sync-music 0.5.1
Sync music library to external devices
Requires Python: >=3.9
Keywords: music, synchronization

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# sync_music - Sync music library to external devices

This program allows you to synchronize your music library for the usage
on primitive music players that don\'t support the diversity of your
collection.

In normal operation mode, *sync_music* performs its synchronization
tasks depending on the input file format. Music files in FLAC, Ogg
Vorbis and M4A format are transcoded to MP3. MP3 audio files and other
files are transferred unchanged. Filenames are adapted where necessary
to comply with the FAT32 format. If preferred, *sync_music* can also
forcefully transcode all files in order to save disk space. Another
operation mode applies volume normalization based on
[ReplayGain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReplayGain) tags.

Transcoding is a time consuming operation, therefore the first run of
*sync_music* can take several minutes. In subsequent runs however, it
will only process files that changed in the source. To optimize the
detection of file changes, the script stores and compares a hash build
on a fixed size block at the beginning of each file.

Besides audio files, *sync_music* is also able to export M3U playlists
to the destination folder. Absolute paths are hereby replaced with
relative paths in addition to the FAT32 filename adaptations.

## Dependencies

-   Python \>= 3.9
-   [FFmpeg](https://ffmpeg.org) (for transcoding to MP3)
-   [Mutagen](https://mutagen.readthedocs.io) \>= 1.29 (for tag
    manipulation)

## Installation

The first step is to install [FFmpeg](https://ffmpeg.org). Most Linux
distributions offer packages that can be directly installed. On Ubuntu
18.04 or later there\'s an official package that can simply be installed
using:

    # apt install ffmpeg

Then *sync_music* can be installed from PyPI with:

    # pip3 install sync_music

The following command installs the current development version:

    # pip3 install https://github.com/fetzerch/sync_music/archive/master.zip

## Usage

### Quick start

The following basic command synchronizes all audio files from the source
to the destination directory:

    sync_music --audio-src=<FOLDER> --audio-dest=<FOLDER>

Additionally M3U playlist syncing can be enabled by specifying the path
to the playlists:

    sync_music --audio-src=<FOLDER> --audio-dest=<FOLDER> --playlist-src=<FOLDER>

Besides that *sync_music* supports a number of advanced options. A full
list of supported options is available in the built in help message:

    sync_music --help

### Transcoding

The operation mode can be changed with the `--mode` parameter.

In `transcode` mode MP3 files are transcoded as well (instead of just
copied to the destination):

    sync_music --audio-src=<FOLDER> --audio-dest=<FOLDER> --mode=transcode

Transcoding MP3 files can lead to significantly smaller files if the
source contains many 320kbps CBR MP3s as the target rate is 190kbps VBR.
The drawback is that transcoding is slower and needs more CPU power.

The `replaygain` and `replaygain-album` modes apply (track or album)
based volume normalization from
[ReplayGain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReplayGain) tags when
transcoding:

    sync_music --audio-src=<FOLDER> --audio-dest=<FOLDER> --mode=replaygain

Transcoding modes require that the MP3 files can be decoded by
[FFMpeg](https://ffmpeg.org) without issues. Problematic input files can
be analyzed and fixed for example with [MP3
Diags](http://mp3diags.sourceforge.net).

### Hacks

Some media players don\'t properly support album artist tags. This
restriction can be bypassed by writing the album artist information into
the artist field. This can be enabled by adding the
`--albumartist-artist-hack` parameter.

Some media players don\'t properly support album artist tags, but they
do support the composer field. This restriction can be bypassed by
writing the album artist information into the composer field. This can
be enabled by adding the `--albumartist-composer-hack` parameter.

Some media players don\'t properly support artist tags. This restriction
can be bypassed by writing the artist information into the album artist
field. This can be enabled by adding the `--artist-albumartist-hack`
parameter.

Some media players don\'t properly support disc number tags with tracks
numbered starting with 1 for every disc. The user typically wants to
group them by disc and not by track position. This can be solved by
creating a different album for each disc. With the `--discnumber-hack`
option, the disc number is appended to the album field.

Some media players don\'t properly support track number tags containing
the total number of tracks on the disk. With the `--tracknumber-hack`
option, the track total is removed from the track number field.

## License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the [GNU
General Public License](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html) for
more details.