Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

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Wisp100
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 9:49 pm

Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Wisp100 »

Hi!

So I'm new to MM for Windows, finally took the time to replace iTunes. I have successfully organized all my music and synced to my Lumia 950 with pretty much no problems (note on this at the end).

The problem I have is that, the first time I synced I forgot to change the format for the playlists, so they synced as PLA, and no app in the limited Microsoft app store reads PLA. A couple read m3u though, so I changed the playlist syncing format to m3u, took a long time to re-read everything and sync this and when it came to it, it prompted me to delete the previous synced playlists to add the new ones, I accepted and it supposedly synced the new m3u playlists. I was pretty excited that I finnally found a solution to keep my music organized in the PC and in my Windows Phone 10 including my praised playlists, but it synced PLA again. I tried a second time with the "Use extended m3u" box checked, same results though.

On the sync options for my SD card in the Phone, Options tab, I have set format to m3u, although the drop down were m3u appears is disabled, I get check boxes below, I have checked "Use Unicode (UTF-8 encoding)" and "Use extended m3u".

Am I doing something wrong? Help?

Thanks so much for the time!


Side note on syncing Lumia 950 experience: When sync started it went through a chunk of songs then displayed an error for the rest, I re-synced then it continued syncing another chunk and so on until it was completed for the exception of 2 songs, which doesn't matter, they're just 2 songs, I'll figure that one out later. So it was successful although it took 3 syncings to get everything in, including PLA playlists, which can't be read in a Windows Phone.
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Lowlander »

Which version of MediaMonkey? Is M3U selected as Supported Format in the Device Profile for the phone in MediaMonkey?
Wisp100
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 9:49 pm

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Wisp100 »

MM ver. 4.1.11.1783 Gold

On Device Profile?
Where I've only found I can select m3u is, selecting the device, options tab, playlists, set formats, check m3u box.

Is there somewhere else I have to check to enable this?
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Lowlander »

Auto-Conversion has Supported Formats.
Wisp100
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 9:49 pm

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Wisp100 »

Thanks. I just checked, and yes m3u is selected a supported format. All the others are unchecked.

Any other ideas? I tried looking for a file converter for pla-m3u, but did not find anything, to try and get those pla files from the phone, convert them and place them back in.
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Lowlander »

Something in this area has been fixed (problem was the other way around though) so I suggest trying with the latest RC release: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 99#p423699

If it still fails capture the sync in a debug log (step 4b) and attach it to a support ticket: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=341
Wisp100
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 9:49 pm

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Wisp100 »

Okay, so I waited for the official release of the new MM version. Installed, all good. I tried syncing and when it got to the part where it tries to delete the existing PLA files in the SD card of the phone, it got stuck and gave me an Error pop up saying:

"The media transfer process on abc-SDcard appears to be frozen. If the issue doesn't resolve on its own within a few minutes, please disconnect the device and reboot it. If the problem recurs, please use Wi-Fi Sync instead."

It did not resolve on its own. I just stopped everything, rebooted everything, and then I figured I would first try to manually delete those files on windows explorer first so that MM would then just sync/copy the playlists. I navigated to the playlist folder in the SD card and I tried several times to delete those PLA files and every single time, explorer would crash, it would stop responding and it would not delete those files... What I did then, was format the SD card (I only use it for music in the phone anyway), and made MM sync to the cleared SD card again. It started copying the music again no problem. Except it froze at a certain point, I closed MM and opened again and a whole chunk of the music was synced but not all of it, so it is currently in sync again to finish the other chunks. This had happened before on the last version, except it did not freeze, it would give me a sync error for all the music it did not sync in that go, I liked that better than the program just crashing.

My goal here is to finally get all the music in the SD card with the playlists in m3u format! I will update when I have finished the syncing process and report if I am finally able to sync successfully to the format I have selected.
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Lowlander »

This is why many choose wifi sync. MTP drivers for Android devices often cause problems in Windows (Explorer frozen).
Wisp100
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 9:49 pm

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Wisp100 »

I am syncing with a Windows 10 Mobile device, Lumia 950. And wifi sync is only for Android right?

So I finished syncing, and I got everything to sync.
I got all playlists synced in m3u format, I can now import them to an app. Problem is that when I am importing with the app, it only imports the first 3 playlists and cannot import the rest, it just stays loading forever, I have tried importing one playlist at a time, the smaller weighing playlists, and nothing. The first playlist that is able to import is one of the biggest ones and it imports it in 2 seconds.

I have no idea if MM didn't sync the playlists properly or if this app is crap, but it's probably the latter. There is basically no way I can check this because I have tried so many other music apps in the store and no other can import playlists, except for one that can import them if they are wpl, but MM doesn't have that option.

I guess my issue of not being able to sync m3u playlists got fixed with the new MM update so that's cool. Now I just have to figure stuff out in this dying OS. =(

Thanks for the help Lowlander!
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Lowlander »

Yes, wifi sync is only possible with the MediaMonkey Android App.

I suggest you capture the problems in a debug log (step 4b) and send the log to support: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... ?f=12&t=69
teejayuu
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 5:20 am

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by teejayuu »

Lowlander wrote:This is why many choose wifi sync. MTP drivers for Android devices often cause problems in Windows (Explorer frozen).
Seriously, you're telling me that an App specifically (and only) built for the Android operating system to sync music with it's desktop PC counterpart can't actually do this over a cable. Not only that, but the Android community (the largest mobile operating system) actually put up with this!

Like the opening poster, I've been looking for a way remove Apple totally from my life and thought I'd found that way after changing my Lumia 930 + iPod Touch for a Samsung S7 Edge with 200GB SD Card. "Just one device" I thought, "no more having to carry around a phone and iPod". Should have stayed as I was!
Wisp100
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 9:49 pm

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Wisp100 »

Well, I have been syncing my Lumia 950 with a cable quite smoothly with MediaMonkey for some time now, so I'm really happy how I'm keeping my music organized now.

I'm pretty sure you can sync your Android device with a cable quite fine now, MM has had several updates improving syncing.
spiky
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2016 7:24 pm

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by spiky »

Scroll down to next bold bit to skip rant and see tip that might help.

This has never worked well at any time, none of the touted improvements has made any difference, and it probably has no prospect of working because I've been saying this for years in the Google Play reviews and every single time they've just told me to update to the latest version which I obviously already had. And since I've always already spent at least six hours reinstalling and resyncing and have already told them the steps to reproduce ("sync to android") I generally am not in the mood by that point to continue the correspondence.

Yesterday - after replacing my SD card with a new one and syncing for two hours - it synced my music and ALL my playlists! I was overjoyed. I started to use them. They worked. And while I was using them - on a train - underground - in airplane mode - as I switched from playlist to Now Playing and back - ALL the playlists disappeared from the phone. Every single one. Playlists folder mysteriously disappeared from the list of folders, but even when brought back it showed as empty. :cry:

Second sync, and at least some of the playlists are there on the phone (nowhere near all the ones MM individually announced it was synchronising), but MM for android (reinstalled multiple times earlier in the day - this is my once-a-year weekend of trying to troubleshoot MM on the phone) doesn't see them. It sees some of them. It's not because there are playlists of playlists, because some of those work and the structure is fine. Others don't. You get some of the top level ones. Some have the playlists beneath them. Some of those are full and some empty. Some of the top leve ones are empty. Some are missing, at all levels.

It announces the synchronisation of each playlist, but they're not there (they might be if you look in the file system but that's no use to anyone). Third sync, it duplicates a subset, but adds none of the missing ones. Fourth sync, it duplicates everything, but ignoring the structure completely, so hundreds of playlists with no structure.

Steps to reproduce the problem: Use a fresh, newly formatted SD card. Use latest version of MM (whatever that is). Reinstall MM for Android. Sync to android. That's it. Keep doing it and the sync for playlists will fail differently each time.

"Copying playlists" - says MM for windows. Very slowly, you'd think text files would be quicker. If you're lucky, some subset of the ones it announced that it was copying might appear on the phone. But even if you can see them in the phone's file manager, that doesn't mean they'll be available in MM on the phone. Some might. Some won't.

You can delete all playlists from within android, look at the phone via Windows, and you'll see an empty playlists folder but the 'playlists' part of the tree still shows playlists. No wonder it's confused. It has no idea what is on the device. Even the device has no idea what is on the device. Hours of syncing: nothing.

As for wifi sync, it doesn't work. You can authorise the device, but nothing will ever happen. "Searching" ... that's it.

Right, end of rant, switching to constructive mode:

Windows 10 64-bit, Fairphone 2, MM Gold 4.1.21.1875, MM for Android whatever was on Google Play yesterday (with Pro).

Tip: There's no point in trying to sync playlists if there are any on the phone. You have to delete ALL of them from within the phone, then sync, then wait for a good long time - budget 90 minutes for sync and an hour waiting - to see them appear on the phone. Don't use or disconnect your phone in this time. I've had this work once. Settings include: "Organise playlists using subdirectory for each playlist type", "Force relative paths", "Use Linux folder separator", "Use Unicode". But none of these will solve the problems by itself. It might be safe to disconnect the phone once the sync is done, but I wouldn't risk it.
Lowlander
Posts: 56465
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:53 pm
Location: MediaMonkey 5

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Lowlander »

Wifi sync see: http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/inde ... ork-at-all

Capture USB sync in a debug log (step 4b) and attach the log to a Support Ticket: http://mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=69
Twister
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2016 4:33 am

Re: Can't sync m3u playlists to phone

Post by Twister »

Hi all,

I add this comment only to help others in the future, hoping to save them the struggles I went through.
I just wanted to sync my music from my PC to my mobile phone.

I did spend years trying to USB sync and find a fix for this, or a way around it, or how to make it work so it wasn't painful.
But I failed, and as I needed more and more music, the problem got worse.

So in the end (and after reading @spikeys comments) I spent £9 on a Wi-Fi dongle and used the Wi-Fi sync, which works perfectly every time, and is a lot faster.
I only wish I had done years back.

Here's how I set it up.

1. On your PC add or enable a MediaMonkey Server [Options->Media Sharing] (I actually have two, but the Server seems to work). If you've done it right you should see the MediaMonkey icon through explorer (Windows OS) in your "Network Locations".

2. On my phone I tell it to be a internet HotSpot (which disables Wi-Fi).

3. Then I tell my PC to connect to my HotSpot network on my mobile.

4. On my phone [Options->Select Sync Server] I tell it to sync to the MediaMonkey Server on my PC.

5. Then on my mobile [Options->Sync Settings] I tell it where to sync and what to sync.

6. Then on my mobile I hit the "Sync Now" button, telling it to ignore the fact the "Wi-Fi" is disabled (as we did that when we turned on the HotSpot).

7. Then I joyously watch as it syncs, really fast, without error or freezing or dying, or refusing, happy in knowledge that the Play Lists are not getting mangled or lost. <Weeps tears of frustrated joy and release>

8. I turn off HotSpot and listen to banging tunes.

X
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