A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

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Absoluteg0
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2012 2:53 pm

A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by Absoluteg0 »

Like the title says, there are a few major issues keeping me from using MMA on my galaxy s3. I've installed each release since the initial beta release, and here are the remaining issues:

Battery drain: MMA is the worst offender, by far. I'll open it, scroll through the folders for twenty seconds, and exit. A couple hours later MMA has used 40% of my battery and it's nearly dead. Happens every time. The only way to keep it in check is to "force close" the app when I'm done with it. I think it may be due to continuous scanning?

Playlists: I have a dozen playlists, all of which appear in other media players, but MMA only ever sees the same 3, even after scanning the "playlist" folder.

Ratings don't sync: I think this is a MMW issue, as ratings don't show up in any media player.

"Unknown Artist": this one's not a big deal as I can simply ignore it, but even with a fresh install and fresh sync, there always appears an unknown artist entry with no albums and no songs in my library.
Mizery_Made
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Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by Mizery_Made »

Absoluteg0 wrote:"Unknown Artist": this one's not a big deal as I can simply ignore it, but even with a fresh install and fresh sync, there always appears an unknown artist entry with no albums and no songs in my library.
This one is consistent with MMW, there is always an "Unknown" node, even if everything in your library has a value.
rovingcowboy
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Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by rovingcowboy »

have you ever uninstalled mma and did a clean of your system with 1tap cache cleaner, and then reinstalled mma.
several times i've had to do that because of the new beta not working when just over installing it. :D
roving cowboy / keith hall. My skins http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =9&t=16724 for some help check on Monkey's helpful messages at http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 4008#44008 MY SYSTEMS.1.Jukebox WinXp pro sp 3 version 3.5 gigabyte mb. 281 GHz amd athlon x2 240 built by me.) 2.WinXP pro sp3, vers 2.5.5 and vers 3.5 backup storage, shuttle 32a mb,734 MHz amd athlon put together by me.) 3.Dell demension, winxp pro sp3, mm3.5 spare jukebox.) 4.WinXp pro sp3, vers 3.5, dad's computer bought from computer store. )5. Samsung Galaxy A51 5G Android ) 6. amd a8-5600 apu 3.60ghz mm version 4 windows 7 pro bought from computer store.
Lowlander
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Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by Lowlander »

Battery drain use to discuss: http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... it=battery

Playlists: Who synced the Playlists? Do they contain any files?

Ratings: Make sure you're running MediaMonkey for Windows 4.1.0.1638
rusty
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Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by rusty »

Hi Absoluteg0,

Thanks for the feedback.

Re. the battery drain, you can exit MMA via the notifications bar. But even if you don't manually terminate it, it should terminate automatically after a couple of minutes. If it's not terminating, please let us know the circumstances that trigger the failed termination.

Re. Playlists, as Lowlander asked, please let us know more about these playlists. Are they M3U files? How were they generated? etc.

Thanks.

-Rusty
Absoluteg0
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Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by Absoluteg0 »

Thanks for the replies. Yep, uninstall then clean install.

I'm using MMW .1638 to auto-sync all my music and playlists (maybe the ratings issue has to do with Samsung's MTP file transfer). I have the "use extended M3U" option enabled currently because it's seemed to sync better. The 3 playlists that do show up contain the proper number of files.

The battery drain happens every time I open MMA and don't use "force close". No other media player has this issue, when playback stops so does battery use.

As for exiting MM in the notification bar: when I tap "stop", playback stops but the MM icon (and the widget in the notification screen) stay. The lock screen flashes on briefly when unlocking the phone even if playback is stopped and the "use lock screen" option is subsequently turned off.

Also, as of today's release (.134), tapping an artist, long pressing on album, and tapping play forces a crash every time... same with playlists
:-?
rovingcowboy
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Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by rovingcowboy »

I just got the crash by trying to switch playlists when a song was playing, it did trigger the auto debug report on mma so its not just Samsung it is on Motorola also.
roving cowboy / keith hall. My skins http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =9&t=16724 for some help check on Monkey's helpful messages at http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... 4008#44008 MY SYSTEMS.1.Jukebox WinXp pro sp 3 version 3.5 gigabyte mb. 281 GHz amd athlon x2 240 built by me.) 2.WinXP pro sp3, vers 2.5.5 and vers 3.5 backup storage, shuttle 32a mb,734 MHz amd athlon put together by me.) 3.Dell demension, winxp pro sp3, mm3.5 spare jukebox.) 4.WinXp pro sp3, vers 3.5, dad's computer bought from computer store. )5. Samsung Galaxy A51 5G Android ) 6. amd a8-5600 apu 3.60ghz mm version 4 windows 7 pro bought from computer store.
rusty
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Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by rusty »

Absoluteg0,

Re. failure to terminate MM: what is the most basic activity that triggers this bug? Do you just play a single song and then exit MM? Are you using the LockPlayer? There is a known bug (not yet in mantis) re. the lockplayer causing the PlaybackService to not terminate.

Re. the instability in .134, please upgrade to 136. Sorry for the inconvenience--some nasty issues slipped in.

Thanks.

-Rusty
Absoluteg0
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Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by Absoluteg0 »

I manually erased all music and playlists files from my phone and did a fresh install of .136 and a fresh sync.

MMA now does not recognize any playlists.

The freeze when pressing "play" issue with an album or genre selected seems to have been corrected.

The battery drain issue remains unchanged. As a test I opened MMA after installing earlier today and immediately closed it without playing any music; it's eaten 25% of my battery in 15 hours, by far the most of any app. I am not using the lockscreen player.

Currently I'm unable to even open the app... every time I try, my phone goes black and freezes, then MMA crashes.
Peke
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Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by Peke »

Black screen on MMA start mostly means that MMA is still started and you need to Kill process in order to start it again. Restart of phone helps also.
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Absoluteg0
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Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by Absoluteg0 »

With the newest release (.139) the crash issues have been solved, however the battery and playlist sync issues remain.

I did a wireless sync which after the 5000+ songs "failed" on the last song. Almost all the songs are present (minus 35 randoms that never sync... another issue I'm at a loss to solve), but none of the playlists show up. I've tried doing a re-sync, but every time I try MMA says "sync is waiting for other background operations to complete".

More info on the playlist sync issue- Syncing via MMW using MTP puts the playlist files in the proper folder on my phone, but MMA can't read them (while other media players can). Syncing via MMA wirelessly doesn't create any playlist files.
sirandar
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Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by sirandar »

The OP wrote :"Battery drain: MMA is the worst offender, by far. I'll open it, scroll through the folders for twenty seconds, and exit. A couple hours later MMA has used 40% of my battery and it's nearly dead. Happens every time. The only way to keep it in check is to "force close" the app when I'm done with it. I think it may be due to continuous scanning?"

If you are running Android 4.1.1 you will have issues with battery life with any player if you have a big library especially on a microSD card. The issue is that the native Android program "mediaserver" (which Android uses to catalog files) has a huge bug in it and it chokes when it tries to catalog alot of MP3s. Very often it will also corrupt a microSD card causing mount errors and wiping the card. As mediaserver tries and fails to catalog your MP3 is slows down your phone and drains the battery.

The best solution is to update to Android 4.1.2 or 4.2 where this bug is supposedly fixed but unless your carrier has this update or you root/unlock, you can't do this. This update is being released very late or maybe not at all for many big carriers, probably because they want people to upgrade. I am still waiting for Bell to release it and I don't think they will ..... the Samsung S3 is too good a phone and nobody will need to upgrade for years. Also Samsung is currently making phones for users and not the carriers (at least for now) and the carriers will dump them as soon as possible. The S3 and S4 may be the last great phones and after that the carriers will start taking things away and replacing them with services that use data so they can $$$$ you for it.

The next best solution is to put all your MP3s in a single folder and add a .nomedia file to prevent mediaserver from catalogging it. Then use PowerAMP to catalog and play files as it has its own MP3 scanner separate from mediaserver.

Disabling mediaserver works but then your Gallery app wont ;)

Take home message. MMA is pretty much unusable for anyone on 4.1.1 unless you have hardware unaffected by this very serious bug.

Phones I know are affected: Samsung Galaxy S3 747 = tested on 2 phones from different carriers with multiple microSD cards (probably the most popular phone with a microSD slot but forum post indicate more also have this bug

The program Mediaserver is a dinosaur in terms of catalogging files ..... it is slow and rudimentary meaning that Android is 20 years behind the times when it comes to catalogging files
Peace through music
Absoluteg0
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2012 2:53 pm

Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by Absoluteg0 »

Thanks for the reply. I'm using the galaxy s3 SGH i747M on Android 4.1.1 with no external memory card. I've rooted it but for the life of me cannot figure out how to install the newest firmware. I doubt Rogers will ever release the latest version.

The thing is though I use power amp constantly, which is only a minor blip on the battery chart. MMA on the other hand...
Absoluteg0
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2012 2:53 pm

Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by Absoluteg0 »

Quick update- MMW .1642 seems to have fixed the playlist issue. Sweet.
Absoluteg0
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Re: A few (pretty major) issues with MMA

Post by Absoluteg0 »

Another update if anyone cares- the ratings sync properly over wifi, further proving Samsung's MTP is probably garbage.

Hopefully the battery issue will be solved soon??
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