Derek, Mark,

Victory!

You can never apply HiJack too early. What are the symptoms of the sync failure?

It would stop at about the 4th step in Emplode with "unable to read database" or thereabouts....

Try v3-alpha-6!

Got it!

I just used upgrader to apply it (took two minutes), and then it rebooted, tried to rebuild the database (which always fails when done on the player's own initiative), and then started up just fine.

I may have been suffereing from a few misconceptions or NWADs or both. I thought builder image would complete wipe filesystems, but they didn't. I had forgotten the "player looks like it is rebuilding the DB but really isn't" you mention.

Finally, I downgraded to 2.0, manually deleted DBs, synched, upgraded to 3a6 and I am synching now. The only "lost" music were the Oggs which I have copied back. I assume they just dropped out of the DB when I downgraded.

Haven't tried jEmplode off the Powerbook yet.

All's well and working now with alpha6.

North to Alaska!