MediaMonkey iTunes plugin (d_itunes4.dll)

[huge]

OK, this is a silly question that I'm sure is answered on some Apple or iTunes forum somewhere, but I thought that the readers of this particular thread probably know the answer, since no doubt some of you (like me) have tried to use iTunes as little as possible (at least for music) and are now being forced to.

I think I've somehow gotten myself into a spot where my iPhone Apps are synced to my desktop iTunes library, but my music is synced to my laptop. (First of all, is that possible? I see lots of people shouting "you can only sync to one computer"). So when I connect my iPhone to my desktop by USB, I can sync/manage Apps just fine, but if I try to sync music or even check the "manage music manually" box, I get the dreaded "Do you want to erase this device and sync to this library?" warning message.

So my question: If I go ahead and click "Yes" to the warning question, only my *Music* (and maybe videos) on my device will be erased, right? Not my Apps, settings, contacts, etc? I'm fine with erasing Music and Videos, in fact there aren't any because I've just restored and jailbroken my iPhone to iOS 5.0.1. But I certainly don't want it to delete all my Apps & Settings.

[ssawyer]

In this post Mark Stuart Walker states that "There is a manual installed in the plugin folder 'd_itunes4-manual.pdf' The FAQ is within that."

I installed the d_Itunes4.dll from within MediaMonkey (Tools|Extensions|Add - Version 4.0.3.2179), and there are NO pdf's in my plugins folder, or in any MM folder.

Right now, the process of syncing my music library with my iPod or iPhone using this plugin is a complete mystery to me, and I hate asking stupid questions on how all this works if there is some documentation somewhere. Can anyone point me to some documentation on this?

I just upgraded my iPod to IOS 5 and purchased an upgrade to MM4 and am now dead in the water...

Thanks.

[markstuartwalker]

Check the notes at the start of this thread. The manual will be installed in one of two places depending weather it was installed as an Administrator or not.

If that fails then rename the mmip installation file to be a zip file. The pdf can be found within that zip file.

[markstuartwalker]

I'm going to investigate what this means http://www.ventismedia.com/mantis/view.php?id=8900

I suspect that I need to add a bit more to the plugin to make this work.

[ssawyer]

Check the notes at the of this thread. The manual will be installed in one of two places depending weather it was installed as an Administrator or not.

I actually found that info on the Wiki - thanks, Mark.

Now, after reading that manual, I'm still a little uncertain as to what is going to happen when I try to synchronize MM with iTunes.

My installation of iTunes is pointing to the same music library on my HD as is MM4. I didn't want it to, originally wanting nothing to do with iTunes for device synchronization, only for app management and maintenance of my iPod and iPhone, but somehow it found my library and is now displaying all my mp3 files (it doesn't display the FLAC files).

After I sync my MM4 library with iTunes, will I then see TWO libraries in iTunes, or will all of the MP3 files now have two versions - one at the higher bitrate that I store them at, and one at the lower bitrate I asked MM to convert them to for synchronization?

Thanks much for any explanation!

[markstuartwalker]

Why don't you try it and find out?

[mrfart]

Well, I read the instructions and installed this.
Mediamonkey didn't want to sync, it gave an error that itunes contains no music.
Itunes suddenly lost all my playlists (on the computer and on the phone, so they're gone).

Probably somebody already posted about these problems, but I'm tired of reading forums for a while.

[ssawyer]

Why don't you try it and find out?

Well, being the experimental, try-and-see kind of guy I am, that's not a bad suggestion. But I've been mucking about with music management software for about 15 years or more, and have had experiences where the software has so hosed things up that I've had to spend days - nay, MONTHS - fixing the damage. Fortunately, I've learned from my mistakes, but I'd rather not get into a situation where I need to remove iTunes, then remove all of my library and restore all 7800 tracks from my backup after doing something I don't understand has that has some catastrophic effect.

But I understand that explaining things is not your forte, so maybe I should just bide my time - forget about syncing my iPod and stick to my iPhone for awhile until MM finally provides native support for iOS5, and forget about the kludgy work-around for now.

Thanks.

[consultant]

Sorry if this was already covered in this HUGE thread.

Am I correct that a major disadvantage of this plugin is that it will make your music library take up twice the space? You have the original location and then all the files are duplicated in the MMiTunes directory?

If this is true are there any solutions? Sync and then clear your iTunes library and delete and the files in MMiTunes directory?

What are the major advantages over the plugin versus just exported your playlists to M3U then importing the M3U playlists into iTunes so all tracks are in one location for both MM and iTunes? (This is what I've done before.)

[consultant]

Read "Explanation of the Cache" in the manual.

So I can avoid duplication by disabling the cache, and should not have issues as long as I'm not using iTunes to manage my library or make any changes to track attributes (I assume.)

Sorry if this was already covered in this HUGE thread.

Am I correct that a major disadvantage of this plugin is that it will make your music library take up twice the space? You have the original location and then all the files are duplicated in the MMiTunes directory?

If this is true are there any solutions? Sync and then clear your iTunes library and delete and the files in MMiTunes directory?

What are the major advantages over the plugin versus just exported your playlists to M3U then importing the M3U playlists into iTunes so all tracks are in one location for both MM and iTunes? (This is what I've done before.)

[nohitter151]

So I can avoid duplication by disabling the cache, and should not have issues as long as I'm not using iTunes to manage my library or make any changes to track attributes (I assume.)

Yes, but iTunes may make tag changes even without you explicitly performing any action. That is why using a cache folder is preferred.

[consultant]

In what scenarios will iTunes modify track attributes without any action on my part?


Just want to say bravo on this plug-in. Works pretty good. Here's some tips and improvement suggestions:

I personally recommend you make the cache directory setting blank to avoid duplication of your library tracks (as long as you don't use iTunes to manage your library in any way.) Hopefully I won't be forced to change my mind as I don't want an additional 22GB of duplicate data on my SSD!

I also recommend turning on the auto-sync after (I have it set to ask) - gets you closer to a feel of closer integration

I recommend setting iTune MM folder name to blank. Otherwise when you go to your music on your iDevice and select playlists, you won't see your playlists first, you'll see <MM>

The only main improvement I can think of is in the options add the ability to change the Temp folder location. It goes into users/{name}/AppData/Local/Temp. If you auto-convert quite a few tracks, and you are backing up your users directory, it may be easier to set the temp to some directory that is easier to get to and exclude from backup. This is a minor quibble though. I should exclude temp from backup anyway.

[nohitter151]

In what scenarios will iTunes modify track attributes without any action on my part?


Just want to say bravo on this plug-in. Works pretty good. Here's some tips and improvement suggestions:

I personally recommend you make the cache directory setting blank to avoid duplication of your library tracks (as long as you don't use iTunes to manage your library in any way.) Hopefully I won't be forced to change my mind as I don't want an additional 22GB of duplicate data on my SSD!

I also recommend turning on the auto-sync after (I have it set to ask) - gets you closer to a feel of closer integration

I recommend setting iTune MM folder name to blank. Otherwise when you go to your music on your iDevice and select playlists, you won't see your playlists first, you'll see <MM>

The only main improvement I can think of is in the options add the ability to change the Temp folder location. It goes into users/{name}/AppData/Local/Temp. If you auto-convert quite a few tracks, and you are backing up your users directory, it may be easier to set the temp to some directory that is easier to get to and exclude from backup. This is a minor quibble though. I should exclude temp from backup anyway.

Temp folder is already configurable. The plugin uses the MM temp folder which is specified at Options > General.

[Michael Keizer]

I have installed the plugin and it seemed all to work fine, except that my several thousands of WMA tracks didn't come across. Then I realised that they might have to be converted, so I set the conversion options for incompatible files to AAC. After I clicked on the sync icon, things seemed to work well (my computer rattled along and the progress bar seemed to... well, progress), so I left it for the night because this looked as if it would take a couple of hours. When I came back this morning, there was an error message on the screen that there was a large number of exceptions. Looking at the error log, every file has an error message of the following format:

d_itunes4.dll 2179 10:37:13 PM EXCEPTION Nil response from iTunes for AddFile [path and name of the wma file].aac

The files have not been added to iTunes.

What could cause this behaviour and what could I do about it?

Thanks,
Michael

[markstuartwalker]

Can you successfully add the .acc files to iTunes manually?