I give up

Get answers about the current version of MediaMonkey 5

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ronnyjoz
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 9:23 am

I give up

Post by ronnyjoz »

I think I've bought something far too complicated for my needs. I've wrestled with it and I can't stop it from taking over and imposing its own will on me. Every time I think I've found an answer on this forum another problem pops up (or an old one resurfaces). I just want it to do the following:

1. Copy my files to a USB flash drive exactly as-is. I don't want it to interfere with any tags, or delete my artwork, or replace my artwork with something it thinks is more apporpriate. I don't want it to add the same tags multiple times for no discernable reason. I don 't want it to treat classical music as a separate genre. Just copy files and convert formats (see item 2).

2. Convert all flac files in the source location to m4a in the destination.

I don't want it to do anything else. My only other option is to use Microsoft's SyncToy (no longer supported) and then do the file conversion manually. This obviously requires more space on the destination drive and takes a lot longer.

I've come to the conclusion that Media Monkey 5 is not the tool I'm looking for. Any suggestions on something that will do what I want? Or a complete list of settings that will bring MM5 into line?
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: I give up

Post by Lowlander »

1) MediaMonkey doesn't tag your files if you don't allow it to. Disable the auto metadata lookup to prevent any automatic tagging.

2) MediaMonkey can Auto-Convert on Sync.

How is this not working for you?
rusty
Posts: 8393
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:39 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

Re: I give up

Post by rusty »

To elaborate on point 1) Unless you edit your tracks, by default MediaMonkey will not make changes to the tags. Period.

The Album Art lookup feature that's enabled by default loads artwork and displays it in most views but keeps it in an 'Unsaved artwork' state unless either:
- you change the default configuration to save artwork to the tag when it's looked up
- you click the 'save' button on the artwork to save it to the tag

Hope that helps.

-Rusty
ronnyjoz
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 9:23 am

Re: I give up

Post by ronnyjoz »

Lowlander wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 11:06 am 1) MediaMonkey doesn't tag your files if you don't allow it to. Disable the auto metadata lookup to prevent any automatic tagging.

2) MediaMonkey can Auto-Convert on Sync.

How is this not working for you?
Thank you for your suggestions.

1) I've now unchecked everything on that page: we'll see how it gets on with the next sync.
2) Yes, this works. My point was that if I use a basic file sync app such as SyncToy, I have to do the conversion manually. this is less than ideal because subsequent syncs will overwrite these with flacs again, requiring me to manually convert them every time. One of the reasons I bought Media Monkey in the first place.

To answer your question "how is this this not working for you?", you tell me! I'll think it's all gone well, I'll be playing random tracks in my car and suddenly an album (seemingly at random) will be missing its artwork. Or instead of the artist reading (to pick an artist at random) "Genesis", it'll read "Genesis;Genesis;Genesis" etc, actual number of iterations can vary, and/or the same with the album title. In the former case, completely removing the files from the flash drive and running the sync again results in missing artwork still (having first checked that it's present in the original). In the latter (multiple tag) case, investigation reveals the artwork tag to be present but the car can't show it for some reason - removing the multiple tags cures this. Apologies for the overuse of the word "random" in this paragraph, by the way.

These are just two examples of headaches I've experienced trying to tweak the out-of-box experience to my requirements. Just when I think I've got it licked, something else rears its head, or another album will pop up missing its artwork (I do now believe I've got on top of the multiple tags thing, fingers crossed).

Anyway, thanks for point 1 - we'll see how it behaves now...
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: I give up

Post by Lowlander »

If you're using a car to read files it's hit & miss. This often is poorly implemented and you need to do a lot of digging into what is actually supported.

You should check if these issues are present in other good software to confirm that tags on the drive are actually in order. For example Artwork may have a size (MB) or dimension limitation on the car. As far as tags go, it could be that the files had other tags in them too and the car reads those.
Al_G
Posts: 228
Joined: Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:01 pm

Re: I give up

Post by Al_G »

Lowlander wrote: Thu Nov 24, 2022 11:54 pm If you're using a car to read files it's hit & miss. This often is poorly implemented and you need to do a lot of digging into what is actually supported.
Sometimes it is necessary to use a utility program to force the files to be written in the proper order on a USB drive or SD card. Once the transcoded files are on the SD card, run a utility like https://fat-sorter.software.informer.com/. My car's system wouldn't play tracks or albums in the proper order (using the folder structure) until I did this.
Peke
Posts: 17446
Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2003 7:21 pm
Location: Earth
Contact:

Re: I give up

Post by Peke »

Al_G wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 2:35 am Sometimes it is necessary to use a utility program to force the files to be written in the proper order on a USB drive or SD card. Once the transcoded files are on the SD card, run a utility like https://fat-sorter.software.informer.com/. My car's system wouldn't play tracks or albums in the proper order (using the folder structure) until I did this.
I personally prefer http://www.anerty.net/software/file/DriveSort/ as it works on exFAT up to 1TB (tested)
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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ronnyjoz
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 9:23 am

Re: I give up

Post by ronnyjoz »

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm mostly aware of all the problems my particular car throws up, for example I need to keep the artwork small-ish or it won't show (400 by 400 seems optimum). I've also come across the issue of it not playing tracks in order if I use flac, hence the need to conver them to m4a (in addition to saving space buf this is a secondary concern since flash drives are cheap these days)

All of the issues I've described in my previous posts were present when I examined the files on the the flash drive mounted in my PC.

I've just changed the artwork on a number of tracks to see what happens: it completely ignored them and left the originals intact on the flash drive. Additionally it deleted a load of files I'd previously corrected manually (by copying them across and converting them myself) and replaced them with files containing no artwork.

All I want is something that exactly mirrors the files I have in my library and converts them to m4a if they're flac. Nothing more or less. I don't want it to reorganise the folder structure or change the filenames; my car can cope with that. I just want a file mirror with format conversion capabilities. It's abundantly clear to me now that Media Monkey isn't it.
Rob_S
Posts: 869
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:53 pm

Re: I give up

Post by Rob_S »

Any particular reason you use M4a instead of MP3 for your car? Are all you source files m4a or flac or do you have mp3 as well?

I always thought Mp3 was most commonly used format, and most reliable for tagging as well.

If your car will play those as mp3, it might be worth a try. You could convert a small batch of files to a blank flash drive and see how it works.
Using 5.1 LATEST alpha or beta build on Windows 10, HP laptop, managing 13k tracks
ronnyjoz
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 9:23 am

Re: I give up

Post by ronnyjoz »

Only that m4a is a better format than mp3. I know people say you can't hear the lossiness of mp3 but it's just not true. I can tell when something sounds compressed; m4a is the lesser of two evils. Same reason I'd prefer flac if it worked well in the car.

That's not the issue though - I could have it convert my entire library to mp3 and it would still do the sme thing(s) it's doing now. I just don't want Media Monkey exerting its will over me in any way, and clearly it is. If I can't make it work the way I want it to (see my previous post), I just need to keep searching for something that will.
Erwin Hanzl
Posts: 1189
Joined: Tue Jun 13, 2017 8:47 am
Location: Vienna

Re: I give up

Post by Erwin Hanzl »

Sorry, but my suggested solution was not effective.
Last edited by Erwin Hanzl on Tue Dec 27, 2022 8:00 am, edited 3 times in total.
MMW 4.1.31.1919 Gold-Standardinstallation
ronnyjoz
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 9:23 am

Re: I give up

Post by ronnyjoz »

At what point did I say that auto conversion wasn't working??? I already have that add-on, or I wouldn't have the ability to use M4A!

It's everything else that's wrong: messing with my tags, deleting artwork etc.

I've just deleted everything on the flash drive (including the Media Monkey folder) and started from scratch, to see if that helps. Took me a while to persuade it there were any filese to copy at all but it seems to be doing it now: I'll check for problems when it's finished.
Peke
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Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2003 7:21 pm
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Contact:

Re: I give up

Post by Peke »

ronnyjoz wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 5:44 am It's everything else that's wrong: messing with my tags, deleting artwork etc.
While correct tags are in file metadata and unless user explicitly set to auto retag and search for lyrics. I do not see how MM can mess tags, because by default MM focus on library changes, rather than tag and file messing.
Best regards,
Peke
MediaMonkey Team lead QA/Tech Support guru
Admin of Free MediaMonkey addon Site HappyMonkeying
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Cliff Hill
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2022 9:39 am

Re: I give up

Post by Cliff Hill »

I went along with this
1. Copy my files to a USB flash drive exactly as-is. I don't want it to interfere with any tags, or delete my artwork, or replace my artwork with something it thinks is more apporpriate.

The recent update to MMA encouraged me to take another look and it semed much improved, fewer missing or different artwork.

Then I started reusing wifi sync instead of copying a long way round to the MMA tablet via a usb stick.

Having cleared the directory first to keep it simple
The files are just not a copy of the ones on the pc. The tracks may be there but not in the same directory file structure
There are new folders and replicated folders within the new structure. The most obvious is a Classical folder with 5 sub directories with further levels down that isn't present on the pc.

Is this done on the export by MMW or import by MMA and is there a way to get a copy of what's on the pc. Is it meant to be a direct copy or rejigged?

Keeping the same structure makes it much easier to find and fix issues that can arise from bad info in the original tags

Happy to provide more info if that's needed...
trying to sync to a Lenovo tab10
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: I give up

Post by Lowlander »

How files are saved on the device is set in the Device Profile: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... _Locations
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