Overview
SyncTunes operates using one main window and four 'advanced' menus.The main window is split from the top to bottom to show a 1...2...3 work flow:
- "Select Playlist and Podcasts from iTunes
..." is where the iTunes playlist and podcasts
are specified. The basic settings are augmented by
advanced settings in the Advanced:Playlist and Advanced:Podcasts menus, respectively.
- "Choose folder on PDA/Phone/Memory Card etc.
..." is where the destination volume [a mounted disk] is
specified. The basic setting allows for selecting the
destination folder where SyncTunes will
store the playlist and podcasts folders, and M3U
playlists. The Advanced:Volumes menu augments this
section.
- "Perform Sync of selected Playlist and Podcasts ..." contains the Sync 'GO' button, progress bar, and information about the diskspace needed/available and the Sync status.
SyncTunes Profiles
In version 1.5.0 SyncTunes introduced Profiles: a profile is an archive of the SyncTunes settings.
SyncTunes profile files ( with file extension '.stpr') are created from the current preferences and saved in .xml format usually in the "SyncTunes Profiles" folder within the user's "Documents" folder: use the Profiles:Save Profile menu to create a new profiles.
To load a saved profile use the Profiles:Load Profile menu; SyncTunes will always open the "SyncTunes Profiles" folder first: making it easier and quicker to find profiles. Basic checks are performed to identify that the file is a SyncTunes profile, but it is strongly recommended that profile files are only created by SyncTunes and are not modified by hand.
Note: After loading a profile SyncTunes will perform a validation of the new settings to ensure that they are appropriate for the current environment: this includes checking that the volume, folders and playlists are available, and where they are not they will be set to default values.
Destination Folders
SyncTunes uses the following folder structure on the destination volume [using UNIX notation]:
/<Destination Folder>
This is defined in the main window in the "To PDA/Memory Card" section. To select a destination folder that is upto 4 levels down from the top of the volume, use the Advanced:Volumes menu to set the "Number of destination folder levels' so that your desired folder is available from the list in the main window.
Within the destination folder, SyncTunes will create any M3U playlists and 2 folders: one for the playlist tracks [the default name of this folder is 'music' and one for podcasts.
/<Destination Folder>/<Playlist Subfolder>
/<Destination Folder>/podcasts
The Playlist Subfolder name can be changed using the Advanced:Playlist menu.
If you know that your audio player requires audio tracks to be placed in a specific folder then you have two options:
- If the player can find tracks and playlists in that
folder and any folder below it, set the Destination Folder to that folder
- If the player must find the tracks in that folder: set the Destination Folder to the folder that contains the player's specified folder then set the Advanced:Playlist destination Playlist Subfolder to the name of the player's specified folder
Your audio play might support storing tracks in lower folder levels from the Playlist Subfolder: if you have select the Advanced:Volumes "Create Artist/Album folder hierarchy" option, SyncTunes will store tracks in this structure:
.../<Playlist Subfolder>/<Artist Subfolder>/<Album Subfolder>
.../podcasts/<Artist Subfolder>/<Album Subfolder>