Copy Music from SD Card to MP3 Player

[LuckyDice45]

I have a new SD card that i'm trying to copy music onto from an old sd card. The new one is connected to my mp3 player, which MB registers as a connected device (through a Fiio M11), while the other one is connected as a removable drive.

I've tried a few different options but none of them appear to work without running into issues.

1. Since both cards are readable in the system, I thought simply using the auto organize feature can just move the music  from the old card to the new one (via Fiio). This didn't work, as I kept getting repeatable error messages (assuming it was due to the path not being found). Note: Fiio is connected in windows via MTP, showing up as a phone.

2. Next I tried loading both paths via the import library option, and storing the music from the old drive into a playlist and syncing a small batch of files to the new card, again registered on my Fiio as a 'device' in MB. While I was able to copy the music over, duplicates were stored on the device As a side note, .I noticed in general, MB doesn't track duplicates as it pertains to exact tag matching.

Now I'm not sure what else i can try. I want to see if perhaps using the new drive via a card reader, would allow me to now see both cards as removable drive and not only one of them (with the other being a connected device), but I would have to obtain one first. Any other options I can try?

[vincent kars]

What about Windows Explorer?

[LuckyDice45]

Using windows explorer is too slow. Plus I've run into issues where i'll have it attempt to move files over (either the entire 150 GB ish directory or partial) but it won't complete the process.

[frankz]

Why not create a library in MB using the files on the card and then sync that entire library to the player?

[vincent kars]

MTP is not the most stable imho.
If I had to do a bulk transfer I simply remove the SD from my phone, insert it into a USB adapter.
Much faster and more stable

[LuckyDice45]

@d

Why not create a library in MB using the files on the card and then sync that entire library to the player?

As I mentioned above, I already attempted that but doing so creates duplicates for existing files, which i'd rather not have to manage.

[frankz]

It doesn't though.  You're doing something that creates duplicates for existing files.  I think you said you put both paths in the library.  Why would you do that?

Just create a new library, turn off any auto-management of files, import the files ON THE OLD CARD to the library and then sync the library TO THE NEW CARD.  If you're worried about it duplicating files that are already on the new card, tell it to delete anything not in the sync list.

[LuckyDice45]

I did that to perform a check on all my files before and after I make the migration.

The method you suggested was something I already attempted minus the delete all files not on sync list. I can try it but I think I'm going to autotag both old and new cards first (I had already tagged and auto organized some of the files in the folder structure i had wanted in the new drive - so some of the duplicate files from the old drive might not be caught due to the tagging). It'll probably be more work to achieve but I think it'll get me where i need to get.

[frankz]

The files names are what matter, not tags.  

If the file names you construct for your sync are already on the device but the version you're trying to copy in sync is newer, it will copy the new file over the old file.  If the file to be copied is older than the one named the same on the new card, it will not sync.  It will be skipped.

If the file names you construct for your sync are different than what the same song is already called on the device, then it will copy the new version and leave the old version unless you check delete files not on sync list.

You seem very sure of what advice to follow and what advice not to follow for someone who asked for help because he couldn't get it working.  I'd suggest you try it the way I told you to try it and see if it works.

[LuckyDice45]

So here's what I did.
I imported the old card's files into a new library, imported that library into MB, connected the device with the new sd card's existing files on it, went to the device settings to sync all files on the library from the old sd card to the new one, enabled the option to remove files not on sync list, clicked sync (on the new device), and it started to remove files that were on my new sd card. I did a sync preview and didn't see a large majority of these files were to be removed. I've verified these were removed from the new drive. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Luckily I have a backup of these stored separately.

[frankz]

So here's what I did.
I imported the old card's files into a new library, imported that library into MB

I don't know what this means - this should be one step, not two separate things.

connected the device with the new sd card's existing files on it, went to the device settings to sync all files on the library from the old sd card to the new one, enabled the option to remove files not on sync list, clicked sync (on the new device), and it started to remove files that were on my new sd card. I did a sync preview and didn't see a large majority of these files were to be removed. I've verified these were removed from the new drive. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Luckily I have a backup of these stored separately.

What you're describing is exactly what I would expect to happen and what you described as wanting to happen. A card with files already on it is not a "new card."  It's just a different card.  You said you wanted to get files from an old card onto a "new card" without duplicates, so I described how to do that.

If what you have meant all along is that you want to combine files from two different cards that have some of the same files on them, then you would need to connect both Card A (what you're calling the old card) and Card B (what you're calling the new card) to your computer at the same time and create a library that consists of both sets of files, run the duplicate manager to decide which version of each file you want to keep, and then Send To->Move (to organized folder) the final set of files with a destination of Card B.  It will move files that are on Card A to Card B within whatever folder structure you create and move files that exist on Card B around to whatever folder structure you create.