Beware Motorola Media Link!

[droidbound]

I read in some thread here about Motorola Media Link being the software to sync your music, pictures etc. between your PC and the droid. I should have known to stay away when I read on Motorola's site, that this software is "powered by Nero".
Any Nero product I have ever tried, I hated! Not just disliked or found wanting, but hated! Any Nero burn software I have tried, the Blackberry Media software they make - it's all crap (excuse my language)!! CRAP!!!
So I did install the software and first thing it does, without asking or waiting for input, is to scan WMP for music files. I do not use WMP, it is linked to my iTunes library, yes, and I should have thrown it out long ago. But no app should just do anything without asking, *^%!!!?!!!
Under "Settings" I actually found the options to associate this crap software with either iTunes, WMP or nothing. But right out of the box, it just grabs the WMP database file!
So I deleted the contents in Motorola Media Link, assuming that that would just clear it's database file, as it is in any music library I know, aehhh knew!!
THAT DAMN THING DELETED ALL MY MUSIC FILES! THE ACTUAL FILES!!!
Without blinking, without asking: ARE YOU REALLY SURE YOU WANT TO PERMANENTLY DELETE ALL YOUR MUSIC FILES?
Gone! Puff! And since my library is too big for the Recycling bin, most of them are just that: Gone with the Wind!
Fortunately I am a nut about backing up my stuff. I have at least 2 backups of anything I have on disc somewhere: the web, external hard drive, sometimes both. So for me it's just a matter of copying the files back, but I know that not all of you out there religiously back up. So remember:
There are two kinds of data: Backed up data and data not yet lost!
And stay away from Motorola Media Link!!!

[hookbill]

I've heard a lot of good things about it, your really the first negative post I've seen.

I suggest you try a free program you can google called Double Twist. It works great with syncing iTunes and pictures. Give that one a try.

[droidbound]

Well, after cooling down some over night and restoring my library, I think I should qualify my first post somewhat.
It's my own stupidity that led me to assume an unknown piece of software would work as well as other apps I know. But it is true that it behaved like many other Nero products I have tried (quite a few over the years). I call it "invasive software".
A software program is a tool and should do what the user wants it to do and not decide on it's own what some programmer thought would be good for you. If I use a drill to drill a 1/8 inch hole, I do not want the drill to decide I would be better off with a 1/4 inch hole!
Media Link installed all kinds of suspect (and probably superfluous) software on my system during the installation process: Windows Visual Basic C, some "Windows installer for XP" I've never heard about, stuff that no other app I know of needs to do the basic job of moving media between your PC and your Droid.
I just don't trust this program, actually did a system restore to get rid of all the crap it installed. And from what I saw during the brief time I did use it, I found the interface cramped and ugly.
I am going to try Songbird today. Their latest version is supposed to work well with the Droid, and I'll report back here.
But I do stand to my initial post title: Beware of Motorola Media Link!

[markwebb]

I have been trialling it; no issues on this end and it works. Acceptable software but not stellar. I see it is based on Nero.

[coolcat600]

I've been using it, I like that it recognizes individual phones. There are definitely things I don't like, such as the fact that I can't set it up to watch multiple folders, but when I tried double twist I liked it less than the moto program simply b/c of the way it looked, and the way it pulled in files, etc. I've just gone to doing anything I sync in a series of folders on my desktop for easy access and i right click > send to > and it just plops it on my mounted SD card.

[jgumphress]

I wasn't aware that you needed anything else to stansfer music to the Droid. I have just been dragging and dropping music from my PC to the Droid SD card.

[hedney3]

I wasn't aware that you needed anything else to stansfer music to the Droid. I have just been dragging and dropping music from my PC to the Droid SD card.

you dont need one if your music is already ready to be ported over to the droid

[choklitcow]

Well, after cooling down some over night and restoring my library, I think I should qualify my first post somewhat.
It's my own stupidity that led me to assume an unknown piece of software would work as well as other apps I know. But it is true that it behaved like many other Nero products I have tried (quite a few over the years). I call it "invasive software".
A software program is a tool and should do what the user wants it to do and not decide on it's own what some programmer thought would be good for you. If I use a drill to drill a 1/8 inch hole, I do not want the drill to decide I would be better off with a 1/4 inch hole!
Media Link installed all kinds of suspect (and probably superfluous) software on my system during the installation process: Windows Visual Basic C, some "Windows installer for XP" I've never heard about, stuff that no other app I know of needs to do the basic job of moving media between your PC and your Droid.
I just don't trust this program, actually did a system restore to get rid of all the crap it installed. And from what I saw during the brief time I did use it, I found the interface cramped and ugly.
I am going to try Songbird today. Their latest version is supposed to work well with the Droid, and I'll report back here.
But I do stand to my initial post title: Beware of Motorola Media Link!

I enjoyed this, particularly with your signature quote.

[Flopolopagus]

I wish that I had read this before downloading and installing it. I am considering uninstalling before I even give it a try, mostly based on there is no way to tell if it is just going to truck every bit of music, video, and photo in my library. There are no check boxes (like in iTunes) that let the user omit specific data. i know that if I put everything onto my Droid X, it will max out the memory. I am going to look into the other options I saw mentioned.

(Also, there is no little tidbit information, for instance: there is nothing saying the total size of the library anywhere on the Media Link's application)

Thanks Droidbound

[zobothehobo]

I just installed it because songbird is ridiculous and I don't know why everyone loves it. I was told to download songbird and I did and it only synced SOME of my music. I have 840 songs and it just DECIDED it only WANTED to sync 123 of them. And it wouldn't sync any more. I had space and I had the settings set to use all of the space available and it just WOULDN'T do what I told it to do... I started getting suspicious of Motorola Media Link when it told me to update it as soon as I downloaded it so I came here. Thanks for warning me, I'll stop now.