Fix for MusicBee Wifi Sync app with devices running Android 11 or greater.

[BoringName]

Well it's trying to sync I guess so that's good, might just be a discrepancy in the settings that's giving it issues.

What paths are listed for the following options in the settings section for that device
Storage Path
Music Files

[ome-reily]

Just want to say thanks for all your patience and help so far, BoringName! I really appreciate it.

Storage Path: Pixel 4a\Internal shared storage\
(my phone is a Pixel 4a on Android 13)

Music Files: Music\*

[BoringName]

Just want to say thanks for all your patience and help so far, BoringName! I really appreciate it.

Storage Path: Pixel 4a\Internal shared storage\
(my phone is a Pixel 4a on Android 13)

Music Files: Music\*

All good.

You mentioned in a previous post that your music is actually in a sub folder on the phone. Try changing the music files field to match.
eg) If your sub folder is called MyMusic change music files to Music\MyMusic

I'm not sure what the asterix does in that field. On my test machine I have it set with naming conventions but on my partners machine it's set the same as yours but it doesn't copy over in a sub folder so I think that might be why you are having issues.

[ome-reily]

DUDEEEE THANK YOU SO MUCH

I'm so happy I could CRY

I used to suffer with Rocket Player and iTunes and I hated it. I haven't had an actual smooth two-way sync situation since the damn Zunes existed. I literally can't believe something as simple as syncing a local music collection's stats and data is so niche in friggin 2022.

With those small code changes and your help in this thread, it's finally successful! Thank you thank you thank you

One note to anyone reading this thread: I did a reinstall of the app before I did the small change above just to make extra sure. The songs I rated on my phone before I reinstalled the app didn't update on desktop, but once I had reinstalled it and told it what folders to watch, all of those songs went through (I literally tested a playlist one by one).

[BoringName]

I used to suffer with Rocket Player and iTunes and I hated it. I haven't had an actual smooth two-way sync situation since the damn Zunes existed. I literally can't believe something as simple as syncing a local music collection's stats and data is so niche in friggin 2022.

Nice. It is a good feeling when something finally works.

We used to suffer through Rocket Player with iSyncr (syncs with iTunes). It did the job but was quite slow and Rocket Player was terrible at finding new music. Sometimes it would be searching for 5 hours when you only added a couple of songs. GoneMad handles finding new music much better.

The iSyncr author sold it to someone else who knackered the free version and brought in a subscription model for their "new version", I think it was $40 a month or something ludicrous like that. That's what lead me to find MusicBee.

Still using iTunes to sync to an iPod my partner keeps in the bedroom. She used to walk with it but now she keeps all her music on her phone and walks with that instead so I think at some stage she will get a bluetooth speaker and I'll finally be able to exorcise iTunes from our lives.

[ome-reily]

I couldn't believe it when I saw that price increase! It's so sad, too. RocketPlayer was at least somewhat usable, if not an absurd hassle. Now it's just garbage.

In any case, I wish you luck on your road to the no itunes life!

[h4rdtr4nce]

@BoringName: Thank you very much for the guide!
I was using Wifi Sync since 2 years in combination with Android 11 and 12 and it was always working fine.

Now I recently changed my SD card, had to reselect the sync destination and was confronted with the reality that this app sadly doesn't work anymore because of some stupid restrictive Android changes and no way to explictly force access to all media...

I've got it somehow working with the difference that I still wasn't able to select the root of the storage. But I was able to select my music folder without throwing an error message and syncing to that folder is working again. However MusicBee Wifi Sync still can't access any other folder so I have to sync all media and playlists into that folder.

Never want to go back to wired syncing...

[trenzterra]

I had some issues previously, but I managed to get it to work.

I realised that in the MusicBee wifi app, you have to point it to the "Music" folder. Otherwise, it will not work.

[arcendus]

Boring, you're a lifesaver.

And regarding iSyncr, they've increased their price yet again, to $14.99 per week, lol. The way they managed to dishonor all premium purchases with the second app listing was bad enough, but that ridiculous pricing really shows that Muma Studios is a pure scum "developer" (in quotes because they don't appear to have ever actually done any development work - just acquisition).

[STM0O0]

Hi BoringName! Your instructions worked great. They also work on Android 13, verified and tested.

I made a public fork and commited the changes. I started with the original version and the exact changes proposed by BoringName (including the optional Gradle update). Though, I have now already made a small code change (because my autistic brain could not handle it otherwise):
- I changed the literal in the code line '>= 34' to ‘> Build.VERSION_CODES.TIRAMISU’. It means exactly the same (TIRAMISU = 33 but I changed it to a strict inequality), but this is better coding practice.
- To do able to do the above, I also had to up the compile SDK from version 29 to 33 (in ‘Module Settings’>app>Properties>’Compile Sdk Version’).
I might make more changes eventually if I have time and/or a reason to do so. I'm not an Android programmer, but I really like MB and want it to keep working (so I can keep using myself ofc :p).

I know you didn't want to release the modified apk, but I added it as a release on the github. Release version 2.2 is the exact version you suggested (without the above change), all later ones will be custom versions…
If you or any of the original developers really want me to take it down, just let me know and I will. I'm just trying to keep MB (WifiSync) available to as many as possible...

https://github.com/STM0O0/MusicBeeWifiSync

[ome-reily]

So I don't know what's happening, but the sync is just not working again. I tried deleting everything, resyncing manually and then via wifi, checked and verified all my folders. It's broken.

It seems the first wifi sync after a manual sync will work, and then after that the ratings and playcounts will refuse to update on either end. This is using GoneMad for android.

Has anyone else experienced this?

[phred]

A compiled APK is available here: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=36516.msg212214#msg212214

EDIT: Corrected typo.

[ome-reily]

Okay, so I've been doing some tests. There's currently a weird bug in the app or something, or maybe in musicbee behavior, that caused a change that wasn't there before.

If you look at my other posts in this thread, you'll see I had my files on my computer in a subfolder called 'iTunes Media.' For some reason now, I have to have the music subfolder in Musicbee, in the device settings, read Music\* instead of Music\iTunes Media\*.

Before I had to have the file path on my computer and phone match and now it seems they specifically need to not be?

With Music\iTunes Media\*, when I sync, the app creates an additional folder so that on my phone the path becomes Music\iTunes Media\iTunes Media\[song folders]. I have no idea what is making the additional folder and why when it wasn't doing it before, but whoever is watching this thread, know this is an issue.

I haven't tested to see if changing this will make ratings sync again. That will be tomorrow.

[ome-reily]

I tried moving all of my files out of the subfolder of iTunes Media and just into the standard Music folder. Still can't get ratings or playcounts to update.

For whoever finds this thread, this app no longer works, at least not with GoneMad Player.

[arcendus]

Sadly, as ome-reily says, this app is (for me too, anyway) broken again.

It worked for a while, but suddenly I'm getting the typical "Server not found error" and cannot sync. Nothing about my WiFi config changed, device, etc. When I plug my device in, however, I noticed that there's suddenly a duplicate entry in Device > Preferences, and all settings within this entry are default. When I attempt to delete this entry while the device is connected I'm told I cannot, because the device is in use, so it's clear my device is now, for whatever reason, recognized as being different in some way. Regardless, when I copy all device settings, run a full wired sync, and attempt to use the wifi sync app again, it still says Server not found. I clear the app data and cache, reboot the device, and try again, but get the same error. I uninstalled the app and ran the installation process again, as described in the original thread, but still Server not found. Error Log shows:

2023-04-04: SM-G998U1:   13;  2.2
21:38:03: locate: search 192.168.1.,
exclude=192.168.1.16
21:38:04: ping: socket ok=/192.168.1.26
21:38:05 ping: hello=MusicBeeWifiSyncServer/1.0
21:38:07: ping: matched=/
192.168.1.26,status=OK

Any ideas? I'm a huge fan of MusicBee but this wifi sync experience has been a nightmare. All I'm really looking to do here is sync playlists and ratings two-way, and every time it seems there's a solution something randomly breaks and I'm back to being unable to sync ratings.