DapSync

Functions

DapSync copies tracks from your iTunes library to some media. It may be a storage device in a connected DAP, or it may be a storage device such as a microSD that you have mounted on your computer. In either case DapSync ensures that your DAP and you iTunes library are in sync. "Synchronisation" means in this case that only tracks that have been added, modified or removed will be affected

​

DapSync uses the "album artist", and "album" information in the iTunes metadata to create a set of folders on your device where the tracks are stored. A separate top-level folder is created based upon the artist name, and for each album a separate folder will be created under the artist name.

​

For DAPs that do not use the "track number" metadata, DapSync has the option of prefixing the track name with a track number. To avoid confusion and unhelpful file names, it also removes any existing track number prefixes before adding one.

​

DapSync maintains a list of what has been synchronised and will synchronise new tracks or tracks that have been updated. All tracks are copied to the DAP 'as is' with no reformatting or updating of metadata. If you have two storage devices (like my X5) then you should choose which artists go on which device.

​

​

Using DapSync

​

Once you start up DapSync you will see a a very simple screen. This allows you to configure the app and to run the synchronisation. The app is very simple:

​

• iTunes XML File  (Only for Windows version) - this is the location of the XML file that iTune uses to store the library. In more recent versions of iTunes this has to be enabled explicitly. This can be done with the menu options Preferences -> Advanced and then clicking on "Share iTunes library XML with other applications". The file is normally to be found in your iTunes library folder that is a sub folder of your standard Music folder and is called "iTunes Library.xml". If you have several iTunes libraries be sure to select the correct library.

• Left Device - this is the location of the left hand (or only if you only have one) storage device for your DAP. When you connect your DAP the devices should show up as mounted file systems and you should point this value there.

• Right Device - if you have more than one storage device (like on my Fiio X5) then this is its location. If you are using more than one device then this is where the split will happen, based on artist name. Artists higher on the alphabet go to the right device. You can use the slider to choose a letter, or you can enter the first few letters for more precision

• Prefix Track Numbers - check this if you want DapSync to add a track number to the beginning of the filename of your sync'ed track. This is useful when the DAP cannot sort the track based on metadata

• Check Track on DAP - DapSync keeps a record of what you have synchronised,  but if for some reason you get out of sync, then check this. DapSync will verify that the track that it thinks is on the DAP is actually there, otherwise it will copy it again.

• Logfile Folder - choose a folder where DapSync writes its log file (which is always called Dapsync.log). Normally any errors will be logged into this file.​

• Verbose Logging - normally DapSync only logs errors to the logfile. When you click on this then it will log everything that it does for every track to the logfile.

Some extra details

​

Here are some extra notes about how the app works

​

• Music Library - (Mac only) for security reasons, the app has very limited access to files on your Mac. One of the consequences is that if your music library is not in the standard "music" folder, then you need to separately authorise DapSync to access it. This can be done by clicking the "authorise" button and then selecting the device where your music is stored. This only has to be done once the first time that you use the app.

• First Time Usage - when you use DapSync for the first time, it will copy everything to your DAP. Depending on the size of your library and the speed of your disc, this could take a long, long time.  My library is about 200Gb and takes about a day to load over the network. 

• Deleting of files - DapSync won't delete any files that you have manually loaded on the DAP (unless they have exactly the same name in exactly the same folder as files that you are copying). If you change the split between devices, or remove files from your library, then the relevant files will be deleted

• Multiple devices unmounted - if you have multiple devices on your DAP, but one of them is unavailable for some reason, then DapSync just does what it can and will try again on the missing device next time. This was necessary for me because with large transfers, the FiiO X5 dismounts one of the devices before DapSync gets to it.

​​