Sync Groups is Killing Me

[Akuma]

PEOPLE I NEED YOUR HELP FOR SOME REASON SYNC GROUP STARTED WORKING AND KNOW I DONT KNOW HOW TO TURN IT OFF AND KNOW EVERY TIME I TAKE SOMETHING OFF MY COOLECTION IT TAKES IT OFF MY ZUNE. DOES ANY ONE KNOW A SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM PLEASE LET ME KNOW (ASAP) OR EMAIL ME AT [email protected] HURRY :( :confused:

OH YEAH I DONT HAVE SYNC AUTO ON I ALREADY CHECKED

[Jason Dunn]

Welcome to Zune Thoughts - but there's really no need to type in uppercase and yell at all of us. ;)

Now on to your problems...unfortunately what you're experiencing - removing something from your Zune library and having it be removed from your Zune - is by design. That's the way the software is supposed to work - the Zune team's thinking is that when you remove something from your library, it means you don't want it any more...and so why would you want it on your Zune? I agree with them, but you're definitely not the first person to mention this as a problem.

So, exactly what's the scenario here where you're removing content from your Zune library or your whole PC, yet wanting to keep it permanently on your Zune?

[Akuma]

Welcome to Zune Thoughts - but there's really no need to type in uppercase and yell at all of us. ;)

Now on to your problems...unfortunately what you're experiencing - removing something from your Zune library and having it be removed from your Zune - is by design. That's the way the software is supposed to work - the Zune team's thinking is that when you remove something from your library, it means you don't want it any more...and so why would you want it on your Zune? I agree with them, but you're definitely not the first person to mention this as a problem.

So, exactly what's the scenario here where you're removing content from your Zune library or your whole PC, yet wanting to keep it permanently on your Zune?

sorry but i wasn't yelling at anyone i just wanted people to notice this problem i have :)

well the scenario is that every time i delete something form my library it automatically deletes it from my zune (automatically updates information as well) but i don't want this to happened, actually it never happened before it just started doing this about two week ago. is the problem the zune or is it the new 2.5 program that came out in march

[Jason Dunn]

well the scenario is that every time i delete something form my library it automatically deletes it from my zune (automatically updates information as well) but i don't want this to happened, actually it never happened before it just started doing this about two week ago. is the problem the zune or is it the new 2.5 program that came out in march

Right. I understand that - and what I'm saying to you is that the Zune team created the product to work this way on purpose.

So what I'm asking you is this: why are you deleting something from your library? Are you deleting big video files that you don't have enough space to keep on your computer, but you want to keep them on your Zune? Please give me specifics so I can talk to the Zune team about this problem. Thanks!

[onlydarksets]

If you want to keep the files on your Zune, do the following:


Connect the Zune
Remove the partnership
Disconnect and reconnect the Zune
Choose "Guest" mode
Copy your files over
Reconnect and establish a partnership

The Zune software won't touch anything that was already on your Zune.

[Akuma]

Right. I understand that - and what I'm saying to you is that the Zune team created the product to work this way on purpose.

So what I'm asking you is this: why are you deleting something from your library? Are you deleting big video files that you don't have enough space to keep on your computer, but you want to keep them on your Zune? Please give me specifics so I can talk to the Zune team about this problem. Thanks!

The reason why i delete my music from my collection is because once its in my zune i have no need form them to be their any more and also to keep my computer from running slow LOL also the album info isn't always accurate most of the times and i hate it when it changes it on my zune because then i cant find any thing on it. I say this because my genres are only Hip Hop and Metal what ever the music might but if their all different i can't find anything.

[Akuma]

If you want to keep the files on your Zune, do the following:


Connect the Zune
Remove the partnership
Disconnect and reconnect the Zune
Choose "Guest" mode
Copy your files over
Reconnect and establish a partnership

The Zune software won't touch anything that was already on your Zune.

Thanx man i am really great full for this i was starting to get mad at the program

[onlydarksets]

No problem - glad it worked!

[killashandra]

No problem - glad it worked!

Sorry to be a dummy, but how exactly do you remove the partnership? I've been searching all over, but can't exactly see how to do this without moving over to my laptop, establishing a connection there, and then moving back here.


(I too hate to have video files and music files cluttering up my already crowded computer and generally move them straight to CD after they've been converted.)

[Jason Dunn]

The reason why i delete my music from my collection is because once its in my zune i have no need form them to be their any more and also to keep my computer from running slow

Thanks for explaining why you do it - that helps me understand why you're running into problems. I've communicated this issue to the Zune team, so no promises, but I'll try to ensure they understand why/how people such as yourself get into this situation.

For what it's worth though, I think if you were to spend some time cleaning up your music collection you'd find that having it in sync with the Zune is actually a really nice feature. :)

[Jason Dunn]

Sorry to be a dummy, but how exactly do you remove the partnership?

You're not a dummy - it's buried fairly deep because it's not a function most people will ever need to find. :) Go into the Zune software, click on SETTINGS in the upper-right corner, then DEVICE, and down at the bottom you'll see a FORGET THIS DEVICE button. Click it.

(I too hate to have video files and music files cluttering up my already crowded computer and generally move them straight to CD after they've been converted.)

I'm curious about this, because the benefits of having your music/photos/videos on both your computer AND your Zune is that you have two copies in case your lose your Zune or your hard drive crashes - it's a backup. Also, you have all your content where you need it - whether you're mobile with your Zune, or in front of your computer. So do you not want/need these benefits?

I'm trying to understand the whole "I only want my stuff on one thing" scenario - especially with hard drives being so huge. When you speak of "clutter", is it a perception you have that a full hard drive is a bad thing, or is it a reality that you have a small hard drive and need to worry about running out of storage space? Thanks for any further comments you can give me to help me understand this. :)

[onlydarksets]

Sorry to be a dummy, but how exactly do you remove the partnership? I've been searching all over, but can't exactly see how to do this without moving over to my laptop, establishing a connection there, and then moving back here.


(I too hate to have video files and music files cluttering up my already crowded computer and generally move them straight to CD after they've been converted.)

I don't recall off hand, but it's under the settings for the device in the Zune software on the PC.

[Kyrai]

For what it's worth though, I think if you were to spend some time cleaning up your music collection you'd find that having it in sync with the Zune is actually a really nice feature. :)

I find this condescending. I do exactly the same thing the poster described and I am hardly disorganized. I use a laptop and have limited room. I download content and move it to the zune due to limited space.

I plug in an external hard drive for backups of things I don't want to lose, but I don't want to plug that in every time I sync the zune. I just want it to add new content not delete things. It's hardly logical to expect everyone to want two copies of video that takes several gigabytes of ram.

[Sven Johannsen]

I'm sure that Jason had no intention of being condescending. Sometimes it is difficult to understand how some others use their systems, and that leads to confusion about needs. I find it hard to comprehend space issues myself. Sure the laptop may have limited internal storage, but when you are based, half a terabyte with a USB interface is less than $100. I have every single CD I own ripped, and ready to sync to about any portable device, Zune, phone, PMP, whatever. Having files on a hard drive doesn't materially affect performance, so I'm not sure why that should be a concern.

I can't see any reason to not want the media retained on the fixed system, whether that is desktop, or an external drive on a laptop setup. Jason though is trying to understand your needs/desires so he can articulate them to Zune developers, and maybe get something changed.

So, for me, Jason, how about the ability to delete something from the device itself, and obviously (to me) not then deleting that from the fixed library. You know, when you are listenning to the Zune, all shuffled, and something comes on and you say..why the heck is that on here...center pad click, scroll down to delete and blow it away. Would be nice. At next sync it would flag that I don't want it on the Zune, but it wouldn't delete it. If I change my mind I can always put it back

[Jason Dunn]

I find this condescending. I do exactly the same thing the poster described and I am hardly disorganized. I use a laptop and have limited room. I download content and move it to the zune due to limited space.

I apologize for coming across as condescending - that wasn't my intention at all. I was instead trying encourage that person toward organizing their collection of music/photos/videos. I see a lot of people using a folder-based approach to managing their music, ignorant of the concept of meta tags...and that's just not compatible with the way modern software works.

If you're willing to risk losing your media by having it only on your Zune, I certainly won't tell you not to do that - it's your stuff, and you know the risks. I just hate seeing people risk their data, just this week I was talking to someone who lost two years worth of photos and documents because she never thought she needed to do back ups.

I do know that the Zune team has heard people complaining about this issue loud and clear - and I think you'll see it addressed in the future.

And I mean in this in the most polite way possible, but since you're saying "It's hardly logical to expect everyone to want two copies of video that takes several gigabytes of ram", I have to wonder if you understand how computer storage works. Your files are not stored in RAM, they're stored on a hard drive - RAM doesn't factor into this discussion. It's a common mistake that people make when they think their computers get "slow" when the hard drive is "full" - that really only happens if you fill the hard drive up to the point where Windows can't function properly...

[El_Jon]

I'm new to this whole Zune thing. I'm actually buying one on Friday (an 80 GB), but I bought one for my Fiance a 30 GB a while back and noticed the same problem. As soon as I delete a song from my library, it's automatically deleted from my Zune... a problem that annoyed the heck out of me. To be honest, up to this point, I was just using a Palm Pilot as my MP3 player and life was simple! I would just drag and drop or copy an MP3 that I had at the time onto the SD Card, plug it in to the Palm and presto! I had whatever music I wanted (along with any other files I wanted - files like ebooks, spreadsheets, etc.). My only problem with the current system is that I'm limited to the small capacities of SD Cards.

I understand what's been said about having a back-up for your important files and I agree whole-heartedly, but the issue I have (as has happened to me) is when my back-up crashes, I would like the Zune to have the capability to restore lost files as well. That's just my opinion, though.

Here's why I would like my Zune to retain files after they've been deleted from my computer. I travel a lot for my work. I cary a laptop with me. I hear a song and down load it, then send it to my MP3 device. I delete it from my machine (after I've backed up to an MP3 CD) because a) it's a company resource I'm not supposed to be using for this and b) I really do have limited space. I have a main computer I keep at my mom's house which has all my music stored on it, but I only get back there a couple times a month - if that. To add to the issue, since my mother is technologically impared, I have no internet at her place or wifi signal around which means the only time I can download is when I'm using my laptop. Like I said, so far this hasn't been an issue for myself, personally, considering I've used my SD cards, but the issue arrises when I sync my Fiance's Zune.

I love the Zune, though. That's why I'm buying one. I understand Microsoft or Zune created this function as a benefit and/or convenience, but sometimes the common dude just wants things a little more basic is all. After all, if I delete a file, I can always download it again at my leisure as opposed to necessity in order to maintain it on my Zune.

[Jason Dunn]

Here's why I would like my Zune to retain files after they've been deleted from my computer...

As of the 3.1 update last year, this has been addressed and you can keep things on your Zune after they've been deleted off your PC. :)