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]

Bleck!

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.

 

[ypsichick]

MediaLink duplicated all my music on my computer, then divided some of my album compilations into seperate albums (1song 1 albumn-instead of 10songs 1 albumn) and some like my rod stewarts did not port to my droid at all! Uninstalled that fast. Good thing my Vista Pro has a seperate location for my music (& too bad it was duplicated!)

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

 

[xchief6]

FYI ... the latest version will wipe out your calendar categories in Office Outlook 2010. This appears to happen when Media Link auto-launches when plugging in the phone. Tested multiple times ... it's the culprit.

Technical specifics: Win 7 x64; Office 2010 Professional Plus; Motorola Medial Link 1.5.

 

[jbrill1012]

Eww... ugly acting software

FYI ... the latest version will wipe out your calendar categories in Office Outlook 2010. This appears to happen when Media Link auto-launches when plugging in the phone. Tested multiple times ... it's the culprit.

Technical specifics: Win 7 x64; Office 2010 Professional Plus; Motorola Medial Link 1.5.

I'm sure there is probably a setting to sync a two way sync not one way. There's a setting in the :blackberry: Blackberry desktop software to do just this... if they didn't just goes to show you the lack of intelligence/thought process of the programmer/analyst/requirements documents. Needless to say I don't and will not use Nero software due to the issues of 1. Bloatware, 2. Terrible software to begin with (110% opinion based), 3. It's built as a plug and play sync software (in other words you plug it up and it syncs and doesn't ask you what you want to do when you plug in the device and doesn't give you options before or during doing what it wants to do). Can you change the settings yes, but you have to do everything before hand.

Nero software from what I've seen by past experience is built for non-technical thinking/minded people. Plug it in and it takes off doing what it assumes you want it to do. Such as I want to copy a dvd well you insert the dvd click the button and boom! it takes off doing just that, not asking for any types of settings for the copy/transfer. Where as most other programs will give you settings option in the begining of the process Nero has it's defaults and you have to make adjustments before starting any process. It's not that it's a bad software, but just the fact it's different from what a lot of people are used to.

 

[lasswaffo]

Have you tried the application sugar sync. I use it a lot pretty decent application

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[LTPZ]

Okay, I am no big tech guy, but I am nearing the end of my contract on my original droid.:motdroidvert:
Because I get a new laptop replacement/upgrade from work every year practically, I just had to once again download MediaLink, for a third time. NEVER has there been an issue with anything!dancedroid
Now, mind you I am anal about proper procedural steps when you install/uninstall things, due to schooling.:blackberry:
Especially when you are working in XP for example. Most people will just pull the USB cable out when they "think" they are finished. But you actually need to undock the USB using the little icon in your bottom right menu bar.
The same goes for when you install MML. If you read even the quick start guide. I believe it states that you should plug-in the cable in a particular order. This does matter!
This is one of the reasons most packaging instructions went to "picture only" format. Research showed that the general population will follow visual instructions more accurately than ones that were text.
:icon_ devil: Or YOU have your computer setting set to "automatically download (without stopping to prompt you)" when anything at all, is plugged into your drive or loaded into your CD...!!! Have you checked those settings??? Most people don't even know they exist or when they stumble upon them, they set them to auto and then do what you are doing...try to put the blame on the program!
If the program was doing what you claim, then Motorola would have been pulled MML or fixed it a long time ago. Have you stopped to think or to realize how many people, realistically, have loaded the program before and after you? :icon_eek:
I don't mean to B... you out, but check your settings... or call Motorola support next time!

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