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I receive error code 0, error code 1 or error code 10

These errors mean that Simplify Media is unable to reach the account server to log you in. One possible explanation is that something on your machine or on your local network is preventing the SimplifyMedia process from running.

Please check any security or software firewall programs you have to make sure Simplify Media is allowed. Examples are ZoneAlarm, Norton or Little Snitch. If you are using OS X 10.5.3 and receive this message, please upgrade to OS X 10.5.4.

Finally, this error can occur if you have lost your network connection or you are behind a proxy server.

The program is stuck "initializing", "connecting" or "scanning"

This error occurs when the attempt to contact the connection server fails. The reason is usually that something on your machine or on your local network is blocking the SimplifyMedia process from running.

Please check any security or software firewall programs you have to make sure Simplify Media is allowed. Examples are ZoneAlarm, Norton, PeerGuardian, Comodo, F-Secure, AVG or Little Snitch.

If you use Kaspersky Anti-Virus on a Windows, please follow these instructions.

If you use ESET Smart Security or ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus, please follow these instructions.

Finally, if you are using OS X 10.5.3 and receive this message, please upgrade to OS X 10.5.4 or higher.

I can't connect from my iPhone

If you have never been able to connect using your iPhone, please check that you are signed in with the same Simplify Media screen name on both your remote computer and your iPhone or iPod touch. Also make sure you have an active WiFi or cellular connection.

If you are using the same Simplify Media screen name and have a good network connection, there may be a problem on the computer you are trying to connect to from your iPhone or iPod touch. Double check that Simplify Media is running and connected on your computer. The best way to do this is to look at your computer's own reflection under Shared in iTunes, iPhoto, Winamp, Windows Media Player 11 on Vista, Rhythmbox or the Simplify Photo Viewer. Note that Simplify Media cannot stream music and photos if the computer is asleep.

If you don't see your computer listed under Shared in iTunes, iPhoto, Winamp, WMP 11 on Vista, Rhythmbox or the Simplify Photo Viewer, then the problem is on the computer side. One possible cause is if the sharing options are set to Share Nothing. You might also try switching to sharing specific folders. To do this, go to the appropriate sharing tab under Options (Windows or Ubuntu) or Preferences (Mac) in the Simplify Media menu.

If you use an external or network drive, the drive must be running and mounted each time Simplify Media starts. If the drive is set to sleep, your files will disappear from your list and they will not be accessible remotely.

If sharing settings are OK, then the application may be having a problem connecting to our servers. This is most often caused by some third party software or firewall settings. Please check any software firewall settings to make sure that Simplify Media is allowed.

If you use Kaspersky Anti-Virus on a Windows, please follow these instructions. If you use ESET Smart Security or ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus, please follow these instructions.

If the computer is connecting fine, there could be a problem connecting from your iPhone. It may help to switch networks between WiFi and 3G/Edge, or to try from another WiFi location.

I don't see all of my music and playlists, or all of my photos and collections

This is usually a timing issue. It takes time to scan and index all your songs and photos after installation, especially with a large library or an external drive. Playlists load after all the songs in your library on that computer have been indexed and the file list transferred.

For music, if you look at your computer's own Simplify Media reflection under Shared in iTunes, are more songs showing up every few minutes? If so, the indexing process is still underway and your playlists should appear when it completes.

For photos, examine your computer's own entry in the Simplify Photo Viewer. Are more images showing up every few minutes? If so, the indexing process is still underway.

Your reflection is a view of what remote computers see, so once Simplify Media is running for a little while on a remote computer or iPhone, this same list will appear. Once the application has indexed songs and photos once, the list is cached so it will come up faster in the future.

If the index process seems stuck, and the file count hasn't increased for at least 10 minutes, the missing files could be in an unsupported format. WAV, AIFF, RAW images and videos are not support at this time. Also, DRM-protected iTunes purchased songs cannot be played on the iPhone, so those are filtered out.

If the above doesn't explain why you aren't seeing all of your media, you might want to try to change your sharing settings. It is possible Simplify Media is unable to read the latest version of your music library file, your iPhoto library or access some folders. In Simplify Media, go to Options/Preference and select the appropriate sharing tab and change your sharing type. This will restart the search for media.

If you use an external or network drive, the drive must be running and mounted each time Simplify Media starts. If the drive is set to sleep, your files will disappear from your list and they will not be accessible remotely.

I don't see my iTunes Music Store purchased songs

Simplify Media can only play DRM-protected iTunes purchased songs if you are logged in with the same Simplify Media screen name and are using iTunes on both computers. We cannot play DRM-protected files on the iPhone or on friends' computers, so they are filtered out in those cases. However, you can listen to all of your DRM-free iTunes Plus purchased music.

For this reason, you may see iTunes purchased songs in your computer's own Simplify Media reflection under Shared in iTunes that will not show up in your song count in our Media List window or on computers using a different Simplify Media screen name.

During iPhone playback I get buffering

If your network changed from WiFi to 3G or EDGE (or from EDGE or 3G to WiFi), that could create a playback problem. Buffering can also happen if cellular signal or bandwidth drops. An application restart is recommend in this case.

What happens when my iPhone screen turns off?

If an iPhone or iPod touch is not connected to a power source and the screen turns off (through auto-lock or by using the button at the top), most application activity is suspended. If Simplify is playing audio or displaying a slide show, playback will continue. However, if the a song or slide show is not playing, all activity including library updates will be suspended.

There are two kinds of sleep. System sleep (the screen is dimmed and everything including networking is powered down) and screen sleep (the screen is dimmed and everything continues to work in the background). Screen sleep only happens when device is connected to a power source or when we are playing audio or slides. For this reason, we recommend completing the initial library sync while connected with a power cable.

During computer music playback I get buffering or "URL connecting"

If you receive a rebuffering message, hit cancel and try playing the song again. An occasional delay of a few seconds is common, but if you get frequent or more lengthy rebuffering messages, the remote computer may be busy streaming songs to other users. You can check this by double-clicking the Simplify icon to open your Media List. If the capacity indicator next to the computer is yellow (instead of green) that computer is busy streaming music to other users.

Rebuffering messages can also be caused by slow Internet upload connections on the remote computer. Try playing from a different shared library.

Unable to see shared libraries in iTunes, iPhoto, Winamp or Windows Media Player?

It can take a few minutes after installing or starting Simplify Media for Shared libraries to appear in iTunes, Winamp, on Vista, Windows Media Player 11 or on Windows 7, Windows Media Player 12.

For iTunes and iPhoto, if Shared libraries still do not appear, confirm that the "Look for shared libraries" option is checked in iTunes and iPhoto. From application menu, select Preferences and click the Sharing tab.

For Winamp, if remote libraries still do not appear, check for the ml_simplify.dll file in your Winamp Plugins directory. If you cannot find the file, review the Winamp Configuration document from the Simplify Media group in your Start menu.

For WMP 11 on Vista or WMP 12 on Windows 7, if you don't see remote libraries, check WMP Options under Library > Configuring Sharing to confirm that "Find media that others are sharing" is selected.

Note: the other computers on your Media List must be online for you to play their music or view their photos. To check, double-click the Simplify Media icon in your systray (Windows) or Dock (Mac) to open the Media List. If any of your other computers or friends are listed as online, but you still do not see them in iTunes, iPhoto or Winamp, shut down iTunes or Winamp and restart the application.

How do I change my settings?

To change setting for:

• First & last name or email address: choose Options/Preferences from the main menu and select the Account tab
• Computer name: choose Options/Preferences from the main menu and select the Computer tab. Changing your Computer name will cause a rescan of your files
• My music share: choose Options/Preferences from the main menu and then select the Music Sharing tab. If you are sharing a library, a list of playlists will appear once the initial scan is complete
• My photo share: choose Options/Preferences from the main menu and then select the Photo Sharing tab. If you are sharing your iPhoto library, you can pick from Albums, Events and Faces. For a selected entry, all photos contained in that entry will be available
• Change password: choose Options/Preferences from the main menu and select the Acount tab