MediaMonkey iTunes plugin (d_itunes4.dll)

[markstuartwalker]

Anyone who is having an unexpectedly high number of tracks every sync and is using multiple PCs should check the time clocks are synchronised.

The plugin will spend time checking all of the dates on the tracks but should only update the changed entities.

[docbobo]

Mark, I am also using it, am VERY happy with it and would like to thank you for your outstanding work.

[treponem]

Right, still using weekly and it works great.

There's only one thing. I'm using multiple genres which are reduced to one by the plugin (keeping cache files). As soon as the tracks get updated in itunes, the sync the single genre back and overwrite the MM multiple genre. Any way to sync the genre only one way from MM to itunes?

[markstuartwalker]

Right, still using weekly and it works great.

There's only one thing. I'm using multiple genres which are reduced to one by the plugin (keeping cache files). As soon as the tracks get updated in itunes, the sync the single genre back and overwrite the MM multiple genre. Any way to sync the genre only one way from MM to itunes?

Check that you are using the latest version (not sure when). This behaviour has been spotted and fixed already.

I don't have multiple genres but I do have multiple artists. The same 'getSingle' function is used for both.

Mark

[markstuartwalker]

Reading your email more closely I'm not convinced that I understand what you are saying.

The plugin bidirectionally synchronises
* Playcounts
* Ratings

and unidirectionally synchronises (MM->iTunes) other ID3 attributes
* Artist
* Genre
* Album
* Date
* Artwork etc.

There are options which you are using such that only the first Artist and Genre are taken into iTunes. Excepting playcounts and ratings There is NO WAY that changing something in iTunes can feed back into MM. In fact if you change any of the attributes in iTunes then the next sync will revert them back to what MM has.

The only way that feedback from iTunes to MM can happen is indirectly via the track files. This can happen if you have no cache folder specified i.e. iTunes and MM share the same track files. I now no longer recommend this type of configuration, exactly because of this type of behaviour. Let me give a better example, consider the following:

* The track in MM has a publish date of 2010
* This is synchronised MM->iTunes
* iTunes is used to change the publish date to 2009 and writes this genre back to the mp3 file on disk, updating the "last changed" date
* MM recognises the change in date of the mp3 file and re-reads this into it's database

... thus the publish date is 2009, both in iTunes and MM. In this case this is probably what is wanted but this type of feedback can lose information and cause some strange behaviours. Most people don't notice (or don't care about) the loss.

As a hint for the levels of confusion ... iTunes and MM handle various ID3 attributes slightly differently:

* Thresholds for star rating are different
* Separator for lists of artist and genres are different
* Using "Only first Genre" or "Only first Artist"

The only way that this loss/confusion can be prevented is to use a cache folder such that iTunes has it's own private collection of tracks. Many people don't like this as it doubles their disk usage but it does prevent this behaviour. The default behaviour is now to configure a cache folder. This is a reversion of the original policy.

Mark

[treponem]

Hi Mark

Thanks for your support! There are only some tracks which have lost their multiple genre. I haven't watched the log, cause I synced several times.
I think what happened is exactly what you described. I use cache files, so it seemed to have synced back after changes in itunes. I get over it

[markstuartwalker]

Here is some information for those that use Podcasts and want to understand how bookmarking playcounts work.

MM treats Podcasts as normal music tracks with Genre=Podcast. By default Podcasts are bookmarkable. This allows a part of the track to be played and then the track is resumed from where it is left off when next played. This appears with fractional (e.g. 1.43) playcounts on the main screen.

iTunes treats these Podcasts as normal music tracks i.e. NOT the same as it's own internal Podcasts. These are not bookmarked and have an integer playcount.

This plugin only uses integer playcounts for all calculations. These are the integer part of a fractional playcount i.e. 1.27 becomes 1 and 2.89 becomes 2.

This means that a podcast with an MM playcount of 4.73 will have an intial playcount of 4 in iTunes. If it is played once in iTunes then it's playcount will become 5. After synchronisation the MM playcount will become 5.

[Guest]

Very good work, thank you!

[froster]

Mark,

Another grateful user here. Thanks for this wonderful add-on.

One thing I wanted to share, though it's been touched on before:

The "Sync tracks to" under device configuration doesn't work. (I now know this is due to iTunes and not a kink in the script.) Initially, I wanted my cache folder to assume the folder structure of my main MM library, so I played around and tried to get this to work, to no avail. The best alternative I found was to, in iTunes, set the iTunes Media folder to the cache folder, untick "Copy to iTunes library" BUT keep the "Keep media files organized". Obviously, this uses iTunes own folder structure, but at least I don't have files displaying the entire path anymore. Best of all, two-way sync is retained for files renamed and reorganized by iTunes <-- This really surprised me by the way.

[El Cabrito]

trouble with installation:
installed dll in plugins folder. open MM and the startup icon appears in center of screen, but nothing happens. hover over mm in taskbar and the preview shows that MM is waiting for me to click ok on d_itunes.dll. however, there is no way to bring this window to the foreground. i have tried numerous things and nothing works. if i restore MM i can see that the dll is in the plugins and can even configure it. however, the black MM start up icon blocks out the center of the screen. anyone else have this problem?

[markstuartwalker]

Is iTunes installed and can you start it manually?

[gblum]

I have the same problem. Earlier in this thread is my similar question. Someone helped me with the advise to change the shortcut to include a '/NoSplash' parameter.

I.e. "C:\Program Files\MediaMonkey\MediaMonkey.exe" /NoSplash

Not the cleanest, but It worked. Now the prompt for iTunes is in focus to accept it. I do understand that this is on the 'fix' list for MM. Earlier releases didn't hide startup prompts by default, it just started happening a couple of releases ago. Hopefully they will fix it soon.

[markstuartwalker]

Confirmed the plugin works with iTunes 10.1.0.56

[Al4MM]

I'm really wanting to get this one to work.
I'm using windows 7, latest MM and iTunes.
I have iTunes open before running MM.
MM takes quite a while to open and when it does iTunes does not appear in the Portable/Audio Devices List.
If I start MM and immediately click on the Restore from the taskbar then iTunes does appear in the list, but none of my other devices. If I attempt to sync I get an error of a "No active device has been detected" and when going back into the list itunes has dissappeared and all my other devices are back. Any ideas?

[Tursiops47]

@mark. I want to use a program called TuneUp to go through my (38606) MM files and clean up titles, album art, etc.
http://www.tuneupmedia.com/index.php currently only works with iTunes and WMP. Do you think d_itunes.dll would be appropriate or do you know of some other add-on or way to accomplish this?