Music - WMA Files Do Not Play In Order On N900?

[snubmoggy]

Hi,

I have a weird problem in that my albums that are in WMA (Windows Media Audio) format do not play in track order - they re-sequence into alphabetical order??

However, my MP3 files play fine and in track order.

It is defintely not a tagging problem - all the WMA files have the track number etc the same as the MP3 files.

The only difference is the file format.

Has anyone else come accross this or know how to fix it??

Many thanks

[CormacB]

i have the same problem. it is a pain because most of my music is in wma and i don't want to re-rip it. I guess i need to figure out how to log a bug.

I tried mediabox and it couldn't even find the artist and album. :(

[simonpdavies]

I have the same problem and have been trying to find a fix for weeks!!

I am not sure if it it the fact the files are WMA as I have tried with MP3 and still had the same problem where all files are shown on the device in alphabetical order.

I have tried with Windows Media Player, Media Monkey and Songbird and the track order is always shown alphabetically. Frustrating as I also have all my music in WMA.

I have tried all various tagging options but all appear to be correct and I am stuck completely and really want to use my N900 for Music (with album tracks in the correct order)

Any help would be massively appreciated...

Simon

[snubmoggy]

Simon - do all your WMA and MP3 files both have the track number field filled in correctly? Both mine do and always the WMA files list alphabetically, but the MP3's are fine.. cant work it out. Am still searching for a solution.

A Maemo bug fix would be the best solution though!

[simonpdavies]

Simon - do all your WMA and MP3 files both have the track number field filled in correctly? Both mine do and always the WMA files list alphabetically, but the MP3's are fine.. cant work it out. Am still searching for a solution.

A Maemo bug fix would be the best solution though!
Hi, I have been looking into this further and yes all info is correct. It appears that the N900 does not sort WMA files only in track order. MP3 are sorted correctly but I personally do not want to use MP3.

I also do think a maemo bug fix would be best but am looking for a workaround in the meantime. I can't believe that WMA would not be supported.

[joppu]

Windows Media Audio

I think I found the problem here.

It won't even take that much effort to batch convert them to real formats with correct free tools.

[snubmoggy]

Windows Media Audio

I think I found the problem here.

It won't even take that much effort to batch convert them to real formats with correct free tools.

Yes, that is one solution, but it is missing the point - you shouldn't have to do that, the N900 should be able to list tracks in there natural album order straight out of the box. It is a lot of effort you shouldn't have to do.

[snubmoggy]

There is another workaround which I have been using.

Originally, I copied the WMA albums straight onto the N900 using Windows Explorer, and that is when I came across the problem.

However, if I use Windows Media Player (version 12 I am using with Windows7) to sync albums up (using mass-mode, note that the syncing is also very quick), then it appears to play WMA albums in the correct order. Not sure what extra 'tagging' Windows Media Player does as opposed to copying them but it appears to work for me.

[simonpdavies]

There is another workaround which I have been using.

Originally, I copied the WMA albums straight onto the N900 using Windows Explorer, and that is when I came across the problem.

However, if I use Windows Media Player (version 12 I am using with Windows7) to sync albums up (using mass-mode, note that the syncing is also very quick), then it appears to play WMA albums in the correct order. Not sure what extra 'tagging' Windows Media Player does as opposed to copying them but it appears to work for me.

That would be great..but I am not running Windows 7 therefore not Windows Media Player 12 (Just v11 which does not work) so I am stuck still. Really wish Nokia would see this and bring a fix, been 6 weeks now and I really want to get my Music collection on here in a tidy and organised way..

Anyone else can help?

[HomesIckAlien]

Try last entry in this thread where i had the same problem:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=39454&highlight=songbird

Songbird worked for me on Windows 7 64bit...although it's v. buggy....but it did the job & all my songs are now in the correct order after the first sync. Some of the artwork is missing but I can sort that later.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Sam

[CormacB]

Oh now I am really annoyed. I used songbird to sync my music and then everything played in the right order. But I had no album art. So I used mp3tag to add album art to everything and the started again from scratch. But when I synced again the track order is broken once more. mp3tag says the track numbers are OK so I am 99% confident this is a bug in the maemo tracker stuff.

I really don't want to have to copy over 9 gb of music again. Most of the track names include the number so I am wondering if it is possible to write a script that uses tracker-tag to add the track number?

[pelago]

This sounds like bug 5900 (https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5900). If so, please vote for it, and add a comment if you have something technically useful to say (maybe add a link to this thread too).

[CormacB]

Yeah it sounds like that bug. I guess I should register an account so I can comment.
My files have the track number as WM/TrackNumber. Unfortunately I have no properly working wma files anymore so i can't compare with them. anyone have a guess what tag tracker is looking for? Also does tracker-info look at the file direvtly or does it use cached info?

[snubmoggy]

Have added a vote to bug 5900 for this, still frustrating me. Really dont want to convert all my files to MP3 - even my old N80 could play WMA files without problem..

[Thor]

Oh now I am really annoyed. I used songbird to sync my music and then everything played in the right order. But I had no album art. So I used mp3tag to add album art to everything and the started again from scratch. But when I synced again the track order is broken once more. mp3tag says the track numbers are OK so I am 99% confident this is a bug in the maemo tracker stuff.

I really don't want to have to copy over 9 gb of music again. Most of the track names include the number so I am wondering if it is possible to write a script that uses tracker-tag to add the track number?

Connect up your N900 in mass storage mode to your PC.

Run MP3TAG.

Drop in your music to MP3TAG and choose "get info from track name/filename" and use a mask that gets only the track number.

eg. if the file name is "DJ Premier - Works of Mart - 02 - New York Straight Talk", use the mask :
%dummy% - %dummy% - %track% - %dummy%

and it will only populate the track number.

I've found no problems with track numbers on mine after sorting out tags with mp3tag on my PC and then dropping folders onto my SD card.

Hope this helps.

[simonpdavies]

Has anyone actually solved this?

Thor, tried your suggestion but am not doing something right as it won't work for me, I am not quite sure what to do from your description.

I have been searching for months to get this sorted and have my .wma files on my N900 and am so frustrated and can't believe it does not work out of the box. I am not re ripping all my 600+ cd's into a different format like mp3 especially when it is inferior sound wise to wma.

Could really do with an answer.

[gy.schmitt]

Has anyone actually solved this?

Thor, tried your suggestion but am not doing something right as it won't work for me, I am not quite sure what to do from your description.

I have been searching for months to get this sorted and have my .wma files on my N900 and am so frustrated and can't believe it does not work out of the box. I am not re ripping all my 600+ cd's into a different format like mp3 especially when it is inferior sound wise to wma.

Could really do with an answer.

I found what the problem is and I should have a Linux fix fairly soon. Basically, it's metadata not being recorded properly.

No hope on PR1.3, trackerd hasn't been updated.

Stay tuned.

[gy.schmitt]

If anyone is interested in the fix, please reply. I need a few beta-testers to sort this out.

[CormacB]

Yeah, I'd be happy to give it a shot. Though my music was ripped with WMP, so i have to question the idea that Microsoft is using their own format incorrectly.

[gy.schmitt]

Thanks for answering. Please send my an email at my address (to be found at https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5900) so we don't fill this thread with useless debugging junk. You'll need to be a member of the bugzilla.

Please mention you os (Linux preferred) and have a few buggy wma files available so I can test my solution. If you're running anything else than Linux, you'll need to upload the files somewhere.

[gy.schmitt]

Problem closed. For a fix, please see the bugtracker at https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5900.

[PhopsonNY]

Did anyone get this to work?
When I apply the script, it opens for a sec then shuts down...
Am I supposed to install from a particular directory?

All my music is on my memory card.

[PhopsonNY]

So after lots of trial and error, I found a way to get this to work.
As I am not a Python pro, there might be better ways of getting it done.

First thing was to load the latest Mutagen file from the site as suggested above v 1.20... sorry, the debian - made for Maemo version did not work for me
.
Extract and do the two setup steps as instructed above.

I then setup a terminal service from my computer using of these methods...

http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=482844&postcount=1

Then Using the main windows terminal window, I copied the wmafix.py into each folder containing the .wma (asf) tracks for an album...
Then opened a command prompt black terminal window and ran

python wmafix.py *

in each of the folders where I had copied the wmafix.py script above.

This took so long to go through each and every album on my sdcard, but it worked for me. This I guess was the homework talked about above.
The terminal crashed a number of times or did not terminate properly, but the tracks were all properly tagged and played without any problem in the correct order.

Good luck:D