Zune.net
Started by Hondaride30 at 11/3/2009 01:58:41. Topic has 13 replies.
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Join Date: 5/15/2008 02:23:29

Posts: 17

11/3/2009 01:58:41
Does anyone know how to do this??
Presently, I have my Zune and my wife's Zune which both sync from the same library.  I have her's set up to only sync certain music, while everything gets synced with my Zune.

The problem:  I am about to upgrade to Windows 7. 

Does anyone know how I could in some way export a list of all the media that is on my wife's Zune?  This way I would not be guessing what to re-sync with my wife's Zune once I reinstall the software on Windows 7.

It doesn't matter to me what format it's exported in (Word, Excel, Notepad), but it would be nice to have some type of list that I can reference when re-adding music to her Zune.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

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Join Date: 12/19/2007 04:57:20

Posts: 2,946

11/3/2009 03:24:27
re: Does anyone know how to do this??
Make a playlist of the songs. When her Zune is connected, you can easily identify them.
You can open the playlist with Notepad, but I think you could sync the songs simply by syncing the playlist.

[note]
File paths of the songs should be the same, or the playlist may not work properly.
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Join Date: 5/15/2008 02:23:29

Posts: 17

11/3/2009 03:48:54
re: Does anyone know how to do this??
 x264movies wrote:
Make a playlist of the songs. When her Zune is connected, you can easily identify them.
You can open the playlist with Notepad, but I think you could sync the songs simply by syncing the playlist.

[note]
File paths of the songs should be the same, or the playlist may not work properly.


Thanks very much for your suggestion--it's much appreciated, but that too requires me to comb through 8,500 or so songs to find the 1,200 or so that are on her Zune and create the playlist.

I've tried looking in the App Data files for my Windows profile, looking in Program Files, and looking in the registry.  I was hoping I could just open up some type of file in Notepad and save it.  That information has to be stored somewhere, but I cannot for the life of me find it.  I work in IT  for a living, and this is driving me NUTS!

Thanks again.
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Join Date: 12/19/2007 04:57:20

Posts: 2,946

11/3/2009 04:27:18
re: Does anyone know how to do this??
 Hondaride30 wrote:
 x264movies wrote:
Make a playlist of the songs. When her Zune is connected, you can easily identify them.
You can open the playlist with Notepad, but I think you could sync the songs simply by syncing the playlist.

[note]
File paths of the songs should be the same, or the playlist may not work properly.


Thanks very much for your suggestion--it's much appreciated, but that too requires me to comb through 8,500 or so songs to find the 1,200 or so that are on her Zune and create the playlist.

I've tried looking in the App Data files for my Windows profile, looking in Program Files, and looking in the registry.  I was hoping I could just open up some type of file in Notepad and save it.  That information has to be stored somewhere, but I cannot for the life of me find it.  I work in IT  for a living, and this is driving me NUTS!

Thanks again.
Well, the database file (ZuneStore.sdf) is at:
C:\Documents and Settings\(your user name)\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Zune
[note] I'm still using XP.
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Join Date: 12/19/2007 04:57:20

Posts: 2,946

11/3/2009 04:41:37
re: Does anyone know how to do this??
I've got another idea (to make the playlist).

If you are formatting the system disk, before doing that,
1) change the sync option to "Manual sync" or the guest mode ("FORGET THIS PLAYER")
2) empty your collection
3) reverse-sync all of the songs from her Zune
4) make a playlist of all songs
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Join Date: 5/15/2008 02:23:29

Posts: 17

11/3/2009 13:18:57
re: Does anyone know how to do this??
 x264movies wrote:
 Hondaride30 wrote:
 x264movies wrote:
Make a playlist of the songs. When her Zune is connected, you can easily identify them.
You can open the playlist with Notepad, but I think you could sync the songs simply by syncing the playlist.

[note]
File paths of the songs should be the same, or the playlist may not work properly.


Thanks very much for your suggestion--it's much appreciated, but that too requires me to comb through 8,500 or so songs to find the 1,200 or so that are on her Zune and create the playlist.

I've tried looking in the App Data files for my Windows profile, looking in Program Files, and looking in the registry.  I was hoping I could just open up some type of file in Notepad and save it.  That information has to be stored somewhere, but I cannot for the life of me find it.  I work in IT  for a living, and this is driving me NUTS!

Thanks again.
Well, the database file (ZuneStore.sdf) is at:
C:\Documents and Settings\(your user name)\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Zune
[note] I'm still using XP.


Thanks for the info. I will try opening the .sdf file in Notepad after work today.  I'm not sure if I already tried that or not.  I may not have because I do remember seeing that file and based on its name, I thought it may have something to do with the Marketplace.

I too am thinking the information is stored under my user name/Windows profile on the machine vs. Program Files.  It is a bit different in Vista, but I know where to find my user folder, I just hope I can retrieve that information from it.

Thanks again.
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Join Date: 11/16/2007 08:47:55

Posts: 3,107

11/3/2009 16:40:08
re: Does anyone know how to do this??

The SDF file is a proprietary database... it's where all your Zune settings, collection, etc. is stored.  Notepad wouldn't be a good idea.

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Join Date: 5/15/2008 02:23:29

Posts: 17

11/3/2009 17:09:13
re: Does anyone know how to do this??
 gr0mmet wrote:

The SDF file is a proprietary database... it's where all your Zune settings, collection, etc. is stored.  Notepad wouldn't be a good idea.


OK, thanks for the warning.  I'll probably make a copy of it to my desktop and then try to open it, or even better yet, just copy that file to the same directory of the PC once it's rebuilt.
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Join Date: 12/8/2007 20:43:37

Posts: 10,130

V

11/3/2009 17:15:30
re: Does anyone know how to do this??
 gr0mmet wrote:

The SDF file is a proprietary database... it's where all your Zune settings, collection, etc. is stored.  Notepad wouldn't be a good idea.

Hondaride30-
Yes, this is good advice... the point is not to make any changes and not to save the file even if you make no changes.
If you want to experiment a bit with the zunestore file, I'd suggest trying it this way:
1) copy and save the zunestore file.
2) migrate your content to the PC after installing Win7 and try to replicate your folder structure to match what it was originally.
3) install the zune software, set your monitored folders and let the software 'find' your collection.  It's actually building a zunestore file as it does this.
4) Shut down the software.  Find that new zunestore file, rename it to zunestore.bak, and copy the saved zunestore into that same location.
5) Start up the software and see if all your settings transferred correctly.  check every setting that you can before connecting a device.
Good luck!  Remember, this is an experiment -I certainly don't know if a Win7 based zunestore is any different from an XP version...so this may or may not work.  If it fails, go back to the win7 backup...the risk is low, other than if it fails you will have to rebuild your wife's sync arrangements.
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Join Date: 5/15/2008 02:23:29

Posts: 17

11/3/2009 19:15:07
re: Does anyone know how to do this??
NSILMike,

thanks for the advice, and I will try the above also.  I hadn't until today realized that those settings are stored within the zunestore file.  I do have a spare PC that I use for testing environments; I may try it on that.

I will post back with what will hopefully be a success story.  I won't be installing Windows 7 yet for a couple days, though

More suggestions are still welcome!  If I screw something up the hard drive is getting wiped with 0's in a few days anyway.

Thanks again.
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Join Date: 10/20/2009 22:45:17

Posts: 9

11/3/2009 20:40:30
re: Does anyone know how to do this??
Not sure about this but could you reverse Sync your wife's music back to the library (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948835/en-us). This would copy the songs back - what I am not sure is would it keep the sync settings though I would expect it to.
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Join Date: 5/15/2008 02:23:29

Posts: 17

11/4/2009 00:13:54
re: Does anyone know how to do this??
Success!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First of all, thank you all for the replies!

I have Windows 7 installed on a spare PC for testing.
I did the following:

-Attached my external hard drive to the PC and installed the Zune software.

-All of my music is on this external drive (backed up).  Once installed, I pointed the Zune software to the music directories on the external drive.

-I let the Zune software import the library just as you normally would.  Then I CLOSED THE ZUNE SOFTWARE.

-Once finished, I copied over my network the Zune folder from the following path:  C:\Users\****\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Zune from my 'real' computer .  This is essentially the same folder listed in an above post for XP, but this is the path for Vista/Windows 7.  I renamed the existing Zune folder to zuneold before I copied.

-I relaunched the Zune software, and it took about 20 minutes to fully update the library.  In the process, both mine and my wife's Zune appeared in the device section of the software.  As it was updating the library, I could toggle back and forth between Zunes (lower-left corner) and it correctly showed what music was on my Zune, and on my wife's Zune.

-Once the library was finished updating, I connected my wife's Zune.  It knew what it was right away, and synced without issue.  It did not add or delete anything from it!

Some notes:

I tested several things before I came to the above conclusions.  Simply copying the ZuneStore.sdf file did not suffice.  Some album art was missing.  Copying the entire Zune directory did the trick and was the only thing that worked.  Also, the file structure on my external drive is completely different than that of my main PC.  Despite the different file structure, everything worked fine.

Thanks to everyone for pointing me in the right direction!


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