Syncing with Android AND keeping ALBUM ART: New Tool

[bsg75]

**BETA**BETA**BETA**BETA**BETA**

Hi

It was suggested I start this as a new thread. The original is located here and has the background information on the problem. Please consider that thread done and post followups to this thread.

Problem: Winamp syncs media to Android but strips out the embedded album art. This can be very, very frustrating.

Solution: Winamp should fix this, but I am unaware of any response on the issue.

Temporary Solution: I expect Winamp to fix this at some point, but until then I am making a tool I created available. You can download it from here: http://mikedepaul.com/Articles.aspx?artID=101. It's a very simple sync tool and it's definitely beta. It will locate your Winamp playlists and allow you to sync them to your Android device (or any other drive connected to your computer, actually). There are bound to be bugs. I am only making it available in this very early beta state because I know the lack of album art, which you already embedded, can be very, very frustrating. Just drag a playlist from the left into the target drive (C:\, F:\, etc.) and hit the Sync button. It does a byte-for-byte copy so album art is preserved. It is USB only. Did I mention this thing is beta?

How to use:

1 Download and install mdSync (First link at the top of this page).
2 Plug in your Android phone in USB disc drive mode and wait for it to be recognized
3 Launch mdSync 0.5.*.* beta
4 It will find all of the drives on your computer as well as Winamp playlists (hopefully)
5 It will default to the first drive it finds (C:\)
6a Select your Android SD card drive from the dropdown
6b You can also select the internal memory if you like, but not all Android media players read the internal memory
7 Drag-and-drop a Winamp playlist from the left to the grid area on the right
8 Click "Sync"
9 Wait for it to complete (or click "Stop") then shut down mdSync and eject your phone
10 Music with album art! (hopefully)

Requirements:
*Windows 32bit machine (64 bit may work, but not tested. Tested on Win7 32bit with default playlists/media library setup)
*.NET framework (this is probably already on your computer, but can also be downloaded manually below)
*Winamp

http://www.microsoft.com/net/download.aspx


To conclude: Beta. Post comments to this thread. Beta.

--Mike

[bsg75]

Bumping above the old thread...

[c00ller]

Are there plans to have this working for iTunes like the old BlackBerry version?

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by c00ller

Are there plans to have this working for iTunes like the old BlackBerry version?

Yes, I will add iTunes later if requested. I need to clean up a lot first. Do you use iTunes? I didn't expect anyone on the Winamp forums to miss iTunes.

[c00ller]

I am on this forum because I like Winamp for Android.

I do use iTunes, but only because I love the "auto organize" feature. If I change an artist, title, or album tag, then file name or path will automatically change accordingly. It is also easy to dump new music this way without having to manually create new folders etc myself.
If Winamp can do this, I would love to be enlightened. But until then, I just can't let go to iTunes's easy music directory organization.

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by c00ller

I am on this forum because I like Winamp for Android.

I do use iTunes, but only because I love the "auto organize" feature. If I change an artist, title, or album tag, then file name or path will automatically change accordingly. It is also easy to dump new music this way without having to manually create new folders etc myself.
If Winamp can do this, I would love to be enlightened. But until then, I just can't let go to iTunes's easy music directory organization.

I see. The auto-organize feature is pretty nice.

You know you can use iTunes and Winamp. Just use iTunes normally. Open Winamp on your PC, purge the library (don't delete songs from disc) and import your iTunes library. I believe it pulls in playlists, which means you could then use the current mdSync tool, if you wanted.

I can add iTunes, but this workaround may get you through until then.

[Snowtoad]

I've had this problem too and it's damn annoying.
However I think I've found a workaround.

Winamp seems to only strip the album art for Android devices. If you plug your Android in with the SD card in it, it will recognise it as an Android and for some inexplicable reason, strip album art. And the way it seems to recognise if it's and android device is it searches for a folder called "Android" in the root directory, which is created by Android. Which is kind of stupid. So you gotta trick it into thinking the card is just a standard removable disk.

Now, what I did is:

1. take SD card out of your phone, close Winamp
2. Read it on your computer through some other means (sdcard usb adapter etc)
3. Backup the whole card besides your music and besides the "Winamp" folder in root directory onto your computer
4. Format the SD card
5. Copy everything back, but rename the folder "Android" in the root SD directory to something else e.g. "Android_"
6. Open Winamp. It should detect it as a USB Drive instead of Android Device.
7. Now do your sync, it should work with album art
8. Make sure to rename the folder back to "Android" when done


However I don't think all those steps are necessary. That's what I did before I realised how Winamp 'knew' it was an Android device - by looking for the Android folder. And when it thinks it's an Android device, it puts it's sync info like pmp_usb.ini in a "Winamp" folder instead of just root directory.

So I havent tried this but you could probably just do:

1. Keep SD card in phone and plug in as normal as disk drive (Winamp closed)
2. Remove your music, and the folder "Winamp" on card and rename "Android" folder to something else
3. Open Winamp, hopefully it detects the card as a USB Drive instead of Android.
4. Sync (you will have to re-do your sync preferences)
5. Rename folder back to "Android"

And when you want to sync next time:

1. Close Winamp BEFORE plugging in phone.
2. Open Phone's card and rename Android folder
3. Sync
4. Rename back again after

Try this and let me know how it goes...

[bsg75]

That is a good tip, Snowtoad. Thanks.

If anyone has tried my tool out, I'd like to hear your feedback. Thanks.

[c00ller]

BSG75, I tried your v0.5 on Win 7 Pro 7 64-bit, but after I try to select any drive other than the C:\ drive, the right column turns blank and I can't drag any of my playlists over.

[c00ller]

The 0.3.3.0 Blackberry version at least lets me transfer select playlists, however when I look at each individual playlist on my Android, they are all empty. All the songs are on the device, just not properly assigned to the playlists.

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by c00ller

The 0.3.3.0 Blackberry version at least lets me transfer select playlists, however when I look at each individual playlist on my Android, they are all empty. All the songs are on the device, just not properly assigned to the playlists.

The problem with the BB version is that it creates the m3u file in a format different than Android wants. So the playlists are empty as far as Android is concerned. It only looks at iTunes, too.

I'm surprised the BB one works for you because you are using a 64bit machine. I am getting a 64bit machine in about 5 weeks (after I close on my new house), until then I can only code/debug on a 32bit machine .

I can add a toggle to the old bb one so that it will do iTunes->Android.

I'll also have to adjust the new Winamp one to add some error trapping. If you use the new Winamp one, can you successfully sync to the C:\ drive? Does it put music into C:\Music\mdSync?

[c00ller]

Originally Posted by bsg75

The problem with the BB version is that it creates the m3u file in a format different than Android wants. So the playlists are empty as far as Android is concerned. It only looks at iTunes, too.

I'm surprised the BB one works for you because you are using a 64bit machine. I am getting a 64bit machine in about 5 weeks (after I close on my new house), until then I can only code/debug on a 32bit machine .

I can add a toggle to the old bb one so that it will do iTunes->Android.

I'll also have to adjust the new Winamp one to add some error trapping. If you use the new Winamp one, can you successfully sync to the C:\ drive? Does it put music into C:\Music\mdSync?

I tried using 0.5.0.0 to sync to my C:\ drive. I tried adding a few playlists to sync, and upon clicking Sync the program immediately said "Sync complete. You may now eject..." but the C:\Music\mdSync\ is empty.

Also, when I click on some of the cells of the right grid (any cell in the left column or top row), I get the following error message:

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.

Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: index.

If I click on Details, there is a long message with programming details. I copied the text into the attached txt file.

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by c00ller

I tried using 0.5.0.0 to sync to my C:\ drive. I tried adding a few playlists to sync, and upon clicking Sync the program immediately said "Sync complete. You may now eject..." but the C:\Music\mdSync\ is empty.

Also, when I click on some of the cells of the right grid (any cell in the left column or top row), I get the following error message:



If I click on Details, there is a long message with programming details. I copied the text into the attached txt file.

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I have not recreeated that problem, but I've been adding a lot of logging and tracing options, as well as adding error trapping. I'll review that section of code to see what I can add logic-wise to stop whatever is causing that problem. I'll also do a test in a VM to mimic a user environment. Once that is done, I'll post the updated tool, then I'll start on the iTunes side. I have already started the framework for adding iTunes syncing.

[bsg75]

Hi. I updated the tool. I added a bunch of logging and error trapping. I also fixed a bug where it didn't work in XP. I have tested this on my Win7 dev machine and inside a clean XP virtual machine. I didn't bother to update the version so it's still 0.5.0.0. You can get the new msi from the same link as before.

http://mikedepaul.com/Articles.aspx?artID=101

[bsg75]

Here is a video demo.

[bsg75]

Sorry. I know there is a bug. It was only working with my C drive sync, syncing to a different drive failed. I just realized it and fixed it on my machine. Syncing to my Incredible right now.

[c00ller]

Originally Posted by bsg75

Sorry. I know there is a bug. It was only working with my C drive sync, syncing to a different drive failed. I just realized it and fixed it on my machine. Syncing to my Incredible right now.

Cool! So, does the version on the website include said fix?

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by c00ller

Cool! So, does the version on the website include said fix?

No. I had to shower and get to work this morning (when I discovered and fixed the problem). Tonight I'll compile and upload it. It will be version 0.5.0.1. I won't be home until maybe 10pm est.

[c00ller]

Originally Posted by bsg75

No. I had to shower and get to work this morning (when I discovered and fixed the problem). Tonight I'll compile and upload it. It will be version 0.5.0.1. I won't be home until maybe 10pm est.

Nice, take your time. I think you're doing a great service to the Android community, but the fact that the thread only exists in this little Android subforum of Winamp doesn't give everyone the chance to find it. I suggest you maybe share your app with Android news sites such as AndroidCentral. You will get a LOT more testers and feedback than this forum can offer.

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by c00ller

Nice, take your time. I think you're doing a great service to the Android community, but the fact that the thread only exists in this little Android subforum of Winamp doesn't give everyone the chance to find it. I suggest you maybe share your app with Android news sites such as AndroidCentral. You will get a LOT more testers and feedback than this forum can offer.

Thanks for the words, c00ller. I am a member of AC (same user name). When I searched those forums before, no one seemed to be really complaining. That is why I chimed in here. If this test out OK, then I may start a thread there too.

So the latest version seems to be working correctly for all attached drives on Win7 and XP (bot 32bit). It may work on 64bit, but I can't test that to make sure. Go to the same page as before. The download link has been updated (says 0.5.0.1) Thanks again for your help here.

[c00ller]

I will give it a try and report back tomorrow.

[c00ller]

Darn. When I open the program I'm presented with an error message. The message and contents are attached at the bottom of this post.

When I click continue, the the program opens and I see my Winamp playlists on the left, but the select drive pull-down menu shows up blank (see other attached image).

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by c00ller

Darn. When I open the program I'm presented with an error message. The message and contents are attached at the bottom of this post.

When I click continue, the the program opens and I see my Winamp playlists on the left, but the select drive pull-down menu shows up blank (see other attached image).

Thanks. We're getting there. I'm looking into it. I fixed a compilation setting. That may have caused this particular error. I'll do a little more investigating and hopefully put up a new version later today.

Also, there is a log file in C:\mdutils\mdSync.log. In the future, please attach that too. It overwrites itself on every start up. That will help me debug future issues.


EDIT: I put version 0.5.0.2 on my site. I corrected some potential issues with how the installer was acting. I didn't cause a problem on my machine, but maybe it did on yours (?). Again, I appreciate the feedback.

[c00ller]

I just installed 0.5.0.2. I get the same error message upon startup. As before, I get a blank pull down menu when trying to select my sdcard drive.

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by c00ller

I just installed 0.5.0.2. I get the same error message upon startup. As before, I get a blank pull down menu when trying to select my sdcard drive.

Thanks. I think the problem has to do with you having a 64 bit machine. I am ripping out the control that was causing the problem and putting that code directly into the form that is working fine. I thought it would be easier if I reused a control, but it was more of a hassle than it was worth anyway. This will completely take the problem control out of the equation. I'll turn it around as soon as I can.

[bsg75]

Hi again

I updated it again. Version 0.5.0.3 is on my site. You can use the previous link, as always (http://mikedepaul.com/Articles.aspx?artID=101)

New in this build:
I got rid of the control that was causing the problem. Now all the code is in the main form (and some classes). These were working fine before and should continue to be fine. I don't expect any more odd errors like we were seeing before. K.I.S.S is the lesson here, for me.

Future:
I have a few enhancements in mind to make this more user-friendly, but for now I just hope it works as well for everyone else as it is for me.

[c00ller]

With 0.5.0.3 I don't get any error messages when opening the program, and I can select any drive I want!

However, the sync function doesn't seem to be working correctly. No matter how many playlists I added to the sync list, it would only sync some of one playlist, and none of any of the others, then say Sync complete. Attached is the log file, but I don't know how helpful it would be.

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by c00ller

With 0.5.0.3 I don't get any error messages when opening the program, and I can select any drive I want!

However, the sync function doesn't seem to be working correctly. No matter how many playlists I added to the sync list, it would only sync some of one playlist, and none of any of the others, then say Sync complete. Attached is the log file, but I don't know how helpful it would be.

If you have any old versions of mdSync installed, uninstall them and re-install the newest one.

OK. We are getting close. It should be automatically creating \Music\mdSync\ folders in the root of the drive. For some reason it's not doing that for your system, it seems. Can you manually create them and try again? That should make it so you can sync to other drives. I see it not finding these directories:

C:\Music\mdSync
F:\Music\mdSync

There is code in place to create these automatically if they don't already exist, but I have been testing as an Admin on this machine. Hmmm.
I'm going to add more logging. Let me know if you see those folders on your drives right now. If not, please manually add them and try the sync again. You could also first try running mdSync as an admin and see if that makes a difference.

[c00ller]

After my previous post, some songs and one playlist m3u file were inside F:\Music\mdSync. I did not find a C:\Music\mdSync directory created, however.

I created C:\Music\mdSync before opening mdSync and got the same results. Attached is a log and screenshot showing that it only synced 15 out of 20 songs of my playlist, "New". Repeatedly clicking on sync just says it keeps all the files and "Sync complete," it never adds the remaining 5 songs.

BTW, I decided to just test with my flash drive (G instead of my Android phone for convenience.

[c00ller]

I fiddled around some more and found out that many of my playlists do not sync a single song. Check the log... It was odd though, I wanted to see what would happen if I chose my entire "Music" playlist.. and it started syncing, but I didn't want to see how far it went.

Edit: this is truly strange. I realized it might be a problem that Winamp was running in the background, so I decided to close it. To my pleasant surprise, my "New" playlist synced all 20 songs! However, it cannot seem to sync any song from any other playlist >_< (See mdSynclog2 for details)

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by c00ller

I fiddled around some more and found out that many of my playlists do not sync a single song. Check the log... It was odd though, I wanted to see what would happen if I chose my entire "Music" playlist.. and it started syncing, but I didn't want to see how far it went.

Edit: this is truly strange. I realized it might be a problem that Winamp was running in the background, so I decided to close it. To my pleasant surprise, my "New" playlist synced all 20 songs! However, it cannot seem to sync any song from any other playlist >_< (See mdSynclog2 for details)

Ahh! Well, I was going to mention that. This tool uses the XML files that winamp creates, but these are not always up to date. It's best to shut down Winamp before running mdSync. When Winamp shuts down, it recreates the XML files.

I updated mdSync with a lot more logging. It will run a little slower when you drag and drop playlists. That is just because of all the logging going on. Bear with me.

I recommend this: Add the playlists you are interested in. Hit sync. When that is done, clear the log. Then hit the new "Show Uncopied Tracks" button. This will list all the tracks mdSync found, and why they were not copied. There are really only two reasons: 1 ) the track was not in a selected playlist, or 2) the file path in the winamp XML was wrong and could not be found on the PC. The PC path is listed.

That second scenario happened to me before when I created playlists, but then moved tracks around in the file system.

Anyway, when you get a chance, please give it a shot.

I also added a username to the log file so that more than one user can have their own log file, if necessary.

http://mikedepaul.com/Articles.aspx?artID=101


I saw an error in your log. I think the reason for the error has been addressed in this build. That could have been keeping mdSync from switching drives correctly, or causing other problems. Errors are bad .

[c00ller]

I'm very confused now. I followed your instructions, and then when I cleared the log and clicked "Show Uncopied Tracks" it listed many songs that were not in the playlists I wanted to sync. And for some reason that "New" playlist I've always used for testing is now only copying 15/20 songs.
Also, I removed "New" then hit Sync. Normally this would delete the songs in New from my USB device. Now they all stayed, and only New.m3u was removed from G:\Music\mdSync. Finally, the log has some entries of "Copy not required" when they should be getting deleted.
I noticed that when I drag a playlist to be synced, the log gets populated with a list of songs not to be synced. Also, apostrophes do not seem to make it in the log.

Wow, the log file reached 1.05 MB and so I cannot attach it to this post.
I uploaded it here https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/tbhuang2/s...mdSync.Tim.log

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by c00ller

I'm very confused now. I followed your instructions, and then when I cleared the log and clicked "Show Uncopied Tracks" it listed many songs that were not in the playlists I wanted to sync. And for some reason that "New" playlist I've always used for testing is now only copying 15/20 songs.
Also, I removed "New" then hit Sync. Normally this would delete the songs in New from my USB device. Now they all stayed, and only New.m3u was removed from G:\Music\mdSync. Finally, the log has some entries of "Copy not required" when they should be getting deleted.
I noticed that when I drag a playlist to be synced, the log gets populated with a list of songs not to be synced. Also, apostrophes do not seem to make it in the log.

Wow, the log file reached 1.05 MB and so I cannot attach it to this post.
I uploaded it here https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/tbhuang2/s...mdSync.Tim.log

Thanks. The drag/drop stuff is for my debugging, mostly. Every time you drag/drop, it goes through all the tracks and tells you if it should sync or not.

The apostrophes are stripped out on purpose. That is left over code from an iTunes sync project.

Can you do something for me? Can you sync just the "New" playlist? I want to see what it says for those 20 tracks. You can clear the log before you hit sync, then attach the log here.

Tracks that are not in a selected playlist should be deleted. I have a thought on that. I'll check it out when I get home.

This number of issues is bothering me

[c00ller]

Here's what I did. I opened Winamp and deleted all my playlists except for two, "New" and "Nostalgia". Then I closed Winamp, opened mdSync, and tried syncing "New". After it transferred 15/20, I removed New from the list and hit sync again. Only New.m3u was deleted. That is in the first log file.

Then I manually deleted the 15 songs it synced then reopened mdSync. This time I tried syncing "New" again. 15/20 synced as usual. Then, I added another playlist, "Nostalgia" and hit sync. It synced 15/19 of those songs. Then I removed New, hit sync. It successfully removed all songs in New and New.m3u. I then removed Nostalgia. After sync only Nostalgia.m3u was deleted, the 15 Nostalgia songs are still in G:\Music\mdSync\. This is in the second log file.

I did notice something that may be important. I have a song that is in 2 playlists, "Asian Music" and "The Best". I dragged over "Asian Music", and in the log there was an entry that said
[NOT TO SYNC] Track Is Member of Playlist: The Best
Hmm actually after trying to sync "Asian Music" it synced 14/163 songs, one of which was that song so I guess this is not an issue.

I thought it might be worth mentioning that the old BlackBerry version was able to sync all files from all the playlists I wanted.

[wongdtl]

Tried SnowToad's idea, and it works. Simple solution to a silly problem.

[bsg75]

I updated again. I think the problems are addressed. The only hesitation is that I see you have file paths with asian characters. I don't think that will be a problem, but it could be. Other than that, I addressed the issue where if a track was in multiple playlists, it may not have been copied over.
The tracks will also now be copied to the drive using the same folder format as is on the PC, keeping that folder structure.
I also added a button so you can see what is going to sync before you hit sync, as well as the count of tracks to sync, and a stop button for if you need to stop things and move on.

Same link as before.

Oh, I recommend deleting out anything that is already synced before you do the next sync. The new folder structure could mean that the old stuff is kept out there, and the tracks are also copied to the new folder structure.

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by wongdtl

Tried SnowToad's idea, and it works. Simple solution to a silly problem.

I agree it's a silly problem. Thanks for the heads up, SnowToad.
I'm making this tool only because I enjoy doing things like this. I expect Winamp to fix the issue. I also expect Google to come out with a cloud sync tool in the near future.

[c00ller]

I don't think the Asian characters is a problem, as with previous versions I have synced at least one of those songs successfully.

I'll give the new version a try later today and report my results

[c00ller]

I'm trying the new version.
I love the way the "Tracks To Sync" number refreshes everytime I drop or remove a playlist. Unfortunately my playlists are still only syncing a maximum of 15 songs each. Also, whenever I click on the "Show Tracks To Copy" button, all other buttons become grayed out and I cannot do anything else (see attached screenshot). The Stop button turns yellow, but clicking on it doesn't do anything. On the plus side, deleting playlists works as expected now.

I realized I never mentioned the version of Winamp I'm using. It's 5.601.

[bsg75]

Originally Posted by c00ller

I'm trying the new version.
I love the way the "Tracks To Sync" number refreshes everytime I drop or remove a playlist. Unfortunately my playlists are still only syncing a maximum of 15 songs each. Also, whenever I click on the "Show Tracks To Copy" button, all other buttons become grayed out and I cannot do anything else (see attached screenshot). The Stop button turns yellow, but clicking on it doesn't do anything. On the plus side, deleting playlists works as expected now.

I realized I never mentioned the version of Winamp I'm using. It's 5.601.

OK. This looks useful. There are 20 tracks in New, but it only found 15 to sync.

It's very odd that it says there are 20, but mdSync only finds 15. I think this xml/m3u8 business is to blame.

Can you try this? Delete the New playlist. The recreate it and re-add those 20 tracks to the playlist. Then shut down Winamp using the button far to the left and selecting "Exit." This seems to be how the Playlists.xml file is updated correctly! I just noticed this. Closing with the "X" on the right doesn't update the xml and m3u8 files correctly. Bug on Winamp's part? I don't know. I think this may address the issue.

If that still doesn't work, can you go into this directory and send me the .m3u8 files in there? I would like to see the playlist content.

Documents and Settings\username\AppData\Roaming\Winamp\Plugins\ml\
or
Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Winamp\Plugins\ml\

Please also attach the Playlists.xml file that is in the same folder. That xml file is saying there are 20 tracks in New, but I seem to only be finding 15 in the New playlist when I look through it. This may answer the issue.

Oh, I'm also using 5.601 and I synced about 340 tracks this morning with no issues. I'm pretty sure the problem is your winamp xml/m3u8 files at this point.

The Stop button should stop a sync and stop a display of tracks to sync. Weird. It works on my machine.