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Messages - cahwyguy

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Questions / Is Musicbee Useful for my Use Case (iTunes + Android Sync)
« on: April 27, 2022, 01:27:30 AM »
For the longest time, I have been looking for a good solution to my music management woes across all my devices. I was recently pointed to Musicbee, and I'm curious if it would work for my use case. I've noodled around the forums a bit, but don't quite have an answer.

Here's the background: Windows 10 Machine, long-time iTunes user, with a library of over 50K music tracks and about 70-80 podcasts stored on an external USB drive. I make extensive use of smart playlist based off of last played, playcount, and ratings. This library is *mostly* synced (about 41K tracks) to two iPod Classics (with 512GB SD cards) that are kept in parallel. But iPod Classic don't last forever (they are already 12 years old).

I want a solution that can sync the iTunes library to my Android (Samsung A51, with a 512GB SD card), including the metadata, so a smart media player such as GoneMad can play music and allow me to search the library. Most importantly, I want this sync to be bi-direction, so the metadata (ratings, last play, playcounts) can flow back into the iTunes database.

My current solution has been iSyncr and RocketPlayer: iSyncr syncs directly with the Android, and Rocket Player is their media player. But the company that made those apps has been sold, and they have mucked everything up.

I have been told that Musicbee can sync between its Windows database and the Android music database, and store the data on the SD card. I've also been told that the sync is bidirectional (so updated playcounts and ratings come back). I've also been told that Musicbee keeps that metadata in the music file, so media players can access it. Is that correct?

The more problematic area appears to be the iTunes/Musicbee sync. It appears one can import the iTunes database into MB, and possibly the other direction, but the two can't easily be kept in sync. I plan to keep iTunes around until the iPod Classics die (hopefully a long time from now), so I need to get the data back from Musicbee into iTunes. The focus is primarily metadata. New music and podcasts should come into iTunes first, and then flow down. I tend to sync the Android device only one or two times a month.

So will Musicbee work for this use case, and how complicated will it be. It's beginning to look like my only solution will be to shell out for an Apple Music solution, and transfer and download the music via iCloud match (which I don't want to do because I've heard it silently replaces my tracks).

Thoughts, and thanks in advance.

Daniel

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