iPod & iPhone Driver Plugin 2.0

[da_viking]

Im here on the forum as a newbie, still loading songs into music bee basicly, BUT i figured I tell you the reason im here is because I was forced off itunes to use Apple Music ( itunes stopped working) and this will happen for all users I guess. They disscontinued Itunes on Mac 2019 and just recently released a full PC version of Apple Music which is the replacement. They also released a new syncing app for iphones to replace Itunes to sync playlists and pictures and so on.

I dont like apple music and teh transfer from Itunes was a mess, thousands of links to songs where broken and only way to fix them is by manually replace and delete each duplicate, so i was recommended Music Bee to start over with.

[ericvulpi]

First off, many thanks to boroda and BoringName for this plugin.
The impossibility of cleanly transfering my Mac Music App library to my new Linux / Windows computer and iTunes has pushed me into the arms of MusicBee, which has very nice features. Some I knew I missed, a lot I didn't think of, but are very nice.

Unfortunately, I still have an iPhone and I would like to make it last a bit longer before switching to something like a fairphone or anything more compatible with MusicBee.
In the meantime, if have been fidling with your plugin for a few weeks (on and off), trying to get my MusicBee and its playlist on my iPhone and I've finaly managed to get it all synced, and getting back ratings, play counts, last played date back into MusicBee.

I haven't worked out all the kinks from my process : currently I need to manually remove all playlist from iTunes for the playlist update to work (and even then it's a bit of a dice roll) => does anyone have the same issue ?

Also, one improvement to the plugin that seems easy to implement is the sync order between tracks, playlists and tags.
Currently, I believe it is tracks, then playlists, then tags. This means any automatic playlist that relies on tags needs 2 synchronisations to get updated on the iPhone : the first one to get the latest tags from iTunes, the second to put the updated playlists back in iTunes.

Could we switch the sync order to :  tracks, then tags, then playlists ? And would it work, meaning would MusicBee be able to update the playlists between the tags sync and the playlist sync ?

Alternatively, could we get an option to only update the playlists (without going through the full library update) ?

iTunes version : Version 12.13.1.3 (latest version as of today)
MusicBee : Version 3.5.8698 (same)

[BoringName]

I haven't worked out all the kinks from my process : currently I need to manually remove all playlist from iTunes for the playlist update to work (and even then it's a bit of a dice roll) => does anyone have the same issue ?

It's because you're using a version newer than 12.5.3.16

That's the latest version that works properly. Every version after that has some kind of issue.

Granted you probably have to for it to work with whatever version of iPhone you are using.

Also, one improvement to the plugin that seems easy to implement is the sync order between tracks, playlists and tags.

What gives you the idea it would be easy?

From memory, this is what it does (if you're using the right version).
- MB provides a list of tracks/playlists that match the sync criteria.
- The plugin adds them to iTunes while syncing ratings from MB to iTunes(if option selected)
- If the track is a playlist, it deletes it first in iTunes and recreates it. (has to be done to work around a bug)
- depending on settings it will remove anything in iTunes that wasn't included in the sync. (just realized this could result in lost play counts).
- Playlists in iTunes are populated with songs.
- Syncs Play Count and ratings back to MB.
- Resets play count to zero in iTunes.

Could we switch the sync order to :  tracks, then tags, then playlists ? And would it work

It wouldn't work. MB parses tracks to the plugin based on the options you choose when the sync is initialized. There is no way to alter that list once the sync process has started.

Alternatively, could we get an option to only update the playlists (without going through the full library update) ?

You can choose to only sync certain playlists. It will still sync back all ratings and play counts of everything in iTunes. It will probably delete playlists from iTunes though....
Honestly can't remember if this will work but if you uncheck the following setting it should leave everything previously synced in iTunes.
Hamburger button (top left in MB) -> Edit Preferences -> Devices -> iPod & iPhone Driver -> Configure -> Settings -> Delete files that are not on the auto-sync list from the device.

So if you untick that option and do a full sync of all songs/playlists. Then perform another sync with just one playlist selected, it should leave all the songs in iTunes. But it will probably delete all the playlist except for the one you selected. The songs of all the deleted playlist will still be in iTunes, they just won't be part of a playlist.

The other issue with this is it will only sync ratings from MB to iTunes (if option selected) based on the selected playlist.
But it will sync all ratings and play counts back to MB (if option selected) regardless of what songs/playlists are selected to sync.

Just to be clear, there is no way to update MB with playcounts/ratings from your device and sync updated auto-playlists back to your device in one pass.

[ericvulpi]

Thanks for the feedback, it works.

In case someone else is also trying to sync his iphone with MusicBee (which does require the latest iTunes version), here is the workflow that works for me :
- sync your iphone with iTunes
- unplug your iPhone
- delete all your playlists from iTunes library
- close and reopen iTunes and MusicBee
- launch the plugin
- sync MusicBee to iTunes via the plugin
- If you have automatic playlists that needs updating with synced tags :
    - close and reopen iTunes and MusicBee
    - launch the plugin
    - sync MusicBee to iTunes, you can tick "synchronise playlist" only and select the playlist that need updating
- sync your iphone with iTunes

Victory

iTunes version : 12.13.1.3 (latest version as of today)
MusicBee version : 3.5.8698 (same)

[BoringName]

Victory

iTunes version : 12.13.1.3 (latest version as of today)

Well done. I actually didn't know they were still updating the non store version of iTunes for windows. Looks like most of it is to add support for new iPads. I'd be surprised if they have fixed any of the API bugs.

The next time you need a new phone, consider that syncing an Android device to Musicbee can be done over wifi through an app. It's basically just a click and it's done. Works fast too.

I only use this plugin to keep my partners iPod up to date and I don't know how long she will bother with that as she keeps her entire music library on her mobile these days. It works for what I need it for and I don't think there is much demand for it to do anything else. There is too many bugs in the API to keep it working with up to date versions of iTunes and there is nothing I can do about that. So I probably won't be updating it any further. I might give it a look over once I've finished playing around with my other plugin but that won't be anytime soon.

[ericvulpi]

The next time you need a new phone, consider that syncing an Android device to Musicbee can be done over wifi through an app. It's basically just a click and it's done. Works fast too.

Well, I wouldn't phrase it so optimistically considering this thread
But it looks definitely easier than for the iPhone

[BoringName]

Well, I wouldn't phrase it so optimistically considering this thread
But it looks definitely easier than for the iPhone

There are a couple of links in that thread for custom compiled versions of the app. One of them is mine. It's worked without issue for my partner. And I'll make sure to keep it working for as long as she is using it. She is syncing a library of 40,000+ songs to her phone and it just works.

But you do have to mess around a little allowing permissions to install apps outside of the play store. And the security concerns of installing an app from a link on a forum from someone you don't know

The main problem is it needs a significant rewrite to handle the way google changed storage permissions in android 12 (I think) otherwise it will get rejected from the play store. So for now we are stuck with installing it outside of the play store. I'm at the tail end of fixing up my other plugin. I might have a look at trying to get the mobile app on the play store after that, or at least getting it up to speed for someone else to manage. I'm not really a programmer and the android stuff goes over my head a bit so not really sure I want to take that on.... depends how bored I get.

[ericvulpi]

Here is to hoping for your getting bored  

[ZEROOFALL]

Thank you for this plugin! I've been using it to sync a few different devices. The main ones I use are a ipod with rockbox installed and a 256GB flashdrive I use for my truck to have a nice selection of music.
So far it works great and puts all the music I want on the device but I have noticed a annoying problem when it comes to it writing playlists. If the song already exists on the device do to it being added from a separate playlist, it skips adding it. This is great when it comes to file itself but it would be nice if it would recognize that since the file already exists, it would continue writing the path of the file to the playlist it writes on the device.

Just my idea of how to improve a already amazing plugin.

[BoringName]

If the song already exists on the device do to it being added from a separate playlist, it skips adding it. This is great when it comes to file itself but it would be nice if it would recognize that since the file already exists, it would continue writing the path of the file to the playlist it writes on the device.

Just to make sure I'm understanding the issue correctly. You're saying if a song is in 2 separate playlists in Musicbee, after you sync it to the device the song is missing from the second playlist on the device?

I assume the song is also missing from the second playlist in itunes as all the plugin really does is sync with itunes not the device itself.

How are you syncing to a Flash drive? I didn't know you could do that with iTunes.

[BoringName]

I've done a couple of tests and I'm not able to replicate the issue.

If I completely clear out itunes then create 2 playlists in musicbee with the same songs and just select those 2 playlists for syncing. The songs are copied over and both playlists are created in iTunes with all the correct songs.

You will need to provide more info.

[ZEROOFALL]

I feel dumb. I had the ipod plugin installed and figured the "devices" feature of musicbee itself was part of this plugin since I only discovered it after installing it. Sorry for wasting your time. I'm going to look for a more appropriate place to post my bug.

[Eatingmymusicch0mp]

First forum post here, let's go!

First of all, thank you BoringName for making this fork of the plugin. I'm not much of a programmer so my apologies if the solution to my issue is obvious, but I can't seem to find a way to get this plugin to work.

I installed this plugin and what I thought was the correct version of itunes last month or so, but attempted my first true sync through it today. (I had to do some library organizing first.) I downloaded an older version of itunes through apple's official software page, which turned out to be the wrong one for using with this driver (It was 12.10.11, too new for the driver.) I can't seem to find the exact version most people on this thread are recommending (12.5.3.16.) Finding and using that version instead may fix the issue entirely, but in case it doesn't I'll post the error messages I've been getting.

I deleted that version of itunes and installed 12.4.3. The driver seems to be recognizing itunes now, but when I try and turn the plugin on, I get these two errors in this order, and then musicbee crashes. First:

Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID
{DC0C2640- 1415-4644-875C-6F4D769839BA} failed due to the following error: 80080005 Server execution failed (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80080005 (CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE))

and then:

MusicBee v3.5.8698.34385D  (Win10.0), 26 Jun 2024 22:32:

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at MusicBeePlugin.ITunes.Initialise()
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()

I also had an issue when installing this version of itunes where I would get the following error message:

 service 'Apple Mobile Device' (Apple Mobile Device) failed to start.  Verify that you have sufficient privileges to start system services.

I fixed that issue by following the advice here, but am including it here in case it's relevant to my issue with the driver.

Is it possible someone could direct me to the download page for the correct version of itunes or tell me what I should do to get the driver to work with this version? Thanks!

[BoringName]

I don't know if this will solve your problem entirely but here is a link to 12.5.3.16 - iTunes64Setup12.5.3.16.zip

The other versions should have at least loaded. The main problem with using versions not linked above is bugs in the api that cause the sync to fail or not sync correctly. There is quite a lot of bugs in the API, I've listed a few earlier in the thread.

The error does seem to be the plugin can't initialize iTunes.

I'm not sure if this would cause issues or not but you may have been using a 32 bit installer. The link above is 64 bit.

First off, uninstall iTunes and reboot your machine. Install the version I linked (right click to install as admin). Then restart your system. Once it boots back up, try and launch iTunes and make sure it loads ok. If it does, close iTunes then open Musicbee and try and run the plugin again.

If iTunes won't open then you will need to sort that out first.

[Eatingmymusicch0mp]

I don't know if this will solve your problem entirely but here is a link to 12.5.3.16 - iTunes64Setup12.5.3.16.zip

The other versions should have at least loaded. The main problem with using versions not linked above is bugs in the api that cause the sync to fail or not sync correctly. There is quite a lot of bugs in the API, I've listed a few earlier in the thread.

Installing and using 12.5.3.16 fixed the issue, musicbee's able to sync to itunes now! I'm having a couple other minor issues but they seem to have been addressed earlier in the thread. If anything else comes up I'll make another post. Thank you so much!