Updating Database Never Finishes

[Warphine]

So, I got a symbolic link in the simdisk directory. I assume then I go to Database and update it there. It rescans all the files and creates a new database file. Then I just simply copy it to the .rockbox folder on the iPod itself?

[Frankenpod]

It creates multiple database files (actually I don't know if you need all of them, but I just copy them all over).

And of course it's crucial that the folder structure on the ipod is the same as that in your library.

Getting playlists working involves a bit of thought, but I'm sure you can work that out for yourself.

(the lack of proper playlist management tools on both iTunes and Media Monkey is a pet peeve).

[Warphine]

I managed to get the database updating successfully with the simulator so thank you for your info!

That said, I've have been doing a full Initialize Now pass which takes about 25 minutes (would be nice if this thing could go faster by utilizing more cpu cores or something). Going forward, I'm hoping the Update Now pass is all I need but I haven't tried it yet.

I also noticed that the album art is rarely working. Sometimes it'll show but more often than not, it won't. Is that normal? In case it helps, I embed all my album art images into the mp3's themselves.

Getting playlists working involves a bit of thought, but I'm sure you can work that out for yourself.

I found a converter program that'll get the playlists to work now that I'm back on the iTunes/iPod syncing method.

I would love to somehow write a script that automates all these steps I'm going to have to repeat every time I want to update my iPod.

BTW, I love your name "Frankenpod" as that is what I called my modded iPod for many years.

[Frankenpod]

Album art works, but rockbox is very fussy about the format.  I used to have a lot of .png embedded art (as that's what iTunes puts in there) but rockbox only sees .jpgs.  And (I've seen mentioned here) it doesn't like progressive jpgs either (never had that issue come up myself).

I guess that's yet another thing it would be nice if someone smart enough could add to rockbox - the ability to use embedded art in formats other than jpg.  Till then you'll have to find a way to bulk convert it all to jpg.  Ages ago I used some script or other with some bulk art conversion utility and tagging program.