How avoid double files when syncing to android?

[Dancer]

I found a few posts on this topic, but none of them showed me a solution.

Here's the situation:
First I copied the music directory to my Android tablet. However, one-way syncing from the PC to the tablet ignores that the files are already there and in many - not all - cases copies them in as duplicate files.

In the past, this has worked better. However, this time there was a problem due to the fact that I moved the music directory to another partition, after which I deleted the database and had it re-imported. After that the synchronization should have worked without creating duplicate files.

I canceled the last two synchronization attempts to avoid having to manually delete the duplicate files on the tablet again (I did so 3 times already in a 32 GB library.).

How do I manage to synchronize without problems?
One idea: The copied folder are not identical with the tag-based folders in MediaMonkey. Should I delete all folders on tablet and then start syncing again?

[Rob_S]

The key thing to consider in syncing is the filenames and pathnames.

If you sync using the same relative file and pathnames in your device as you have in your source, then it is impossible to duplicate a track.

However, if you use MM to convert formats, then clearly you can have the same flac format track duplicated as an mp3 or m4a. AFAIK, MM has no logic to detect existing files of the same "name" with a different format. It also cannot detect files which are organized into different folders while syncing.

Personally, since I only want a couple of thousand tracks on my device at any one time, I copy all of them into the root Music folder, and thus any duplicates of same format get replaced. This does not work unless all your artwork is embedded.

I use musicolet on the device to scan in the tags, and play them, and it is actually quite amazing. Avoids all the hassles of sync.

[Dancer]

Hi Rob_S! I must admit I understood less than half.

In the meantime I have made a synchronization with MediaMonkey almost 10 times. The result is bad.
Image files are only partially transferred, often different than on the PC.
Albums are split into 2-5 parts. This is due to the tags, but they seem to have changed. Because initially everything was OK.

As I said, the need for new synchronization came from moving the library. I didn't assume that moving would change the tags. 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.

[Lowlander]

Which Build (Help > About) of MediaMonkey are you using and are you on MMA 1 or 2 on Android?

Did you scan the files into MMA? It seems so. Did you do a USB or wi-fi Sync, and in case of USB an actual Sync or Send To > Device?

[Rob_S]

Mediamonkey has a number of different ways each with many options of how to transfer and/or sync files to devices.

Files can be recoded, to same or different formats and re-sorted into different folder structures as they are being copied over.

Much of the information about each file or track is stored in the MM database, and most of it is duplicated in the tags that are part of and integral to the track file. The artwork can be stored as a jpg file separately, or embedded into the track itself.

It helps a lot to familiarize yourself with how those files are being transferred by doing a few test runs and looking at the results.

One way is to select a small playlist to be transferred or synced.

https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/WebHel ... device/5.0

For an easy way to copy things, I have found a free android app called file manager plus, which can easily connect to your pc over your wifi, and can be used to copy files both ways, and view the files on your device. It will even play them!

[Dancer]

@Lowlander
I'm using MMA 2 pro on Android.
What do you mean by "scan files into MMA"? I tried several things:

• Copy all files from PC to android via USB with file manager, then sync via USB from MM5. That gave bad results.

• I deleted all files on android via USB with file manager, then sync via USB from MM5. That gave better results. However, many albums were splitted into several albums. Maybe bc of incorrect tagging. But I had a syncable library already with good results before I moved it to another partition.

• I deleted all files on android again, repaired some tags in MM5, then copied all files from PC again, without any syncing afterwards.

All steps I did on android tablet. I have a smartphone too.
There I did similar steps, also with more or less bad results. I'm still puzzled why all albums and playlists are displayed fine and unsplitted in MM5 while are not on android.
I did not modify standard settings for sync paths because it would be too complicated to figure out what would be better.

@Rob_S
Yes, it would be a nice idea to start with a smaller, limited amount of files or playlists.
As I wrote above syncing was fine in the past. With only moving the library to another partition and writing new database it should be fine now too. However, it isn't. Don't know why.
In example, I have an album of a famous concert pianist. It is displayed well in MM5, but shows chinese characters on android. I wrote a thread about it months ago, because that happened already in the past.
I thought it was fixed, but it isn't.

The biggest issue, however, is that with syncing MM starts copying files into android that already exist. It spoils the whole structure and consumes empty space unnecessarily.

One idea that just comes up: Should I delete some meta files in MMA directory to avoid the described trouble?

[Lowlander]

After you copied the files to the device, did you in MMA tell it to scan the folders you copied the files to? Or did you go straight to Sync from MMW? How exactly did you Sync?

[Dancer]

No, I'm afraid not. I have no idea to do so. However, by asking me that I find it reasonable.
I synced from MM5 server to MMA via USB because I couldn't find the server in MMA-settings.

BTW: I like that you provide a detailed tutorial for syncing. However, I think it should be working out of the box when using MM on both sides without greater efforts.

[Dancer]

I just gave it one more try. I deleted all files from android music directory, then copied 1 specific music folder into it.
Then I scanned android library and started partly syncing from MM5 via usb.
Partly means, that I choosed the copied and 1 another music folder plus one classic folder plus playlists to sync.

The result:
Not only these 4 folders were copied to android but 820 other files that weren't chosen. 820 out of about 3900.
For me, a clear sign that I can't rely on the synchronization.

[Lowlander]

The files were likely included in one of the selections. Often it's because Playlists included more files than expected. Sync selection is inclusive, ie. if one selection includes a file it is Synced, even if a different selection didn't include it. For example selecting a Playlist with Music files will Sync all files in that Playlists even if the files aren't selected in the Music Collection selection.

Are you selecting root Playlists or child Playlists for Sync?

[Dancer]

I only have root playlists as far as I understand. And yes, I selected it from the beginning and I understand the logic of it now.
Thank you.
This time - the syncing to smartphone is now complete - all seem to be correct and fine.
Do you think that it is recommended to delete meta files of MMA on tablet as well, before giving it a new try on that device too?
And should I delete all files and beginn from scratch as I did with smartphone?

[Lowlander]

Technically files already on the device should not be Synced again. However they do need to be scanned into MMA prior to Sync and then they should get matched to files in MMW on Sync. This matching is what prevents duplicates.

I'd personally start fresh as existing problems may not get cleaned up on new Syncs. I'd also do a Sync from MMW > MMA, wi-fi or USB (I prefer wi-fi).

[Dancer]

The problem is that the original library structure with mostly artist-named folders with tracks in it is changed by MMW.
To clarify:
In the past MMW has changed the names of folders to kind of double name: Albumname - Artistname
Now MMW has delivered it as folder / subfolder instead of double name.

Because of this I could eventually avoid more trouble to delete the existing folders completely and then start new, right?

[Lowlander]

MediaMonkey doesn't rename folder/filenames on its own. There is Auto-Organize that will automatically rename folder/filenames when files are added/edited, but it follows the user mask if the user enabled Auto-Organize.

Note that you can fix any 'incorrect' folder/filenames manually using Auto-Organize Files. Do make sure that Auto-Organize is either disabled or set with the correct Mask before doing this.

However, folder/filenames on your PC don't really matter. Tagging is far more important. In the Sync settings generally tags are used to create folder/filenames for Synced files on the device. However you can also use Path, Folder and Filename from the files on the PC.

[Rob_S]

Lowlander, I think maybe that is not quite correct/complete, in terms of results when performing sync.

When you sync from MM5, you can set up the folder structure you want in your sync profile, which can be different than the source pathnames. In effect, sync performs its own auto-organize, if you have set it to do so.

I agree, MM5 does not move your source files around, but it may or may not duplicate the source file structure in the destination.

for example, I have mine set under sync profile, file locations to \Music\<Filename>, which copies all my tracks to the root music folder, no subfolders.

Thus if he has copied files manually to his device, and then performs a sync, and not having MMA, I can only assume it also has a profile, it might duplicate files which are already copied if the pathnames are not the same.