getmusicbee.com

Support => Portable Devices => Topic started by: Guapdad on August 04, 2022, 04:53:32 AM

Title: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: Guapdad on August 04, 2022, 04:53:32 AM
I have about 18000 tracks in my library and I was able to sync them all to my android device (sd card) in ~30 minutes on my first sync a few months back. I don't remember making any changes to my sync settings since then. I'm trying to sync my device again but it's taking ~3 hours now. Anyone have any thoughts on what could be causing my sync speed to slow down. (I'm using the same SS-USB port as before)

See link for my current settings.

https://imgur.com/a/ir7qe7F
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: frankz on August 04, 2022, 05:39:05 AM
Honestly, based on my experience with USB synching, 3 hours doesn't sound overly long for a library that large. Most of it is probably the scan.  There is nothing to scan on the first sync, so it goes right into moving the files.

Wifi synching is considerably faster. Exponentially, even.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: Guapdad on August 04, 2022, 06:17:21 AM
Thanks for the reply frankz.

The scan was taking a long time so I tried deleting my library from my device. It jumps right into syncing files but they are taking significantly longer than they were the first time I synced a few months back. I agree, 3 hours isn't so bad for that much data. I was pleasently suprised the first time I synced at how quick it was. Hoping I can figure out how to get that speed back.

I'll give the wifi sync a try. I always assume a usb or ethernet connection is faster and more reliable than wireless so I haven't bothered with it. Suprised to hear that it is exponentially faster in this case!
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: Guapdad on August 04, 2022, 05:00:50 PM
So I left my device to usb sync over night and when I got up, the sync had failed, citing an invalid date and time. The sync made it all the way through the file list and appears to have failed at the very end.

I'm trying the wifi sync now but it is even slower than the wired sync.

Any thoughts?
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: frankz on August 04, 2022, 06:27:07 PM
My thoughts turn now to your storage card being hosed.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: Guapdad on August 04, 2022, 07:08:30 PM
Darn:( I think you're right. Just tried another sync. This time it got to the end and I got an error citing that an object is not attached to the device. I'll get another sd card and let you know how it goes.

Appreciate your help frankz!
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: Guapdad on August 05, 2022, 05:22:28 AM
Swapped out the sd card and sync is working fine now:)
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: frankz on August 05, 2022, 05:27:34 AM
Glad to hear you got it sorted out.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: dirtee on August 06, 2022, 11:24:12 PM
Hi there, not sure what the policy is on hopping onto/using already existing threads, but a new thread would literally have the same title..!

I'm doing a Wifi Sync as I type, it's been 5 hours, and 9% done.
Gonna take a while  ;D

It's nearly 20K songs, it's 420gigs.
That's big I know, I read on another thread that 120gigs took someone 6 hours, which makes my 420gig speed at the moment make sense.

I guess what I'm wondering is whether there's a quicker way?
If I transfer the files and folders through USB straight onto my SD card (brand new grade 1!), it would take less than an hour.
But the whole point of me doing it this way is so that the playlists sync properly with the android player and I don't have duplicates.

Should I just wait it out?
If I press "Stop", will anything have transferred?
Should I do it in shorter bursts perhaps?

Sorry for the deluge of questions! I'm always so inexperienced and VERY curious about how it all works.
I don't have on-the-fly conversion ticked, or 'create a sub-folder for each playlist'. Figure that would increase the time by a lot!
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: frankz on August 06, 2022, 11:34:28 PM
Same advice as above. Cancel what's happening now and continue by using WifiSync.  It will pick up where you left this sync off.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: BoringName on August 07, 2022, 03:22:58 AM
Same advice as above. Cancel what's happening now and continue by using WifiSync.  It will pick up where you left this sync off.

They are already doing a wifi sync. 420gb is a lot but it's going to be over 50 hours which is quite slow. I think mine took around 8 hours initially and that was over 250gb.

I would copy to the SD card manually then do a wifi sync. Just be patient because it will probably show the loading thing for quite a while as it calculates what needs to be synced. It will still sync all your playlists just fine if you do it this way.

edit: once the bulk of your library is on the SD card the wifi app is very quick compared to a wired sync. I think this is due to how the files can be accessed. When you plug it into the PC, it's basically like a USB stick and MB has to scan the folders to find what files are already on it. It's a slow process. The wifi app has direct access to the file system on the phone so it can determine what files are already on the SD card quite quickly.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: frankz on August 07, 2022, 03:42:54 AM
They are already doing a wifi sync.
Oops missed that.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: dirtee on August 07, 2022, 10:55:37 PM
Same advice as above. Cancel what's happening now and continue by using WifiSync.  It will pick up where you left this sync off.

They are already doing a wifi sync. 420gb is a lot but it's going to be over 50 hours which is quite slow. I think mine took around 8 hours initially and that was over 250gb.

I would copy to the SD card manually then do a wifi sync. Just be patient because it will probably show the loading thing for quite a while as it calculates what needs to be synced. It will still sync all your playlists just fine if you do it this way.

edit: once the bulk of your library is on the SD card the wifi app is very quick compared to a wired sync. I think this is due to how the files can be accessed. When you plug it into the PC, it's basically like a USB stick and MB has to scan the folders to find what files are already on it. It's a slow process. The wifi app has direct access to the file system on the phone so it can determine what files are already on the SD card quite quickly.

Hey dude, thanks so much for the reply (and Frankz!).

Just to get this straight before I try it.
You mean copy the songs/folders/files onto the SD card, regular standard transfer, and THEN do the wifi sync (should one always do "preview" instead of "sync now"?).
If so, I'll give it a shot.
I assume I'll need to make sure the correct albums and songs are transferred before syncing, otherwise I'd get an error?
Oh wait, I guess, it would just transfer them through the sync then...
I'll try it with a smaller batch first maybe?
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: frankz on August 08, 2022, 12:31:55 AM
You will need to make sure they are organized and named exactly as they would be if they had been sent with the naming template you have set in MB or else they'll all just be sent again anyway when you sync.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: BoringName on August 08, 2022, 12:33:13 AM
You mean copy the songs/folders/files onto the SD card, regular standard transfer, and THEN do the wifi sync (should one always do "preview" instead of "sync now"?).

Yes, copy them manually with a regular transfer. When I first changed over to musicbee from itunes I found a lot of inconsistent tag data especially with the album artist field. So while that was getting fixed up I would do a preview to get an idea of how long it's going to take. But don't bother so much now. From what I have seen, playlists get re-synced every time.

I assumed you were just copying your entire library over which should make it easy. Just copy everything in your music folder on the PC to the music folder on the android device. If you are only syncing a playlist that makes things more complicated as you will need to copy over all the individual songs in the playlist and maintain the folder structure.

Once you have copied them over, run the wifi sync. That will sync your playlists (copy them to the device) and check all the songs in the playlists are on the device, if not it will copy any over that you missed.

If you didn't miss anything, the wifi sync should be pretty quick.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: dirtee on August 08, 2022, 02:55:09 PM
You mean copy the songs/folders/files onto the SD card, regular standard transfer, and THEN do the wifi sync (should one always do "preview" instead of "sync now"?).

Yes, copy them manually with a regular transfer. When I first changed over to musicbee from itunes I found a lot of inconsistent tag data especially with the album artist field. So while that was getting fixed up I would do a preview to get an idea of how long it's going to take. But don't bother so much now. From what I have seen, playlists get re-synced every time.

I assumed you were just copying your entire library over which should make it easy. Just copy everything in your music folder on the PC to the music folder on the android device. If you are only syncing a playlist that makes things more complicated as you will need to copy over all the individual songs in the playlist and maintain the folder structure.

Once you have copied them over, run the wifi sync. That will sync your playlists (copy them to the device) and check all the songs in the playlists are on the device, if not it will copy any over that you missed.

If you didn't miss anything, the wifi sync should be pretty quick.

I was actually doing a playlist based sync. My entire library is too big. So I created a playlist "For Phone" just to transfer a big bulk of music, alongside my 'normal' playlists.
I opted to JUST try that "For Phone" playlist first, with about 40g of music. And I transferred the specific artists first onto the SD card.
You were right. It was much much quicker.

Then, I ticked a few more common playlists, without transferring the files beforehand, thinking I'd do them one by one or two by two, even if it takes longer (because copying over the individual songs and maintaining the structure seems very annoying).
The tracks did copy, but they don't appear as "playlists" in my music players (trying both Media Monkey and Omnia).
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: phred on August 08, 2022, 04:31:04 PM
The tracks did copy, but they don't appear as "playlists" in my music players (trying both Media Monkey and Omnia).
What format is the playlist that's being synced?
Have you confirmed that the player(s) on the phone can accept that format?

GoneMad and PowerAmp are the two Android players that allow reverse syncing via MB's WiFi Sync app. Since both have free trials, I suggest trying one or both and see if you get better results.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: BoringName on August 09, 2022, 03:08:04 AM
Check the playlist folder on your device to see if the playlists actually copied over. You might also have to do a rescan in your music program for it to pick up the new playlist.

There are issues with reverse sync and android 11 or greater. There are workarounds available for some of these.

Reverse sync (play counts & ratings) does not work with GoneMad on the trial version. You need the paid version for that but just general syncing of music should work. I don't know if poweramp needs the paid version or not.

I haven't tested it but from what I have seen in the wifi app code, I don't believe reverse sync will work for PowerAmp on Android 12 and that can't be fixed without changes to both apps. I just noticed  PowerAmp was updated 2 weeks ago so maybe their side of the problem is solved. I will check it out.

edit: doesn't look like they fixed it but it could be a paid feature like GoneMad.

edit: Another user has confirmed MusicBee does reverse sync with PowerAmp in Android 12.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: dirtee on August 11, 2022, 09:38:36 PM
The tracks did copy, but they don't appear as "playlists" in my music players (trying both Media Monkey and Omnia).
What format is the playlist that's being synced?
Have you confirmed that the player(s) on the phone can accept that format?

GoneMad and PowerAmp are the two Android players that allow reverse syncing via MB's WiFi Sync app. Since both have free trials, I suggest trying one or both and see if you get better results.

I have had these same playlists on both Omnia and Media Monkey before.
It's worked before.

As for the playlist format? What do you mean?
How do I find that out?

And what's reverse sync? Should I need that? I don't care about plays on my phone affecting MusicBee on my laptop and such.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: phred on August 11, 2022, 10:59:37 PM
I have had these same playlists on both Omnia and Media Monkey before.
It's worked before.
Syncing to the same phone and the same music app on the phone?

Quote
As for the playlist format? What do you mean?
How do I find that out?
What's the file extension of the playlists being sent to the phone?
Preferences > Device > Configure > Settings > on-the-fly conversion. If that's blank, then Preferences  > Library > playlists > exported playlists. If that's blank and you're only using library playlists and the extension is MBP, then that's why the playlists don't work. MBP is for use within MB only. You'll need to go back to device settings and configure on-the-fly conversion to a format that your phone's music player uses.

Quote
And what's reverse sync? Should I need that? I don't care about plays on my phone affecting MusicBee on my laptop and such.
It would copy play counts from the phone to MB. It would also take any new music files that were added to the phone and add them to MB.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: dirtee on August 14, 2022, 01:24:55 PM
Right, so I'm not interested in Reverse Sync.

Just need to figure out how to get my playlists properly sorted now.
The files are copying, but I guess not the playlist file that's supposed to organise them into a playlist?
There's no playlist folder on my phone/SD card.

In my device settings, on the fly conversion is blank.
In my library settings - playlists:
Exported Playlists is set to M3U. Which has definitely worked before and should be fine no?
'use relative file paths' and 'use unix paths convention' and 'map base file paths in exported playlists' are all unticked.

In my device settings, in playlist storage, how should I have that set?
I've currently got it as Samsung Memory Card\music\playlists\
I've not ticked 'create a sub-folder for each playlist and its tracks.
Save as M3U.
And 'use relative paths' is ticked.
(I should probably send a screenshot, haven't quite figured out how to do that here yet...).

Again, thanks for your continued help!
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: phred on August 14, 2022, 01:58:17 PM
There's no playlist folder on my phone/SD card.

Quote
I've currently got it as Samsung Memory Card\music\playlists\
You need to create the playlist folder on the phone. Your settings are telling MB where to put the playlists, but it doesn't exist.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: dirtee on August 16, 2022, 12:33:39 AM
I followed your advice and did that.
Created the "playlists" folder, then tried again. But it hasn't worked. The folder is empty after a sync!
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: phred on August 16, 2022, 02:48:36 AM
I followed your advice and did that.
Created the "playlists" folder, then tried again. But it hasn't worked. The folder is empty after a sync!
A screenshot of your device settings might be helpful here.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: dirtee on August 16, 2022, 03:53:31 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/EawYXG6.jpg)

Here you go dude!
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: phred on August 16, 2022, 04:04:51 PM
Do you have two memory cards?
You music files are going to a SanDisk card while your playlists are going to a Samsung card.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: dirtee on August 16, 2022, 04:22:02 PM
Lol, the wonders a fresh pair of eyes can do.......
Well that was stupid of me!
The SanDisk is my new SD card, replacing the Samsung one.
Right, I'll try it all again and get back to you!
Thanks  :-X
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: dirtee on August 19, 2022, 04:46:41 PM
So it didn't work immediately, I had to try a few different paths, delete a few seemingly useless folders.
But eventually, it synced and worked, and I now have playlists on my players!

My original and ABSOLUTE BANE OF MY LIFE, is that I still get duplicates FROM the playlist songs appearing in the albums from the artists.
But hoping that's because I haven't yet done a 'big sync' with the music I've transferred to the SD card.

So will report back when I've done that, although I'm getting the classic "a non-recoverable error occurred...." at the moment.
Title: Re: Slow Sync with Android Device
Post by: dirtee on August 22, 2022, 02:59:02 PM
So, after the original suggestion by BoringName to copy music onto the device first before doing a Wifi Sync, I tried it and it worked a lot quicker.
It doesn't seem to be as quick now, although that could be due to a bigger bulk of songs being transferred.
It has also failed every time, without passing 20%.
But another issue has arisen: my player has now duplicates of most of the artist starting with A and beyond.

So I think my player has read my SD card and updated the player. And then when I do the Wifi Sync, it's then started re-copying all the files?