How avoid double files when syncing to android?

[Lowlander]

As indicated, Sync saves it according to the settings in the Device Profile, and uses tags by default, not the existing folder/filenames of files in MMW.

[Peke]

Hi,

I synced from MM5 server to MMA via USB because I couldn't find the server in MMA-settings.

What you meant by "couldn't find" eg. does MMA list MM5 Server in Media servers Browser?

[Dancer]

@Peke
Hi, I now know that I can set up the server address with barcode scan in mma. But before I couldn't, and a message came up every time I tried that the server could not be found. Now MM5 is listed in MMA. So that's done.

@Rob_S and @Lowlander
I'm just going to the trouble of readjusting the paths and accordingly the tags. This will take a while, so I'm starting to understand the complex structure. (Complex relative to other players)

The initial question - avoiding duplicate files - is solved.

Another question that belongs to synchronizing: In MM5 I added extra unique images of composers. In MMA these are not taken over so far, but album images are used instead. How can I synchronize composer and artist images in addition to album images?

[Lowlander]

On Sync only the first image of 1 file on the Album is Synced. So there is currently no option to have additional Artworks Synced.

[Dancer]

Thank you for the info.
Another question appeared:
While clicking on a composer in Lollypop/Linux shows all albums and tracks of him are available, this seems not to be the case with MM5.
Often there is only one album displayed, sometimes more, and in many cases not all.
It might depend on where the tracks are saved. I have many compilations, i.e. of a pianist. The pianist has pieces of more than one composer.

[Lowlander]

Are you selecting a composer in the Media Tree? Do the files that are missing have a composer value in MediaMonkey?

[Dancer]

Oh, that's strange. This afternoon I added all the missing composers. And now, when I look, they are missing again, no idea why.

[Lowlander]

How exactly did you add the Composers and in which node in the Media Tree (ie. Music) did you do so?

[Dancer]

In sidebar I selected >Classics >Files to edit.
In the opened window I rightclicked on the files >properties
And there I edited the tags.

[Lowlander]

That is strange, the Files to Edit sub-node shows Library files which means any tag changes should be saved to the Library (and files by default). Can you repeat the problem?

[Dancer]

After severals system reboots and also database maintenance the problem doesn't exist at this moment. I hope it is gone.
I have the notion that I'm going to all possible failures to learn MM in detail.
That is fine to me because I have the idea to make a little youtube video for MM review in German language. There are only very few and very old videos in German at the moment...

[Barry4679]

After severals system reboots and also database maintenance the problem doesn't exist at this moment. I hope it is gone.
I have the notion that I'm going to all possible failures to learn MM in detail.

You have been very patient trying to overcome what is essentially a MM5 failure.

• MM5 sync is one of its big features, but it not robust nor fault tolerant, and as it it has evolved, the changes have just been lumped into an over complicated mess
• the supplied documentation is complacent, lazy and crappy .. it needs some How To information that shows a quickstart path through the complication, and it needs advice and info to assist when things go wrong, as they frequently do.

I see MM5 sync facility as just a toy facility for simple tasks, that hasn't kept pace with the requirements that we now have with phones with large capacity, and portable WiFi disks, and Internet cloud locations where you can rent terabytes for a small regular fee.

I agree with your comments at the top of your thread.

In the meantime I have made a synchronization with MediaMonkey almost 10 times. The result is bad.
[snip]
Anyway, it's no fun that way. Maybe I'll skip syncing altogether and just recopy the music folders to the tablet again, using the MM app without sync.

I tried to transcode and sync my whole collection to Dropbox, so that I could stream from my collection when away from home.

• I have enough terabytes at Dropbox
• I have fast enough Internet access, and a plan with sufficient data capacity
• I have a fast enough computer to chew through the task

But MM5 sync is just not up to the task.
Starting the job over and over, with that much data, is just not an option.
The mess it leaves behind is too frustrating given MM5 hopeless lack of visibility over the process.
Its recovery process seems to reprocess too many files for no apparent reason.
Trying to deal with MM Support when this happens is unpleasant and unproductive. It is just seems to be in the "too hard basket" for them, and the lack of sync and error logging makes it impossible.

Even when I try to fill my 256gb phone with music before a holiday MM5 sync typically lets me down.
It is slow. It usually requires multiple restarts. and the MM5 mechanism to manage what is to be synced is OK for the initial sync, but it is klutsy, too primitive, and too buggy to handle anything but a simplistic small task.
For details and suggestions see here..

[Rob_S]

It seems maybe the issue here is that people want too many different things from sync, and the more possibilities they add the more problematic it gets. One way sync, two way sync, sync managed from device , sync managed from MM5, different specs/lists of what is to be synced ie albums tracks collections playlists etc, relative paths and filenames modified during sync or not, tracks recoded during sync, Album art copied if not embedded, MMA database updated if present, and on and on.

In my simple mind, it seems basic sync should work as following:

User set up a list of tracks or albums or playlists to sync on the source computer

MM checks/scans for each desired item to see if it is on the device and in the right place already, and moves or copies if missing or older, and build a list of its progress. It should work one track at a time so that it can recommence where it left off in case of failure.

It should be able to rely on filenames to determine status of each item, because scanning the entire contents of the destination for matching tags would be too slow and lead to screwups. Thus we should not have the ability to rename files during a sync.

Upon completion it lists any items with same file extensions as the synced items on the device which are not on the current sync list, and offers to delete them.

The latest sync list remains attached to the device profile, so it can be modified by adding and deleting to/from list of tracks or albums or playlists

This is quick and dirty, given all the complexities sometimes I wonder how it manages at all .

[Barry4679]

It seems maybe the issue here is that people want too many different things from sync, and the more possibilities they add the more problematic it gets. One way sync, two way sync, sync managed from device , sync managed from MM5, different specs/lists of what is to be synced ie albums tracks collections playlists etc, relative paths and filenames modified during sync or not, tracks recoded during sync, Album art copied if not embedded, MMA database updated if present, and on and on.

It is true that there are many Use Cases for sync.
MM5 does a bold job of addressing it all, although there are some robustness issues.
It should be one of the major MM5 deliverables.
But it all falls in a heap at the first hurdle, because there is no overview documentation showing what the possible Use Cases are, nor how to setup and use each.
There is a lot to know. And getting that knowledge by trial and error, one failure at a time, is a Fail IMO.
As I said earlier, Dancer is to be commended for his persistence and patience getting this far trying to resolve issues.

It should be able to rely on filenames to determine status of each item, because scanning the entire contents of the destination for matching tags would be too slow and lead to screwups. Thus we should not have the ability to rename files during a sync.

It's not that simple.

• file names aren't enough . I am probably an extreme case, but all of my 40k+ track names are just <trackNumber>.flac (eg. 01.flac .. so I probably have about 4,000 different tracks sharing each unique file name). Most collections will have tracks sharing the same name, and anyway MM5 sync needs to handle the possibility that the track is renamed after sync.
• a web location may assign its own name to the tracks that have been sync'd there .. eg. when MM5 was able to sync to Google Play Music, Google gave its own name to any track which MM5 stored there

The latest sync list remains attached to the device profile, so it can be modified by adding and deleting to/from list of tracks or albums or playlists

This is the point where I gave up on MM5 sync.
MM5 is like one of the primitive life form back in early evolution time, which was just a floating sack, with just one opening, used for both feeding, and also expelling waste.
Thankfully evolution improved upon that design.
MM5 has a single mechanism, which is used to select what should be sync'd to the target, and is also used to manage what should be retained.
The first case needs multiple selection paths, showing your entire collection in every path. ==> Easy to find stuff.

In anything but a very simple situation, this single control becomes a frustrating maze in the second case. In multiple situations the maze is not only complex, but it also incomplete (ie. sync'd items just disappear, and become unmanageable). I know that this is a bit of long read but it tries to describe some of the frustration and bugs which make the task a FAIL IMO.

The latest sync list remains attached to the device profile, so it can be modified by adding and deleting to/from list of tracks or albums or playlists

MM5 sends database of sync'd items to the target device.
If a sync fails this database is left incomplete.
I think this is what causes some of the wasted re-transmission upon restart, which effectively kills off using MM5 sync for big jobs IMO.
I think that there may be room for improvement here, because they could update the database, before starting the sync.

The thing it is hard and unpleasant to try to get any of this fixed:

• firstly they have higher priority issues ATM
• MM5 generates none of the logging that would help prove failures and diagnose
• instead you have to deal with the Attorney For The Defense, instead of any openness, which is exhausting and demeaning
• it looks like a MMA v2 may be in development ... when this goes into Alpha or Beta testing, that may be a good time whether they are open to examining the issues and failures (?)

[Dancer]

I wonder why the synchronization has become worse. With MM4 1.4 it worked fine - after a learning phase. I was satisfied. Something has changed and the effect for me as a simple user is an endless series of not working sync attempts.
The new experiences:

• USB-sync seems to be frozen. I found out that the cause always is not finding cover img. That is strange bc MM5 is displaying the cover imgs.

• It seems to be bad for syncing to have set subfolders "audiobooks" and "classical" only on MMA. About half of the synced audiobooks are only visible in folder section, not in audiobooks or classical. (By setting the subfolders I wanted to guarantee they are displayed in their category and not just in "music".) The albums seem to have lost its genre attribut or other attributs in these cases. That is a nogo, isn't it?

• It is said somewhere that syncing via wifi is more comfortable after having done the big job. However, here it is the other way: Scanning, pairing and looking for matches lasts as long as if they were newly synced. Also when there really are only 2 albums to sync!

• When only have 2 albums to sync I tried that with rightclick on the albums and "send to <device> for syncing directly via usb. That did work bad too sometimes. Because again not finding cover img.