The synchronization process

After you set up automatic or manual synchronization between Windows Media Player and your device, or when you connect a device that has a partnership with the library on your computer, synchronization either begins immediately or you must start synchronization manually in the Items to Copy pane (the left side of Sync) in the Player. The Player begins synchronizing only the selected content that can be played or viewed on your device. If you selected playlists for synchronization that can't be played or viewed on your device, the Player skips these files during synchronization and displays an error in the Items to Copy pane.

The Items to Copy pane shows the selected items that are being synchronized and the following information in the Status column:

• Ready to Synchronize. The Player verified that there is enough storage space on the portable device for the files in the selected categories and playlists to be synchronized.
• Opening or Inspecting (includes the percentage completed). The Player inspects the selected files for errors.
• Converting/Converted (includes the percentage of conversion done). Each file is converted to the selected quality level or compression rate and stored in a temporary location on your computer. When synchronizing files, files are only converted if necessary (for example, if a specific bit rate is selected or if the device does not support the bit rate of the encoded file or the picture size).

  In some cases, a file may also be converted to a different file format so that you can play the file on your device. For example, if you try to synchronize a Microsoft Recorded TV Show file (a file with a .dvr-ms file extension), but your device can only play Windows Media Video (WMV) files, the Player will convert a copy of the Microsoft Recorded TV Show file to a file with a .wmv extension that can be played on your device. Converting the file format can dramatically increase the synchronization time. You can reduce synchronization time by converting copies of these files when it is convenient for you to do so, and then storing the converted copies in a cache for synchronization at a later time. For more information about adjusting quality settings and setting file conversion options, see Setting device options.

• Synchronizing (includes the percentage completed). The file, and any information associated with it, is being synchronized with the device.

During synchronization, the Items on Device pane (the right side of Sync) displays the selected device, the message "Copy in progress," and the categories and playlists as they are synchronized with the device.

When sychronization of the items in a category or playlist finishes, the message "Synchronization is complete" is displayed above the Items to Copy pane and two types of categories are displayed in the Items to Copy pane: the number of items that were synchronized successfully and the number of items that were not synchronized due to errors, along with the error details. There may be more than one error category displayed if different types of errors occurred during synchronization. You can expand these categories to view the individual items that failed to synchronize due to errors and take the appropriate steps.

You can also view the synchronized files on the device by expanding the category or playlist that contains the items in the Items on Device pane.

Notes

• You can stop synchronization at any time by clicking the Stop Sync button in the Items to Copy pane. This does not remove items already synchronized to the device, but does prevent additional items from being synchronized. Stopping synchronization does not affect synchronization settings for the partnership.
• You can resize the Items to Copy pane and Items on Device pane by dragging the split bar that is between them. You can also resize any column in either pane by selecting the separator between the columns, and then dragging it.

Related topics

• Synchronizing content with devices