How does SbS know stuff it shouldn't?

[Mike New]

This is part of a big, hairy problem I'm trying to solve, but the short version is, I think my Squeezebox Server is corrupted. It plays music just fine, but gets very confused about player names, alarms, favorites etc.

But no matter what I do, it ALWAYS remembers its mistakes. For example, the Favorites list is totally obsolete, but keeps coming back like a bad case of Herpes. Funny thing is, SbS should have no foggy idea about anything after what I've done. Read on:

I've done many things to try to fix my broken server, but I'll just cover my latest, most comprehensive effort (in this order):

1. Uninstalled Squeezebox Server 7.5.1.

2. Restarted Windows XP, then searched the C drive for every file with the name "squeeze" in the name and deleted them. This included the folders you'd expect under Program Files and All Users/Application Data.

3. Reset both connected players (SB3 and Touch)to factory defaults and then UNPLUGGED their power cords.

3. Downloaded a fresh copy of SbS 7.5.1 but did not install right away.

4. Restarted the PC, then searched again for filenames & folders with "squeeze" in the title. Still clean.

5. Installed 7.5.1 from the freshly downloaded file.

SbS starts as part of the install process, and when it came up it already knew: a)where my FLAC directory is (on a different drive), b)the player names, although this info was out of date, and c)the full, wrong list of Favorites that have been deleted for some time. (I can't change this list from the server (web) screen, but the list shows up correctly on the players.)

On the Settings window, it already knew about the two players - with obsolete names. Keep in mind the players were unplugged from power well before installing SbS.

So, where is SbS getting this info? I went to mysqueezebox.com, but couldn't find anything that might provide this info, and besides, I hadn't told the newly installed SbS where to find my account. I'm hoping if I can find the source, I can delete that file and get back to normal.

Spooky. Any ideas?

[JJZolx]

and besides, I hadn't told the newly installed SbS where to find my account.

Are you sure? In Settings > mysqueezebox.com, turn off mysqueezebox.com integration just to be sure.

[Mike New]

Yup, I'm sure. Per your suggestion, I did turn off integration, but no change at the server. As far as I know, there is no way to install & start the server without this already enabled.

Thanks!

[JJZolx]

Yup, I'm sure. Per your suggestion, I did turn off integration, but no change at the server. As far as I know, there is no way to install & start the server without this already enabled.

If some setting has already been changed it's not going to undo itself when you disable syncing with mysb.com. Try changing something and seeing whether or not it sticks.

Do you ever run the internal server on the Touch? It has no option to disable mysb.com syncing. The Touch must know the mysb.com account login information, as it insists on it during the initial setup.

[snarlydwarf]

Also note that in some cases your browser will nicely help you and remember how you filled out forms, refilling them as they were before.

[lrossouw]

Yup, I'm sure. Per your suggestion, I did turn off integration, but no change at the server. As far as I know, there is no way to install & start the server without this already enabled.

Thanks!

if you turned of integration only after you clean installed the old player names may have been pulled off mysb.com.

[Mike New]

After several tries (with my sqeezebox disconnected), SbS finally noticed that I don't have any favorites. This is encouraging, but life is not all good yet. I tried resetting the 2 players fo factory defaults, which failed as expected since they're powered off, but SbS still thinks those two players are present.

Good point on the broswer issue, but there have been so many refreshes and restarts I don't think that's the culprit.

Thanks much for the suggestions. Keep them coming!

[Mnyb]

You checked all users for data ? you have not installed sbs under different users or something.

Also find and remove the cache folder, maybe you already have where is it on wondows ?

Clean Registry to.

[mherger]

> You checked -all- users for data ? you have not installed sbs under
> different users or something.

Also make sure you don't have any old slimserver or squeezecenter stuff lying around (from older installations). These are migrated if possible during installation.

--

Michael

[Mike New]

I deleted all folders and files I could find with "squeeze" in the title. There may be other cache files, but I don't know where I'd find them. But I'm convinced there is a rogue file somewhere causing this problem. Any ideas?

There have been MANY versions of Squeeze/SlimServer on this machine, dating back to my first Squeezebox 2. These problems started suddenly when I installed the Touch, but now continue even when the Touch is not connected. (The Touch works just fine otherwise.)

Also in answer to an earlier question, the mini-server inside the Touch has never been activated (to my knowledge). It has only been connected through SbS.

[JJZolx]

Which of the following are you seeing? It's no longer clear from the direction that this thread has gone.



Immediately after doing a fresh installation of SBS, non-default settings are seen in the web interface. Do you know the default settings well enough to say? Player names could be an easy way to tell, especially if you see them named something like 'Kitchen' or 'Master Bedroom'.


After time, settings change on their own to non-default settings. Might be good to keep all of the default settings for a while after installing, just to test this.


If I change a setting manually it eventually changes on its own back to its original value or to something else.


If you're still chasing files... Search for 'server.prefs' on the entire machine. It's always been the name of the file containing preferences, despite name changes of the server itself.

Say you install the server, the installer it finds an old prefs file, thinks that it's upgrading and imports those old settings. If you _change_ them (for instance, changing a player name) SBS will never re-import those old settings. That's a function only of the installer. SBS will always use the server.prefs in the preferences folder shown on the Settings > Information page.

[Mike New]

The file server.prefs resides in All Users\Application Data\Squeezebox and I deleted the entire directory before reinstalling SbS.

I had changed Player names from their defaults long ago, and then changed them again as part of troubleshooting this problem. When they are reset to Factory Default, they reassume their original name (e.g. Squeezebox Classic), but the old name (e.g. Bedroom) still appears in the newly installed SbS. If I change a Player name, it doesn't necessarily show up on the server, but it does show up on the Player display so I know the change worked.

And this is fun: I can change the name of a player on the Player/Basic Settings menu, and then go to the Player/Alarm menu and it has a different name. I can pop back and forth between the two screens and consistently get two different names.

Logitech Support has been working on this for several days, and I just got a message saying they've elevated the problem (again) to a higher group. Apparently it's more than a configuration issue.