Sync phone (MMA) to MM5

[bkenobi69]

I have recently migrated my media files from a Windows based file server to a Synology NAS. The current setup places the MMW database file on the root of my media files and I use my laptop to maintain/modify the database via a MM5 installation. With my old setup, I was running MM4 for years without issue but times change, servers crash, data is lost. I moved everything that could be salvaged from the old system to the new one but it does not appear that my phone is currently set up in MM5. I want to sync my phone back to the main database so it will update things like play count, ratings, etc. Since I don't seem to have a configuration for my phone, I'm curious if that is possible or if I'll lose whatever has changed since the last WiFi sync around 2 years ago when it was on the Windows file server. If I lose the data, that would be unfortunate but not life altering. I'm just wondering if this is even possible with the current way things are with MM5 and MMA.

I can provide more data/settings/etc if more information is needed to properly answer the question.

[Lowlander]

You can Sync from phone to PC.

[bkenobi69]

Right, but won't that potentially copy all the files from MMA back to MM5 since the source files are mostly FLAC and they have been transcoded to MP3 on the phone? Since MM5 doesn't seem to have the device anymore, I'm assuming it won't know that one track is the same as another when it's a different file type. Hopefully I'm wrong and it will know they are connected.

[bkenobi69]

I was debating creating a new topic but this is probably small. I can't actually get MM5 to load my database right now to test anything. It says it's not available so I should create a new one. It's located on my NAS as I mentioned and I have the mediamonkey.ini file modified to add "DBName=\\DS1511\Music-Ben\MM5.DB" at the end of the [System] section. Is that the correct way to call out the UNC path or is the format wrong?

[Lowlander]

Copy \\DS1511\Music-Ben\ into File Explorer and see if it finds the location and that the database file filename is mm5.db (and not mm.db or other).

If you transcoded there would be no sense to Sync from phone to PC.

[bkenobi69]

\\DS1511\Music-Ben\ is a valid path and "MM5.DB" is in that location. I'm pretty sure it worked fine when I installed MM5 on the PC a couple months back. For some reason it's not happy today. I could try coping the file to the default path and confirm that the database isn't just corrupt for some reason.

Yes, once the files have been transcoded it wouldn't make sense to copy them back. I just want the metadata updated.

[Lowlander]

And the error shown on opening the database shows that Path (that would indicate you setup correctly in the ini).

[bkenobi69]

I copied the MM5.DB file to the default location and commented out the alternate path in the ini file. When I load MM5 it instantly sees all the files in the database. It appears MM5 isn't happy with the database location for some reason.

[bkenobi69]

Well, I'm not sure why but when I loaded MM5 with the stock db location it loaded instantly. When I put the location back to the NAS and restarted it loaded instantly, too. To confirm, I deleted the MM5.DB file in the default path and restarted. It still seems to be loading correctly so for whatever reason the issue is resolved.

Back to the question of getting metadata from the phone to the pc. Is there a way to do that or should I just accept that anything on the phone can't be linked to the original files? It would be nice to have, but if it's not feasible I'll just accept it and move on.

[Lowlander]

Sync should match files, and then only Sync metadata. However the question will be which copy (PC vs phone) will be seen as newer.

If you're going to try, definitely have a backup copy of the database file before trying.

[bkenobi69]

I can keep a backup DB which is a good idea either way. What I don't want is for it to mess with my files on the NAS since that requires finding all my CD's and extracting which is a much bigger pain.

[bkenobi69]

I have been working on getting the media on my phone synced to my current database today. I was able to get the phone to sync with a new profile and it indicated "pairing media" at one point which appears to have linked everything as expected. I ended up with 185 tracks needing updating which sounds about right for the number of new tracks added since last sync. After a while, the phone complained that it ran out of space. As it turns out, I didn't have it set to transcode the files so all were full flac which maxed out my microSD. I thought it was just the new ones, but from the looks of it, all tracks on the phone are in native format (mostly flac). I adjusted my transcoding settings but am wondering how to tell MM to replace the current files? I could delete all files on the phone but don't know if that would be the best plan since meta data may not be up to date on all tracks. I think they were updated before transferring files started so it's probably ok.

What would be my best option to get the media files on my phone that are currently FLAC with transcoded MP3?

[Lowlander]

Re-sync should take care of that, if I'm not mistaken.

[bkenobi69]

That was my first thought so I plugged the phone into USB and tried to sync. It gave an error and would not proceed. I can get the message but as I recall it was related to no space. The card is 64GB and the card is reporting 233MB free. I'm sure it's less because the sync failed earlier which is how I realized the issue and each file is around 25-35MB.

I can't attach a picture but basically it is in fact a message saying I need 11GB and I have 223MB free. I think I'm just going to delete the flac files and sync again. It should be quicker than figuring it out the right way...

[Barry4679]

I think I'm just going to delete the flac files and sync again. It should be quicker than figuring it out the right way...

That is my experience also.
And AFAICS there is no evidence that a "right way" exists when you get into a situation where the MMA database gets messed re what it has got and where it got it from.

The problem is the MM sync process that is a black box, and there seems no way to diagnose what is going wrong. No way to verify whether it is coming right, and no way efficiently report an identifiable problem to MM Tech Support. Each successive sync takes a very long time. Files are deleted and (re)transferred multiple times for no apparent reason. I didn't get any confidence that I was going end up with a clean result.

The MMA <-> Google Play Music facility that they going, until Google shuttered GPM, had the smarts to do a two way scan of the PC database and the files and database at the other end. It could link up files that it were exported to GPM using some other tool, and it could repair the situation when the ends got out of sync. For some reason this has not been feasible for other sync targets, like MMA.

It is disappointing, but as you said earlier this not a "life altering" event I have had very good stability from MM sync for many months now, and even if it did happen again, transfer via USB3 can chew through quite efficiently. I decided not to transcode my flac files, as that slows things down. I have 60gb of music in my phone, so I would upset if this was a regular problem, but it is not.