Ok, after two days of playing around my new 620 and trying to figure out how to sync my music collection, I believe I've seen some light, and I thought I would share what I found out, in case it may be useful.
How WP8 sync works?
When we plug our WP8's USB to the PC, the device is not mounted as "Mass Storage Device" like an USB drive, but as a MTP device, or at least this is what happens with my 620 (some people posted here that they actually get the memory card mounted with a letter assigned, so this is probably not universally true).
This means that our computer doesn't have full control of what is in the telephone or in the SD card: while being able to drag&drop files may let us think this way, the telephone is still "in charge" of controlling what comes in and out of its storage devices, and organizes everything according to its taste and the settings of the MTP-capable program we used to sync.
When we move a music file through WMP, the Metro or the desktop app, as well as dragging and dropping, the telephone stores the actual file in the "Music" folder, but then creates another file, containing the metadata (Title, album, artist, cover picture and so on) that links to the actual file. When we open the Music app on our phones, what we see is a list of these files containing the metadata, and not a list of the actual music files.
This implies that, if this "metadata file" is duplicated for some reason, there will be double entries in the list. In the same way, if the metadata contains wrong information, those will be displayed on the phone, doesn't matter what the real metadata in the actual files are. We can even delete the actual file from the device, but it will still be in the phone's list (and won't be able to play).
If you want to check, go into Folder Options from the control panel and select "Show hidden files" and deselect "Hide operating system files". Navigating into the Music folders of your phone, you will find some hidden directories named Album, Artist and Playlist, with inside the "metadata files" I'm talking about.
What actually causes the issues with the syncing process is that every program we use to sync the device creates these metadata files in a different way: I still don't have clear which app does what, but some of them puts the metafiles in the telephone memory (even if the actual music is on the SD), some other puts it in the memory card, and some other again just adds "link" in an already existing files without bothering cancelling the old links.
So, how do we get rid of duplicate entries?
1- First of all, activate the hidden files and operating system files from the folder options
2- Navigate in the "Music" folder of your telephone and get rid of all these files. For the SD, you can do the same, but I suggest formatting it from the telephone.
3- Also erase the eventual music files. You won't see them in the telephone and you don't want them to waste your storage space.
4- To check if you removed everything, just open the music player on the phone: if it says "there is nothing here" everywhere, you're done.
5- If you haven't already done it, deselect all the "go online and download information about the artists" thing in Xbox Music: that's another app that could create duplicates.
6- Now that your telephone is clean, choose an MTP-capable app: personally, I would recommend Mediamonkey or Windows Media Player over the phone companion apps.
7- Sync the music on the telephone with the app you chose, and, most important thing, stick to it. Don't use other apps, don't drag&drop files around. Just stick to the app you chose to do any modification in your music library, and everything should work just fine.
Cool, but even this way, my music is still messed up and my covers are missing. Why?
WP8 has a particular way of handling ID3 tags of a song: from what I've been able to see, the Album Artist field "wins" over the Artist one, and that seems legit.
What is less intuitive is the way the "Artists" categories are created: in order to be shown in the "Artists" list, a song must have BOTH an Artist or Album Artist tag AND an Album tag. If the Album tag is not properly filled in, the song will show up as "Unknown artist". Another "weird rule" is about the "Composer" tag: if this doesn't match with the Artist, the album will be shown as "Unknown Artist". And there probably a lot more of these "weird rules" we don't know about.
I hope this long post helps. Feel free to more information, or to make observations.
How WP8 sync works?
When we plug our WP8's USB to the PC, the device is not mounted as "Mass Storage Device" like an USB drive, but as a MTP device, or at least this is what happens with my 620 (some people posted here that they actually get the memory card mounted with a letter assigned, so this is probably not universally true).
This means that our computer doesn't have full control of what is in the telephone or in the SD card: while being able to drag&drop files may let us think this way, the telephone is still "in charge" of controlling what comes in and out of its storage devices, and organizes everything according to its taste and the settings of the MTP-capable program we used to sync.
When we move a music file through WMP, the Metro or the desktop app, as well as dragging and dropping, the telephone stores the actual file in the "Music" folder, but then creates another file, containing the metadata (Title, album, artist, cover picture and so on) that links to the actual file. When we open the Music app on our phones, what we see is a list of these files containing the metadata, and not a list of the actual music files.
This implies that, if this "metadata file" is duplicated for some reason, there will be double entries in the list. In the same way, if the metadata contains wrong information, those will be displayed on the phone, doesn't matter what the real metadata in the actual files are. We can even delete the actual file from the device, but it will still be in the phone's list (and won't be able to play).
If you want to check, go into Folder Options from the control panel and select "Show hidden files" and deselect "Hide operating system files". Navigating into the Music folders of your phone, you will find some hidden directories named Album, Artist and Playlist, with inside the "metadata files" I'm talking about.
What actually causes the issues with the syncing process is that every program we use to sync the device creates these metadata files in a different way: I still don't have clear which app does what, but some of them puts the metafiles in the telephone memory (even if the actual music is on the SD), some other puts it in the memory card, and some other again just adds "link" in an already existing files without bothering cancelling the old links.
So, how do we get rid of duplicate entries?
1- First of all, activate the hidden files and operating system files from the folder options
2- Navigate in the "Music" folder of your telephone and get rid of all these files. For the SD, you can do the same, but I suggest formatting it from the telephone.
3- Also erase the eventual music files. You won't see them in the telephone and you don't want them to waste your storage space.
4- To check if you removed everything, just open the music player on the phone: if it says "there is nothing here" everywhere, you're done.
5- If you haven't already done it, deselect all the "go online and download information about the artists" thing in Xbox Music: that's another app that could create duplicates.
6- Now that your telephone is clean, choose an MTP-capable app: personally, I would recommend Mediamonkey or Windows Media Player over the phone companion apps.
7- Sync the music on the telephone with the app you chose, and, most important thing, stick to it. Don't use other apps, don't drag&drop files around. Just stick to the app you chose to do any modification in your music library, and everything should work just fine.
Cool, but even this way, my music is still messed up and my covers are missing. Why?
WP8 has a particular way of handling ID3 tags of a song: from what I've been able to see, the Album Artist field "wins" over the Artist one, and that seems legit.
What is less intuitive is the way the "Artists" categories are created: in order to be shown in the "Artists" list, a song must have BOTH an Artist or Album Artist tag AND an Album tag. If the Album tag is not properly filled in, the song will show up as "Unknown artist". Another "weird rule" is about the "Composer" tag: if this doesn't match with the Artist, the album will be shown as "Unknown Artist". And there probably a lot more of these "weird rules" we don't know about.
I hope this long post helps. Feel free to more information, or to make observations.
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