Looking for posts on ‘Synchronization greyed out’ I saw I had added to a thread about a year ago. I did not have a problem at the time (Mac 10.12.6 Sierra was fine). After finally figuring out how to create a 32GB SD card (my project got too large for a 4GB) I now (like others) can only ‘export’ (overwrite) when I make changes.
I add new songs and fix others often and we use the pedal for 95% of our songs over the past 3-4 years so I have gotten in the habit of backing up and downloading changes many times a day.
Clearly the Beat Buddy as it ages is becoming more of a burden. I’ll refrain from echoing what so many others have said over the past 3 years or so and has clearly fallen on deaf ears at Singular. If it were not for Persist and others so willing to help this wonderful tool would have been pitched long ago.
This is actually the first time I’ve heard of this – other than that one time that the user had upgraded his Mac OS and it turned out to be a problem with the new OS rotating SD slots (as I recall).
You don’t happen to be running a recently-updated Mac, do you?
Hi Joe - there are a few threads dating back to '16 on this. I had no issues myself until recently tinkering with formatting and loading 32GB cards. For some reason my Mac onboard card reader would read the 4GB I use every day but I needed to use a (Targus) card adapter to export and create the new 32GB cards. Ever since only export works even though the usual ‘Synchronize to this card?’ prompt came up after each export.
I’ve been only using Sierra 10.12.6 on my 2011 vintage MacBook Air since I saw there were some issues reported many months ago with upgrades to High Sierra. I’m leery of upgrading unless absolutely necessary (such as employing 32 GB cards since I ran into overload issues after almost 4 years of use).
I have the same problem although not nearly as many songs so it’s a little less frustrating. Synchronize seems to still work on the original 4GB card but is grayed out on my 16GB card.
Could it be a formatting issue (I seem to recall Macs will read certain formats but not write to them)
Am I incorrect in remembering that someone once said there was a limit to the supported size of SD card?
Could this be related to the driver for your Targus card reader?
If all else fails, could you possibly resolve the issue by reinstalling the BBM?
I don’t use my old Mac for BeatBuddying, I’m on the PC, but this seems like it should be resolveable. Plus, software doesn’t (theoretically) deteriorate. So it is very likely (not 100%, perhaps, but very likely) the problems you are experiencing are not about BBM, but about either hardware (most likely) or operating systems.
Bonus question: Can you read and synch to your 4GB card through the Targus reader?
Interesting question: How have you outgrown a 4GB card? I have over 400 songs in my current Project and I’m only at 1.3GB. Is it possible something is adding extra crap to your card? Or do you really have that much material on it?
DATA POINT: I’m using 8GB and 16GB cards at the moment in addition to the 4GB cards that came with my Beat Buddies (I keep a spare as a backup).
In brief - had lots of drum kits as I auditioned various options and since they eat up 80+MB each plus the few hundred songs apparently I was pushing the limit it appears causing weird dropouts of kit parts on the pedal that otherwise sounded fine in BBM.
This could definitely be a MAC thing. The issue cropped up after using the format utility to prep the 32GB cards. I heard that these (Class 10, etc) would work with BB and they seem to perform just fine. The problem is having lost the synch function.
The export function works fine (but tedious for repeat use). The anomaly, in addition to now losing synch function on BBM, is not being able to synch with the onboard reader for 4GB either where I always have before the formatting exercise.
I can open any card in the finder and examine the contents.
Just ran a number of things following on JoeinOttawa’s thinking. Sadly I can’t claim anything that follows will make the reader more knowledgeable but…problem seems to be gone.
I reinstalled BBM 1.6.4.1 over the existing which had no effect. I exported the project again using the Targus adapter since the built-in reader wouldn’t work (gave a ‘can’t erase existing’ error) then as soon as it completed attempted a synch. Synch was no longer greyed out and BBM said no synch necessary. Both SD cards (4GB and 32GB) worked the same.
Now…I tried to synch each card without the adapter and …everything is back to normal. Really. The only thing I can see tying all this saga together is I loaded firmware to the new cards before exporting the project to get all this started.
Exporting the project a 2nd time (albeit with an assist from the Targus adapter) without loading firmware first corrected everything including the ability read directly via the built-in card reader. It does not seem necessary to resort to the Targus adapter to ‘export’ to each subsequent card (i.e., ones that have been through the process previously) to get them to synch directly via the reader.
Did you, by any chance, reformat the SD cards? The “can’t erase existing” error could be related to the format type on the card before the Mac formatted it in a way it could both read and write.
Just a thought.
And glad it seems to have worked out for you – congrats!
An addendum (and reply to Joe’s question) - I think of these threads as a message in a bottle. If our exchanges guide some more knowledgeable person who can improve Beat Buddy Manger down the road its worth it. Its sometimes tedious (and sometimes I’m obtuse) but it is a great tool.
I had to format the cards out of the box or they wouldn’t be read I found out. Also I read something about formatting larger (32GB) cards using ExFAT vs FAT and found that ExFAT can’t be read by the pedal (likely works fine for video and other uses.)
The workaround above (exporting to a previously used card) still needs to be done it seems. I had to again today after a work session. But having exported once again subsequent backups can be done via synchronization and I have to resort to the adapter at least sometimes.
No pattern to relate here yet. Wild guess would be its a Beat Buddy thing since the card reader on the MAC seems to be OK. I can certainly be missing something and have developed a voodoo approach because of it. Not ideal but I’m working.
You may suggest it but I am not going to do that at this time. I formatted as FAT32 from the outset (6 months or so ago) and I don’t have huge lists of songs like some of the other folks here. I use it mostly for a writing / jamming tool and I am mostly using my own patterns. Exporting is not a huge undertaking for me like it may be for some others
Right now everything is working and I don’t want to screw that up. Same reason I am still using the older firmware version. I like the idea behind the new features and will eventually update but I am holding out for the tempo change capability.
Until then I will live with it. Sync still works just fine with my original 4GB card that I use for a back up.
Thanks for being willing to help even though I wasn’t really asking for it just confirming that there is some kind of issue either in the software or with the card? Or it could just be me.
I have lots of complex lists of custom beats that we use every week, so I want stuff to just work. Plus, with two BBs (gigging and backup) and three SD cards (gigging, spare in my easily-accessible bag, and backup), I actually NEED stuff to just work. So I am always looking to solve problems when they come up, even when they’re not mine, because Murphy’s Law tells me they eventually WILL be my problems.
And I don’t make things any easier on myself: This month’s project is to get my BB to run the stage lighting rig. And I am close, very, very close.
Update of sorts. The agony is still present but the behavior is reproducible. To run Export (forget Synchronize that seems to be history) I need to: 1) close BB Mgr 2) run the well-named CCleaner app or I get “Can’t delete.Abort/Retry” msgs which of course lead nowhere. I have to do this with each card.
I think JoeinOttawa mentioned using two cards - one dedicated for gigs (that doesn’t change often) and one for work files. I’ll do this so the gig card and its backup won’t change unless we change the set list and I think its too cumbersome to jump around on the fly. At least I will be doing the BB multi-step dance less…
Oh yeah - I still have to step through and reset pedal functions following each export. Really…among the many functions sadly needed having a user specific preset is huge.
Hi there, MAC’s do some weird stuff with disks as you know. However I dont really think your issue is specific to the MAC. I have an older MAC and may try it at some point however I am now on a Windows 10 i-7 with 15TB storage and 32gb RAM.
Using the provided card, I upgraded and added the 2020 Complete kit… so far no problems backing up or sync.
I them started checking out some user created Drum Kits and songs. About 15 drum kits and 50 or so songs. Now I am neither able to Sync or Backup. Upon doing so, the BeatBuddy software will stop on a WAV file and tell me it could not write to my memory card. What’s really bad is the only option available to the user is “ABORT”. Welll that just kills the whole thing and have nothing for my 15 minutes. I am on Windows and Windows has a feature to “SKIP” the problematic file. Whoever programed BeatBuddy must not be able to call up that routine. Ok so then I checked the BeatBuddy Manager User Manual… cant find nothing on trouble shooting although otherwise the manual is pretty good.
As you say, “Clearly Beat Buddy as it ages is becoming more of a burden” lol I’ve had my Beat Buddy for about a week and put over $500 into it. So I have to disagree, I don’t think age is a problem, I think it’s the lack of back end supporting a top notch front end product. Not sure if it is just a lack of knowledge or funds or commitment to the product. I see they have a few different products they are supporting and maybe BeatBuddy is suffering because of that. Or perhaps it’s simply under-staffing. In any case, BeatBuddy is perfect to what I need (I have tons of beat machines, software etc to deal with midi) I just wish they would fix the back end to make it a world class product.
Compare the size of the project you’re trying to export or sync to the space available on the SD card. Sounds like you’ve exceeded the space available. Also check that the card is not locked.
That was it. Should have given a message disk full not ABORT lol
Works great on a 32gb card so what’s with the 4gb card that comes with it? I’ve had mine less than a week and the disk is no longer useful sheesh! I mean whats the price dif between a 4 and 8gb card? I bought 2 32gb cards off Amazon for $16
Good to hear. Don’t get the wrong impression from my earlier venting on BB & Mac. We’ve been using BB for almost 5 years and would not work without it. More recently with my REAPER modifications and extended bass/keys etc inclusions. With (alot of) help from Persist and a little bit from Singular my old Mac is flawless exercising my 32 GB card (at least synchronizing) to my heart’s content.
