Cant copy music to MTP memory card

[V4lve]

Hi.

Just found MusicBee.  Been looking for something to easily manage music on my Sony Ericsson phone.  Really like it so far.  Unfortunately it wont let me set the phone memory card as the music root folder.  Is there an issue with MusicBee or am I doing something wrong?

[Steven]

memory cards arent supported for synching at the moment and someone else also has already raised this.
Could you confirm - on the left navigator bar, when your drill down on the Storage folder under the device, can you see the memory card that way?

[V4lve]

Yes.  Both the phone memory and memory cards are available in the "storage folder".

[Steven]

the other person who requested support for memory cards indicated the external storage was at the root level under the device icon eg.
- Music Library
- Podcasts
- Storage
  - folder 1
  - ...
- External Card
  - folder 1
  - ...

could you confirm just so i am sure. Its just my MTP device doesnt have an external card so there is a bit of guesswork for me to implement this

[V4lve]

Hi Steven.

No.  My Sony Ericsson is different.  Under the icon for my phone (Meep) there are two devices listed.  "Storage" (phone) and "Memory Stick".  Each has it's own set of sub folders.  Both of which include "music".

e.g.

Meep
-Storage
---music
---etc
-Memory
---music
---other
---etc

You can find a screenshot here

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/133297/devices.jpg

[V4lve]

Now I look at my reply I realise I should have said yes (the device/folder schemes we have drawn are the same) and to clarify that this problem is in MTP mode only.  I can set the path to memory card in MSC mode but this is not as convenient for me as it disables the phone while in that mode.

[Steven]

looking at the code its not obvious to me why this wouldnt work - you can see the memory card storage on the left navigator in MTP mode and i assume if you drilled down into the folders you would see the music files.

So in order to have the files from your library synched to the storage card, in the 'Device Preferences' screen (right click on the device icon) you should be able to set the 'music root folder' to:
Meep\Memory Stick (TM)\music\

Did you try that? Its important to have the device name (Meep in your case) as the first part of the path
I suspect playlists probably wont work though but i can't see why it wouldnt let you synch music to the card

[devdon]

The behavior of V4lve's device seems to be the same as mine based on the description.

I use the "Auto Detect" setting for MTP/MSC on my sansa fuze. I don't know the difference and when I mess with it something else seems to break so I leave it as is. Auto Detect is the default factory setting and I would like to leave this setting as is if possible.

[V4lve]

looking at the code its not obvious to me why this wouldnt work - you can see the memory card storage on the left navigator in MTP mode and i assume if you drilled down into the folders you would see the music files.

So in order to have the files from your library synched to the storage card, in the 'Device Preferences' screen (right click on the device icon) you should be able to set the 'music root folder' to:
Meep\Memory Stick (TM)\music\

Did you try that? Its important to have the device name (Meep in your case) as the first part of the path
I suspect playlists probably wont work though but i can't see why it wouldnt let you synch music to the card

Yes.  I did try that.  When I enter "Meep\Memory Stick (TM)\music\" save and return to the setting it has chosen the path "Meep\Phone Memory\(TM)\music\".  I recall it complaining once that the path "Meep\Memory Stick (TM)\music\" didnt exist and showed the little red icon. But cant repeat that now.

[V4lve]

Interestingly I am able to drag stuff into the folders directly

[Steven]

i thought that would be the case. I think the quickest way to get to the bottom of why its not letting you specify the memory card for synching is to give you a debug version as i cant see why it wouldnt work from reviewing the code. I'll try and do that tonight

[Steven]

here's the debug version:
http://www.mediafire.com/?m4acjvzwj1y

if you right click the device and open the settings screen, then attempt to set the path to the memory card as described before - it will still refuse to accept the path as before, but it will log entries to the error log. Just go to View/ Error Log and send me the entries for today. I'll PM you both my email address as it might be quicker

[Steven]

anyone you want to use memory cards on your MTP device for synching, this should fix it:
http://www.mediafire.com/?hajhnzzwgxn

however i still need to get playlists working correctly when not synching to the primary storage folder on your device.

[V4lve]

Ok.

Been playing with this for a while now.  Works really well.  Thanks.

few minor things.

Takes a while to scan for music on my phone (Please wait, loading).  Sometimes it gives up and claims there is nothing to find.
Occasionally MusicBee stops completely.
One one of my computers I need to re start MusicBee for it to see my phone (same with iPod).

BTW I love the way it allows me to drag stuff between iPod and my phone.

[Steven]

in the error log you sent me, i noticed that windows was sometimes returning a 'catastrophic failure' error when trying to access the storage folders on the device. In that circumstance i'm flagging the device as inaccessible so thats why you dont see the device in some cases.
Do you use any other software to sync to your phone (excluding software by the manufacturer)? I'm wondering if it also has the same sort of problems. Its just a straight windows api call i'm making so i'm not sure what i could do to resolve.