The File Synchronization tool is used to automatically synchronize specific tracks, folders, playlists or albums to a destination folder or device.

Typical examples of destination devices are a folder (local, USB memory stick etc) or a device supporting the Media Transfer Protocol (MTP).

Almost all Android phones and tables are supporting the MTP standard as well as Window Phones.


Tracks that are synchronized will given a new name and an optional new folder structure on the destination folder/device.


It is possible to control which audio formats that are supported by the destination folder/device.

This is ideal if you for example is sycnhronizing to an USB stick to be used by a DJ mixer supporting only WAV and MP3.

During the synchronization process, source files that are of an unsupported format, FLAC for example, will be transcoded to a selected supported output format.


Synchronizing contents to a specific drive/folder:

  1. Start the file synchronization tool from Tools > File synchronization
  2. Select the destination type to the first entry in the Folder/device drop-down; Selected folder on disk
  3. Select the output folder for the files and folders by clicking the Browse button
  4. Add the files/folders/playlists/albums you would like to synchronize by clicking the buttons below the list Selected synchronization items.

    Note: You can add files, albums, playlists and folders to the synchronization list from context menus within Helium. When you add items from a context menu, the tool will not be started.
  5. Click Synchronize to start the synchronization


Synchronizing contents to a phone/tablet

  1. Make sure that your device is plugged into your computer and that you (on the device) has allowed access to it from Windows
  2. Start the file synchronization tool from Tools > File synchronization
  3. Select your device from the Folder/device drop-down. If your device has more than one storage, e.g. an Sd/MicroSd card, each storage will be listed.
  4. Add the files/folders/playlists/albums you would like to synchronize by clicking the buttons below the list Selected synchronization items.

    Note: You can add files, albums, playlists and folders to the synchronization list from context menus within Helium. When you add items from a context menu, the tool will not be started.
  5. Click Synchronize to start the synchronization


Refreshing/connecting devices

If you connect an MTP device whilst Helium is running you will need to manually refresh the list of target devices so that Helium can discover it.

Do this by clicking the Refresh button located to the right of the Folder/device drop-down list.


Options on the General Tab

  • Delete contents on the destination that do not exist in the synchronization list will delete any files and folders on the destination during the synchronization that are not a part of the selected synchronization list, based on the selected root folder.

    If d:\music is selected as output folder, any items under this folder will be removed if they do not exists in the synchronization list.
  • Output format lets you control the resulting folder and filename using the tag to filename engine.

    This is a very flexible system that allows sub-folder hierarchies and optimized naming rules, adopted to your target usage.

    Note: If you are synchronizing to an MTP device and your output format does not start with a custom folder, Music will automatically be used as the root folder to ensure that the device absolute root is not used.

    Example usage on an MTP device:
    -Output format set to {{artist}}\{{title}} will render to \sd-card\Music\artist\title.
    -Output format set to MyMusic\{{artist}}\{{title}} will render to \sd-card\MyMusic\artist\title.

    Note that sd-card depends on the selected storage on your device.


Options tab

  • Select which audio formats that the target folder/device supports by check marking them in the list, Supported audio formats. Any files not matching the supported types will be converted to the selected Output format, shown below the list of formats, during the synchronization process.
  • Export playlist after synchronization will create a playlist of the synchronized items and save it in the target root after the synchronization is completed. This option is not available for MTP devices.
  • Normalize transcoded files will apply volume normalization to any transcoded files (if the format supports it). Synchronized albums will be assigned album gain, based on the files on the synchronized album. Other tracks will be assigned track gain.