HOWTO:  Use MobiMB to make playlists on your MMC

For this guide we used:

Windows XP Desktop PC / Nokia DKU-2 USB Cable / Nokia 6230 / LogoManager MobiMB 2.2 / MobyMemory 1Gb MMC memory card

LogoManager MobiMB 2.2 is available from www.logomanager.com . It is an alternative tool for creating playlists to reference your music tracks from sub-folders on your MobyMemory cards.

The quickest way to get those tracks onto your 512mb or 1Gb MMC is through using a USB2 memory card reader connected to your PC. Having done this, replace your MMC into your Nokia mobile, and connect your mobile to the PC (through USB DKU-2 cable, or infra-red or bluetooth etc..) For this guide, i will make a playlist for my Black Eyed Peas-Elephunk CD which i ripped with dbPOWERAMP onto my PC (as MP3) and then transferred to my memory card via one of our USB2 12-in-1 card readers.

MobiMB costs £16.95, and offers a very easy interface for managing all the files on both your Nokia mobile memory and memory card. As well managing playlists, it allows you to switch operator logos, wallpaper, Startup/shutdown logos, and copy & paste in files from your PC desktop.

So goto http://www.logomanager.co.uk/php/products.php?id=51 and download it.

Install the app, and then open up MobiMB:

Form the [File] menu option, choose Settings. When the Setting dialog opens up, click on [Add Connection] to establish the connection type to your mobile. In our case, we are using the Nokia DKU-2 USB cable, but you can select bluetooth or serial connections as well.

IF you now connect up your mobile to your PC (via chosen connection method), then your device should appear in the [Active Devices] section. (If you have problems at this stage, then it may be to do with your connection software/drivers not being setup correctly. You should get these working properly with Nokia software first, before starting up MobiMB. See other guides.)

Click OK on the Preference dialog, and you will now see your mobile in the top left of the main screen. Click on the folders below it called [Gallery] and [Media Card] and these will open out to show you the contents of both your phone memory and your inserted MobyMemory card.

Assuming that we have already filled our memory card (with a USB card reader) with lost of our favourite music tracks, we are ready to make a playlist file to reference those tracks..

Click on menu option [File] - [New Playlist]

Give your playlist a name.. and press OK. The playlist section will now open up in the lower-right of the main screen..

To get your musaic tracks into the playlist, navigate into the [Media Card] folder. Now it is a simple job of dragging and dropping the desired tracks into the playlist section..

Using the UP and DOWN arrows on the left whilst a track is selected allows you to tinker with the order of the playlist. When you are finished with this, pressing the [Save icon] to the left of the playlist will save it to your phone memory.

And you can repeat for all the tracks that are in sub-folders, and that won't be found throught he Nokia 6230 music player without a playlist.

MobiMB is a very nice little app, which makes creating playlists very straightforward, a little easier than with Nokia Audio Manager. Also you can take a look at the format of the playlist files, by pasting out of the Playlist folder.. Interesting if you have a stack of playlist files already, and would rather use a file editor to Find/Replace convert them for use on your Nokia 6230 (or 7610 etc.). Here is a copy of the .m3u file created by MobiMB. (As you can see the Memory card is listed as the B: drive with the Nokia 6230)

MobiMB also has excellent functionality for getting files onto your phone memory or onto your Memory card. You can drag&drop or copy&paste between Windows Explorer and the main file window of MobiMB. It is great for things like switching your operator logo, and Shutdown/Startup screens, and for managing ringtones.

We like it. It gets a Thumbs up 

Are you telling me that, even if I get a fat card and a card reader and tranfser the songs onto the card direct from the PC I cannot create a playlist that the phone will recognise without getting the damned 6230/ DKU-2 thing to work with my Win98SE PC?  I was hoping a card reader woudl bypass my driver problems, but now I am worried!  Can the .m3u file not be created on the PC  and saved to the memory card ??

Still no answer from Nokia support on my query.  This and similar forums (not such good ones, I hasten to add) are my only comfort at present

its a pain, but the only place that the Nokia 6230 will recognize a .m3u playlist file is in its playlist folder on the phone memory, and that is only accessible via the PC Nokia Suite (and Nokia Audio Manager or MobiMB or equiv).. as far as we know...

So a bluetooth, usb cable (DKU-2) or serial cable is going to be needed to use playlists, unless you can just keep your tracks on the root folder and call all together within the default playlist of the Nokia 6230 music player..

Shinyama,

MobiMB is a little bit more flexible and user friendly (in our opinion) and you can do others things really easily like switching your operator logo, and shutdown/startup pictures which is a nice touch..

Mind, making playlists with Nokia audio Manager is pretty straightforward, once you know how.. check out our HOWTOs on the subject..

Thanks for the feedback nineman,

we try and make things as easy as possible with our guides and advice, but computers being what they are, and, let's face it, these little phones are computers now.. it is not always plain sailing.

one tip with the drivers, is to always install the drivers off CD before plugging the cable (or phone, or bluetooth donlge for that matter) into the PC. The plug and play stuff in Windows 98SE + can screw up an installation by trying to recognize a new device, and then writing it off, before you have evn installed the right drivers.

Instead install it off the Cd, and then insert the USB cable, and attach the phone, then it should do it's plug&play thing, and let you load the rest of the drivers.