Destination volume


SyncTunes' default configuration is to allow you to select an ejectable volume as the destination of the Sync. This can be changed to all volumes mounted on the Mac by unselecting the advanced "Restrict lists to ejectable volumes" option.

The destination folder determines where SyncTunes will create its files and folders on the volume. For simplicity this is a list of available folders that are limited to the folder depth specified in the advanced "Number of destination folder levels" setting.

Once volume and destination folder are selected the amount of diskspace available will be calculated and displayed in the status area in the main window. The amount available is influenced by the playlist and podcast settings of ignore during sync, and replace/merge tracks.

As many audio players cannot play AAC and DRM-AAC, SyncTunes can limit the format to MP3, or MP3 and AAC, or just all file formats. If you want content that your audio player doesn't support, the advanced 'Convert' settings will allow content to be re-encoded with iTunes current import setting for either MP3 or AAC. This can also be applied to content that is in the selected 'convert' format, and can be useful to reduce bitrates of, for example, MP3 tracks for use on a small capacity device.

Note: Conversion of file formats is possible for those formats that iTunes supports, and does not include DRM protected content.

To make storage of tracks more logical, SyncTunes can create artist and album folders when transferring tracks and podcasts. These folders will be created within the Playlist Subfolder and special 'podcasts' subfolder within the Destination Folder. To make sure that the files and folders can be handled by the audio player, SyncTunes will convert punctunation to an '_' when it encounters it in file and folder names. This check can be extended to convert accented characters using the advanced "Remove accents etc. ..." option.

For those audio players that support them, SyncTunes has a number of advanced options for creating M3U and PLS playlists. The variety of ways that audio devices handle and process M3U and PLS playlists means that it is difficult for a 'standard' format to be provided. By combining the options various different playlist outputs are possible.

There is one special setting within SyncTunes called 'Simple' mode: this setting sets SyncTunes to transfer just the playlist tracks but to the top-level of the destination volume or to artist/album folders at the top-level [the top-level can be altered to a selected folder at the top-level] : all artist folders are suffixed with '-stsm' so that they can be identified from any other exisitng folders. 'Simple' mode will still create M3U and PLS playlists if the options are set to do so. This mode will ignore any Podcast settings and is restricted to MP3 and AAC content.

Note: If both playlist and podcasts are set to be ignored, but there is a selected Volume, a Sync can still be performed. In this case any M3U and PLS playlists will be regenerated, if playlists are set to be created.


Main Window (basic) settings


Volume-main

  • Defaults to the last volume
  • Select the destination folder that will hold the playlist [can be changed using the Advanced:Playlist menu] and podcasts subfolders, and the m3u playlists
  • Select to transfer only MP3, or AAC (non-DRM), or MP3 + AAC (non-DRM), or all files selected by Playlist and Podcasts
  • Eject volume after sync: 'safe eject' says when the card can be removed

Buttons and options¹:
  1. Volume button [V]: click to open a browser listing of all the available, ejectable [default setting] volumes currently mounted in the Finder. Select a volume by highlighting the list item and clicking OK, or by double-clicking the list item. Use the Advanced:Volumes menu to set the display to show all volumes.
  2. Selected Volume: this field displays the volume that was selected using the Volume button (10). If the last used volume is not available, and a single volume, with either a file called VOLUME.NAM or a folder called AUDIO or DCIM is detected when the SyncTunes app is launched, this volume will be automatically selected.
  3. Eject button [⌘E]: this will eject the currently selected volume. A message will be displayed saying when it is safe to remove the device.
  4. Destination folder option: this option enables the containing folder to be changed from the default /AUDIO. Use the Advanced:Volumes menu to set the number of levels that are displayed (1 [default] to 4)
  5. Transfer files which are selection: this selection will restrict which playlist and podshow tracks are transferred to the memory card. The options are:
    • MP3 format: this restricts the transfers to just MP3 (kind is MPEG audio file) files
    • AAC format: this restricts the transfers to just non-DRM protected AAC files (kind is 'AAC audio file', 'Purchased AAC audio file', 'MPEG-4 audio file' or 'Purchased MPEG-4 audio file')
    • MP3 & AAC formats: this restricts the transfers to MP3 and non-DRM protected AAC files
    • All formats: this places no restriction on the files transferred, though you may not have supporting application on the PDA etc for some of the file formats (such as the iTunes Music Store DRM AAC tracks)

    Use the Advanced:Volumes 'Convert transferred tracks ...' option to select whether to convert the files before transfer. This uses iTunes' current Import settings for either AAC or MP3 and will convert the file, transfer the new file and then delete the new file from iTunes (an option is available to include files of the same type as the encoder setting: for example, this is useful when wanting to re-encode MP3 256kbps files down to MP3 128kbps).

  6. Eject volume after sync option [E]: this option will eject the memory card from the finder when the sync process has completed.

Advance Menu settings


Volume-adv

  • 'Simple' mode for just transferring playlist tracks to the top-level of the destination volume
  • Depth of folders to display in destination folder list (down to 4 levels)
  • Default is to list only ejectable volumes as the destination
  • If track artists or albums contain accented characters, such as 'ą' this may cause problems with the audio player. Accented characters can be changed to the non-accented form, such that 'ą' becomes 'a'.
  • Option to store files in an Artist/Album folder hierarchy
  • Option to generate .m3u playlists for the selected destination folders, plus album playlists
  • Option to convert tracks to either MP3 or AAC, including whether to re-encode tracks already in the selected format.

    Note: Make sure that the iTunes preference 'Advanced -> Importing -> Play songs while importing' is not selected. This adds significantly to the time of the sync as iTunes will not respond to SyncTunes' requests.

Options:
  1. Use 'Simple' mode option: this option overrides SyncTunes settings for destination folder and subfolders, and M3U playlist. SyncTunes will sync just the iTunes playlist files into the top-level of the destination volume, unless the next option is selected.
    • File format conversion can still be applied
    • Limited to MP3 & AAC files
    • Artist/Album hierarchy of folders can be used, but Artist folders will be prefixed with '-stsm' to show that they are SyncTunes folders
    • No podcasts
    • M3U playlists can be used
  2. Use 'Playlist Subfolder' instead of destination top-level option: When using Simple Mode the normal operation is to sync to the destination volume's top-level folder. Selecting this option will create a folder in the top-level folder using the Playlist Subfolder name, as set in the Advanced:Playlist settings, for the folder name. This new folder will be used just as if it were the top-level and all other Simple Mode restrictions apply.
  3. Number of destination folder levels list option: this option affects the folders that are listed in the main window's 'Destination folder' selection. A level of 1 will enable the list to show only the destination volume's top-level folders.
  4. Restrict lists to ejectable volumes option: this option will restrict the main window's Volume selection to only those volumes that the Finder can eject, such as memory cards and not the internal hard drives.
  5. Use ID3 Name tag for filenames option: the filename shall be changed to use the ID3 Name tag.
  6. Remove accents ... option: some devices cannot handle accented characters, this option with translate accented characters into their base character.
  7. Create Artist/Album folder hierarchy option: this option will cause SyncTunes to store tracks in Artist folders with Album subfolders.
  8. Use single Artist/Album folders option: this option will cause SyncTunes to store tracks in single Artist&Album folders.
  9. Create .m3u playlists option: this option will create M3U playlists for the transferred tracks, based on these options:
    • Create Artist/Album playlists option: if artist/ablum folders are being used this option will create M3U playlists for each album too.
    • Use relative file paths option: select this option if the audio player is not compatible with the default absolute file paths. All file paths will be set as relative to the location where SyncTunes creates the playlist file.
    • Use extended M3U format option: select this option if the audio player only supports extended M3U playlists.
    • Use "Windows" formattings option: use this option if the device or audio player needs to have playlist files with Windows '\r\n' line-ends and file paths in lowercase.
    • Create as PLS format option: SyncTunes default is to create M3U format playlists, this option switches this to PLS format.
    • Add prefix to pathname option: some audio devices use Windows style drive letters to distinguish between internal RAM and memory cards. Use this option to add a drive prefix to the pathnames in the playlist, such as 'e:' on Nokia N95 phones.
  10. Convert transferred tracks using ... option: use this option to re-encode tracks to either MP3 or AAC format during the sync to the destination volume. The re-encodong process uses the Import settings that are set within iTunes for the MP3 and AAC formats, so these need to be set first before syncing.
    • Convert tracks of all file types option controls whether files that are already in the select format will also be re-encoded with the new settings.
    • Minimum bit rate to reconvert option sets a lower threshold for reconverting files: if the file is of the same format type as the selected encoder, it is checked to make sure that its bit rate is higher that this threshold before conversion commences.


Notes:
¹ Some options have associated keystrokes, e.g. [P] denotes that the p key activates the option