Database Users

the best way to sync your music.

mediamonkey + rsync.
mediamonkey is by far the best and most robust batch id3 editor, converter, re-organizer, etc i've used.
unfortunately the sync kinda sucks with my N1. it has limited features (no ability to remove files from the N1 if you remove them from your library or move the folders around, etc)
enter: rsync (or grsync if you want a gui or are on windows)
usually what I do is on getting new music i'll add the music to mediamonkey (not the library just yet), then use the converter to lower the bitrate to 128kbps (i have a ton of music and don't mind sacrificing the barely noticeable quality difference for more space) and normalize the volume and re-organize them into /library/artist/album/track-title.mp3
then i'll rsync /android/Music with /library and voila.
note: i hated doubletwist. i did not have itunes and doubletwist wouldn't edit any of my mp3 tags. plus it was laggy and heavy.
sidebar: people hate on the android music player. its fantastic search function (partial searches ftw! i can search for "op orld" and it'll find "drop the world".) is indispensable.

I just dump everything into a folder on my SD card while it is mounted to my computer

Salling Media Sync
SC

This message was deleted by its author

copy all works fine, but takes a long time if you have a large sdcard and library. unless you copy to the same folder and select to not overwrite existing files, but then you don't get updates that you make on your desktop and this could lead to duplicate files, etc.
rsync does incremental updates (only sends what's been changed) and has an option to delete files from the destination folder if they're not present in the source folder.
both Salling and DoubleTwist require an iTunes library, don't they? DoubleTwist was absolutely terrible for managing my library when i tried it. it read some 2,500 mp3s and read the metadata for maybe 20% of them, and left the others as just the filenames. that was shocking to me. Salling does require iTunes, and i dislike itunes a good bit.

you onlyneed itunes to convert files to a usable format. ie, AVI to MP4 etc

mediamonkey for me too, its great for fixing up tags and getting cover art.
There are some ipods in our house, mediamonkey syncs those too as well as various other devices.

t4tav said:
Doubletwist
Personally I can't fault it
Plus T-Mobile are thinking of partnering with them to ship it with "select" Android phones
How about Banshee ?
Above is Linux only :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, double twist in partnership for tmobile is out.
http://apps.t-mobile.com/doubletwist/
worth noting that it doesnt have the amazon mp3 store in it.

t4tav said:
Doubletwist
How about Banshee ?
Above is Linux only :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, Banshee is available for Linux, Windows and OS X. The version released yesterday is supposed to include direct support for the Nexus One. Although when they advertised G1 support, it actually didn't work. They admitted that it didn't work when pressed and continued to advertise G1 support. It's not a terribly great player, but if I can drag and drop to my Nexus One AND transfer playlists appropriately, then I'll use it for that, but it doesn't really work too well for library management.

What Software and App work together? on Linux?
Doubletwist (Music,Videos,Podcasts,Playlists) does the job perfectly on windows and mac... but what about linux?
Banshee seems really good same as doubletwist except it puts everything into one folder it looks like. Music and Podcasts mix together with any app on my android device. Doubletwist had its own app which made it work correctly putting each media class into its own folder on the android device. Music=music podcasts=podcasts I used it all the time. Now I run only linux and would like something just as good.
App on LINUX laptop and App on device working together! Anyone have ideas? or at least a way to get banshee to put music in a specific folder on my android device and podcasts in another that I decide. If so I can just continue to use doubletwist app on android.
Please anyone with a solution?

I really thought you could get doubletwist on Linux.

I've been using rythmbox on linux. Its kind of a pain to sync playlists, and it took me forever to figure it out, but I hate banshee and I couldnt find anything else that works.

drewzee said:
I've been using rythmbox on linux. Its kind of a pain to sync playlists, and it took me forever to figure it out, but I hate banshee and I couldnt find anything else that works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
drewzee does rythmbox have an android app? like doubletwist? so they talk pc to android.

winamp is nice, but the wireless sync needs to be fixed so it can directly send to sd card into a certain folder. Having 100s of artist folders on the main directory is annoying

I wish we could get the Zune software to work with android. :/

Previously, I was running rsync over ssh with Tasker to sync my music (and backup my SD) with my server
Since the command can sometimes take a while to execute (a new nand or several new albums etc) and there isnt any verbose output using Tasker, I just created a script that i can easily execute from BTEP and my music and other data are synced. this works for me

smot13 said:
I wish we could get the Zune software to work with android. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes yes yes!! And that it worked on linux! I know its too much to ask for.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

pwig said:
I really thought you could get doubletwist on Linux.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been trying to get doubletwist to work through wine. No luck. Got installed but it won't run. I'm using fedora 14 32bit. On dell xps1330. I'm more of an ubuntu user but need fedora for work.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Why even sync it?
Audiogalaxy FTW

ErlyD said:
drewzee does rythmbox have an android app? like doubletwist? so they talk pc to android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im not sure what you mean because I've never used doubletwist, but the nexus will show up in the side pane of rhythmbox. You can right click, and then decide which playlists you want to sync etc...
The reason why I said it was a pain figuring out, is because the "My Top Rated" playlist would not update on my phone when I added new songs to it. I found out after tinkering that in order for that specific playlist to update, I had to delete the .pls file from the sd card before syncing it.

Sync with iTunes

Does anyone have a good recommendation for syncing iTunes playlists? I've been doing some google searching but haven't found a solid answer. I've tried a program called TuneSync which is suppose to sync playlists OTA.
It seems to only partially work for me... it has copied the music files over, I can browse them by artist or genre... but the actual playlists don't show up.
Any ideas? TIA!

TAXI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is Taxi?
I've tried TuneSync, and now have tried DoubleTwist. They both do the same thing, I can sync the music files, but the playlists themselves don't show up.
I browse the SD card, and I can see all the M3U playlists sitting there. If I try to open one manually, it says File Type Not Supported.
Does this phone not handle M3U playlists???

Been doing some more reading, it sounds like the SGS doesn't support M3U. Weak.
So how the hell do you create playlists other than manually on the phone itself??? I'm completely blown away by this glaring lack of functionality. I expect this type of behaviour from Blackberry, not Samsung.

iSyncr for Android is supposed to support play lists in iTunes.
It's limited unless you buy it though.

Give Isyncr a try. It's the best solution I've found so far. It syncs over USB it's quick and handles Galaxy playlists perfectly.
The really neat thing is there's nothing to install on the PC. You install ISyncr from the marketplace, it copies a EXE to the SDcard or SD (which ever you choose). Connect the Galaxy to the PC and then run the EXE on the PC. The program opens Itunes and you select playlists.
It has options to remember the playlists and remove items not in the playlists (from the folder you select). It doesn't have wireless syncing but I think that's a small price to pay for the speed.

carphead said:
Give Isyncr a try. It's the best solution I've found so far. It syncs over USB it's quick and handles Galaxy playlists perfectly.
The really neat thing is there's nothing to install on the PC. You install ISyncr from the marketplace, it copies a EXE to the SDcard or SD (which ever you choose). Connect the Galaxy to the PC and then run the EXE on the PC. The program opens Itunes and you select playlists.
It has options to remember the playlists and remove items not in the playlists (from the folder you select). It doesn't have wireless syncing but I think that's a small price to pay for the speed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I gave it a try. I'm on a Mac, but same kind of deal, after connecting to the computer I run the computer version of the program.... it comes up and tells me I don't have a valid license. I mucked around with it for an hour, read some support forums, eventually got frustrated with it and uninstalled it (got refund on android marketplace).
So I'm still at a loss.

I'm on mac and isyncr works fine with me. I don't remember what I did though. I surely paid. I select a playlist and it is uploaded to the device. I have to use parallels with kies (awesome work by samsung, btw /irony) but isyncr is ok with my mac no VM needed.
(I'm realizing now I'm not the only mac boy going into android. I guess Mr. Jobs is somehow pushing us out. That's my feeling anyway and sorry for the offtopic).

+1 for isyncr. Works really good on a mac. Supports podcasts as well. well worth the 2.99 bucks!

Does anyone know where, in internal memory or on SD card, the phone stores its playlist files?
I have created a couple playlists on the phone itself. If I can find where those files are stored, maybe I can open it up in a text editor, figure out the formatting/configuration, and then write something simple to generate playlists that work with this phone.
TIA!

davanw said:
What is Taxi?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol. Sorry, an attempt at humour seeing as you're on an android forum talking about that piece of sh1t software they call itunes. You don't have to use it, yet you do?
How about 'get your coat' ?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

iTunes Agent works great!

With any competent file manager app that allows accessing the network (SMB, SFTP, Bluetooth), you can simply copy your itunes directory (or any portions there of) to your phone or sd card.
You don't really need a sync app unless you have a REALLY large library.

Bynar010 said:
Lol. Sorry, an attempt at humour seeing as you're on an android forum talking about that piece of sh1t software they call itunes. You don't have to use it, yet you do?
How about 'get your coat' ?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahaha gotcha. Yeah, I absolutely hate iTunes. But I've been with Mac so long now that I'm significantly invested in it. My library has over 200GB of media. It would be a nightmare to export it all to another solution.
icebike said:
With any competent file manager app that allows accessing the network (SMB, SFTP, Bluetooth), you can simply copy your itunes directory (or any portions there of) to your phone or sd card.
You don't really need a sync app unless you have a REALLY large library.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said, my library is so large that syncing playlists is the only real way to manage it all. I don't want to listen to a single artist, album or genre, hence the need for playlists.

Haven't been able to figure out where the playlists go myself - this would be good to know for future development.
I have noticed that I can add playlists using WMP 12 - the only problem is that if I try to resync the same playlist it seems to append the contents of the existing playlist on the phone... odd. I basically delete the playlist on the device when I want to resync from the computer.
davanw said:
Does anyone know where, in internal memory or on SD card, the phone stores its playlist files?
I have created a couple playlists on the phone itself. If I can find where those files are stored, maybe I can open it up in a text editor, figure out the formatting/configuration, and then write something simple to generate playlists that work with this phone.
TIA!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

What desktop program are YOU using to manage ur X10's music and videos?

I want to know of a good program to manage my music on my comp and x10, i use VLC atm but its not great, ive tried double twist and both the desktop app and the actual app are crap and im never guna use itunes, so let me know what you use recomend

I use mediamonkey...IMO it's the best music manager out there.
[http://www.mediamonkey.com/]
and on the x10 I sometimes use mediascape but prefer using btunes (its has an ipod like interface)
[http://www.btunesmusicplayer.com/features/default.html]

I just use the good old "copy and paste" method.

I'm using double twist. The android app is pretty and then I found out it had desktop software too. I came.
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

XperiaX10iUser said:
I just use the good old "copy and paste" method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same. As long as your tags are accurate than this is the simplest method.

I use mixzing and then itunes, agent which will sync my selected music.
I just wish songbird would support the x10.
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

Doubletwist rocks!
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

I use Mozilla Songbird and love it. getsongbird.com

Windows Exploder Copy and Paste. Simple life...

Findee said:
I use mixzing and then itunes, agent which will sync my selected music.
I just wish songbird would support the x10.
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Findee, Songbird works perfectly well with my X10. What seems to be the problem for you?
Cheers,
Batmantis82

rynoon said:
Same. As long as your tags are accurate than this is the simplest method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
another for copy and paste

GPdhillon said:
another for copy and paste
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 - Windows Explorer is the only tool I use

Am I right in assuming that those of you that only copy and paste...dont use playlists?

Double twist / iTunes & iPhoto on OSX.
I've got a media library of 10000+ lossless, I'd die of old age if i had to use copypasta and couldn't automatically transcode and sync playlists.
Sent from my X10i

I use Media Go and Mediascape. Like with all new softwares, it took me a while to get use to the UI of both but now it's like second nature. I like media go's Gracenote since most of my music are downloaded from Youtube videos. Gracenote puts the information automatically which allows phone to download the album art cover. I also like the ability to create playlist coz I like the option to be able to play music by mood.

I use good ol' Total Commander
Left Pane: music directory on the PC.
Righ Pane: music directory on the SD Card.

MediaGo people give it alot of flak, but I think its not that bad. Get my podcasts,music,playlists,pictures and videos organized and auto syncs

mith500 said:
Am I right in assuming that those of you that only copy and paste...dont use playlists?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'd assume right in my case...

mith500 said:
Am I right in assuming that those of you that only copy and paste...dont use playlists?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use the cut-and-paste method, and use playlists too. I simply create the playlists in Windows (e.g. use Winamp) and then cut-and-paste the m3u playlist file to the phone as well. Mediascape detects the playlist fine.

dermon said:
Doubletwist rocks!
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i need a good MEDIA Player, and a good sync client.
I have more than one device, i have a milestone as well. and i change devices like the wind.
lastly i have mood playlists and these msut be synced well.
so I use Windows Media Player in Windows 7. its magic.
Great Media Player, and does sync pretty well with the sync.
I have a problem with Double twist. Seems when it transfers m4a files encoded by Itunes, (I used to use OS Crap), it doesnt transger the tags. so half my librtary (Music I actually bought and encoded, vs downloading on the Bay) all gets lumped in the Unknown artist area, even though the tags are in the desktop app.
WMP doesnt sync playlists unless you use MTP protocol, (ie it will only transfer and check if the song in a playlist exists, but it wont actually tranfer the playlist file itself)
so i manually export the playlist files onto the device.
that way i have one media program on my computer.

[Q] mac?

any idea if this phone would play well with mac? i was hoping i could sync it with iTunes and iPhoto?

There may be third party apps out there that give you that functionality but as this is not an Apple device, there is no official support for iTunes/iPhoto. Android isn't designed for syncing everything to your computer like that, really.

Nope, there are 3rd Party offerings as said. The device indexes them automagically when you just copy and paste them to internal storage.

s28 said:
any idea if this phone would play well with mac? i was hoping i could sync it with iTunes and iPhoto?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I currently have my google account synced with the Address Book, so it does "play well with mac".
If you want to sync your music and photos -- there're mac google apps for that, but no it won't be iTunes/iPhoto you'd need to use on your mac.

Double Twist works pretty well for me and my Mac try it .. It's free unless you want WiFi Sync

VictorNYC said:
Double Twist works pretty well for me and my Mac try it .. It's free unless you want WiFi Sync
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how can you use double twist with no UMS support?

With iSyncr you can sync your music/videos with iTunes, I'm not sure about photos tho.

For music you could install Google Music and set it to sync up with your iTunes, which then automatically gets pushed to Google Music on your phone. That's what I do.

kcls said:
For music you could install Google Music and set it to sync up with your iTunes, which then automatically gets pushed to Google Music on your phone. That's what I do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the problem i have with google music is it doesn't automatically stored on my phone. it is all in the cloud. is there anyway i can do this?

s28 said:
the problem i have with google music is it doesn't automatically stored on my phone. it is all in the cloud. is there anyway i can do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can just, within the Google Music app, click "Keep on phone", and either click individual songs or entire playlists. It automatically downloads all the songs to your phone, and whenever you download a new song on iTunes, if you add it to the playlist in iTunes that you checked to keep on your phone, Google Music automatically downloads it to you local phone storage. Been doing this for months.
Tapatalk² from my Optimus V

Mac
I am also hoping this device works well on mac, been having some trouble with Android File Transfer on macs. Hopefully this device will be different.

kcls said:
You can just, within the Google Music app, click "Keep on phone", and either click individual songs or entire playlists. It automatically downloads all the songs to your phone, and whenever you download a new song on iTunes, if you add it to the playlist in iTunes that you checked to keep on your phone, Google Music automatically downloads it to you local phone storage. Been doing this for months.
Tapatalk² from my Optimus V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i can't find the option where i could keep playlists in my device. only artists and albums. also, is there a way to make double twist work?

s28 said:
i can't find the option where i could keep playlists in my device. only artists and albums. also, is there a way to make double twist work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download Google Music Manager on your Mac (should ask you if you want it when you first sign up for Google Music if you're running OS X). Once it's installed, open System Preferences, and choose Music Manager, which should be down on the last row. From there, pick 'Upload.' Then, 'Choose by playlist.' This allows you to choose an iTunes playlist to sync to Google Music, which you'll then be able to use on your Android device through the Play Music app.
You can also use DoubleTwist. You just have to enable (in its prefs) "Automatically import iTunes playlists."

I use iSyncr for mac when I transfer music. Not sure about iPhoto.

s28 said:
i can't find the option where i could keep playlists in my device. only artists and albums. also, is there a way to make double twist work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure about double twist, I thought it was a windows only program, but if you go into Google Music, scroll over to "Playlists", and hit menu and hit "Choose music to keep on device" or something like that, then you can click on the playlist you want.
Tapatalk² from my Optimus V

ste1164 said:
I use iSyncr for mac when I transfer music. Not sure about iPhoto.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
does this work even without ums?

s28 said:
does this work even without ums?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes iSyncr supports MTP it also has a wifi sync. Double twist doesn't support it but you can pay extra for air sync.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

ste1164 said:
Yes iSyncr supports MTP it also has a wifi sync. Double twist doesn't support it but you can pay extra for air sync.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah double twist it's only like a dollar or two if I remember correctly ... And as long as your computer and phone are under the same WiFi network you can also sync photos and videos ( time to convert your videos to mp3 files will depend in your Mac specs but in older ones its rather slow for ) but that's it no UMS needed just sync the devices together ...

Music syncing software?

I am coming from an iPhone and boy boy BOY do I miss the seamless syncing between iTunes and my iPhone..
It was nothing short of great.....
Now that I am rocking an S4, I am definitely missing this feature. I am using Winamp right now, but its not very good at deciphering stuff..and Samsung Kies is a joke.
I am looking for a piece of software that would rock at syncing my music with my S4 in a nice fashion. Any suggestions as I am really REALLY missing my iPhone 5 now simply because of a very simple feature...

EpicMango said:
I am coming from an iPhone and boy boy BOY do I miss the seamless syncing between iTunes and my iPhone..
It was nothing short of great.....
Now that I am rocking an S4, I am definitely missing this feature. I am using Winamp right now, but its not very good at deciphering stuff..and Samsung Kies is a joke.
I am looking for a piece of software that would rock at syncing my music with my S4 in a nice fashion. Any suggestions as I am really REALLY missing my iPhone 5 now simply because of a very simple feature...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Songbird for sure! Here's the Google Play link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer&hl=en
and here's for the desktop client http://www.getsongbird.com/

Really? Plug in phone, copy Music folder on PC to phone.
Not sure why you would want to use crappy software like itunes when you can just drag and drop your whole music folder.

I'd recommend isyncr, it works flawlessly for me
Sent from my Nexus 4

MHousos said:
Songbird for sure! Here's the Google Play link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.songbirdnest.mediaplayer&hl=en
and here's for the desktop client http://www.getsongbird.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use poweramp. Will it still work seamlessly with it?

EpicMango said:
I use poweramp. Will it still work seamlessly with it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know it will with the SongBird app, but not sure about PowerAmp...here's a thread on the subject though http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1562816

DoubleTwist works the best for me. Not sure about the other apps. It has a slight (but not very much) iTunes feel.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda app-developers app

iSyncr works great!

I'll also go for doubletwist. It has an integrated podcast manager as well.

geoldr said:
Really? Plug in phone, copy Music folder on PC to phone.
Not sure why you would want to use crappy software like itunes when you can just drag and drop your whole music folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, if you are plugging the phone in, just treat it as a drive and drag and drop. Syncing with iTunes is a big pain and a waste if you don't use song counts or any of that nonsense. If you already have your music organized by artist and album, then copy/paste is a lot faster.

alphadog00 said:
I agree, if you are plugging the phone in, just treat it as a drive and drag and drop. Syncing with iTunes is a big pain and a waste if you don't use song counts or any of that nonsense. If you already have your music organized by artist and album, then copy/paste is a lot faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. Especially since Android runs a media scanner whenever you unplug, so all your Music apps like stock or Poweramp will see the changes instantly. And you can sort by folder so this is a great solution.

Reviving the topic, to see if anyone has a suggestion for PC software to sync music with the Galaxy S4.
I would prefer to have a program to handle this, so I don't have to manually build the folder structure (artist\album\file.mp3) and also, so I don't have to remember which new files I've gotten that need to be uploaded. Right now I'm using Windows Media Player, it worked reasonably well with my Xperia Ion, but with the Galaxy I have to stop and restart the sync and then stop it again, since it never reaches 100% even though all the mp3 files were uploaded. Also, it is not really syncing, if I change anything in already uploaded files, like tag or artwork, the changes don't go through, even if I manually delete the old file from my phone card.
I've tried Winamp, it doesn't recognize the SD card and wants to upload the files to the phone internal memory. Both Kies and Songbird never really connect to the device, they stay trying to connect for a long time. And Doubletwist Desktop does not update the music library when some files are added, deleted or changed.

SPOTIFY... 8 bucks a month for an unbelievable amount of music. The offline mode makes tracks accessible without and data and you can share music with your friends. You can also check out what they are jamming to and discover new music. I don't even know what people use iTunes anymore. Spotify also has a desktop interface so you can enjoy your music at the office on the Pc or Mac
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium

Thanks for the info. I'm not at all interested in all the "social" stuff, I just need an efficient way to sync my PC music library with my phone. I considered Google Music at some point, since it was offering 20,000 songs (double my library) for free, that you need to upload. Problem is that there is no easy way to tell the program to store it in a specific folder in the SD card. Also, I don't think you can just make the whole library offline, you have to do it track by track, or maybe album by album. How is Spotify in these two issues? Although, quite frankly, for almost $100 a year I'll probably stick with WMP for free.