Media indexing

[dbrook1]

I was wondering if anyone (? Rebecca) could shed some light on media indexing? I would assume this is done for faster search/access? After having plugged in a couple small USB memory sticks, I see that once indexing is performed on a device, it does not continually happen. I have since placed nearly my entire digital song library on a 16gb memory stick. There are 2007 songs on it. Knowing this would take some time to index, I spent nearly an hour in my garage in the Ex. After that time, it was still indexing and I gave up. Now the questions... What exactly is it doing when indexing? Will it pick up indexing where it left off or will it have to start from scratch? Am I setting myself up for "issues" by interrupting the index process? Once indexed, will reading of the device speed up? Thanks in advance.

 

[jrmexplorer]

I was wondering if anyone (? Rebecca) could shed some light on media indexing? I would assume this is done for faster search/access? After having plugged in a couple small USB memory sticks, I see that once indexing is performed on a device, it does not continually happen. I have since placed nearly my entire digital song library on a 16gb memory stick. There are 2007 songs on it. Knowing this would take some time to index, I spent nearly an hour in my garage in the Ex. After that time, it was still indexing and I gave up. Now the questions... What exactly is it doing when indexing? Will it pick up indexing where it left off or will it have to start from scratch? Am I setting myself up for "issues" by interrupting the index process? Once indexed, will reading of the device speed up? Thanks in advance.

I have about 600 songs and indexing takes about 3 minutes total with version 2.11 of the system software. It shouldn't take an hour even with 2007 songs (assuming you have v. 2.11). If you don't have version 2.11 - logon to syncmyride.com and download it and install it. There are directions in the sticky at the top of the page.

A few tips:
1.) put all your music files in the USB stick's root directory - don't use folders on your USB stick - I was told by Ford that this can cause issues.
2.) download an mp3 tag editor and delete all tag information except for ALBUM, ARTIST, GENRE, TITLE, and TRACK.
3.) Verify that the remaining tag information is correct. Also verify that the "compilation" checkbox is unchecked on your tags (synch hates this).
4.) Finally, rename all your files to short filenames. It seems to improve indexing speed slightly.

Let us know if this works.

-J

 

[dbrook1]

I have about 600 songs and indexing takes about 3 minutes total with version 2.11 of the system software. It shouldn't take an hour even with 2007 songs (assuming you have v. 2.11). If you don't have version 2.11 - logon to syncmyride.com and download it and install it. There are directions in the sticky at the top of the page.

A few tips:
1.) put all your music files in the USB stick's root directory - don't use folders on your USB stick - I was told by Ford that this can cause issues.
2.) download an mp3 tag editor and delete all tag information except for ALBUM, ARTIST, GENRE, TITLE, and TRACK.
3.) Verify that the remaining tag information is correct. Also verify that the "compilation" checkbox is unchecked on your tags (synch hates this).
4.) Finally, rename all your files to short filenames. It seems to improve indexing speed slightly.

Let us know if this works.

-J

Thanks jrmexplorer. I do have v2.11. Each artist has multiple folders (ex: artist>>multiple albums>>multiple songs in each album). Taking 2007 songs out of the folders and putting them in the root would appear to be extremely time consuming. Hopefully it won't come to that. I'll have to look into the tag editor deal and give that a try.

 

[FordIVTteam]

Thanks jrmexplorer. I do have v2.11. Each artist has multiple folders (ex: artist>>multiple albums>>multiple songs in each album). Taking 2007 songs out of the folders and putting them in the root would appear to be extremely time consuming. Hopefully it won't come to that. I'll have to look into the tag editor deal and give that a try.

dbrook1 -

Definitely try what jrmexplorer said and let us know how it works for you! Feel free to private message me for further troubleshooting.

Rebecca

 

[jrmexplorer]

Thanks jrmexplorer. I do have v2.11. Each artist has multiple folders (ex: artist>>multiple albums>>multiple songs in each album). Taking 2007 songs out of the folders and putting them in the root would appear to be extremely time consuming. Hopefully it won't come to that. I'll have to look into the tag editor deal and give that a try.

It's not that actually that time consuming if you use a little trick. Do a windows search for all media files (I think you can just right click on the USB stick and select search and then enter *.* for the filename) and it will give you a list of all files (regardless of the directory) - highlight all of those and then copy those to a temporary directory on your computer. Once those are copied - format your USB memory stick and then recopy them over to your USB stick from your computer.

 

[dbrook1]

It's not that actually that time consuming if you use a little trick. Do a windows search for all media files (I think you can just right click on the USB stick and select search and then enter *.* for the filename) and it will give you a list of all files (regardless of the directory) - highlight all of those and then copy those to a temporary directory on your computer. Once those are copied - format your USB memory stick and then recopy them over to your USB stick from your computer.

Great idea. I have to admit I have enough PC knowledge/experience that I should have realized that myself (I hate when I'm dumb ). I left the drive in during my commute this AM (~20 min) and it still was indexing. Upon startup after work it was no longer indexing but building voice commands. One min later it was done... No more indexing. That appears all good. Now not a single voice command works with it. I would imagine it would have nothing to do with my folder set up as the tag info is all there and correct (artist, album, song). Not sure I want to go through all you recommend. I probably will at some point to see if I can get that woman to listen and follow commands

 

[jrmexplorer]

Great idea. I have to admit I have enough PC knowledge/experience that I should have realized that myself (I hate when I'm dumb ). I left the drive in during my commute this AM (~20 min) and it still was indexing. Upon startup after work it was no longer indexing but building voice commands. One min later it was done... No more indexing. That appears all good. Now not a single voice command works with it. I would imagine it would have nothing to do with my folder set up as the tag info is all there and correct (artist, album, song). Not sure I want to go through all you recommend. I probably will at some point to see if I can get that woman to listen and follow commands

Just added some songs last night - up to 711 songs, including album art, and it indexed in less than 3 minutes.

You can also upload your collection to iTunes and then download syncmyitunes from syncmyride.com and syncmyitunes will fix certain errors that sync hates.

 

[dbrook1]

Just added some songs last night - up to 711 songs, including album art, and it indexed in less than 3 minutes.

You can also upload your collection to iTunes and then download syncmyitunes from syncmyride.com and syncmyitunes will fix certain errors that sync hates.

Well I started re-tagging my collection. I made it through 323 songs. I formatted the drive and transferred these songs back to it. It took 18 minutes for MFT to index these songs. It took a few minutes to build voice commands. I did not have time to wait for MFT to finish building media commands (10+ min so far). All I have for tags is album, artist, song, genre, album art. I'm not impressed so far with the external media interaction. I am never in my car for more than 20-30 minutes at a time to wait this whole process. Anyone have an answer to one of my initial questions regarding whether or not I am exacerbating problems by not allowing the entire index/build voice/build media process to finish? Will it ever finish if I have to keep starting/stopping?

 

[jrmexplorer]

Well I started re-tagging my collection. I made it through 323 songs. I formatted the drive and transferred these songs back to it. It took 18 minutes for MFT to index these songs. It took a few minutes to build voice commands. I did not have time to wait for MFT to finish building media commands (10+ min so far). All I have for tags is album, artist, song, genre, album art. I'm not impressed so far with the external media interaction. I am never in my car for more than 20-30 minutes at a time to wait this whole process. Anyone have an answer to one of my initial questions regarding whether or not I am exacerbating problems by not allowing the entire index/build voice/build media process to finish? Will it ever finish if I have to keep starting/stopping?

Just leave the car on and let it finish. Once it's finished it won't do it again (unless you add/delete/modify anything on the device).

The other thing you could do is to split up your collection into two usb sticks and then index each one seperately (with the other one unplugged).

 

[Fredridge]

I recently hooked up an ipod I had - it's a few years old, but had thousands of songs.

it started indexing (was still playing music) didn't feel like waiting, so ignored it and went about my business. it did it for a couple days, I thought it was stuck. Turned the car off many times, but eventually finished, then started building media commands. I have no idea how long that took, didn't pay attention.

Now works fine no problems, no indexing. Not sure what will happen when I unplug an update it.

 

[lobuzz311]

I recently hooked up an ipod I had - it's a few years old, but had thousands of songs.

it started indexing (was still playing music) didn't feel like waiting, so ignored it and went about my business. it did it for a couple days, I thought it was stuck. Turned the car off many times, but eventually finished, then started building media commands. I have no idea how long that took, didn't pay attention.

Now works fine no problems, no indexing. Not sure what will happen when I unplug an update it.

That's my problem... I have an ipod that I use in my car & in the wife's Ex. It has about 9000 songs on it, so when moving it into the Ex, it takes AGES to index. Luckily, it's usually on a long drive, but it's still irritating.

Every time I want to add new music to it / move it between cars, it has to redo it... *sigh*

 

[jrmexplorer]

That's my problem... I have an ipod that I use in my car & in the wife's Ex. It has about 9000 songs on it, so when moving it into the Ex, it takes AGES to index. Luckily, it's usually on a long drive, but it's still irritating.

Every time I want to add new music to it / move it between cars, it has to redo it... *sigh*

By my calculations, at 700 songs in three minutes, your 9000 songs should take almost 40 minutes to index.

I suggested in the MFT bug/feature thread posted as a sticky that they provide a p.c. or mac application that allows you to precompute the index on your faster desktop or laptop computer. That way you don't have to wait.

 

[yow04xplr]

That's my problem... I have an ipod that I use in my car & in the wife's Ex. It has about 9000 songs on it, so when moving it into the Ex, it takes AGES to index. Luckily, it's usually on a long drive, but it's still irritating.

Every time I want to add new music to it / move it between cars, it has to redo it... *sigh*

Ipod's are cheap. Why not buy one for each vehicle.

 

[lobuzz311]

Ipod's are cheap. Why not buy one for each vehicle.

That may be true, but it doesn't really fix the issue of re-indexing every time you add new music onto your ipod (which I do constantly)...