Post Your Sync Issues Here

Hi again,

I launched the software and unselected the auto-update of media.  I have followed all the procedures for removing the existing tags on the songs, by "copy", "remove" (many times to make sure they were all gone), and "paste" using UTF-ISO.  Then I changed the mp3 folders to be "Read-only".  I erased everything in the device, reformatted it.  Launched the software waited for it to update all the albums and song names according to the newly written tags.  I synced the whole device.  Rebooted the computer. Launced again.  Unfortunately, and this is a big unfortunately, the software still syncs that 42 group of songs over and over again.

Do we have another option?

Thanks for the help.

Forget one moment about Zune Software (close it) and open Windows Media Player. Be sure that auto-update is disabled even in WMP...add your folders to WMP and see if it recognizes the right number of songs and in the right place.
If you want completely solve, the drastical way (drastical if you don't have the original CD) is to indirect re-encode those songs. This lead ZS to recognize the new files as actual NEW files.

I didn't see my specific sync-issue in the list from the OP so here goes...  Problem relates to syncing photos onto Zune from a guest computer.

This is on an 80gb Zune btw...  I did not notice any issues with syncing of items in the folders designated from my home (primary) computer but I only had music synced to the Zune.  I set-up the software on the work computer, selected a "picture" folder on the desktop for the software to pull the pictures from, and successfully loaded the pictures to the Zune software.  I then attempted a manual sync to my Zune and came up with the following: (see links to screenshots below)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/phattydre/stuff/picsyncerror1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v175/phattydre/stuff/picsyncerror2.jpg

There is an unknown error which prevented the photos from syncing to my Zune player.

****EDIT****

I have now successfully been able to manually sync the Zune with the work computer - that is to say it worked when I only selected a small hand-full of pictures at a time.  This should not be the fix to this issue though... Still working things out.

lukgunner,

I am not sure if you were referring to my question, but, yes the WMP recognizes the correct number of songs.  What do you mean by re-encode the songs? Re-encode the mp3 files to mp3 files again? Sorry, I am not very familiar with the technical language.

Yes Hordus, you understood! But the conversion must be done indirectly..MP3 to WAV and then WAV to MP3, or to any other format less lossy than mp3, i suggest AAC(m4a). There are many software to do that, Nero Burning Rom, Mediacoder, GermaniX Transcoder....

This is not a real solution, you can move the original mp3 in a safe place, in a folder not been monitored by ZS, so you can replace when Zune Software will be less buggy.

My advise is to transcode only a couple of files, replace the old ones with the new ones (obviously you have to re-tag the new files), rebuild catalog and see if the situation is better for those songs.

lukgunner,

I have 9000 songs.  That would be really time consuming.  In addition, you are suggesting to convert mp3 to wav first, and then from wav to any other format that is less lossy, such as AAC.  Apart from the time this would take for 9000 songs, mp3 is the worst of all three types you mentioned: WAV, MP3, AAC (in terms of the "information" lost).  Since the songs are already in the mp3 format, the frequency range that would have been available in the AAC or WAV format has already been lost.  Therefore, conversion to the AAC in the end would make no difference at all as opposed to mp3.  I do not see the reason to first convert them to WAV because of a similar argument.  You cannot simply bring back the lost information anyway, or can you? Do you understand what I am saying?

All my previous sync issues (there's a thread under 'device') are mostly solved and come down to this one question: how do I tell the software to compress my files when syncing? Most of my music is ripped in Windows Media Lossless, which makes them huge. I managed to get my zune syncing again, but it can only take half of my music before filling up. Please tell me that the new version of the software doesn't just slap the files on there as is. I'm not buying an 80Gb Zune just because they won't give me the option of sacrificing a little quality. Thank you for any help you may give.

Hordus,

I haven't told you to convert 9000 songs...it would be insane! Just only the problematic ones. If you are not able to identify your "bad" songs then I don't really know how to help you.
If you read my post, you could read that this is a drastical solution, I know that transcoding files is bad, and that's why i suggest you to take the originals in a safe place for better days (better for Zune Software). And that's why i suggest to use the BEST lossy format (AAC) and codec (Nero) for audio available at the moment, just to minimize the bad effect of transcoding. (it's hard to put a wav, a flac or any other lossless format in Zune..maybe only WMA Lossless, but i'm not sure, never tried)
I suggest to transcode in WAV (that is lossless) first because all the coding software I tried, used to copy the problematic TAG frame into the new file. Converting to wav is a step to avoid that the "bad tag" is copied into the final file.

Therefore, conversion to the AAC in the end would make no difference at all as opposed to mp3.

Sorry but this is completely wrong. Transcode a file 20 times using the output as source recursively. Do the same with aac, then listen to the differences. Audio compression is not only a frequency "cutter". Psychoacoustic models and compression algorithm are totally different between aac and mp3.

I understand what you are saying.  I forgot to tell you that even though I am able to identify the bad songs, the software selects a different group after a different workaround.  The problematic songs 10 days ago are not the same as today's.  After I uninstalled the software and reinstalled it, the group has changed.  Another example: the problematic group was 200 files after I tried to change the tags to UTF-8.  However, after I changed the tags to UTF-ISO, I have now 42 songs that are problematic that are syncing.  Do you know what causes this?  I removed all their tags in the mp3tag software and added them back.

I will transcode the 42 songs.  I am hoping this will solve the problem this time.

So, in the end you are saying that there will be "error accumulation" in transcoding the original file as output and there is a difference between converting them to aac, as opposed to mp3? I did not know.

I forgot to tell you that even though I am able to identify the bad songs, the software selects a different group after a different workaround.

This is the same situation I passed weeks ago and I feel your pain :-) I had 200 bad songs in the beginning..most of them solved simply re-writing tags. Then reduce from ~40 to ~30 don't remember how, and some "new entry" bad files appeared :-)...patience to understand ZS is over so i transcoded those 30 files....a few new "bad" files appeared...transcoded them as well...problem solved.
The important thing is that you can reduce the number of those bad songs after different workarounds. I tried lots of workarounds and the ultimate solution was to transcode them if any other solutions didn't work.

Do you know what causes this?

Only God and Zune Team (maybe) know that. :-)

So, in the end you are saying that there will be "error accumulation" in transcoding the original file as output

Software just copies good/bad metadata from the source file to the output one. That is confirmed by the fact that the destination file is "already tagged".

there is a difference between converting them to aac, as opposed to mp3? I did not know.

Definitely. You can reach the same quality of the source file (doesn't matter the format, wav or mp3, or the quality) only using lossless codecs (PCM, wma lossless, flac, monkeyaudio, real lossless etc.)...all audio information are preserved! With lossy codec there will be a loss of information in each conversion! To minimize this loss of information you can choose many format, depending on the bitrate/file size you want, but the state of the art today is represent by aac (at low bitrate with aac he v2, and at high bitrate with aac lc profile). Use WMA10pro if you don't want to use AAC, it's supported by Zune as well...mp3 as you already know, is the worst one, but most popular.

 lukgunner wrote:

Do you know what causes this?

Only God and Zune Team (maybe) know that. :-)

Brilliant. There are some things about syncing that just cannot be explained, like 42 other songs deciding to be difficult. I just talked to my brother (who also owns a Zune30) and he's having syncing troubles too. He also wishes he could only portions of his collection. I wonder what happens if someone has a collection larger than 30GB and owns only a Zune30...

In other news I'm back to having more songs on my player than in my Zune collection. Without my device connected, I added 114 tracks and changed the tags of a few others already in my collection. When I synced, and after the add/remove dust settled, I was left with a +2 transaction. I'm not in the mood to remove and resync, because it's getting tiring. Hopefully the soon to arrive December update (thanks for the codec revision BTW) will address these syncing issues.

My latest totals:
Library
Device

Previous Collection Total
Edit: After opening Mp3Tag and recounting, I'm still off by 15 songs too.

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Zune MVP
Contributor, http://www.insidethecircle.net

I tried to put a movie on my Zune, then I found out I did not have enough space, but the software is still trying to sync that movie which means I can't sync anything else...how do I fix this?