My text file noting all of this is lovingly named "Music Sync Adventures".
Per my previous post on the subject:
So I’m an old fart that still uses an mp3 player that transfers files via USB or SD card, and since changing to Linux, updating that thing has been PAINFUL due to the loss of MediaMonkey.
[I need] proper playlist-based file syncing. (That is, you select the playlists to update, and sync both the files and the playlist m3u to the target device, even if the target device uses a different file folder structure from your computer.)
tl;dr
Best programs: MusicBee or MediaMonkey via Wine (plus a folder deletion script)
Runner-up: Rhythmbox
OS: Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon
Wine version 11.0
Winetricks version 20260125-next
MusicBee Portable (Wine)
Plus: Deletes files first
Note: requires Windows .NET Framework version 4.7.2 via winetricks (you can use dotnet 48 for the prefix)
Leaves behind empty folders
MediaMonkey Portable (Wine)
Plus: Can estimate size of files to transfer vs. space left on device
Note: must be version 5 or newer (use winetricks to set prefix to Win11/Win10)
Seems slower than MusicBee?
Leaves behind empty folders
Luckily, the script to delete empty folder chains is very simple and fast! You can look up deleteZeroSizeFiles.sh for the bash script (advantage being that it creates a log for debugging), or you can run two lines through terminal:
cd "[path/to/music/folder]"
find . -type d -empty -delete -print
Rhythmbox
Plus: The only case that is an actual Linux program, no fiddling with Wine
Plus: Will delete old files and folders
Plus: Can estimate size of files to transfer
Note: Requires .is_audio_player file (folder depth 2 or more)
Will not update old folder depth (i.e. if you synced at folder depth 1, it will keep syncing to those folders. After updating the .is file, you have to delete the old files/folders before it will create new folder paths at 2 depth)
Deal-breaker: No way to configure folder structure (Artist-Album)
Generates .pls playlist files, not m3u (so requires script to convert, or a convoluted do-si-do of Rhythmbox's import/export playlist plugin)
Foobar2000 OWS component (Wine)
Plus: Creates playlists in windows format
No future updates to this component since 2021
Deal-breaker: Will not delete files there, only the ones previously synced by Foobar. Will delete files/folders if they were added by Foobar
Device drive for tasks/commands must be updated if plugged into different USB port
Potentially no way to dynamically add track number to file names (add it and a delimiter if there is one and don't if there isn't)
Only deletes files after syncing (so will error out if hit size limit before reaching deletion stage)
Amarok, Strawberry
No playlist-based track selection, and definitely not "select multiple playlists and generate new playlists at the target location".
Android-playlist-sync (did not try)
No MTP. Designed for syncing to Android phones (unclear if works on devices) Rsync based, see issue below.
Dealbreaker: Sync script only works with single playlist
Did not run, so not sure of resulting folder structure
Rhythmbox-Playlist-To-MediaPlayer (did not try)
Removes ALL files for fresh rsync
In general: rsync-based scripts will not work, because they cannot cleanly delete old files in a fast way, or create new file structure based on metadata
Does not have what I am looking for (some might have Amarok/Strawberry level file transfer capability)
Tauon
deadbeef
lollypop
beets
Dead programs
Atunes
Nightingale
Kevin Mehall Rhythmbox Playlist Synchronizer
currently shifting from spotify to a combo of pirated stuff and soundcloud and its just like, wow Every dingle artist has their entire spotify discography on soundcloud + a bunch of exclusive songs i havent heard before
Not all the songs in my mp3 library have ID3 images; in this case I had to rip this song from YouTube because the band no longer sells this version on their Bandcamp.
So MediaMonkey tries to find its album cover online and this is its best guess sometimes 😭
Media Monkey هو تطبيق قوي يتيح لك إدارة وتشغيل جميع أنواع الملفات الصوتية بجودة عالية على جهاز الكمبيوتر الخاص بك ، بالإضافة إلى إنشاء مكتبة صوتية تتضمن ملفات الصوت والموسيقى المفضلة لديك وتنظيمها في ألبومات متعددة. كما يمكنك تعديل بيانات التاج الخاصة بالملفات الصوتية وتصنيفها على الكمبيوتر بكل سهولة. يتيح لك الوصول بسرعة إلى جميع الملفات الصوتية والموسيقى المخزنة على الكمبيوتر وتشغيلها بنقرة…
MediaMonkey يساعدك على التنقل ، وإدارة ومزامنة مجموعات الموسيقى الكبيرة. دلائل الميزات:
❖ المزامنة (لاسلكيًا *) مع MediaMonkey لنظام التشغيل Windows. الحفاظ على قوائم التشغيل والمسارات ومقاطع الفيديو بما في ذلك معلومات الملف والتقييمات وكلمات الأغاني وسجل التشغيل وما إلى ذلك في المزامنة.
❖ إدارة الموسيقى والموسيقى الكلاسيكية والكتب الصوتية والبودكاست والفيديو.
❖ التنقل حسب الفنان والألبوم…
تنزيل MediaMonkey (2020 الأحدث) لأنظمة التشغيل Windows 10 و 8 و 7
تنزيل MediaMonkey (2020 الأحدث) لأنظمة التشغيل Windows 10 و 8 و 7
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ميديامونكي هو مدير الإعلام لهواة التجميع الجادين. يقوم بفهرسة ملفات الصوت والفيديو ، سواء كانت موجودة على محرك أقراص ثابتة أو شبكة ، وتقسيمها إلى “مجموعات” مختلفة (مثل الموسيقى المعاصرة والكلاسيكية والكتب الصوتية والأفلام المنزلية والتلفزيون والفيديو وغيرها).إنه يبحث ويضع علامة على ألبوم الصور والبيانات عبر Freedb والويب ، ويتضمن إعادة تسمية تلقائية إلى إعادة تسمية الملفات وتنظيمها،…
MediaMonkey Pro is a professional media player that synchronizes your collections wirelessly between your Android and Windows. This application is a tool for playing and managing audio files that helps you to have a set of audio files with multiple capabilities. With beautiful yet simple user interfaces, this software can meet the needs…