GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 582453
Rhythmbox doesn't put music files in the Music directory on mtp devices
Last modified: 2009-05-14 11:31:03 UTC
Please describe the problem: When transferring songs to a MTP device rhythmbox places them in the root of the device, rather than the Music directory. The player then doesn't know the music is there. The device is detected as having a music directory by mtp-detect. I'm using a Samsung T10 on Ubuntu 9.04. This used to work with Ubuntu 8.10. Bug reported on Launchpad at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rhythmbox/+bug/316007 Steps to reproduce: 1. Connect an MTP device 2. Transfer a song by dragging it from the music library onto the device 3. Eject the device from Rhythmbox then mount it as a file system using mtpfs 4. Check in the mounted file system. Actual results: The song will be stored in the root directory Expected results: The song should be stored under the Music directory Does this happen every time? Yes Other information:
Works correctly for me with my samsung T10. What type of files are you transferring? Maybe the mtp-detect output from your device might help too.
Created attachment 134632 [details] output when running mtp-detect I'm transferring mp3 files, I've attached the output from mtp-detect. Two other people have commented on the launchpad bug report that they have experienced the same problem since upgrading Ubuntu to 9.04 (from rhythmbox 0.11.6 to 0.12.0). Adding a .is_audio_player file specifying the music directory to the root directory of the player fixed this for me.
If the .is_audio_player file had any effect, it means that rhythmbox is using this as a USB mass storage device rather than an MTP device. Not sure why that would be happening, though. Output from 'rhythmbox -D generic' might help figure it out.
Created attachment 134636 [details] Output when running "rhythmbox -D generic", plugging in device, transferring a song then ejecting device
Rhythmbox is still accessing the device using MTP, which means it can't be reading the .is_audio_player file. What happens if you remove it?
Ok, now it's working again, without the .is_audio_player file. So I guess it can't have been that which fixed it. I did clear a whole lot of files out of the root directory at the same time as I added the .is_audio_player file. This is my sisters mp3 player and she said she had tried transferring files to it using Nautilus when Rhythmbox wouldn't transfer them. I guess that she must have had a problem transferring files because of the file format rather than because of Rhythmbox putting them in the root directory. Her putting the mp3 files there initially must be what caused Rhythmbox to start acting up and putting files there itself, or maybe Rhythmbox never actually put any files into that directory itself but the file transfers just weren't working properly.
I'm trying to see if having an mp3 file in the root directory causes Rhythmbox to put mp3 files there, but now I can't even get any mp3 files to go there. Dragging and dropping in Nautilus causes them to go to the Music directory, and copying them there using the command line does the same thing. Copying a directory causes the files to be directories to be added to the root directory, but the mp3 files end up in the Music directory. Although now I've just realised she doesn't even have mtpfs installed on her computer, so I'm not sure how she would have managed to drag and drop files into the player using Nautilus. Oh well, I guess this isn't a bug then. The original reporter on Launchpad hasn't said anything since their first post, but perhaps they can confirm that clearing out the root directory is all that's needed for Rhythmbox to start working properly again.
Unless someone else with this problem turns up, I don't think there's much we can do here. The actual bug is either in libmtp or the device itself (rhythmbox leaves the directory selection to libmtp), but we should be able to narrow it down further than that. If this starts happening again, please reopen this bug.