Missing Data from Winamp on PC to Android

[MrSinatra]

i have 65k+ files, but most are my own cbr 256kbps rips. otherwise some flacs and some vbrs, those mostly from DLing.

track time issues are almost always a header issue, not a tag issue.

you are seeing problems on your phone, not desktop winamp, right?

what phone do you use? how do you get the music on it? describe the process.

just fyi:

http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=345521

[0xFFFF]

Hi MrSinatra,

I have Winamp (5.6.3) installed on my work and home PCs. Home has the entire collection. Work only has my favorites (~3K tracks). I connect my phone (HTC One X running ARHD 18.4 (JB 4.1.1)) to both machines to manually upload / remove tracks. I'm running Winamp 1.4.10 on my phone.
Everything works fine on the PC's in terms of local Playlists, local Tracks and the Media Library.

Adding content to my phone:

• Attach phone to PC.Wait for MTP to pop up (cry and wonder what ever happened to UMS)
• Wait a little longer for my phone to appear under Devices.
• Select one or many tracks from the current playlist.
• Right-click music and select Send to:> EndeavorU
• Eject

Removing content from my phone:

• Attach phone to PC.Wait for MTP to pop up (cry and wonder what ever happened to UMS)
• Wait a little longer for my phone to appear under Devices.
• Expand out Devices, EndeavorU.
• Select one or many tracks.
• Press Del.
• Eject

How important is eject? If I don't do it, will things stuff up?

I would like to use Wifi but work blocks the traffic and at home the phone does not always connect.

--

Another annoying thing that I have not mentioned - If I create a playlist on the PC, the name of the playlist does not appear on the phone. I just get a new 'Unknown playlist'. When I plug the phone back in to the PC, the playlist disappears (only from Winamp on the PC).

[DrO]

Another annoying thing that I have not mentioned - If I create a playlist on the PC, the name of the playlist does not appear on the phone. I just get a new 'Unknown playlist'. When I plug the phone back in to the PC, the playlist disappears (only from Winamp on the PC).

it's due to how things work on Android and via the P4S / MTP handling which means that the first time the playlist appears on the phone, it's recognised with a specific name ("Unknown playlist" in this case as that's the default internally used) but the file is then renamed once you've chosen what is wanted.

unfortunately that renaming of the playlist isn't seen (as WAFA is relying on what Android informs it) and so until you change the name in WAFA, it will show what it does). having seen it first hand, the only i can think off is when pmp_p4s (the plug-in used to handle things) is asked to create a playlist, it needs to wait until a name has been entered (though that complicates the handling of things in the plug-in) so i don't know if that's a viable solution or not.


additionally, as you're using that plug-in, you may want to try out the 5.7 beta as it has a number of fixes in the plug-in as well as portable support in general for trying to obtain metadata from the original files for transfer, etc (as there were a number of scenarios where it didn't get it all correctly). if you're not happy trying out a beta then that's ok though would be nice if you are ok to see how things fare.

[0xFFFF]

Hi DrO,

I removed 5.63. I deleted the program directory and then installed 5.7 beta. The installation went fine. Testing everything again did not.
Creating playlists results in a 'New playlist' on the phone. When I re-connect the phone to the PC, I cant see the playlist.
Tracks transferred to the phone still have the same problems.

[DrO]

oh well, was worth a shot. apparently there's a newer set of OS api's which could be used for handling MTP devices, so it's not clear if that might improve things or not (though that's not a simple thing to re-code). oh well, at least it didn't crash which is better than i was experiencing until a week ago.

[MrSinatra]

so strange.

have you considered making smartviews to replace your playlists? i don't know why, but i'm thinking that copying the results list of a smartview to a phone might be more robust than trying to copy a playlist's entries to a phone.

[0xFFFF]

oh well, was worth a shot. apparently there's a newer set of OS api's which could be used for handling MTP devices, so it's not clear if that might improve things or not (though that's not a simple thing to re-code). oh well, at least it didn't crash which is better than i was experiencing until a week ago.

Thanks for the suggestions DrO. I'm happy to try anything to try and get this thing going.

so strange.

have you considered making smartviews to replace your playlists? i don't know why, but i'm thinking that copying the results list of a smartview to a phone might be more robust than trying to copy a playlist's entries to a phone.

I tried smartviews. No difference. I hadn't used them before. Kind of funny given that I've been using Winamp for such a long time

[DrO]

one thing might be is providing a small copy of an original and a transferred file so the tags can be checked i.e. see if it's a file tag issue or down to how / what WAFA is getting the information or something else.

[0xFFFF]

Files are unaffected when transferred. If I do a binary compare, they are identical. I can upload a few files so you can look at the headers. How much of the file do you need?

[DrO]

just needs a full tag and a bit of the audio e.g. use the demo.mp3 and alter it to have the tag in the manner of your other files (and make sure that this one exhibits the issue as well).

[0xFFFF]

Interesting results. Maybe it's a beta thing but the first time I opened Winamp I had 118 tracks with no information. There's just 118 empty items on my phone (according to Winamp).
I closed and re-opened Winamp and I'm back to where I was (No Artist, Album, Genre). I renamed demo.mp3 and changed the header to match my other tracks. Link.

[MrSinatra]

the first thing i notice, is that that file has id3v1 tags, and they're mostly blank.

[0xFFFF]

Arrrrrhhhh. Stuffed up. Trying again...
BTW - How do I stop Winamp from finding media elsewhere on my phone? I'm getting ringtones and other rubbish showing up.

[0xFFFF]

2nd attempt. Link.

--

I've noticed that if you open Winamp while a portable device is enumerating, it kinds of freaks out a bit. Instead of getting the name of the portable device, you just get the device icon and no description. You can't click on the device to select it. To resolve the issue, close and re-open Winamp.

[JMullins]

I just made a break though. I have been struggling with this issue for a while. I went though over 15000 songs repairing the id3 mess iTunes created. Then I synced (some of them) to my phone. Everything looked good until I notice that there were still 537 unknowns. I looked at those songs. I even pulled them off the phone to my desktop. Couldn't find anything wrong with them. I was checking other forums (this is not an unusual problem) and stumbled onto a very big help.
On my Galaxy S3:
Bring up Settings -> Application Manager
Select All column
Scroll down to Media Storage and click it
Press delete data
It will warn you of the dire consequences click OK
You have now dropped the Android ID3 database. My phone reread all of the installed media and added the songs back in. Fire up WinAmp and nervously check unknown again 2 songs. yippee-qay-ayy
Evidently android will not reread the data unless the file name changes.

Things that I think should happen.
WinAmp should let us know if the ID3 information is not suitable for transfer. (i.e. illegal tags that would mess up the other side need to be flagged).
WinAmp should not try to fix these automatically.
The default setting for downloading tag information should be changed to OFF.
The default setting for tag information should be ID3v2.3 not v2.4.
WinAmp for Android would be better served by using its own tag database and not the default OS db. By using the Android DB you accept their limitations and problems. You also prevent yourself from improving what is a flawed implementation.
Sync options should be configurable for both wireless and wired.