should not require (nor assume) that I am using MM on another computer.
Thanks.

[Lowlander]

For now it's recommended to sync from MMW to MMA (device) so that MMW updates MMA with all the relevant information. With MMA 2.0 this is said to improve as it will have it's own tag scanner, but for now you're relying on the Android Media Scanner when copying files via another method to the device (or to the card directly).

The team is there to help with any sync issues (wifi or USB).

[Erwin Hanzl]

Unread post by Lowlander » 09 Jul 2020, 02:00
For now it's recommended to sync from MMW to MMA (device) so that MMW updates MMA with all the relevant information. With MMA 2.0 this is said to improve as it will have it's own tag scanner, but for now you're relying on the Android Media Scanner when copying files via another method to the device (or to the card directly).

Hello Lowlander,
Does that mean MMA 1.xx. also has its own media scanner when I synchronize with USB-cable?

[Lowlander]

No, it means that MMW updates the MMA database directly when you sync from MMW to the device with MMA installed.

[Erwin Hanzl]

Thank you