Using Squeezebox for the first time, a couple of questions

[JJZolx]

I have installed the server on a windows PC on a local network, with no media files locally. All media files are store on different PC's or NAS's.

This isn't a great idea in my experience. Too many things to go wrong. Unless you have a ridiculous amount of music, it would be best to have it all on a local hard drive or drives on the computer running LMS.

3. When I try to rescan one folder, it seems like the server is rescanning all folders. Is there a way to rescan one folder?

No.

4. Is there a way to back up folder settings? If I have to reinstall the server, it would be a lot of time saved, as I will end up with maybe 30-40 folders or more.

Backup the server's preferences folder. Its location is shown in the web interface on the Settings > Information page.

Yes I use static IP for all devices, but ofcours some might be turned off while LMS is running.

That's a particularly bad problem with Logitech Music Server. If you rescan while a device is off, its content will be removed from the library, same as if you'd deleted the files.

I don't have 40 different locations just 4-5, but I want to do everything that is possible to make LMS to rescan as smallest parts of my collection as possible when adding new files. So theres's no solution to this wish at the moment. I had hoped that the server did rescan only when I clicked the rescan button for that certain folder and only rescan that folder, not the whole library every time.

When you run a 'new & changed' scan, the time needed to scan unchanged content is minimal. It doesn't actually rescan the files, it just checks file sizes and timestamps against entries in its database and skips files that haven't changed.

[vinylman]

After reading all the posts, it seems I have found a solution that hopefully work great with my setup. And thanks to you guys, I now understands a little bit more how the server works.

I have set the server to not start automatically after login. I now start it manually. I have set the automatic scan to off. And I have only one master folder added to the server.

In more details it is like this: I have a folder on the same PC as the LMS is running, this older is added to the LMS. Inside that folder I have put shortcuts to the many folders I have on the 2 NAS's. At first I just added one shortcut to the folder. I then added a new shortcut. The LMS very quickly checked the folder and then added the files from the new shortcut. I then added a third shortcut and it quckly scanned for new files and then added the files from the folder where the third shortcut pointed at.

This hopefully means that I now never really will experience a new complete scan without my knowledge, every time I try to rescan a folder.
And hopefully the server will not detect a reboot of the NAS's when the LMS is idling without any players on and now scanning going on. Or if there's a network error or something.

I will let you know in a couple of days if I am about to be a happy SB Touch owner :-)

THANKS!!!

Kind regards
Jarle

[JJZolx]

I have set the automatic scan to off.

Where do you see that? There was never any automatic library scanning on Windows and I think it's been removed from other platforms as well. The only time that I'm aware of a scan being launched automatically on starup is when the library is empty. And the only time while idle would be when a scan is scheduled via the Rescan Music Library plugin.

In more details it is like this: I have a folder on the same PC as the LMS is running, this older is added to the LMS. Inside that folder I have put shortcuts to the many folders I have on the 2 NAS's. At first I just added one shortcut to the folder. I then added a new shortcut. The LMS very quickly checked the folder and then added the files from the new shortcut. I then added a third shortcut and it quckly scanned for new files and then added the files from the folder where the third shortcut pointed at.

What did all that of accomplish instead of just adding them all at once?

This hopefully means that I now never really will experience a new complete scan without my knowledge, every time I try to rescan a folder.

I'm not seeing it. You've just swapped multiple media folder with one containing all of them. Your only option now is to scan that one folder, and it will still scan all of them.

[vinylman]

Yes I see that I need to rescan all the folders and I would be happy to avoid this. But adding folder by folder was not working very well either. Nothing happened when I cliked the rescan button beside the folder. The LMS only started scanning when I clicked the scan button at the bottom.

The setting for automatic scan I found under advanced/Rescan Music Library/Rescan Timer=off

When I added all the folders to the LMS one by one, it rescanned all the folders everytime I tried to rescan only one or add one. Even thou I had set the option to search for new and updated files, it rescanned all the folders one at a time very slowly as when the Library was bulid the first time I made a scan.

I personally thought that I had done it smart the first time, but from the thread I thought that the reason for the complete rescan was that the LMS experienced some missing folders or something.

I have about 100 folders totally, that I certainly would like to rescan one by one, when I add a new album to one of them. But I was not able to make it work as expected.

Kind regards
Jarle

[JJZolx]

The setting for automatic scan I found under advanced/Rescan Music Library/Rescan Timer=off

Right, that's the plugin I mentioned above. By default it should have been off to begin with. It's capable of rescanning the music library just once a day, but shouldn't cause scans to be launched when the server starts up (maybe it does if a scheduled scan was missed, but I run the server 24x7, so couldn't say). I use it to schedule a 'new & changed' scan every night to pick up any new music that I may have added during the day and forgotten to scan.

Good luck to you, but I'll say again that I think having that all of that library content spread around on so many devices is going to be hard to handle with LMS. Especially if those storage devices are shut down while LMS is running.

[vinylman]

It seems like I still have troubles understanding how the LMS is working.

I have now tested what I like to do with a really small database. Here's my steps:

1. I have made 2 folders on the C: drive on the PC where LMS is running. I have added one link in each folder to my NAS (on 24/7). This I do to test if it is possible to rescan one folder at a time.

2. The first time I scan I use the button at the bottom, sets the option to clear library. Then everything works as expected.

3. Then I want to rescan one folder. If I click on the second folder rescan button it starts removing deleted files. Then it shows "Removing deleted files: (305 of 305) Complete 00:00:14"

4. Now my library is EMPTY!!!

5. If I click the button again nothing happens!! If I click on the rescan button for the first folder nothing happens either.

6. Under media scan details I find this: Progress information from the previous scan is not available.


This behaviour cannot be correct, what is wrong with my settings (I run Vista business)

kind regards
Jarle

[vinylman]

Here's more.

Finally something positive. On one of my NAS's I have installed 7.7.1 - r33735 and it works as I had expected the server to do when I started out testing this a couple of weeks back.

I can click on one folder button and it rescans that folder only, even thou when it cannot find the last scan results. I only have to click it twice.

But I still cannot do this when running 7.7.1 -r33750 on my Vista comupter. It just empties my database and starts scanning from the beginning, and it also seems to stop scanning after 48hours or so. At least it doesn't show any progress anymore.

[Mnyb]

Here's more.

Finally something positive. On one of my NAS's I have installed 7.7.1 - r33735 and it works as I had expected the server to do when I started out testing this a couple of weeks back.

I can click on one folder button and it rescans that folder only, even thou when it cannot find the last scan results. I only have to click it twice.

But I still cannot do this when running 7.7.1 -r33750 on my Vista comupter. It just empties my database and starts scanning from the beginning, and it also seems to stop scanning after 48hours or so. At least it doesn't show any progress anymore.

48 hours ? I suspect that it crashed already the web-UI would not be updated then on a machine that can run vista the scan should not take that long ever not even with >100000 files

[Soulkeeper]

Check the scanner log

LMS web interface -> Settings -> Information -> Scroll down to the bottom of the page -> Scanner Log File

[vinylman]

This is what I have, doesn't say much to me:


main::main (200) Starting Logitech Media Server scanner (v7.7.1, r33750, Mon Dec 12 09:42:47 PST 2011) perl 5.014001
Slim::Schema::forceCommit (2118) Warning: Trying to commit transactions before DB is initialized!
Slim::Music::Import::runImporter (485) Starting Slim::Media::MediaFolderScan scan
Slim::Utils::Scanner::Local::rescan (171) Discovering audio files in C:\Musikk
Slim::Utils::Scanner::Local::__ANON__ (254) Removing deleted audio files (0)
Slim::Utils::Scanner::Local::__ANON__ (332) Scanning new audio files (0)
Slim::Utils::Scanner::Local::__ANON__ (410) Rescanning changed audio files (0)
Slim::Utils::Scanner::Local::rescan (171) Discovering audio files in C:\Musikk2
Slim::Utils::Scanner::Local::__ANON__ (254) Removing deleted audio files (0)
Slim::Utils::Scanner::Local::__ANON__ (332) Scanning new audio files (0)
Slim::Utils::Scanner::Local::__ANON__ (410) Rescanning changed audio files (0)
Slim::Utils::Scanner::Local::rescan (171) Discovering audio files in C:\Musikk3
Slim::Utils::SQLiteHelper::updateProgress (405) Warning: Server aborted scan, shutting down

[Soulkeeper]

Slim::Schema::forceCommit (2118) Warning: Trying to commit transactions before DB is initialized!

Hmmm. I don't know exactly what this means, but I think I would uninstall and re-install LMS if I were you.

Try installing LMS with administrator privileges (right-click on the LMS install file and choose "Run as administrator").

[TheLastMan]

Here's more.

Finally something positive. On one of my NAS's I have installed 7.7.1 - r33735 and it works as I had expected the server to do when I started out testing this a couple of weeks back.

I can click on one folder button and it rescans that folder only, even thou when it cannot find the last scan results. I only have to click it twice.

But I still cannot do this when running 7.7.1 -r33750 on my Vista comupter. It just empties my database and starts scanning from the beginning, and it also seems to stop scanning after 48hours or so. At least it doesn't show any progress anymore.

Can you give us an idea of your folder structure? I think you may have a fundamental misunderstanding how this all works. It is very different from iTunes, there is no need to add new music folder-by-folder.

On the Synology NAS, you have a "public" folder. If all your music is stored in sub-folders below the public one then you only need to point Logitech Media Server (LMS) at "public" and it will scan the whole drive of folders and subfolders for music files. It will simply ignore any files or folders that are not music. Provided the music files are tagged with relevant artist and track data you should be able to find them once the scanner has done its job.

My library is sorted in a file tree as follows:
Public\Music\Genre\Artist\Album\Track No - Track Name.flac

for instance

Public\Music\Pop & Rock\Adele\21\01 - Rolling in the deep.flac
or
Public\Music\Opera\Verdi\La Traviata\01 - Prelude.flac

All I need to do is point LMS at the "Music" folder and it scans every sub folder for music files. I could just as effectively point it to "Public". It would take a while longer though and if it encounters a shortcut to an external drive it will scan that as well! If all your music is in folders beneath "Public" on both NAS just add a shortcut in the Public folder of the one hosting LMS pointing to the other NAS's Public folder and you have covered your whole library.

This is not particularly efficient however. You should seriously consider moving all your music files onto the NAS hosting LMS under a single "music" folder. It will save a lot of time and hassle! No need to set up a complicated sub-folder arrangment like mine. I just do that because I am obsessive compulsive

By the way, I have set up LMS to automatically rescan my library for changed and added files at 4:00am every day. That way if I add music it is always in my LMS library the next morning.

[vinylman]

I really gave up on the Windows LMS a couple of months back. And that is really sad, as I would like to use a computer instead of the NAS as it responds better when browsing folders and do searches.

I really understand what you are writing. What I don't understand is why I cannot just rescan one folder when I have added several folders to the LMS. I got it working on the NAS but not in the Windows version.

My Linux version on Synolgy NAS behaves like this and is great. I can click the rescan for any folder and it scans that folder only. When I see the scanning for new files hangs I abort the process. Starts again by clicking the rescan button for that certain folder. I get a message that the last scan was abortet. But then I only click again and it scans that folder only.

If I try to rescan one folder in the Windows version it rescans all folders.

Any explanations to this behavior of the Windows version.

Jarle