Status of Ratings Sync implementation

[ivanhoe]

Same as many other, I am HUGELY interested in some sort of ratings sync support (better if directly via mediamoney, i.e., rating tag in the media file, or via iSyncr), as otherwise the app for me is pretty perfect as is if this gap is filled.

Could you please update us on the status of this implementation and release plan ? Otherwise I (as many others again, perhaps) will be forced to buy something else in the meanwhile, and having alreay bought the Full Poweramp Unlocker to support your great job, I'd rather avoid spending more for the same purpose.

BR

Peppe

[drastic8]

+1 to this. I know he mentioned that it's planned for an upcoming release (http://forum.powerampapp.com/index.php?/topic/1794-Poweramp-todo-listfeatures-in-progress/)

He pushes out updated beta versions here on the forums much more frequently than that of most other media players, which is much appreciated. It's nice to see continued progress in the product which is much more than I can say for some other apps.

Still, it'd be nice to have an update on how the progress is coming along. Haven't said it yet, but thanks for the great app!

[pbrown77]

The only feature I am waiting for!! Would be great to have an idea of when it may be implemented.

[MozMaestro]

I'm also anxiously awaiting this feature -- it's at the top of my wishlist. I think it would really help Poweramp play nicely with other music management programs.

[ivanhoe]

So Max, any update ? I had to install iSyncr yesterday and "the other player" ... and not only I didn't like them as much as Poweramp, but I also had some problems and eventually reverted to use the "other player" who can successfully read and update rating tags on files (my preferred solution indeed, I just wasted iSyncr money ...).

[cslimrun]

This is a killer for me. Otherwise an awesome app! Please add this feature!

[palmcrash]

+1 for waiting on ratings sync with MediaMonkey.

[pbrown77]

+1 again, and +1 for actually getting feedback on when! It was mentioned months ago about it being in 2.1 but nothing has been mentioned, or even a rough guideline, since the one announcement even with a number of people asking about it in these forums.

[palmcrash]

Eh, gave up waiting and just bought PlayerPro. It syncs ratings fine with MediaMonkey.

[pbrown77]

Still waiting .... Any update?? Or will this be ignored or never mentioned again? And never replied to?

[pbrown77]

So I have started using isyncr and the trial of Powerpro.mainly for the compatibility of isyncr ratings sync. I sync media players ratings (well i use media center but same ratings) to itunes (which I don't use other than for the syncing) and then isyncr syncs the music to my phone BOTH ways. I would use media player to sync but it doesn't do both ways.

Sorry to bump this again but I really hope to finally get an answer so I know whether I will buy powerpro mainly for the ratings side. I have a few days left in the trial but guess there will be no answer or hint of when proper ratings will be implmented, preferably ratings compatible with isyncr and/or media player.

[itsch]

Same for me.

It´s such a great player, but Ratings Sync is an important feature to me.

I come from I-Phone, so I´m still using iTunes for my music-file-organisation.

Also I changed to Android I like iTunes as well and I don´t want to use another program.

So I bought iSyncr, cause it seems the best opinion to sync my iTunes files.

It works great, also the ratings Sync with Player pro or Rocket player. I like Power Amp more than every other players I´ve tried so far,

but music and rating-management in 2 different Apps is a no-go, so I´m forced to use the Player Pro.

The better Android gets, the more users will Change from iPhone to Android. Isyncr will be used by most of these changers like me I think,

so there might be a lot more paying customers for your great Player, if there will be an embedded isyncr ratings-sync support i think.

[dragnet]

I am one more for this feature.

I was completely sure that your advanced player for geeks already know how to do that.

I've downloaded today it on my new phone today specifically for isyncr compatibility and sorry, it does not work.

Believe me, I will buy your application immediately that day when you introduce this feature.

My use case:

I have iTunes with rated songs.

I use iSyncr to syncr all the songs with their ratings, play counts etc. both ways Android <=> PC.

What I need:

A song rated in iTunes I want to see in the Poweramp with its rating stars.

When I rate a song in Poweramp, I want it to keep the rating info somewhere so that iSyncr can grab it.

[lostinthought]

Can't wait for ratings to sync...update on progress?

[klakljsdf]

Definitely a basic feature and its disappointing to be missing it.

[lostinthought]

Any RATINGS support coming soon??? I paid for this app and am waiting for ratings support to finally make the purchase worth it....

[@Poweramp2]

Any RATINGS support coming soon??? I paid for this app and am waiting for ratings support to finally make the purchase worth it....

I would hope the features Poweramp offers is worth the money, and is the reason you paid for it, but rating syncing is a planned feature.

[lostinthought]

I would hope the features Poweramp offers is worth the money, and is the reason you paid for it, but rating syncing is a planned feature.

Poweramp is definitely one of the better audio players available for android, but ratings support (in addition to Playlist syncing and tag editing) are on my top 3 must haves. I purchased this app expecting something as advanced as Poweramp would already have that built in. I appreciate the speedy reply and confirmation that it is a planned feature. Can you tell me a general time frame of when I can expect it to be implemented?

[@Poweramp2]

Poweramp is definitely one of the better audio players available for android, but ratings support (in addition to Playlist syncing and tag editing) are on my top 3 must haves. I purchased this app expecting something as advanced as Poweramp would already have that built in. I appreciate the speedy reply and confirmation that it is a planned feature. Can you tell me a general time frame of when I can expect it to be implemented?

I really cannot give you a time line because Rating sync is also attached to a few other synced feature we want to build into Poweramp and so those will all come in together, as for when, I am not exactly sure since we only have 1 developer, Max, doing all the work.

[lostinthought]

I really cannot give you a time line because Rating sync is also attached to a few other synced feature we want to build into Poweramp and so those will all come in together, as for when, I am not exactly sure since we only have 1 developer, Max, doing all the work.

The honest answer is much appreciated. I hate being given the run around. Keep up the great work Max! Very excited for ratings sync to complement my Media Monkey library!

[CrazyRussian]

Hi All,

I registered specifically to post this post which is aimed at the developer - I hope this message gets to him.

Love the player, hate no rating - as mentioned a lot on this forum.

Anyway, to the dev (pardon my lack of knowledge of tags as i have only spend abut 5 min reading ID3v2 specs for this post)

I'm also a programmer and understand that a seemingly trivial request for "Rating sync" system is quite challenging as there are many players that store their rating in their own POPM tags and users of each of those players would want you to support their ratings, of course. I hope I'm not deficient in some knowledge that renders this whole idea useless.

Here is my idea of handling this:

(I'm omitting iTunes as it doesnt store rating in ID3 fields. iTunes users should be (I guess) the minority of your users, but I will describe at the end of this post how to transfer rating from iTunes to other players).

For players that store rating in files (WMP, WinAmp, MM, etc)

Obviously Poweramp has it's own database with a field for rating. When a new file is added to the Poweramp database a new record is created which then is updated by the player during normal use, I assume.

What if:

when a new file is discovered by the Poweramp file system function, that function reads the file and reads the POPM ID3 frame. There are only a few fields of this type that import routine should be worried about (actually, this approach can handle any number of rating fields): "RATING WMP", "RATING WINAMP", "RATING MM" - (my guess) these will be the most popular ones and cover the majority of your user base (I'll cover multiple field handling later). The value of the POPM frame is read, parsed (numbers, stars, "minuses", "pluses", etc.) and added to the Poweramp database along with the field name of the MP3 file to update when user changes the rating. When a rating is updated via player, the new value is written to the Poweramp database and to the file POPM frame of the file.

If an MP3 file has more than one POPM field, then the options:

1. Read and then update the field with the highest value - leave other fields untouched. With this option import will be done only from one RATING field that has the highest value and only that field updated when user changes rating in the Poweramp player.

2. Read the highest value and update all fields with it - import highest value, update other tags with that value, and further updates by the Poweramp player will be written to all fields.

3. Dont import rating from files - then Poweramp will create it's own field and only update that one only

4. Do not read/write/update rating to files - dont touch files at all.

5. Let user pick a field to use for import and export. This can be done per file, or field selection can be set as the default for future imports. With this option different files can have different fields update.

The internal Poweramp database will also need a new filed: "POPM_Target" and that field will hold:

1. Name of the ID3v2 tag name for each file OR

2. "ALL" meaning that ALL POPM fields in the file need to be updated OR

3. "PA" - to use Poweramp field only, if this option necessary at all.

4. <null> - to not update files at all

When Poweramp detects a file system event of a file that is already in its internal database, the Poweramp file system function should read the POPM field for and update internal DB field with the changed rating value.

This way a user can have very granular (too granular if you ask me) control of what rating to use during import and/or during update for all or each file separately and Poweramp will know which field(s) to update. This approach will not require any PC "companion" application as the mobile player will handle all of it. You also do not need to worry about syncing as WMP, WinAmp, MM, or others will do the job and sync "changed" files from mobile device to PC, thus, updating the PC versions with new rating. If a file is updated in both places (PC and mobile device) then the sync will decide which wins.

FOR OTHERS WANTING TO TRANSFER iTunes rating to other players (I use BPM field as it is not used by me, but any other MP3 field that you dont use will work):

1. Start iTunes, and go into view that shows ALL your songs (Music/All (artist)/All (Albums) ... etc)

2. Click on "Rating" column heather - this will sort ALL your songs by rating

3. Click on the first song that is rated 1 star

4. Scroll down to the last song with rating one and, press and hold "Shift" on your keyboard and while holding "shift" down, click on the last song with rating 1 - this will highlight ALL your 1 star rated songs. Release "shift"

5. Right click on any of the highlighted songs and choose "Get Info"

6. Type 1 into BPM field, or any other field that you dont use

7. Repeat steps 3-6 for each rating

After this, all your rating will be written in each file in the BPM field, or the field you've chosen in step 6. Then:

1. Download MP3TAG (free), install, and open it

2. Drag your "My Music" or "iTunes" folder into the program - it will read and display all your MP 3 files

3. Click on menu: Edit - > Select All - this will highlight all your MP3 files

4. Click on menu: Actions -> Actions

5. Click the page icon with a star to add a new action

6. Give it a name (Update BPM to RATING WMP, for example), hit OK

7. A new action window will open, click on the page icon with the star again to add new function

8. Select "Format Value" from drop down and hit OK

9. Under "Field" type in the field to update. In my example, I created an action for Windows Media Player, so my "Field" is set to RATING WMP. You will type RATING MM for media monkey, and RATING WINAMP for WinAmp

10 Under "Format String:" type: %bpm%

11. Hit OK, and OK, then "Close"

The steps 5-11 only needs to be done once - once you create an action, you can just use over and over - no need to re-create it each time.

To update all highlighted files just:

1. Click Actions

2. Click "Update BPM to RATING WMP" action we created earlier

3. Done

Now all your iTunes rating traveled to BPM field and arrived in the field that your media player can understand and use.

If Poweramp dev can implement my suggestion, then I will completely ditch the iSuck apps and devices, as, I'm guessing, many others, to regain control and flexibility of our files, fields, and the way we use them.

oooph, a long one. Sorry.

CR

[lostinthought]

The honest answer is much appreciated. I hate being given the run around. Keep up the great work Max! Very excited for ratings sync to complement my Media Monkey library!

Hey Max just following up...a Poweramp update was recently issued, but there was no fix to the ratings issue I mentioned previously? I was told this was in the works...what gives?

[CrazyRussian]

^^+1^^

What lostinthought asked....

[st7677]

I would hope the features Poweramp offers is worth the money, and is the reason you paid for it, but rating syncing is a planned feature.

This reply reflects arrogance! This is a deal breaker, can we have it, please!

Let me explain.

As you said, I bought Poweramp for it's features, which I liked.

Over last couple of months I spent hundreds of hours organizing my 30GB music into playlists and rating my entire collection.

Lately, I realized that there is no way I can now back up this effort or sync it with my PC. That was really hard to digest.

Then yesterday, my Galaxy Note phone received Android 4.1.2 upgrade and my entire Poweramp library became empty. All apps managed to restore their data from either local storage or cloud, but not Poweramp. It simply killed my hours and hours of effort. This is not even a new feature request, I would rate it as a critical bug.

Good UI is one thing, but unless this backup is available I can no longer use or recommend Poweramp any more to anyone!

It's been a long time since people are asking for it. I will also wait for few days for a timeline from Poweramp team, else this gets a 1 star rating from me and my circle of friends and your force us also to move to the next option. Looking at the thread above, don't think you care anyway...

[CrazyRussian]

For some reason Poweramp team does not give the embedded rating option any priority. Sad. It appears to be an easy feature to add and would make quite a few users happy. I hate to switch but re-rating the music library just for Poweramp is just not an option.