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Windows Media Player (WMP) is a great application and works great for syncing to the Android platform.
The Music and Pictures application on the Android work with the file structure and playlists from WMP. It is an easy solution for managing content on your computer and having it sync automatically.
Benifits of using WMP to sync content
Sync Auto Playlists and User Created Playlists
Sync Pictures with options to resize to save space. (keeps folder hierchy for easy browsing)
You can reserve space so WMP does not eat all of the usable storage
You can prioritize your synced content giving you control over fresh content, or managing your favorites.
Sync 4 and 5 star Rated pictures and music from your computer
Examples of use:
Sync Pictures added to your computer in the last 30 Days
Sync You favorite songs first, then by playlist, and then fill the remaining space with the rest of you library and you can still leave room for other reasons like pictures taken from the G1
Researching the following:
WMP can convert and resize certain video formats and TV recorded from Media Center to a mobile sized WMV. I am researching to see if WMP can be tweaked to use another format and resolution
WMV playback on Android/G1
I have read alot of questions from users about media management. I wanted to start this thread as an awareness for using WMP to manage content. I see alot of G1 users feel like the link between the computer and android is not there. I think it is designed for an open platform, so you don't have to use one app for everything (i.e. Active Sync, itunes, ect.)
Moderators: please feel free to delete or redirect if this thread is out of place.
Jcostanza4
Reserved for How To Guides
In progress of building. 11-5-08.
Please be patient while I work on the detailed information. Please feel free to suggest or add missing information by sending me a PM.
How to Setup Windows Media Player (WMP) to sync to the G1
This guide is designed for Android version R29 or later and the use of a Micro SD or SDHC card already installed in the device.Earlier Android releases have different steps in mounting the device to the comptuer and are not in this guide.
1. Connect the Device to the Computer via USB Cable
A Notification will appear in top bar. Slide down the curtain and select the notification labeled "USB connected". Select the "Mount" option.
2. Open Windows Media Player on the Computer
Make sure you are on the "Library" tab of WMP, if not select it. If your device is properly installed and connected, your memory card should be listed on the left pane and would be titled based on how you formated the card or set by the manufacturer. [See Figure (1) Attached Below]
3. Right Click on the memory card from the left pane and select "Setup Sync..."
[See Figure (2) Attached Below]
4. Name your device and click finish
Choose a name that will be easily recognizable for your convienence. If you are using multiple cards, you can setup different media to be synced to each card.[See Figure (4) Attached Below]
5. Right Click on the memory card from the left pane and select "Setup Sync" and choose "Sync this device automatically"
In the list on the right remove playlists that you do not want to sync to your device. You can add more playlists by selecting the "Available Playlist" drop down box and select "Sync Playlists". This section will allow you to sync your picture library and possibly video and tv in the future (not availble yet). [See Figure (8) Attached Below]
Set your Priorities: Change the priority list that sync to your preference. If you have "All Music" at the top fo the list, all of your music will sync first until the card is full. If the card is not full it will move to the next sync list and so on. I recomend syning your favorites of each categories and then use sync All Music or All pictures last. See reserving space note to leave room on your card.
Click Finish when done and device starts to sync.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
How To Set Conversion and Space limits
Right Click on the memory card from the left pane and select "Advanced Options" to set quality preferences
A - On the sync tab: if you leave the "Create folder Hierarchy on the device" select it will sync over pictures and music in the same folder layout as it is on your computer. If you uncheck this box all files will be placed into one folder. Pictures are harder to browse on the device if you choose this option because they are all grouped into the main picture folder.
To Reserve space: you may want to reserve space so that your synced content does not take all of the space available on your memory card. Move the slider to the right to reserve space in 5% increments. If you are unable to move the slider you must stop any current syncing. [See Figure (10) Attached Below]
Note: To Stop a sync in process, close or cancel the open window and right click on the memory card in the left pane of WMP and select "Stop Sync" [See Figure (9) Attached Below] B - On the Quality Tab: if you leave the "Convert music, pictures, videos and TV shows as required by this device" selected, the computer will resize images down to save space. Uncheck this box if you want the full resolution version of the image which will take up more space. You can also set the quality of the music by checking "Select maxium quality level" and setting the max bitrate for songs to be synced.
Note: Video and TV are not supported at this time and is not an option that you can select.
Click Apply and then OK when finished.About Playlists on the Device
You can create as many playlists as you wish. Note that the “Recently added” playlist is a system playlist and cannot be deleted or renamed. Also, if you make any voice recordings as part of a MMS message, they will be stored automatically in a playlist called “My recordings”. Supported Playlists: Playlist formats supported are M3U, WPL, and PLS. WPL is the Windows Media Playlist format and is the default format that WMP saves to. This playlist file will sync to your device if saved in the Playlist folder on the computer.
Please ask some questions in the mean time so I can see the problems and questions that most users will have.
WMA files: regardless of how you get them onto your device, tags aren't fully recognized, nor is cover art. MP3 files work fine though...
benjimen said:
WMA files: regardless of how you get them onto your device, tags aren't fully recognized, nor is cover art. MP3 files work fine though...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WMA Metadata:
Which tags/data is not bieng recognized? 99% of my music is in MP3 format, so I have not run into this problem yet.
About Cover Art for MP3s:
Cover art is recognized for 80% of my music. I believe it because the android sees cover art that is embeded in the metadata and not reliant on the folder.jpg placed in each album folder.
Note:
After you initially sync, open up the Andoid's Music player and choose Albums. Let the Andoid update/find/process cover art for a couple of minutes and make sure you keep the device awake. Don't switch to another application or it will stop processing the cover art.
Jcostanza4
Thanks for the great detail.
I have started to use media player as my primary music app since installing media center. Syncing with media player and my G1 is something I forgot about.
Imp
jcostanza4 said:
Note:
After you initially sync, open up the Andoid's Music player and choose Albums. Let the Andoid update/find/process cover art for a couple of minutes and make sure you keep the device awake. Don't switch to another application or it will stop processing the cover art.
Jcostanza4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I open the music player in the phone and select albums, I get a list of albums without the cover art being displayed ( I have the phone set on never timeout). How long does it take for the cover art to be displayed? I let it sit for several minutes and it hasn't done anything. Do I have to initiate the update process or is it supposed to be automatic?
Not sure if this will help/work, but I've had a bit of experience working with getting mp3s with cover art in WMP.
I find the easiest way is to update the albums in WMP using the 'Find Album Info' option. This should pull art/track info from the web and alter the embedded art and id3 tags. It can be a bit hit and miss sometimes (occasionally the art/tags won't update properly).
You should also be able to drag/drop the art (folder.jpg etc) into WMP when sorted by album.
Syncing it after this should then push out any changes.
(my G1 is arriving tomorrow, so won't be able to confirm if this works 'til then)
xavier6303 said:
When I open the music player in the phone and select albums, I get a list of albums without the cover art being displayed ( I have the phone set on never timeout). How long does it take for the cover art to be displayed? I let it sit for several minutes and it hasn't done anything. Do I have to initiate the update process or is it supposed to be automatic?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should see the artwork start to appear one by one, if you don't see this happening it might be the way the cover art is setup in your library.
(EDIT: when I says start to appear, I mean about every second as soon as you open in Album view. If you leave it in this mode and let the device fall asleep it will still update the cover art, just don't open another application on top of that or it will stop. Scroll around and see if it is updating, it should be very apparent if its working)
We are all new to this so alot of my reasoning is just speculation at this point. The artwork that shows on my G1 is cover art imbeded into the mp3 file and not a jpg in the album folder.
Let me know if this helps.
Jcostanza4
jcostanza4 said:
You should see the artwork start to appear one by one, if you don't see this happening it might be the way the cover art is setup in your library.
We are all new to this so alot of my reasoning is just speculation at this point. The artwork that shows on my G1 is cover art imbeded into the mp3 file and not a jpg in the album folder.
Let me know if this helps.
Jcostanza4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, Ill try it again.
Thanks
wassup everyone working on album art for my g1 as well anybody discovered anything new? A lot of my art won't show up after sync still even after updating all the album info.
i need of real help
i have read threw your post and its help full but what has happened is that my phone use to sync even my play list from media player, but now its only syncing the songs and not the playlist can you help?
Although I am completely against Microsoft and feel it is wrong to sync the almighty Android with microcough, it actually does work really well. I stole a bunch of music from a friends computer and was surprised how easy it was to sync with, a lot easier than ipod/itunes. Too bad I run Fedora on my laptop (well not really "too bad" but you get the point).
walliekid said:
i have read threw your post and its help full but what has happened is that my phone use to sync even my play list from media player, but now its only syncing the songs and not the playlist can you help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem. All my playlists, both normal and smart playlists, are in my Playlists folder. But unlike what the instructions say, the playlists themselves will not sync to the G1. I can add a playlist to my automatic sync list and songs on that playlist will be synced, but the playlist file and the playlist itself will not sync. Any ideas about how to get playlists to sync between WMP and Android?
i have had issues with the cover art as well. i ripped a lot of my CD with wmp and it found the album art just fine, but when i loaded them to the sd card on the phone they never came with it. i also had a lot of music that was downloaded years ago that i put on and it is terrible for listing them in any sort of order even after redoing a lot of the tags. its not that great in my opinion and would be better if it would browse by folder like i have it on the card
Chirality said:
I have the same problem. All my playlists, both normal and smart playlists, are in my Playlists folder. But unlike what the instructions say, the playlists themselves will not sync to the G1. I can add a playlist to my automatic sync list and songs on that playlist will be synced, but the playlist file and the playlist itself will not sync. Any ideas about how to get playlists to sync between WMP and Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem. Syncing playlists with windows media player only add the songs onto the phone, not the playlists themself. I solved this problem by copying my playlist folder on my computer onto the memory card. Everytime you sync playlist with WMP, make sure you copy the actually playlists from your music folder onto your memory card too.
This is really stupid. Syncing playlists and it only puts the songs onto your memory card and not the actually playlists. I mean, WTF dude?
GuardianFlash said:
I have the same problem. Syncing playlists with windows media player only add the songs onto the phone, not the playlists themself. I solved this problem by copying my playlist folder on my computer onto the memory card. Everytime you sync playlist with WMP, make sure you copy the actually playlists from your music folder onto your memory card too.
This is really stupid. Syncing playlists and it only puts the songs onto your memory card and not the actually playlists. I mean, WTF dude?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try this, but on my phone, it actually synced the playlists as well... the only problem is that when I tried to play the playlist on the device, it can't find any of the files! I have to manually play them.
jcostanza4 said:
Benifits of using WMP to sync content
Sync Auto Playlists and User Created Playlists
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To the best of my knowledge, WMP uses .asx or .xml and Android can only read .m3u. Am I missing something, 'cause I'd LOVE it if syncing lists with WMP was as simple as all that.
Just picked up the Samsung Capitivate a couple of weeks ago. I'm a heavy playlist user as this is how I manage my various Podcasts daily to keep them playing in the order received. First thing i did was sync up my Android device with WMP as that's what i've been accustomed to for years now. I'm a recent WM convert.
Syncing is just as straight forward as any other media device as far as i can see. Playlist, album art, mp3 and unprotected wma are syncing. However my playlist are synced in reversed order for some reason. anyone else seen this?
HTC, Motorola, and Samsung all have options to sync with WMP that will also allow the syncing of playlists... but if you mount just as a "Mass Storage" device, then the playlists will not sync properly.
A work-around is apparently to copy your playlists folder to the Music folder on your SDCard... testing it shortly and will let you know.
If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!
Copying over the playlist folder didn't work...
I have this issue where my music seems to be in a great mess. Is it possible to somehow set the media player to view music folder by folder?
Perhaps you need to tag it properly? Mp3tag is a good program for that, if that is indeed the problem...
Erm...are there any guides for tagging? Because I have no idea what that is. Even though I placed the songs I wanted to together into the same album, I ended up with multiple albums with different songs but same album name,
Well
Computers are like me, anal perfectionists. The name "This is an album" and "This Is An Album" an "This is an album" are 3 totally different things. If they are not correctly tagged, with EXACTLY the same name, they are not the same as far as the phone is concerned.
Tagging is simple, use mp3 tag, loads your songs and fill in the form fields (album, arsits, title ,etc then save. Make sure they are identical for each song by same artist/in same album.
To help make sure, select all similar tracks of the same artist or album together before you fill in that field, that way you ensure the exact same data is input in all of them.
Although it makes little to no difference to WM player I also sort my music into folders.
Music +
......|
......|
......+Artist1+
......|.......|
......|.......|
......|.......+Album1
......|.......+Album2
......|
......+Artist2+
..............|
..............|
..............+Album1
..............+Album2
..............+Album3
It's just good housekeeping more than anything and keeps things tidy and simple. Besides, some other program (S2P)actually sort by folder in their library view.
P.S. I also recommend mp3tag, it's pretty close to perfect.
Ah...wait...you mean for the music to be in the same album, the artist must be the same? So exactly what are the factors that determine the music being in the same folder? (It goes by artists? Not by albums? And you mentioned titles. How can the titles be the same for all the music?)
Oh and despite the fact that I changed the tags for the albums, it somehow remains the same in itunes and the Media XPerience Panel. Oh and this is how I change tags. I highlight the whole set of music I want to place in the same album. I right click and press "extended tags". I then edit from there. Is that right? What do things like export/convert etc. do? (Oh and I do save.)
Only if you group them that way, of course if the artists are different just make sure the Album is exactly thesame on each track. I for example keep all compliation/etc albums in an artist called "Various".
That's the issue! I have edited the songs I want together by placing them into the same album by using "extend tag". And yet, The album cannot be found on the Media Xperiance and the Itunes.
No need
You shouldn't need to use the advanced tags, in fact I removed everything from advanced tags that was non standard leaving only album, artist, title, genre and maybe year. I also found that if I edited them directly on the card it didn't work. They aren't updated. I moved them to the PC, edited, deleted any files related to library on the phone then moved the music back.
I don't understand very well your question, because if you choose Menu - Open File - and then select your folder, but don't open it, click on "Read", it reads the files that are in the folder you selected.
But I recommend you doing playlists from your PC with Windows Media Player and synchronize them with your phone. Or there is a nice freeware, MPlayListManager which can create playlists directly on your phone.
Anyone have a Mac solution to this? I use iTunes as my library manager but it seems to me the music information isn't edited by iTunes.
Hi,
How do i make the on the road panel play music if there are folders inside a main folder?
For example...
This is my folder structure
Storage Card > Music > And then various artists folders...
I want all the music inside the Music folder to be played... but it's not doing that
The panel is gorgeous by the way.
wtf is the "on the road" panel?
Is you are talking about the Sony Ericson Media Player Panel, the music should be recognized immediately. Make sure it's mp3.
Sadly, I dont believe you can do that. Not sure of any media players that can. The Media Xperiance panel might find the songs, but that one doesnt even play half of mine, and they are in MP3 and everything.
Why do you have them all in folders like that anyway? It isnt necessary or even helpful on the X1.
and for Poetryrocksalot, the On the road panel is one of the new ones, due to be released today or tomorrow. You can get them already. There's a topic with links to it around here somewhere.
I sync all my music with winamp... and it puts it in these folders...
Anyway... i will try to sync all of my music with someother software and see...
Thanks anyway.
I'm having the same issue. My music is organized the same way and on the road recognized it all once, but since then I have not been able to get it to do so. For some reason it only recognizs 40 out of the 1000 tracks I have on my card. And those are all artists beginning with A. Not sure what is going on but if you find anything the help would be appreciated!
Lot of softwares can handle structure like this. TCPMP, S2P, Core player.
You know what I think, if they make a fix for this, this fix should be a choice. Just in case some people only want 1 folder to be played, or better yet a selection of folders.
The on-the-road panel does only play the music files in the selected folder and not recursive.
I'm still having issues with the music player. I am trying to persevere with the HTC music as I like the interface, and not found another music player yet that I do like the interface on.
Over the past couple of days I've been having issues as it's not been transfering my artwork across, and also tracks appear in random orders in many albums (but not all) on the phone. I have solved the cover art problem by adding the music files using the phone as a hard drive rather than through active sync, but the tracks still appear in a random order.
I have tried using monkey media, and media jukebox to arrange my files and add artwork. The tracks appear in the right order in every music program I use, whether it be monkey media, windows media, or simply opening them up from my music on my laptop. Also, if I open up the files on the phone from my laptop the tracks are in the correct order. Can anyone solve this issue for me please? It's been causing me a headache for the past 48 hours now and I think a blood vessel is about to burst Oh, I've tried adding files from my itnes folder as well, but I get the same problem. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the order of the tracks differs each time I try adding them to the phone
Someone told me to change the tags using mp3tag, but when I run this program it won't let me change the tags, and besides I wouldn't know what to change them to. In the column that says tags, they all just say WMA anyway.
Cheers
snerkler said:
I'm still having issues with the music player. I am trying to persevere with the HTC music as I like the interface, and not found another music player yet that I do like the interface on.
Over the past couple of days I've been having issues as it's not been transfering my artwork across, and also tracks appear in random orders in many albums (but not all) on the phone. I have solved the cover art problem by adding the music files using the phone as a hard drive rather than through active sync, but the tracks still appear in a random order.
I have tried using monkey media, and media jukebox to arrange my files and add artwork. The tracks appear in the right order in every music program I use, whether it be monkey media, windows media, or simply opening them up from my music on my laptop. Also, if I open up the files on the phone from my laptop the tracks are in the correct order. Can anyone solve this issue for me please? It's been causing me a headache for the past 48 hours now and I think a blood vessel is about to burst Oh, I've tried adding files from my itnes folder as well, but I get the same problem. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the order of the tracks differs each time I try adding them to the phone
Someone told me to change the tags using mp3tag, but when I run this program it won't let me change the tags, and besides I wouldn't know what to change them to. In the column that says tags, they all just say WMA anyway.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I saw this yesterday after I reinstalled everything following the new ROM upgrade, it was annoying me but this is what I done...
Slide to the music panel/tab and wait patiently while the screen in black and appear frozen for a while. I think it is actually 'loading' the list of all of the music tracks as 'now playing'.
If, when this has loaded, you tap the library button, then randomly slide to the artist tab to select a track, and play it, it clears the 'now playing' queue to the track you have just selected. You can then go back in and create play lists etc. as you would want to usually.
nniicckkss said:
I think I saw this yesterday after I reinstalled everything following the new ROM upgrade, it was annoying me but this is what I done...
Slide to the music panel/tab and wait patiently while the screen in black and appear frozen for a while. I think it is actually 'loading' the list of all of the music tracks as 'now playing'.
If, when this has loaded, you tap the library button, then randomly slide to the artist tab to select a track, and play it, it clears the 'now playing' queue to the track you have just selected. You can then go back in and create play lists etc. as you would want to usually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, Thanks for your reply, but I'm not sure you fully understood what I meant?
If I wait for the media to load and tap the library button it doesn't matter if I go to artist>album or directly to album, the tracks displayed for the album or in the wrong order, and play in the wrong order eg on my Dido album "Here with me" is listed as the 11th track, when actually it should be the 1st. I don't want to, and shouldn't have to create a playlist for each album just so that the tracks play in the right order. Is there a way to get the HTC music player to organise the tracks so they are listed and play in the right order, ie track 1 first, track 2 second etc? It's so frustrating
Oh, sorry. I thought you were describing the thing I had...
Sorry, I don't know how to help you, hopefully someone else will be able to assist you.
Are you sure you don't have Shuffle switched on as that will randomise your songs. It's the icon with two arrows crossing one another to the right of the word Music on the Music tab in Sense.
2 things...
First, what format are your songs ripped in?
Second, you're probably better off letting the music player get the album art for you. Just click the CD icon in the top left of the screen and it will automatically do that for you. It's obviously better to let it handle as much as it can natively.
have you tried looking at the advanced tag editor in windows media player to see what order your tracks are actually in?.as for the album art,I use mp3 tag,its an easy program to use and works everytime. I know how feel as iv come across this myself and it did my head in lol. keep us informed.....
johncmolyneux said:
2 things...
First, what format are your songs ripped in?
Second, you're probably better off letting the music player get the album art for you. Just click the CD icon in the top left of the screen and it will automatically do that for you. It's obviously better to let it handle as much as it can natively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My songs are in WMA format, but I've also tried M4a (ie itunes)
The trouble with letting the program find the artwork is that it can't find a lot of them
donwhann said:
have you tried looking at the advanced tag editor in windows media player to see what order your tracks are actually in?.as for the album art,I use mp3 tag,its an easy program to use and works everytime. I know how feel as iv come across this myself and it did my head in lol. keep us informed.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure where the advanced tag editor is in windows medaia player?
If I open windows media on my laptop and change the list options to details, across the top of the window I have the following columns:-
#, Title, Length, Rating, Cont. Artist, Album, Genre, release Year, Composer, Size, Parental Rating, and if I right click on the columns I can add the column "Tag". However there is nothing in the tag column for any of the tracks???
jakem said:
Are you sure you don't have Shuffle switched on as that will randomise your songs. It's the icon with two arrows crossing one another to the right of the word Music on the Music tab in Sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I'm sure. Plus it's not jsut that the tracks are playing in a random order, they're listed in a random order when you go into the album.
snerkler said:
Yep, I'm sure. Plus it's not jsut that the tracks are playing in a random order, they're listed in a random order when you go into the album.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is definitely the ID3 tags.
I can't help you any further than that I'm afraid, as I've been using MP3 format for years now, and every piece of music that I possess is in that format. It's still the most universal format, and therefore works flawlessly on most devices.
I do know that m4a stores the tag values differently to ID3, so they may not be read succesfully. I don't know how wma stores the values, if at all!
I'd recommend getting a piece of software like Sony Sound Forge so you can do a batch conversion and make everything MP3. After that, use something like WinAmp to automatically populate the ID3 tags for you. Once you've done that, the previous suggestion I made about album art will definitely work, so just don't bother doing anything manually for that.
That's all I can suggest. It's a lengthy process, but done right it will definitely solve your current problem.
snerkler said:
I'm not sure where the advanced tag editor is in windows medaia player?
If I open windows media on my laptop and change the list options to details, across the top of the window I have the following columns:-
#, Title, Length, Rating, Cont. Artist, Album, Genre, release Year, Composer, Size, Parental Rating, and if I right click on the columns I can add the column "Tag". However there is nothing in the tag column for any of the tracks???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
right click on the track in wmp and you will see an option for advanced tag editor. click that and see if the track number is the same as it shows in the actual track listing of the album. if i were you mate id convert everything to mp3 format, i just find that things like album art and track listings seem to work better, but thats just me.....
johncmolyneux said:
The problem is definitely the ID3 tags.
I can't help you any further than that I'm afraid, as I've been using MP3 format for years now, and every piece of music that I possess is in that format. It's still the most universal format, and therefore works flawlessly on most devices.
I do know that m4a stores the tag values differently to ID3, so they may not be read succesfully. I don't know how wma stores the values, if at all!
I'd recommend getting a piece of software like Sony Sound Forge so you can do a batch conversion and make everything MP3. After that, use something like WinAmp to automatically populate the ID3 tags for you. Once you've done that, the previous suggestion I made about album art will definitely work, so just don't bother doing anything manually for that.
That's all I can suggest. It's a lengthy process, but done right it will definitely solve your current problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
totally agree bud. when i got into the digital music scene what seems like years ago now, all my collection was wma and i had nothing but hassle when transfering to other devices, the same as the op is having regarding mixed up tracks and missing art. after a lenghty process of converting everything to mp3 everything worked fine. i suggest its what the op does to solve the problem........if i were the op id convert the album thats giving him issues into mp3 format and transfer it onto his phone to see if it solves it. let us know op how you get on............
You may have already tried this.
But here goes if you go to your album on the pc then right click properties then goto details on each song that will tell you what number the track is & album artist etc that is the way the hd2 lists them from the properties not just the name of the song.
This is probably the first thing you tried but thought i would tell you anyway.
johncmolyneux said:
The problem is definitely the ID3 tags.
I can't help you any further than that I'm afraid, as I've been using MP3 format for years now, and every piece of music that I possess is in that format. It's still the most universal format, and therefore works flawlessly on most devices.
I do know that m4a stores the tag values differently to ID3, so they may not be read succesfully. I don't know how wma stores the values, if at all!
I'd recommend getting a piece of software like Sony Sound Forge so you can do a batch conversion and make everything MP3. After that, use something like WinAmp to automatically populate the ID3 tags for you. Once you've done that, the previous suggestion I made about album art will definitely work, so just don't bother doing anything manually for that.
That's all I can suggest. It's a lengthy process, but done right it will definitely solve your current problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll convert everything to MP3. I did start re-ripping my CD's as MP3's at top quality (I only ripped my wma at 128kbs), but I can't for the life of me find them I'm hoping they're on my other laptop when I get home, otherwise I'll have to do it all again I'll post on here when I done this and tried it and let you know the outcome.
NEDSTER1972 said:
You may have already tried this.
But here goes if you go to your album on the pc then right click properties then goto details on each song that will tell you what number the track is & album artist etc that is the way the hd2 lists them from the properties not just the name of the song.
This is probably the first thing you tried but thought i would tell you anyway.
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Yeah, I've tried this and they are listed in the right way. There are no tags though so hoping this may be the issue as already mentioned.
Thanks though
snerkler said:
I'll convert everything to MP3. I did start re-ripping my CD's as MP3's at top quality (I only ripped my wma at 128kbs), but I can't for the life of me find them I'm hoping they're on my other laptop when I get home, otherwise I'll have to do it all again I'll post on here when I done this and tried it and let you know the outcome.
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Click to collapse
Good luck mate. It may take a while, but it's well worth doing.
Incidentally, don't forget the good advice from donwhann - try 1 album first and make sure you're happy with the results before converting everything. If it turns out to be something else then you'd be mighty angry lol
donwhann said:
right click on the track in wmp and you will see an option for advanced tag editor. .....
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I don't get an option for advanced tag editor if I right click in wmp, or my library. Even if I go into properties that option isn't there?
I'm running the latest version of wmp.
snerkler said:
I don't get an option for advanced tag editor if I right click in wmp, or my library. Even if I go into properties that option isn't there?
I'm running the latest version of wmp.
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strange.......iv just tried it myself now and its there. are you right clicking on an individual track listed in an album?, stick at it mate, if your like me its a must have to have your music all sorted and looking good lol. keep us informed......
Funny I have always had this same problem. I didn't find the tag editor either BUT I just put the TAG column in my list and if I click by the song IN THAT COLUMN it opens up a text window for adding a tag. Nothing to say that the option is there just opened the text window. Might try that.
If i try to sort by artists or search in music it crashes and says not enough space in music database...I have 4gb of free space on card and more than that on device, any help?
same here, I would love a fix because I actually like the stock player and dont want to change it out.
is moving to the internal sd an option?
i had the same issue and found a thread here or on another site suggesting to move the music to the internal sd card. i did this and it worked for me.
granted, you have to have less than ~13G of music for this workaround.
I did not have this problem with the music stored on the external SD card (2gb, damn near to useless). With the music on the internal storage, I get this problem. I for one think it's completely unbelievable that this $500 device with 16gb of internal storage can't handle 10gb of music stored on it. I had a guy tell me music players weren't that great for android phones, but I didn't imagine it could be this bad. I've been trying all weekend and I have yet to find anything offering even minimal functionality. This really blows my mind.
Any help would be deeply appreciated.
i have a 16gb card full of songs and i don't have this error
Does it matter how the files are organized?
What about when using a different music player?
I have a co-worker who also has the phone and is seeing this problem. I've got a 32gb card coming in the mail and I was hoping to put my music collection on it. If the app can't handle a certain size, that will suck.
Could it also be the music file types/bitrates?
Anyone have any idea why some are seeing this and others not?
The first time I synced I didn't have trouble, and then, after adding a bunch of album art I get it consistently. I haven't bothered to track it down past that, since switching to Mixzing worked around the problem.
southpaw773 said:
i have a 16gb card full of songs and i don't have this error
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QFT, I have no issues aswell
I finally got my sd card and put it in the system. I started transferring my music and it quite near the end with something about the path being to deep. However, with about 16.5 out of 17.5 gb transfered I was able to sort by artist without a hitch.
I don't know why the transfer failed because when I plugged it back in and resumed where it left off every thing transfered fine.
However, I now get the out of memory crash when sorting by artist.
Not sure if it is some particular file (name, length, etc.), or if it is because my damn dog decided to run into the cord and unplug it without safely unmounting, but i'll try and figure it out.
I'm going to delete files, from the set that didn't transfer the first time, one by one until it works or I get back to the state where it was working. If nothing comes of that, I'll delete all and add back in until it stops working.
Maybe it is the number of artists? The files that didn't transfer the first time where from the various artists folder in my collection.
Or maybe warren g and nate dogg regulated my stock music app?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
It appears it is related to the number of artists.
I reproduced the problem, then went into my various artists folder and removed albums one by one until the problem went away. I then added the album back in that made the difference between it working and not. I then removed a song at a time until the problem went away again. I then added a song from another artist back in and it once again failed.
So it appears there is a cap on the number of artists.
I'll continue working on this and report back the exact number of artists that causes the issue.
OK, well I thought was the number of artists, but now I'm not so sure.
Maybe it has something to do with how the app handles various artists and/or unknown artists.
I added all my music, then deleted tracks from various artist albums until it worked again. I then put back the various artist album track and it didn't work, as expected.
I thought this was artist based, but when I got it working again--by deleting the track mentioned above--and then added a track for a various artist album by an artist that already existed, the app crashed too.
I then thought it might be song based. So I removed that song and then added a set of songs. However, it unexpectantly worked.
The difference with the set of songs added above is that they weren't part of a various artist album. They were a new artist, but the main album artist wasn't Various with a Contributing artist of the actual artist name. Instead, the Album Artist was the artist name and the contributing artist was left blank (or had the same name).
So, it is that the music app doesn't understand how to handle various artist albums?
Could someone else with this problem remove all the various artist albums from their collection and see if their app works again?
DLarva: Thanks, your post was very helpful.
I read elsewhere that when the player has a hard time with VA tracks, it does not recognize them as separate albums or something. Does it allow you to have some tracks by "Various Artists", but then begin to fail after reaching a certain number?
This is good that you found that was the key, because it is easy to work around!
On my vibrant I can only have 3 songs from a various artists album. It doesn't matter what the other tags are--like contributing artist--as long as the album artist is Various.
I'm guessing others will have a different number. This is because when I was experimenting I once had it working with several more various artist songs, but that was when I was missing a handful of my standard albums.
So it seems that various artist songs cause the issue, but that the number your vibrant will handle varies by the amount of artists or standard songs you have on your system--or some other unknown factor.
Any chance something like this will get fixed?
Anyone out there also dealing with this issue and can tell me how many Various Artist tracks they can get on their phone before it crashes when sorted by artist?
I'd like to try and narrow this down a bit further before calling Samsung tech support.
Found a co-worker with a Vibrant and confirmed that he could have a different number of various artist songs on his.
Also deleted a folder for an artist with 3 ablums and was able to add 3 albums worth of various artist songs.
So, it either is something like the number of folders or perhaps albums, or it is some complicated combination of things.
have this problem and it is ****ing annoying. Have to use TuneWiki instead of the stock app.
Just when I think I have it figured out, it all goes to...
I added a new album, from an existing artist, and now without any various artist albums I'm getting the crash.
At this point I'm left with the conclusion that its the number of songs, or folders, or some combination to complicated to figure out.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I know workarounds suck for something like this, but there is another one available if you don't want to stop using the TW music player, and you don't want to delete or relocate your music.
Basically, you copy all artist information to Composer in the ID3 tag, and hide the artist tab in the TW music player. All functionality will be there.
I used mp3tag, and it worked really well.
If anyone is interested...
1. Load up your music in mp3tag
2. Select all your music in the app.
3. Push Alt-5.
4. On top right, click on "New".
5. Name it anything you want.
6. Click on "New" again.
7. On the drop-down, click on "Format Value".
8. In Field, select "COMPOSER".
9. Click on the right arrow next to Format String, and select "Artist".
10. Click OK... OK.... Make sure that only your new action is checked, and click OK again.
11. Click on Save.
This doesn't rename your files or change functionality or usability at all.
Now your music is formatted so that when you show the Composer tab on your Vibrant, it will show you all artists.
And it doesn't crash when sorted by composer with the same set of files that crashed when sorted by artist?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App