mdSync Demo
Click "Add To Playlist"
Click the Desired Special Playlist
mdSync: Fast iTunes to BlackBerry Sync w/ Star-Rating Reverse Sync
30-Nov-2009
mdSync is an iTunes to BlackBerry (Storm) sync utility I wrote because I was dissatisfied with the native BlackBerry Media Sync utility. My two main gripes were that it was 1) unbearably slow and 2) didn't copy videos. It may have been improved recently. I don't know. I have not used it in months. It was harder than I thought to get mdSync working, but it does work well now. I accomplished my first two goals which were to make the sync absolutely as fast as possible and to allow video podcast syncing.
I also added some new functionality that I don't think anyone else offers. Namely, a hack that allow you to rate your songs on your BlackBerry and have it update iTunes automatically on the next sync. Using the same technique I added features where you can change the genre of songs and "uncheck" them in iTunes.
When watching the video remember that I am using a USB1.0 cable and feeding a class-2 SDCard, so that's why the copy speeds are a little slow. They will be faster with a better connection and/or SDCard.
I have only tested this with a BlackBerry Storm, but should with other BlackBerry devices, if they use M3U files for their playlists. If you try it, please contact me and let me know your experience!
To move the app around the screen, mousedown on the command panel and drag. When you mouse down, the app becomes pretty transparent so you can peek behind it. To resize, mousedown on the lower right corner of the green bar at the bottom. Drag and release to resize.
PLAYLIST NOTE:
mdSync syncs playlists. So if you have podcasts, create some "Smart Playlists" in iTunes. Use the "Album Title=" criteria and add the name of the podcast. Don't name your new playlist "Podcasts" because that is a reserved word of sorts. Try something like "PC The Onion" or "PC Escape Pod".
ALBUM ART NOTE:
iTunes music often does not have album art attached. iTunes instead keeps the art in a separate folder, which makes the sync a mess. If necessary, you can embed the album art directly into the music tracks. This is easy with iTunes, but can be time consuming. If your album art is not already embedded into your song files, this is how to do it.
Features
Sync speed
mdSync has been designed to sync as fast as possible. What I mean is that mdSync won't spend needless time on items already synced. It reads the XML file that iTunes updates every time it shuts down. It can't make your hardware work faster, so if you have a USB1.0 device feeding a class 2 SDCard (as I do), the actual copy speeds can be limited. When you perform a sync, there are three stages:
Stage 1
In Stage 1 mdSync looks through all of your selected playlists and reads and catalogs all of the tracks you want to sync. Each track is uniquely identified and that information is held onto by mdSync for the other stages.
State 2
In Stage 2, mdSync looks through all of the tracks currently synced by iterating through the /BlackBerry/Music/Media Sync directory. Each track is examined and compared to the list from Stage 1. If any items are located that are not in the Stage 1 list, they are deleted because they are not in any playlist you have selected to sync.
Stage 3
In Stage 3, mdSync goes through all of the tracks it identified in Stage 1. It checks to see if this track is already synced. If not, it copies the track and adds it to the appropriate playlist. If it is already synced, a comparison of the last modified dates in done. If a newer version of the song is available, it overwrites the old one on the SDCard. The track is always added to the correct playlists.
Once sync is complete, mdSync will tell you when your drive is no longer being used and you can eject your BlackBerry. If you are unsure, you can shut down mdSync then eject your BlackBerry.
Stages 1 and 2 can be accomplished in under a minute or two, even if you have 10gb or so synced. Stage 3 will take as long as it takes to sync your new tracks. If you only have a few songs to add, Stage 3 is also very fast. If you have dozens of long podcasts to sync, then it will take longer due to the file copy times.
Be aware that the first time you use mdSync, all tracks on your Storm in /BlackBerry/Music/Media Sync will be deleted because they won't be synced in the format mdSync requires.
Subsequent syncs will be fast. You can test by adding only a small playlist to start, or by syncing to your C:\ drive.
mdSync will remember which drive you used with your last sync and it will default to that, if it's available. It will also prefill your previously synced playlists.
Syncs video podcasts
If you have any videos in your playlists, these will sync too. Now you can take The Onion videos with you!
Rate your music
mdSync uses special playlists to facilitate writing back to your iTunes database. The preloaded special rating playlists are ".Rate U", ".Rate 1", .Rate 2", ".Rate 3", ".Rate 4" and ".Rate 5". If you are using a pre-5.0 OS, when you come across a song on your BlackBerry that you want to rate, you simply need to navigate to that song via the "Songs" section of the player. Then click the "Add to Playlist" button. If you are using 5.0 OS then the process is super simple and fast. While the song is playing, hit the BlackBerry button and select "Add to Playlist" from the menu. The ratings are 1-5 and "U", which stands for "unrated" and removes all stars.
The next time you connect your Storm to your computer and launch mdSync, mdSync will see the tracks you want to rate. It will launch iTunes, update the ratings for the desired songs, then shut down iTunes. Then it will grab the new database information, which has the ratings you just updated and you'll be ready for your next sync.
You can add a song to more than one ratings playlist (like ".Rate 2" and ".Rate 5"), but only the highest will be counted. You can also remove songs from these playlists as you would any other playlist on the Storm. I recommend creating Smart Playlists in iTunes for your unrated music. If you have a lot of unrated music you can get more granular by creating smart playlists of unrated music by genre.
Uncheck songs
Similar to the ratings system, you can uncheck songs in iTunes by adding them to the ".Uncheck" playlists.
Switch Genres
You can also change the genres of songs using "." playlists that you create. Add a new playlist named ".Rock" or ".Electronica" then add the desired tracks to these playlists. When mdSync starts up and see these, it will interpret these as new genre updates and it will change the genres of the songs in those playlists to the name of the playlist (minus the ".").
The "Recopy" playlist
This is a special playlist I made because I noticed that my Storm was not able to read the id3 metadata tags on some of my MP3s. It showed them as red, or with a genre that I had changed, but was being picked up. The reason for this is that the id3 tags on the MP3s are either corrupted or they are an version that the Storm doesn't support. iTunes can see the "correct" information because it saves that information out separately and doesn't rely on what the metadata of the track says. I found that if you have a bad MP3, you can right-click in iTunes and select "Convert to MP3" and it will create a new MP3 with good metadata (I use id3 v2.2). If you come across some bad songs, you can add them to ".Recopy". mdSync will create a new playlist called "Recopy" in iTunes and put your songs there, where you can do a mass "Convert to MP3" and get good versions of the songs. Delete the old songs in Recopy after you verify the new ones play correctly.
Menu Options
From the Command Panel you can find the new "Re-locate iTunes" command. This simply checks again to see where iTunes is saving the XML when it shuts down. Use this if you modified your install, or changed the location of your iTunes folder in some other way.
32 bit Installer
64bit installer not yet available
32 bit Source [VS2008,C3,7zip]
64bit source code not yet available
7zip.org
Please contact me if you find any bugs or have any questions. Thanks for your support. --Mike DePaul