Sync issue with MP3's

[jamers1]

I found a couple small bugs in the Sync when playing MP3's off a USB. I have an 8gb USB Flash Drive. I have close to 100 Artists and 1500 songs stored on it so far.

 

Bug #1

If you know how a MP3 files works, you know that file contains additional data which can be modified buy the user from your file. (right click on file, choose Properties) Anyway, the file time I copied my music to the flash drive I had some of the Artist names set incorrectly. i.e. had some songs under Matchbox 20 and some under Matchbox Twenty Well this caused Sync to display 2 separate artists in the artists list for Matchbox 20. I corrected the files on my PC and replaced them on the USB flash drive. I actually made corrections to about 4 or 5 other artists too. I completely deleted the old files off the flash drive and recopied them. To my surprise, the Sync system still should the various spelling the artists. I performed a Master Reset in the settings menus and also restored factory defaults. Turned the system on/off. Removed and re-inserting the USB flash drive. Nothing seems to work. It seems the artist list index was cached onto the Sync's internal hard drive and I can find a way to clear it. I inserted a different USB flash with different music and it read it fine. Re-inserted my original and still had the original artist list with the misspelled artist’s names.

 

Bug #2

I had nearly 1500 songs on the USB flash drive yet the Sync system on displays 766. This is when I tell it to Play All and/or have it on shuffle mode. I think the very first time I insert it I may have only had 766 songs but now I have 1500. It's seems to shows all the artists and songs if I do a manually search and play by Genre but the Play All doesn’t seem to register all the songs. Very odd.

 

We need a place to report these bugs to Ford/Microsoft so they can get it correct in the next system update. I don't see any feedback links on the syncmyride.com website.

[jaysonol]

Bug #2

I had nearly 1500 songs on the USB flash drive yet the Sync system on displays 766. This is when I tell it to Play All and/or have it on shuffle mode. I think the very first time I insert it I may have only had 766 songs but now I have 1500. It's seems to shows all the artists and songs if I do a manually search and play by Genre but the Play All doesn’t seem to register all the songs. Very odd.

 

We need a place to report these bugs to Ford/Microsoft so they can get it correct in the next system update. I don't see any feedback links on the syncmyride.com website.

 

I wonder if any of the songs are DRM protected? I could be wrong, but I understand that some songs that are DRM protected will not play on devices it was not 'originally' downloaded too. The file may show up, but some quirky bit flips and says 'No play'.

 

Are you saying that manually searched songs will play?

[jamers1]

I'm pretty sure DRM is not the issue. Besides, some of the problems I'm having is with the artist name not displaying correctly even after I've changed it.

[07 MKX]

I'm pretty sure DRM is not the issue. Besides, some of the problems I'm having is with the artist name not displaying correctly even after I've changed it.

 

 

http://www.fordedgeforum.com/index.php?sho...amp;#entry11097

[Marcus (Microsoft)]

Hello jamers1,

 

Simply put, SYNC determines whether a "new" device is inserted and when to pick up things like the metadata changes when it notices that a significant change in size has occured on the device. In your case, changes to the artist name may not have been a large enough change to trigger SYNC to "reindex" and pick up the changes. If files are added or removed, or if you remove the old index by performing a Master Reset, you should notice that SYNC in synchronized with the changes you've made.

 

Also, it may be helpful to ensure that all the metadata on your media reflects your changes. MP3/WMA files have multiple fields for Artist metadata. These are named "Artist", "Album Artist", "Contributing Artist" and so on. You may want to check these fields to make sure they reflect your expected information if the comments I made above do not help to resolve your media issue.

 

I hope the information I've provided here is helpful.

[johnz]

Marcus,

 

Is there an issue with using all capital letters in the track, artist or album names? The reason I ask, is in another thread, someone couldnt call up his address book on his phone and finally found out it was due to all caps. Does this apply to the MP3 players as well?

 

That would be really good to know.

 

Also, any idea what the 'significant size change' would be? I don't want to perform a master reset after the phones are paired, so I would rather add or delete 'dummy tracks' if need be to trigger a re-index.

 

Jamers1,

 

How did you get a track count? Did you get sync to somehow display the number of tracks?

 

Thanks.

 

John

 

 

Hello jamers1,

 

Simply put, SYNC determines whether a "new" device is inserted and when to pick up things like the metadata changes when it notices that a significant change in size has occured on the device. In your case, changes to the artist name may not have been a large enough change to trigger SYNC to "reindex" and pick up the changes. If files are added or removed, or if you remove the old index by performing a Master Reset, you should notice that SYNC in synchronized with the changes you've made.

 

Also, it may be helpful to ensure that all the metadata on your media reflects your changes. MP3/WMA files have multiple fields for Artist metadata. These are named "Artist", "Album Artist", "Contributing Artist" and so on. You may want to check these fields to make sure they reflect your expected information if the comments I made above do not help to resolve your media issue.

 

I hope the information I've provided here is helpful.

[jamers1]

It shouldn't be a case issue. I have the first letter capitalized and the rest lower case. Nothing is in all upper case. As for the MP3 metadata fields, below is a screen capture showing the data I can and have modified. I don't see any options to put in more than one artist.

 

 

I have try the Factory Defaults and Master Reset shown below but the cached indexing files did not appear to be reset.

 

 

Here is a screen capture showing both the fact that Sync is only recognizing 776 songs and also that it is incorrectly displaying the Artist's name from a cached index. The USB actually had 1404 songs. I think it's displaying 776 because that was the # of songs I had on the USB flash drive the very first time I ever inserted it into Sync. Also, I know for a fact the the Artist's name in a few case had variations in the spelling but I have since corrected.

 

[rmwill]

I was missing a large number of mine until I discovered that if they were missing any data in the Artist, Album or Genere fields, SYNC would not see them. After cleaning up my tags, all of my music is now seen by SYNC.

 

It shouldn't be a case issue. I have the first letter capitalized and the rest lower case. Nothing is in all upper case. As for the MP3 metadata fields, below is a screen capture showing the data I can and have modified. I don't see any options to put in more than one artist.

 

 

I have try the Factory Defaults and Master Reset shown below but the cached indexing files did not appear to be reset.

 

 

Here is a screen capture showing both the fact that Sync is only recognizing 776 songs and also that it is incorrectly displaying the Artist's name from a cached index. The USB actually had 1404 songs. I think it's displaying 776 because that was the # of songs I had on the USB flash drive the very first time I ever inserted it into Sync. Also, I know for a fact the the Artist's name in a few case had variations in the spelling but I have since corrected.

 

[jamers1]

OK I figured it out. First of all the Track reading provided by Sync was accurate. For some reason I am getting a false reading from within Windows Explorer. Anyway, something Marcus said got me thinking that maybe there was more metadata tag info associated with the MP3 file then I was seeing using Windows Explorer. So I downloaded a basic metadata tag editor and removed the tags from Dave Matthews band. (listed as Dave Matthews and also Dave Matthews Band) I manually re-added the Artist, Title, Album info using Windows Explorer. I replaced the MP3's on the USB flash drive with the newly modified ones and performed a Master Reset and all is correct now. The list comes up correctly. I have a few others I still need to correct like Matchbox 20 and Matchbox Twenty but at this point I can officially say it working as expected. This was not really a bug but rather a situation where unexpected results were produced based on Sync reading additional metadata tag info. I dare say most novice Sync users would never have been able to figure this one out on their own. Thanks for the help. Now I can go back to troubleshooting my inconsistent volume levels in Sync. Other thread.

Edited November 19, 2007 by jamers1

[Marcus (Microsoft)]

Marcus,

 

Is there an issue with using all capital letters in the track, artist or album names? The reason I ask, is in another thread, someone couldnt call up his address book on his phone and finally found out it was due to all caps. Does this apply to the MP3 players as well?

 

That would be really good to know.

 

Also, any idea what the 'significant size change' would be? I don't want to perform a master reset after the phones are paired, so I would rather add or delete 'dummy tracks' if need be to trigger a re-index.

 

Jamers1,

 

How did you get a track count? Did you get sync to somehow display the number of tracks?

 

Thanks.

 

John

 

Hello John,

 

Regarding capital letters, the issue is not that the contacts or media files containing capital letters did not get added to SYNC's phonebook or media index. Rather, the experience some users were having was the result of the speech systems logic around acronyms. For example, a contact named "DOG" would be accessible if the user said "dee oh gee" because SYNC interprets the captilized word as an acronym. A contact named "Dog" would be accessible if the user said "Dog". "LA" is not "la", it's "el ay", and so on.

 

Regarding the definition of a significant change, adding or removing one or two tracks should be enough to trigger a reindex in most cases.

 

Thanks,

Marcus

[johnz]

Hello John,

 

Regarding capital letters, the issue is not that the contacts or media files containing capital letters did not get added to SYNC's phonebook or media index. Rather, the experience some users were having was the result of the speech systems logic around acronyms. For example, a contact named "DOG" would be accessible if the user said "dee oh gee" because SYNC interprets the captilized word as an acronym. A contact named "Dog" would be accessible if the user said "Dog". "LA" is not "la", it's "el ay", and so on.

 

Regarding the definition of a significant change, adding or removing one or two tracks should be enough to trigger a reindex in most cases.

 

Thanks,

Marcus

 

Thanks again Marcus,

 

That explains why the tracks were there, but I couldnt access via voice commands. All fixed now. Good info on the re-indexing too.

 

Thanks to jamers1's pictures, I know why I cant see the track count (dont have the NAV screen).

 

Regards,

John