sorry if this was already covered but ... is there an easy way of downloading files from my empeg ? I think jemplode has the feature but you can only do a title at a time... what if i want to download a few "playlists" and "sub-playlists" to my (fat)pc, just the way i uploaded them to the empeg (hustle free). and for the files to retain their id tags and filenames ....

I basically want a backup (of my empeg) that I can use ... play songs from my backup ...

I hope this makes sence ... sorry if it didn't ...

You can download multiple tracks at once with jEmplode. I believe it's via Edit->Download.... There are also some options for it, which you might want to tweak.

Rafy, this is a collection of FAQ entries:

Can I copy MP3 files back onto my PC from the player?

Is there anything I should keep in mind when I grab files from the player?

Can I back up the player's playlists and music files?

How can I keep my PC and my car player in perfect synch?

thanks for the info ... it was quite helpfull.
but, I can't accept the fact that I have about 40GB of songs on my player, arranged and TAGed beautifully, with proper titles, artists and generas ... and that i'm going to loose all that work everytime I "... copy MP3 files back onto my PC from the player.." ...

I know that there is the option of "... back up the player's playlists and music files.." but I don't want waste 40gb (soon to be more than that) of valuable hd space on my pc.

is there any way to copy the MP3's back to my HD and than storing the TAGS from the player seperatly to do a complete restore ?

or better yet ... can someone write an application to update the mp3s on the player with the tags from the DB ?

Tags are on the mp3 file, not on the database. The only way you can claim to have "properly tagged" mp3s is to have the tags properly tagged prior to putting them on the player. Sounds like you were real sloppy with tagging and fixed it in emplode.

However, when emplode downloads, it uses the info in the database to create the filename, not in the mp3. So you could populate the tags based on filename with a tagging program.

On the player, there is no filename.mp3. The file name that you get when you transfer from the empeg to the pc is based on the tags. If the tags are all correct as you say, then the resulting files on the pc will be named correctly. In order to get that information back into tags, you simply have to use a program like MP3 Studio to write tags based on filenames.

let me just give you this scenerio so I'm completely clear.
1. I put a folder full of mp3s that don't have any id3 tags or proper filenames (please don't ask why), onto the empeg using emplode.
2. I fix the song's tags in emplode to have the correct title artist genre, year and so on ...
3. now let's say I loose the mp3s from my computer's HD (it blows up) how do I get the mp3s from the empeg to the PC hd ? without loosing all the tagging and cataloging information that I spent so much time putting in using emplode ????

FOX seems to think that downloading entire playlists using emplode and restoring id3's from filenames (using MP3 Studio) would do the trick ? that sounds easy.

That's exactly what Fox and I said. The database information that you enter with emplode will be reflected in the filename.

I REALLY suggest that you save yourself some heartache and modify step #1.

thanks ...

I guess those mp3 filenames will be pretty long after downloading some songs... isn't there a limit in windows on how long a filename can be ?

On an NTFS partition, the maximum length of a filename is 256 characters. That's gotta be enough unless you have huge comment fields or something, and I'm not sure those comments can even be saved as part of the filename.

Also, keep in mind you'll lose any special characters in this filename conversion process. The most troublesome ones I've seen are : and ?, with the < and > signs also causing a bit of a headache. You can find those characters with an advanced emplode search and take note of them before downloading and fix them later.

FOX seems to think that downloading entire playlists using emplode and restoring id3's from filenames (using MP3 Studio) would do the trick ? that sounds easy.

It's not easy. It's rather tricky, but it can be done. First thing you have to know is that Emplode doesn't offer enough file name options to do the job, you must use JEmplode instead. It must be the latest version of JEmplode. Beyond that, please click here to read another thread where I answered this very same question only a few minutes ago. I give a complete explanation of how to use MP3 Tag Studio to retag your files based on the file names supplied by Jemplode.