Got the touch but why this random...(multiple issues)

[JohnSwenson]

Yes the Touch can work fine stand alone, once you have done the initial firmware update.

I think many of the problems people are seeing is caused by the server going belly up, when this happens it tries to find a server on the network and gets rather frantic if it can't find a server to connect to.

Why does the server die? The most likely cause is that music is trying to be played while the scanning is still happening. This can easily push the system over the edge and kill the server.

A frequent cause of this is having the drive plugged in when powering up the Touch. When this is done a scan automatically starts, but it doesn't give ANY indication that this is happening, there is no way to tell if its running or not.

The best way around this is to ALWAYS plug the drive in after the Touch is booted and up and running, this will start the server and give the option to observe whats happening. This way you can tell when the scan is done.

The very first time you plug in the drive it will do a full scan which can take a LONG time. Once that is successfully completed each subsequent attachment of the drive will do a quick scan looking for new files. On a large collection with a lot of files that might take 15 to 20 minutes. Make sure not to try and do anything with the Touch while its still scanning.

If the "quick" scan is taking longer than 45 minutes there is a very good chance the database is corrupted. In this case you should stop the server and do a wipe and rescan. This deletes the database and starts over.

If you have successfully completed the full scan, ejected the drive, disconnected the drive, disconnected power to the Touch, powered back up, connected the drive, waited for the scan to complete and you are STILL having problems then we can go into details about your system and exactly what you are doing and what you are seeing.

John S.

[JohnSwenson]

Yes the Touch can work fine stand alone, once you have done the initial
firmware update.

I think many of the problems people are seeing is caused by the server
going belly up, when this happens it tries to find a server on the
network and gets rather frantic if it can't find a server to connect
to.

Why does the server die? The most likely cause is that music is trying
to be played while the scanning is still happening. This can easily
push the system over the edge and kill the server.

A frequent cause of this is having the drive plugged in when powering
up the Touch. When this is done a scan automatically starts, but it
doesn't give ANY indication that this is happening, there is no way to
tell if its running or not.

The best way around this is to ALWAYS plug the drive in after the Touch
is booted and up and running, this will start the server and give the
option to observe whats happening. This way you can tell when the scan
is done.

The very first time you plug in the drive it will do a full scan which
can take a LONG time. Once that is successfully completed each
subsequent attachment of the drive will do a quick scan looking for new
files. On a large collection with a lot of files that might take 15 to
20 minutes. Make sure not to try and do anything with the Touch while
its still scanning.

If the "quick" scan is taking longer than 45 minutes there is a very
good chance the database is corrupted. In this case you should stop the
server and do a wipe and rescan. This deletes the database and starts
over.

If you have successfully completed the full scan, ejected the drive,
disconnected the drive, disconnected power to the Touch, powered back
up, connected the drive, waited for the scan to complete and you are
STILL having problems then we can go into details about your system and
exactly what you are doing and what you are seeing.

John S.


--
JohnSwenson
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[Phil Leigh]

I could play standalone local music from an SD card. But as related in my thread http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=77523 a network connection is needed for certain functionality.

Well, the clock screensaver won't show the correct time (big deal - it's not a clock) but it plays music from SD or USB without a wi-fi/ethernet connection...

[Phil Leigh]

R Johnson;545276 Wrote:
> I could play standalone local music from an SD card. But as related in
> my thread http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=77523 a
> network connection is needed for certain functionality.

Well, the clock screensaver won't show the correct time (big deal -
it's not a clock) but it plays music from SD or USB without a
wi-fi/ethernet connection...


--
Phil Leigh

You want to see the signal path BEFORE it gets onto a CD/vinyl...it
ain't what you'd call minimal...
Touch(wired/XP) - TACT 2.2X (Linear PSU) + Good Vibrations S/W - MF
Triplethreat(Audiocom full mods) - Linn 5103 - Aktiv 5.1 system (6x
LK140's, ESPEK/TRIKAN/KATAN/SEIZMIK 10.5), Townsend Supertweeters, Blue
Jeans Digital,Kimber Speaker & Chord Interconnect cables
Kitchen Boom, Outdoors: SB Radio
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[mlsstl]

The very first time you plug in the drive it will do a full scan which can take a LONG time. Once that is successfully completed each subsequent attachment of the drive will do a quick scan looking for new files. On a large collection with a lot of files that might take 15 to 20 minutes. Make sure not to try and do anything with the Touch while its still scanning.

A 15 or 20 minute wait on power up before one can play music pretty much makes the Touch rather useless as a stand alone server if the user wants USB drive powered off when he's not listening.

I bought my Touch to use as a player for my existing Squeezebox music server system. It has worked quite well in that capacity (though it's had a few flaky moments that are reminiscent of the early Duet) so I'm pretty happy.

However, out of curiosity, I gave the Touch stand alone server three solid tries with two different external USB drives and never did get satisfactory results. If I'd bought the Touch solely for use in that capacity, I'd be very disappointed - that option is way too erratic for me.

Maybe the word is touchy....

[mlsstl]

JohnSwenson;545279 Wrote:
> The very first time you plug in the drive it will do a full scan which
> can take a LONG time. Once that is successfully completed each
> subsequent attachment of the drive will do a quick scan looking for new
> files. On a large collection with a lot of files that might take 15 to
> 20 minutes. Make sure not to try and do anything with the Touch while
> its still scanning.

A 15 or 20 minute wait on power up before one can play music pretty
much makes the Touch rather useless as a stand alone server if the user
wants USB drive powered off when he's not listening.

I bought my Touch to use as a player for my existing Squeezebox music
server system. It has worked quite well in that capacity (though it's
had a few flaky moments that are reminiscent of the early Duet) so I'm
pretty happy.

However, out of curiosity, I gave the Touch stand alone server three
solid tries with two different external USB drives and never did get
satisfactory results. If I'd bought the Touch solely for use in that
capacity, I'd be very disappointed - that option is way too erratic for
me.

Maybe the word is touchy....


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mlsstl
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[garym]

A 15 or 20 minute wait on power up before one can play music pretty much makes the Touch rather useless as a stand alone server if the user wants USB drive powered off when he's not listening.

Hmmm, I think the waiting 20 minutes is not if the USB drive turns itself off, but rather if it is detached then reattached. I have a touch, but run it off my main SbS rather than using tinySbS. But I can say I had my brother buy a TOUCH. He knows nothing about any of this stuff. Over the phone, I walked him through setting it up for the first time, updating firmware, adding mysb.com credentials, etc. Then I had him attach his USB drive (with about 50,000+ tracks) and told him to let it scan overnight before he touched it again. He followed these instructions and has been using it for about 2 weeks now with no issues at all. His USB drive (which is a 1TB, 3 or 4 years old, and has its own power supply) stays attached, but does go into sleep mode when not accessed for a while. He has fairly instant access to his music when coming back from "sleep" mode.

[garym]

mlsstl;545302 Wrote:
> A 15 or 20 minute wait on power up before one can play music pretty much
> makes the Touch rather useless as a stand alone server if the user wants
> USB drive powered off when he's not listening.
>

Hmmm, I think the waiting 20 minutes is not if the USB drive turns
itself off, but rather if it is detached then reattached. I have a
touch, but run it off my main SbS rather than using tinySbS. But I can
say I had my brother buy a TOUCH. He knows nothing about any of this
stuff. Over the phone, I walked him through setting it up for the first
time, updating firmware, adding mysb.com credentials, etc. Then I had
him attach his USB drive (with about 50,000+ tracks) and told him to
let it scan overnight before he touched it again. He followed these
instructions and has been using it for about 2 weeks now with no issues
at all. His USB drive (which is a 1TB, 3 or 4 years old, and has its own
power supply) stays attached, but does go into sleep mode when not
accessed for a while. He has fairly instant access to his music when
coming back from "sleep" mode.


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garym
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[mlsstl]

Hmmm, I think the waiting 20 minutes is not if the USB drive turns itself off, but rather if it is detached then reattached. I have a touch, but run it off my main SbS rather than using tinySbS. But I can say I had my brother buy a TOUCH. He knows nothing about any of this stuff. Over the phone, I walked him through setting it up for the first time, updating firmware, adding mysb.com credentials, etc. Then I had him attach his USB drive (with about 50,000+ tracks) and told him to let it scan overnight before he touched it again. He followed these instructions and has been using it for about 2 weeks now with no issues at all. His USB drive (which is a 1TB, 3 or 4 years old, and has its own power supply) stays attached, but does go into sleep mode when not accessed for a while. He has fairly instant access to his music when coming back from "sleep" mode.

That wasn't my experience and I've got 46,000 tracks on my drive. (I've got two backups and tried both of them.)

I'm not saying that the Touch's Tiny SBS doesn't work for some people as intended, but one can see from these forums that things have been pretty erratic. My Squeezebox experience dates back 8 or 9 years to the very first SliMP3 so its not like this is my first exposure.

[mlsstl]

garym;545305 Wrote:
> Hmmm, I think the waiting 20 minutes is not if the USB drive turns
> itself off, but rather if it is detached then reattached. I have a
> touch, but run it off my main SbS rather than using tinySbS. But I can
> say I had my brother buy a TOUCH. He knows nothing about any of this
> stuff. Over the phone, I walked him through setting it up for the first
> time, updating firmware, adding mysb.com credentials, etc. Then I had
> him attach his USB drive (with about 50,000+ tracks) and told him to
> let it scan overnight before he touched it again. He followed these
> instructions and has been using it for about 2 weeks now with no issues
> at all. His USB drive (which is a 1TB, 3 or 4 years old, and has its own
> power supply) stays attached, but does go into sleep mode when not
> accessed for a while. He has fairly instant access to his music when
> coming back from "sleep" mode.

That wasn't my experience and I've got 46,000 tracks on my drive. (I've
got two backups and tried both of them.)

I'm not saying that the Touch's Tiny SBS doesn't work for some people
as intended, but one can see from these forums that things have been
pretty erratic. My Squeezebox experience dates back 8 or 9 years to the
very first SliMP3 so its not like this is my first exposure.


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mlsstl
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