Presets for folders on my USB drive?

[mesonto]

I wish to set a 'preset' for playing music from 'specific folders' on my USB drive. But they seem to be about the only thing I cannot select with a preset. Is this functionality there or not?

i.e. I have a "Contemporary Music" folder and a "Christmas Music" folder on my USB drive. I wish to only play my Xmas music for a month and not listen to the Contemporary music. Then for the rest of the year I wish to play music only from my Contemporary folder and not from my Xmas folder. Is this possible? If so how?

 

[Aquaman]

I wish to set a 'preset' for playing music from 'specific folders' on my USB drive. But they seem to be about the only thing I cannot select with a preset. Is this functionality there or not?

i.e. I have a "Contemporary Music" folder and a "Christmas Music" folder on my USB drive. I wish to only play my Xmas music for a month and not listen to the Contemporary music. Then for the rest of the year I wish to play music only from my Contemporary folder and not from my Xmas folder. Is this possible? If so how?

I can see how to set albums and tracks as presets, but not folders.

But you can bookmark them. Or you can tag your music accordingly and browse via Genres. Just some thoughts.

 

[mesonto]

I can see how to set albums and tracks as presets, but not folders.

But you can bookmark them. Or you can tag your music accordingly and browse via Genres. Just some thoughts.

Yes, I saw those ways of doing things, but they are slow and tedious. This might fall under the category of I still can't add an album to a playlist, only the tracks. The software still half-baked.

Unless anyone else in this forum actually knows of a way?

 

[Aquaman]

Browse by folders. Easy.

 

[johnpgreenan]

I wish to set a 'preset' for playing music from 'specific folders' on my USB drive. But they seem to be about the only thing I cannot select with a preset. Is this functionality there or not?

On wiim amp ultra / Android app, scroll to folder in Browse tab, then select your folder, then the preset button is there for the folder.

 

[mesonto]

I will try this tomorrow morning... thanks in advance if it works!

 

[Burnside]

On wiim amp ultra / Android app, scroll to folder in Browse tab, then select your folder, then the preset button is there for the folder.

That seems to set the preset to whatever tracks it finds in that folder, but it doesn’t select subfolder content so personally I’d find it of limited use particularly in the use case described earlier which really needs some media server and appropriate tagging or library construction.

 

[mesonto]

I just received an email back from Wiim customer service, they have told me that this functionality does not exist.

This reminds me of my other issue of not being able to place whole albums in a playlist, unfortunately, at least for me, this Wiim app seems half-baked at the moment.

 

[Burnside]

Given the contents of an attached USB drive are presented as a UPNP server on your network, you may be able to use other upnp client software which provides the features you want e.g. BubbleUpnp

 

[Aquaman]

That seems to set the preset to whatever tracks it finds in that folder, but it doesn’t select subfolder content so personally I’d find it of limited use particularly in the use case described earlier which really needs some media server and appropriate tagging or library construction.

This!

Setting a folder as a preset will at best get you to a point that you may just as well reach by browsing a library with two or three clicks more.
What‘s ‚half-backed‘ is the intention, not the software in this case.

 

[mesonto]

This!

Setting a folder as a preset will at best get you to a point that you may just as well reach by browsing a library with two or three clicks more.
What‘s ‚half-backed‘ is the intention, not the software in this case.

Aquaman,

I don't think you understand what needs to be done. I'm not setting a folder as a preset because it contains an album or two, I was wanting to set crease a folder as a preset because it has a hundred albums in it.

I personally use roon which of course you can't compare because it's a piece of $1,000 software, but of course everything's possible with it.

But I've set this up for my 86-year-old mother who is not as savvy as you may be or myself and who barely understands how to use a smartphone.

So your suggestion is absolutely mind-boggling and really difficult for someone who is elderly.

Anyway, that's the background and no your suggestion doesn't work.

I do appreciate your suggestions, if I could get one that's easy enough for my mother, I would do it.

Thanks.

 

[Aquaman]

Aquaman,

I don't think you understand what needs to be done. I'm not setting a folder as a preset because it contains an album or two, I was wanting to set crease a folder as a preset because it has a hundred albums in it.

I personally use roon which of course you can't compare because it's a piece of $1,000 software, but of course everything's possible with it.

But I've set this up for my 86-year-old mother who is not as savvy as you may be or myself and who barely understands how to use a smartphone.

So your suggestion is absolutely mind-boggling and really difficult for someone who is elderly.

Anyway, that's the background and no your suggestion doesn't work.

I do appreciate your suggestions, if I could get one that's easy enough for my mother, I would do it.

Thanks.

I appreciate your involvement to help your mother.
But again, what is a preset which directs to hundreds of albums going to do? It will at best always play the same albums/tracks in the same order.

 

[Chris P]

I do appreciate your suggestions, if I could get one that's easy enough for my mother, I would do it.

I have had to set up streaming and our music library for my wife who is a total techno phobe but give her a bride to design a dress for and she earns thousands doing that. I created a folder in our library and gave it her name and dropped all her music into it and then made that a bookmark. It gets her into the library in three screens and then she can scan the folders in her parent folder. For streaming she listens to one radio station so I made that a favorite and again it is a two step process WiiM>Favorite>Radio Station. She has been using it for a few days and today she managed to start it on her own for the first time. Keep in mind she is in her mid 70's like me so we both find this new world of streaming and mobile phone control somewhat challenging.

 

[mesonto]

I have had to set up streaming and our music library for my wife who is a total techno phobe but give her a bride to design a dress for and she earns thousands doing that. I created a folder in our library and gave it her name and dropped all her music into it and then made that a bookmark. It gets her into the library in three screens and then she can scan the folders in her parent folder. For streaming she listens to one radio station so I made that a favorite and again it is a two step process WiiM>Favorite>Radio Station. She has been using it for a few days and today she managed to start it on her own for the first time. Keep in mind she is in her mid 70's like me so we both find this new world of streaming and mobile phone control somewhat challenging.

I believe I have solved my dilemma a different way. I reworked all the tags in the FLAC encoded music files that I originally scanned from my mother's CDs. Her music now has only the 3 tags... Christmas, Classical and Contemporary. I am going to be able to now indirectly 'address' these music folders in the WiiM player this way. And then of course set up presets for all 3 genres of music by their tags rather than their folder structure. I will also add the all important 'random play' so it doesn't as Aquaman put it, "always play the same albums/tracks in the same order".

So in few words, my solution was to mimic the folder structure with tags.

I hope it works. I will try it next time I visit her.

 

[Aquaman]

I believe I have solved my dilemma a different way. I reworked all the tags in the FLAC encoded music files that I originally scanned from my mother's CDs. Her music now has only the 3 tags... Christmas, Classical and Contemporary. I am going to be able to now indirectly 'address' these music folders in the WiiM player this way. And then of course set up presets for all 3 genres of music by their tags rather than their folder structure. I will also add the all important 'random play' so it doesn't as Aquaman put it, "always play the same albums/tracks in the same order".

So in few words, my solution was to mimic the folder structure with tags.

I hope it works. I will try it next time I visit her.

I hate to disappoint you especially after you have put all that work into the tagging job.
It‘s not possible to set a genre as a preset. It‘s the same as with folders etc.
But bookmarks will work of course.

 

[mesonto]

I hate to disappoint you especially after you have put all that work into the tagging job.
It‘s not possible to set a genre as a preset. It‘s the same as with folders etc.
But bookmarks will work of course.

Aquaman, you are killing me. But thank you for this information... as much as it frustrates me. (not lol) If worse comes to worse I am going to buy my mother another USB drive and essentially have a "Christmas" and a "Everything else" USB key just to get around the limitations of WiiM's software. 64Gb USB sticks are cheap and Christmas music is only played for about a month every year. Easy-peasy.

Thanks again.

 

[harkpabst]

It‘s not possible to set a genre as a preset. It‘s the same as with folders etc.

It works for me using using the newly introduced "Advanced Mode" for the Synology media server.

However ... I had to enable, disable, re-enable the random play toggle to make it work.

And the scan didn't find a single album for my 16.000 plus tracks, making playback not exactly comfortable. Probably just a bug related to the Synology media server. But as long as your media server is supported in "Advanced Mode", saving a genre as a preset should work from my experience.

 

[Aquaman]

Aquaman, you are killing me. But thank you for this information... as much as it frustrates me. (not lol) If worse comes to worse I am going to buy my mother another USB drive and essentially have a "Christmas" and a "Everything else" USB key just to get around the limitations of WiiM's software. 64Gb USB sticks are cheap and Christmas music is only played for about a month every year. Easy-peasy.

Thanks again.

I was actually going to propose exactly this.
But I was afraid that you would come jumping out of my phone at me.

 

[Aquaman]

It works for me using using the newly introduced "Advanced Mode" for the Synology media server.

However ... I had to enable, disable, re-enable the random play toggle to make it work.

And the scan didn't find a single album for my 16.000 plus tracks, making playback not exactly comfortable. Probably just a bug related to the Synology media server. But as long as your media server is supported in "Advanced Mode", saving a genre as a preset should work from my experience.

Indeed. This works, also with Minim Server.
But will it also work for attached USB drives?
I can‘t test this right now.

 

[harkpabst]

But will it also work for attached USB drives?
I can‘t test this right now.

I assume it will, but cannot test right now as well because I have to go to sleep.