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music syncing as Unknown artist/album

6K views 16 replies 4 participants last post by  melsmusic 
#1 ·
Hi, as 73 silver surfer my only pleasure is music,have a Toshiba Satellite C870 laptop m/s 10 64 bit and WMP/12. i bought Note 8 and 200gb mcsd card to add more music but now after i have ripped cd to comp using WMP/MUSICBEE/EXACT COPY all info ie cover art, Artist, Track titles etc is all there, however after i sync cd/tracks to card in phone or in caddy in Usb port the music turns up as "unknown" artist/year/title and no cover art, have spent weeks trying to solve asking loads of young people/wiki how/Google/M/S community etc, to no avail, suspect problem is with phone,not media players but am close to pulling out last, very little remaining hair, and would be most grateful for all tips/any assistance that anyone can offer to solve problem. Thanks in anticipation. mel.
 
#3 ·
I see you have a Galaxy Note 8. How are you syncing the music?

For my Android devices I copy straight out of my Music library on the computer to a Music folder I've created on the microSD card, and have never had problems. It could be the sync software is somehow omitting the Artist metadata. Try doing a straight copy using Windows File Explorer from your music library under Windows to the folder where you wish to place the music on your MicroSD card to see if the result is any different.
 
#5 ·
briteguy. Hi. Thanks for your reply, first i must ask for your patience as i am having so much difficulty learning the terms and trying to understand things, i regret i do not really understand a lot of your e mail, so to clarify and assist i would ask you to think of me as a parrot that learns words by mimicking without knowing their meaning, so to advise further,in order,
1) i don,t know how to create a folder,i just use WMP and default folder.
2)i formatted card on phone.
3)i attach phone to comp by usb to both 2 and 3 ports.
4)i ripped cd by all 3 m/players and all info is on comp and click on file location to confirm, all there incl cover art,
5)on WMP r/s click synch, both phone and card show up L/S at bottom of menu and on R/S pane, in R/S if phone shows i click,next device,and card shows saying approx 183GB available.
6) i drag album (i just found ltd ed Peter Gabriel re mast 3cd b/set of SO. with 2cds of Live in Athens. great) across to R/S pane ,shows as synch list, and i click synch now, 30 secs it appears on phone in both Samsung Music and Google play but all as "unknown" except track titles which are correct.
I regret i do not know how to do, as you suggest, a copy using File Explorer , nor how to create folder on mcsd card i will see if i can find a video on utube, i only want to use the mcsd solely for music and music videos.
If this helps pinpoint where i,m going wrong and you are prepared to offer further advice please accept my thanks in anticipation. all the best.mel
 
#6 ·
I shall try my best to get you through this. We were all beginners once, including myself.

Unless someone has done reconfiguration on Windows Media Player, when you rip your CDs all of the resulting music files will end up in your Music library. The first thing to do is open File Explorer, then your Music library, and take a look at what's there. You have not mentioned what file format you are ripping to, and I cannot for the life of me recall what the default is for Windows Media Player. I have only used MP3 format for years and years now and know that I needed to tweak a setting in Windows Media Player to get that to happen. You will probably have a different extension on your individual music tracks than MP3 if you've used the default.

When your phone is attached to the computer, are you not able to see it listed in File Explorer? It should show up just like a thumb drive or other device would when it's attached. If you then double click to open it, you will most likely see two virtual drives shown: internal storage and the microSD card. I cannot say exactly what they will be called because different Android versions use slightly different names, but they're generally pretty obvious. I then double click on the drive for the microSD card to open it and, once open, right click on the white space somewhere in the File Explorer and choose New->Folder from the context menu and name that folder "Music" (for obvious reasons). [All of this presumes that your phone is connected such that Android is allowing file transfers. When you first plug it in you should get a pop-up message saying something like, "Connected for charging," or "Connected for file transfer," and if it's not the latter then tap on that message and choose file transfer from the list so that Android will allow you to copy things over.]

Open a separate File Explorer window and navigate to your Music library on your computer. You can then drag and drop files/folders over to the File Explorer window for the Music folder on your phone.

I find using conventional drag and drop, and file management such as deleting what I no longer want on the phone, via File Explorer to be easier and faster than using the sync feature in any media player. If you drag over the folders to copy them all the album art, etc., that WMP fetches for the album gets copied over, too. I seldom copy single tracks.
 
#7 ·
*just wanted to add that WMP defaults to WMA. You have to manually change it to mp3.

Musicbee likely has a better interface for ripping CD's than WMP (especially as WMP can longer lookup CD info). I was looking at Musicbee but decided on MediaMonkey instead.
 
#8 ·
*just wanted to add that WMP defaults to WMA. You have to manually change it to mp3.

. . . (especially as WMP can longer lookup CD info).
Thanks for the format information; I was almost certain it was a proprietary format.

But, Windows Media Player is certainly still looking up CD info just fine here. My partner has been gleefully ripping a collection of CDs and all the album art, track names, etc., are still being looked up just fine.
 
#9 ·
briteguy. Hi Thanks. I must first advise i received an e mail in my spam with your very useful comments so i replied, clicking on reply button with further info and sent another, a short time ago and got a ticking off for not posting to the forum, so to clarify, I DON,T KNOW WHAT OR UNDERSTAND WHAT I,M DOING.
Coudn,t find tutorial on Utube or wikihow all related to Video/Pictures.
RE your post when i set up i used WAV LOSSLESS ,slow rip, best quality, the note 8 gave me an audiometric test via my headphones and optimised itself to me(amazing)
I don,t mind the large file size as i have 1TB H/D, as music my only pleasure and I have more money than sense,want to not know what i,m doing but doing it with good gear.
Have never heard of nor used File Explorer, Everyone said WMP dead easy,? so followed your precise instructions, created new folder (melsmusic) dragged P Gs Live in Athens to it, all info in folder and it synched to card in phone as Unknown Artist/year, no cover art but tracks listed correctly. sorry briteguy no criticism whatsoever of you or instructions, just fact.
I use the library of Birmingham and a young guy there recommended Musicbee but it didn,t work ,also it didn,t transfer cover art for the cds already ripped and takes long time to get off net.
Starting to feel problems the phone not,pc, but am transferring by Media transfer in phones menu although phone does still charge at same time?.
Any further suggestions re where i,m going wrong or other options very gratefully received. all the best. mel.
 
#10 ·
Not to be nasty or snarky, but it is difficult to get through this if Windows basics, which using File Explorer (formerly Windows Explorer) is, has to be explained. This web search, https://duckduckgo.com/?q=windows+explorer+basics, returns many tutorials, including video ones, on using File Explorer/Windows Explorer. You need to acquaint yourself with it, as using Windows without knowing it is tying your own hands.

You say:
so followed your precise instructions, created new folder (melsmusic) dragged P Gs Live in Athens to it, all info in folder and it synched to card in phone as Unknown Artist/year, no cover art but tracks listed correctly. sorry briteguy no criticism whatsoever of you or instructions, just fact.
Something is off here, as I do not want any sync function involved at all. I am telling you to use a straight copy and paste, or the same done via drag and drop, from within File Explorer. Windows Media Player's sync function is not involved in any way, shape or form.

Based on your comment,
but am transferring by Media transfer in phones menu although phone does still charge at same time
, I can assure you that the phone will also charge when connected for media transfer. This is an "add on" permission, so to speak, but allowing it does not deactivate charging, which occurs whenever the phone is connected to a computer or charger.
 
#11 ·
I've not dealt with wav files, as my music has always been for an iPod or USB stick for use in a car so I stick with the traditional mp3 format. As you are putting this on a phone, I'd say that you are wasting storage space for quality that you will never hear. Having said that, I don't believe that wav files store data in the same way as an mp3 file (or at least not in the same format). So it's possible, that whatever media player that you are using on your phone simply can't read that information. Most media players are geared toward mp3 or wma. The information that you are "missing", is part of the file. So it's more likely that the player can't read said information, than it is that the phone is stripping that data out of the file (unless whatever "sync" process you are using is stripping it out).
 
#12 ·
Not to be nasty or snarky, but it is difficult to get through this if Windows basics, which using File Explorer (formerly Windows Explorer) is, has to be explained. This web search, https://duckduckgo.com/?q=windows+explorer+basics, returns many tutorials, including video ones, on using File Explorer/Windows Explorer. You need to acquaint yourself with it, as using Windows without knowing it is tying your own hands.

You say:

Something is off here, as I do not want any sync function involved at all. I am telling you to use a straight copy and paste, or the same done via drag and drop, from within File Explorer. Windows Media Player's sync function is not involved in any way, shape or form.

Based on your comment, , I can assure you that the phone will also charge when connected for media transfer. This is an "add on" permission, so to speak, but allowing it does not deactivate charging, which occurs whenever the phone is connected to a computer or charger.
briteguy. Hi. Thanks. Out all day. no offence taken i realise depth of my ignorance, i use DDG myself so will do as you say and read up and try to learn, i was told WMP so easy to use.
I think i used wrong term, Pretty Polly, when i attached phone to pc in File Explorer as you said when expanded L/S menu both phone and card appeared and as you instructed clicked on card and then music list which was also on L/S, created folder named it and then dragged PG out of list to folder, phone was still attached by USB to pc and window appeared and FE said moving to card, green bar moved across and said finished? i thought that was called synch, i wasn,t using WMP.
Cd still ended up In Samsung music on phone/card as Unknown. artist/year also, but Sound great, Momentum H/Ps
I regret i am struggling to understand, re Paste/Copy and Drag/Drop but i tried to follow your step by step instructions precisely and thought i had, which is why i was so disappointed it didn,t work.
I have a small caddy which the mcsd fits in to insert in a USB port and also the adapter for the pc slot and was going to try your procedure without attaching the phone to the pc but will now read the tutorial first and try to learn more, as i clearly need to. Thanks again.
All the best. mel.
 
#13 ·
I've not dealt with wav files, as my music has always been for an iPod or USB stick for use in a car so I stick with the traditional mp3 format. As you are putting this on a phone, I'd say that you are wasting storage space for quality that you will never hear. Having said that, I don't believe that wav files store data in the same way as an mp3 file (or at least not in the same format). So it's possible, that whatever media player that you are using on your phone simply can't read that information. Most media players are geared toward mp3 or wma. The information that you are "missing", is part of the file. So it's more likely that the player can't read said information, than it is that the phone is stripping that data out of the file (unless whatever "sync" process you are using is stripping it out).
Oddba11. Hi. Thanks for your post, re the phone it came with Samsung music and Google Play i have not installed any other M/P. the ones i refer to are on my pc for ripping the cds.
Well your probably right about sound as i,m 73 i,ve lost level of hearing but the sound quality is impressive.
I can only hope that someone else has had and solved this problem.
Thanks. All the best.mel.
 
#14 ·
I suspect that @Oddba11 is correct in that the Windows Proprietary file format does not store the album metadata or album art in a way that the vast majority of devices that are not Windows based recognize correctly.

I would try modifying your WMP rip settings to use MP3 then rip something new, and see if the same result presents itself when you sync that over via the WMP sync feature or by straight copying.

I also have to say that you are taking the right attitude about educating yourself in the areas where you have deficiencies. We were all in that position once, and when it comes to forums like this one, those of us on "the helping side" in a given discussion have to be able to either assume some basic level of proficiency or to get honest feedback from the questioner when that proficiency is lacking. I always presume that anyone here has at least basic proficiency with Windows functions, including File Explorer (or Windows Explorer on older versions of Windows) and that this is not something I will have to explain. If it turns out someone doesn't, I can point them to many, many tutorials regarding virtually any topic regarding using Windows, but I don't write tutorials when I know that many exist already that would be better than anything I could write.

By the way, if you do end up going with MP3 file format, there are issues not caused by the file format but by any conversion from CD audio to other digital file formats where volume levels between albums can vary, and widely, as you play music in shuffle mode. You can find yourself constantly reaching for the volume knob as you go from song to song. In the case of MP3, there is a great open-source utility I have been using for years to get around this: MP3Gain. It adjusts the relative volumes on MP3 files such that they are consistent across ripped albums and is easy to use (there are tutorials at the site). It makes listening to ripped MP3 media, whether via headset or on speakers, a much more pleasant experience if you're someone who uses shuffle mode or makes the digital equivalent of the mix tape: a playlist.
 
#15 ·
briteguy. Hi. Thanks. you are so efficient. found your e mail in spam.
Just to explain am recovering from 2 ops and whilst this should have meant lots of time to deal,reality difficult. would have thought Samsung would have optimised for use with WMP.
Thank you for your further advice i will try MP3 in both WMP and FE but have to go out tomorrow and physio Tuesday so will post a s a p when have learnt more and tried your new idea, thanks for tip re MP3 Gain.
I go back to Buddy Holly and so many artists, one hit wonders etc so would create playlist for Singles as well as albums but mainly i listen to albums, and at max phone volume which is of course only 85 dba.
My thanks again to both you and oddba11 for your help. all the best.mel.
 
#17 ·
Briteguy. HI Thanks.
i appreciate your continued support, have spent time on utube and tutorials as suggested, have to advise struggling to progress, its like learning a new language but without a translating dictionary so i,m basically having to repeat watch and write out glossary/vocabulary to refer to, can,t rely on memory. so just wanted to explain silence.
will get back when able to converse properly,might be some time, ps no need to respond, appreciate your help, all the best.mel
 
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