Playing music via USB on Touch; can't control from LMS on laptop?

[Saturn94]

I decided to try playing music via a USB memory stick plugged into the back of the Touch. The Touch recognized the memory stick, scanned the contents, and I was able to play the tracks fine using the controls on the Touch. However, when I bring up LMS on my laptop, I cannot figure out how to get the Touch to play the music on the memory stick (still plugged into the Touch). At the upper right hand side of the page on LMS there is a dropdown to choose a player; I have the option to choose "Squeezebox Touch" or "Squeezebox Touch (USB)". If I choose "Squeezebox Touch (USB)", the browser acts like it's trying to connect but then gives up saying it cannot connect to that page. If I choose "Squeezebox Touch", I can stream music from my laptop, use my apps, and control internet radio, but I cannot access the music on the USB memory stick (again, its plugged into the Touch). I thought perhaps my firewall/antivirus may be the issue, but turning it off made no difference.

Can the USB port on the Touch be controlled by LMS on my laptop? If so, any idea what I can try to get it to work? I didn't have any luck finding an answer in the owners manual or on Logitech's online forum.

Thanks in advance.

[aubuti]

Can the USB port on the Touch be controlled by LMS on my laptop?

Kind of, but not through the web browser. One of the things they had to do to get LMS (aka TinyLMS) to run on the Touch was to disable the built-in web server that runs with normal LMS.

However, there is another way to control the Touch-using-USB via your laptop. You can install Squeezeplay on your laptop, and it gives you an interface just like the Touch's interface. With that interface you can either control the Touch, or use it to make your laptop a Squeezebox "software player" on its own, or both.

Squeezeplay is available from http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.7

[Saturn94]

Kind of, but not through the web browser. One of the things they had to do to get LMS (aka TinyLMS) to run on the Touch was to disable the built-in web server that runs with normal LMS.

However, there is another way to control the Touch-using-USB via your laptop. You can install Squeezeplay on your laptop, and it gives you an interface just like the Touch's interface. With that interface you can either control the Touch, or use it to make your laptop a Squeezebox "software player" on its own, or both.

Squeezeplay is available from http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.7

Thanks for the info and the tip.

While the first day using the USB memory stick (4 gig made by HP) worked fine (using the Touch's controls), now I'm having problems getting it to work at all. Sometimes the Touch won't connect to the stick, sometimes it will connect but report an error when trying to play a track, and another time when I selected a track it said the file was empty (I confirmed the files are still there and work fine when connected to my laptop). So I'm not having much luck using the USB port at the moment. Unless I can get the USB port to work reliably, there's no point pursuing controlling it via my laptop. Any suggestions?

[aubuti]

It's impossible for me to debug from a distance on a "sometimes it works / sometimes it doesn't description" without knowing more exactly what you are doing. Are you doing a rescan when you re-insert the USB drive? And are you waiting for the scan to finish before you attempt to play anything?

Using the Touch's built-in server (TinyLMS) + USB drive is notoriously flaky -- it works fine for some but not for others. My #1 recommendation is to try it using the normal Logitech Media Server running on a pc, NAS, plug computer, or what have you. If that works fine, then you can look more deeply into running it with TinyLMS + USB, but be prepared to give more details.

[Saturn94]

It's impossible for me to debug from a distance on a "sometimes it works / sometimes it doesn't description" without knowing more exactly what you are doing. Are you doing a rescan when you re-insert the USB drive? And are you waiting for the scan to finish before you attempt to play anything?

Using the Touch's built-in server (TinyLMS) + USB drive is notoriously flaky -- it works fine for some but not for others. My #1 recommendation is to try it using the normal Logitech Media Server running on a pc, NAS, plug computer, or what have you. If that works fine, then you can look more deeply into running it with TinyLMS + USB, but be prepared to give more details.

I can certainly appreciate the difficulty debugging from a distance, it can be hard enough in person!

I tried it again today and here's what I did:

1. plugged in memory stick into USB port on Touch
2. SB Touch started up and said "attaching USB"
3. selected "Start LMS" I should note that when LMS did start, I didn't see any message about scanning unlike the first time I used the USB memory stick (the first time it reported scanning and took a little while to complete) nor did I see any options to rescan. Also, LMS on the Touch is annoyingly slow to launch.
4. selected "Switch Library"
5. selected "Squeezebox Touch USB"
6. selected "My Music"
7. selected "Album"
8. selected a music file to play
9. Touch reported "cannot open file"

If I go back and select "USB Device", then LMS reports:

Discovering Files: complete
Scan New Files: complete
Pre Cache Artwork: complete

I tried stopping LMS and restarting it, but that didn't work.

I plugged the USB stick into my laptop to verify the files where there and OK, and they played fine on my laptop. Also, I'm not having any problems streaming from my laptop using LMS to the Touch via wireless. While the USB stick was attached to my laptop I noticed the Touch had installed 2 files on it; ".Squeezebox" and "Playlist". Out of curiosity I deleted those files then reattached the USB stick to the Touch and launched LMS on the Touch. Again, LMS took it's time to launch and there were no messages about scanning. However, this time I was able to play the files.

To see if I could get the files to play again without deleting the SB/Playlist files on the USB stick, I ejected the stick, let the Touch power down, then reattached the stick. It connected, then I launched LMS again. This time after saying "starting LMS" for a bit, the Touch shut down instead of going to the screen where I could select My Music like it had before. I touched the screen, turned it back on, and tried to relaunch LMS. There was no response, so I just went right into my Music and the files were there and played fine. You did say using USB+LMS was flaky, and so far I would agree!

I don't know if this matters, but the first day I tried the memory stick and it worked fine, I left it plugged into the Touch overnight thinking I could just leave it there and access it whenever I wanted to play those files without having to repeatedly plug and unplug the USB stick. I figured I would only need to unplug it (I know I need to properly "eject" the USB stick before unplugging it) if I needed to make changes to the content (add files/delete files). Is this incorrect?

As an experiment, after playing a few files, I "ejected" the USB stick but left it plugged in. I'll see tomorrow if it still works without having to go through a bunch of gyrations.

Sorry for the long post, I was hoping including all the details I could think of might help. I greatly appreciate the assistance!

[aubuti]

That's a lot of useful info. If I remember correctly, .Squeezebox isn't a file, it's a folder, and it holds the database cache that is generated by scanning. So it may have worked after you deleted it because it was corrupt, and when you re-inserted it without the database it built a clean new one. TinyLMS does take its time to load, and that was magnified by needing to do a new scan as well.

That said, I have no idea why the Touch couldn't open the file when you got to #9.

Fyi, you don't have to remove the USB drive to change the content. If you enable file sharing on the Touch then you can access the USB drive over your home network. Transfer speeds are slower than the typical speeds between two computers, but it works.

Finally, I hate to say it, but if you look at the experiences of others on the forums with TinyLMS + USB you'll find your experiences are about average. If you haven't read it already, see this thread, which could increase your odds of success: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...stering-TinySB

[Saturn94]

That's a lot of useful info. If I remember correctly, .Squeezebox isn't a file, it's a folder, and it holds the database cache that is generated by scanning. So it may have worked after you deleted it because it was corrupt, and when you re-inserted it without the database it built a clean new one. TinyLMS does take its time to load, and that was magnified by needing to do a new scan as well.

My bad, I did see .Squeezebox and Playlist were folders, not files.

That said, I have no idea why the Touch couldn't open the file when you got to #9.

Me neither. I am finding using the USB flaky in general. When I want to switch library from my laptop to the USB, sometimes it will switch on the first try, sometimes it takes multiple tries, and sometimes it won't switch to the USB. Speaking of switching libraries, if the Touch is set to USB or my partners laptop, I cannot change it to my laptop via LMS on my laptop, I have to do it on the Touch. If the Touch is on squeezebox.com (ie internet radio) I can switch it to my laptop from LMS on my laptop.

Fyi, you don't have to remove the USB drive to change the content. If you enable file sharing on the Touch then you can access the USB drive over your home network. Transfer speeds are slower than the typical speeds between two computers, but it works.

Does that also mean I should be able to leave the USB stick attached to the Touch and switch to it anytime I want to play those files? Or do I always need to disconnect then reconnect the USB stick each time I want to use it?

Finally, I hate to say it, but if you look at the experiences of others on the forums with TinyLMS + USB you'll find your experiences are about average. If you haven't read it already, see this thread, which could increase your odds of success: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...stering-TinySB

That's what I was afraid of. I'll check out that link and see what I can learn.

Again, I appreciate the feedback and help.

[aubuti]

Does that also mean I should be able to leave the USB stick attached to the Touch and switch to it anytime I want to play those files? Or do I always need to disconnect then reconnect the USB stick each time I want to use it?

You _should_ be able to leave the USB stick attached and go back and forth between that and the library on your laptop by switching libraries.

I'm not sure why you can't switch between LMS and TinyLMS, but I suspect it's related to the fact that there is no web interface control for TinyLMS (remember your original question in this thread?).

[Saturn94]

You _should_ be able to leave the USB stick attached and go back and forth between that and the library on your laptop by switching libraries.

I'm not sure why you can't switch between LMS and TinyLMS, but I suspect it's related to the fact that there is no web interface control for TinyLMS (remember your original question in this thread?).

That's what I was thinking, but last night I gave it another try and this time I was able to switch from "Squeezebox USB" to "Squeezebox" from LMS on my laptop. I didn't do anything different, but for some reason it now works; I was able to go back and forth from USB to my laptop without having to disconnect/reconnect the USB stick........can't say what it will do tomorrow. Computers........go figure.

I did leave the stick attached (without "ejecting") and will see if I can get it to come back up tonight without having to eject then reconnect it.

[Saturn94]

Kind of, but not through the web browser. One of the things they had to do to get LMS (aka TinyLMS) to run on the Touch was to disable the built-in web server that runs with normal LMS.

However, there is another way to control the Touch-using-USB via your laptop. You can install Squeezeplay on your laptop, and it gives you an interface just like the Touch's interface. With that interface you can either control the Touch, or use it to make your laptop a Squeezebox "software player" on its own, or both.

Squeezeplay is available from http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/?ver=7.7

I'm thinking about trying Squeezeplay on my laptop. However, I had to go through a bit to get LMS to play nice with my Norton firewall/antivirus. How likely is it that I would have to do the same for Squeezeplay? If I have to go through that again to get Sqeezeplay to work, I think for now I'll forget about remote control for USB on the Touch.

I was also thinking of another possible option. I know you can use an app, such as "ipeng" or the free one Logitech offers, on a smart device (iPod Touch, iPad, Android device) to control the Touch. Do these apps allow control of USB on the Touch running TinyLMS, or is it like LMS on my laptop that cannot control USB?

Thanks.