TheFeshy
8th November 2010, 20:34
I accidentally left my phone in the USB mode "PC Mode" after doing some development work, and found that using Winamp to sync music in this mode was a different (and abysmal) experience. Having previously tried mass storage mode and WiFi sync, I thought I'd post about each of those methods and the differences I found with each.
issues with all modes
Only some settings seemed to be saved between the different modes. I had three playlists checked to be synced, and these three stayed checked (and others unchecked) when I switched modes. Other settings (specifically the "auto fill device" setting) reverted to its default (checked) state when I switched modes. This is very confusing as you may not remember what mode your phone is set to when you plug it in, and there is no indication on winamp that it thinks it is a different device
than last time.
Edit:
Another thing that seems present in all modes is that winamp always thinks the songs on the device are not present in my media collection, even though that's where it came from. In my case this may be because my music is on a network share, and not local, but I am not certain.
WiFi
Recognizing my phone
First of all, to even get this to work, I had to disable all other network adapters on the computer and reboot. I have also heard others have had problems if they connect to a wireless router with cabled ethernet, but I haven't been able to test that. Once those problems were overcome, however, I was able to get the device to be recognized by winamp every time.
File locations
Defaulted to "all over the SD card" (root with a separate folder for each artist) with no way to change it.
Syncing
Able to transfer between half a dozen and two dozen songs at a time before hanging (very random)
Playlists
Never was able to get an actual playlist file to sync up, but I suspect it can be done the same way as with USB mass storage (see below.)
PC Mode and Media Sync Mode
Both of these modes seemed identical in my limited testing.
Recognizing my phone
Connected and found my phone every time.
File Locations
Defaulted to "Albums" (which was always empty) "Music" (which had my music from the playlist) and "Playlists" (which was also always empty.) These could not be changed and were created every time. The most frustrating thing about this is that if you previously synced a playlist with another method (that defaulted to a different location) those files would be copied over again, duplicating them in this new location.
Syncing
Able to transfer one to two dozen songs at a time before crashing or hanging, [I]but[I]: several songs (about 20%) would fail to sync with a message: "error in insert 80070003" or "error in insert 80070005". The worst part of this (other than not being able to play these songs) is that the software would attempt to sync them again the next time. This means that in an attempt to sync a 100 song playlist, the first sync would get about 15 songs, 2 of which failed, before hanging My next attempt would try those two again, and get around 13 new songs synced before hanging. By the end of the playlist, it was failing 15 songs it had tried a dozen times before, and only adding one or two new ones before hanging again.
Playlists
Playlists were synced every time. At first I thought this was an improvement (as wifi never added them and mass storage took several tries...) until I opened winamp on my device and found over a dozen copies of my playlist (see above for how many sync attempts it takes to get a whole playlist in this mode.) I also have no idea where these playlists wound up, as the "Playlist" directory that was created was empty.
USB Mass Storage mode
Recognizing my phone
Very touchy. It can take several tries of connecting, disconnecting, enabling / disabling debugging, opening and closing winamp, changing usb modes, etc. before my phone will be recognized by winamp. Sometimes it never is.
File Locations
The device has an "advanced" tab that allows me to choose the location of the files. This is ideal, although the default of "all over the SD card" is a poor choice (and one that conflicts with the other USB mode; see above!)
Syncing
One to two dozen files at a time before a crash or hang, but all songs are eventually synced. Edit Okay, I am not getting about 5% of songs reporting "failed to transfer" Edit again Okay, I found the problem with that...some files that didn't exist got into my library and playlist, and I know how they got there...
Playlists
Playlists are seldom (and only randomly) copied along with the songs they contain. I found that I had the best results if I waited for a playlist to be completely synced, then to send it again a few more times. Usually this resulted in one (and only one!) copy of the playlist landing in the directory specified in the advanced tab.
Other hassles:
Using the phone in mass storage mode has a few other drawbacks, like windows complaining whenever the phone is disconnected without first choosing "disconnect hardware" (this doesn't happen in PC or Media Sync modes.) It also means you can't access your music (or often special ringtones if someone calls!) while the phone is plugged in and syncing.
Overall
All modes need to use the same default locations (or at least to check the other locations before syncing.) All modes need the same "Advanced" tab that USB Mass storage mode has. Obviously, all modes need to sync without hanging or crashing after a few dozen songs. Right now, all modes have at least one drawback; pick the drawbacks that are the easiest for you to work with (or wait until the software is out of beta.) Hope this helps some of you using it and some of you looking for bugs to fix.
Edit: USB Mass Storage Sync
I've just had some better luck with USB mass storage mode syncing without hanging. Choosing the sync button from the devices list (with the appropriate playlists checked) seems to get through playlists of at least a 100 songs without hanging; at least this last time I tried it. Previously, I had used "send to ANDROID" to test with this method.
issues with all modes
Only some settings seemed to be saved between the different modes. I had three playlists checked to be synced, and these three stayed checked (and others unchecked) when I switched modes. Other settings (specifically the "auto fill device" setting) reverted to its default (checked) state when I switched modes. This is very confusing as you may not remember what mode your phone is set to when you plug it in, and there is no indication on winamp that it thinks it is a different device
than last time.
Edit:
Another thing that seems present in all modes is that winamp always thinks the songs on the device are not present in my media collection, even though that's where it came from. In my case this may be because my music is on a network share, and not local, but I am not certain.
WiFi
Recognizing my phone
First of all, to even get this to work, I had to disable all other network adapters on the computer and reboot. I have also heard others have had problems if they connect to a wireless router with cabled ethernet, but I haven't been able to test that. Once those problems were overcome, however, I was able to get the device to be recognized by winamp every time.
File locations
Defaulted to "all over the SD card" (root with a separate folder for each artist) with no way to change it.
Syncing
Able to transfer between half a dozen and two dozen songs at a time before hanging (very random)
Playlists
Never was able to get an actual playlist file to sync up, but I suspect it can be done the same way as with USB mass storage (see below.)
PC Mode and Media Sync Mode
Both of these modes seemed identical in my limited testing.
Recognizing my phone
Connected and found my phone every time.
File Locations
Defaulted to "Albums" (which was always empty) "Music" (which had my music from the playlist) and "Playlists" (which was also always empty.) These could not be changed and were created every time. The most frustrating thing about this is that if you previously synced a playlist with another method (that defaulted to a different location) those files would be copied over again, duplicating them in this new location.
Syncing
Able to transfer one to two dozen songs at a time before crashing or hanging, [I]but[I]: several songs (about 20%) would fail to sync with a message: "error in insert 80070003" or "error in insert 80070005". The worst part of this (other than not being able to play these songs) is that the software would attempt to sync them again the next time. This means that in an attempt to sync a 100 song playlist, the first sync would get about 15 songs, 2 of which failed, before hanging My next attempt would try those two again, and get around 13 new songs synced before hanging. By the end of the playlist, it was failing 15 songs it had tried a dozen times before, and only adding one or two new ones before hanging again.
Playlists
Playlists were synced every time. At first I thought this was an improvement (as wifi never added them and mass storage took several tries...) until I opened winamp on my device and found over a dozen copies of my playlist (see above for how many sync attempts it takes to get a whole playlist in this mode.) I also have no idea where these playlists wound up, as the "Playlist" directory that was created was empty.
USB Mass Storage mode
Recognizing my phone
Very touchy. It can take several tries of connecting, disconnecting, enabling / disabling debugging, opening and closing winamp, changing usb modes, etc. before my phone will be recognized by winamp. Sometimes it never is.
File Locations
The device has an "advanced" tab that allows me to choose the location of the files. This is ideal, although the default of "all over the SD card" is a poor choice (and one that conflicts with the other USB mode; see above!)
Syncing
One to two dozen files at a time before a crash or hang, but all songs are eventually synced. Edit Okay, I am not getting about 5% of songs reporting "failed to transfer" Edit again Okay, I found the problem with that...some files that didn't exist got into my library and playlist, and I know how they got there...
Playlists
Playlists are seldom (and only randomly) copied along with the songs they contain. I found that I had the best results if I waited for a playlist to be completely synced, then to send it again a few more times. Usually this resulted in one (and only one!) copy of the playlist landing in the directory specified in the advanced tab.
Other hassles:
Using the phone in mass storage mode has a few other drawbacks, like windows complaining whenever the phone is disconnected without first choosing "disconnect hardware" (this doesn't happen in PC or Media Sync modes.) It also means you can't access your music (or often special ringtones if someone calls!) while the phone is plugged in and syncing.
Overall
All modes need to use the same default locations (or at least to check the other locations before syncing.) All modes need the same "Advanced" tab that USB Mass storage mode has. Obviously, all modes need to sync without hanging or crashing after a few dozen songs. Right now, all modes have at least one drawback; pick the drawbacks that are the easiest for you to work with (or wait until the software is out of beta.) Hope this helps some of you using it and some of you looking for bugs to fix.
Edit: USB Mass Storage Sync
I've just had some better luck with USB mass storage mode syncing without hanging. Choosing the sync button from the devices list (with the appropriate playlists checked) seems to get through playlists of at least a 100 songs without hanging; at least this last time I tried it. Previously, I had used "send to ANDROID" to test with this method.