Scanning the music server, how to wipe database and start fresh?

[iPete]

I have 2 Pro plus devices connected via Ethernet to a Qnap running Qmusic as its music server. When I access my music and look for playlists stored on the qnap the device lists thousands of duplicate entries for each song. Some songs have as many as a 10 or 20 entries. Many m3u album playlists are empty with 0 tracks in them. I think every time I’ve scanned the music folder on the NAS from the menu in the WiiM app it has added yet another copy and never deleted the old database. How do I force it to forget everything and make a clean new scan? I tried doing this from the NAS by reindexing in the qnaps multimedia console but I think this has confused the WiiM even more. Do I need to factory reset the WiiM? How? I’ve reinstalled the WiiM app in IOS but it’s just the same. Where is the Wiims copy the database?

 

[Aquaman]

Hi @iPete ,

other than in my initial statement I now find Minim a very useful server. I reinstalled it for the test of compatability issues with some other equipment. So I revise my previous verdict. Minim is a good choice.

As for your questions:

If you are not using playlists, I would simply and rigorously delete all m3u files. They are the ones that show up as playlists in the server, with or without content.

If those playlists also contain your favorites, I‘m afraid I can‘t help you on how to manage this. If worse comes to worst your ratings will be lost.

No, there is no front end to UPnP servers. If you want to manage your music library competently you should install Foobar2000 on your PC. This will give you ALL the possibilities.+.

 

[simbun]

Q1. What do I need to do to? I don’t really care about playlist for each album. If I want to play an album in full I’ll just use folder mode navigate to the folder and hit play now. I do want to build my own playlists however and be able to find them without having to scroll through hundreds of automatically produced but useless empty playlists.

If playlists appear in MinimServer's [n playlists] index then you must have *.m3u/*.m3u8 files located somewhere under the content directory.

If you haven't done so already install MinimWatch on your desktop as it allows you to configure a remote MinimServer instance and view the log from a scan (MinimWatch > Show Log). Check the log first for any errors/warnings, then change the Logging level to Verbose and perform another rescan which will list any playlists encountered (towards the end of the log).

Q2. I have favourite ratings made via Qmusic. Music tracks are rated 1* to 5*. Qmusic generates playlists based on ratings. For example I can make a playlist of all 4* or 5* tracks with Genre “HD” between years 1990 and 2000. It will find any music that I added the labelled “HD” to the Genre and produce a list I can either play now or select from to add to another/new playlist. And they are updated as music is added or ratings changed. Can I transfer these said playlists into Minim or must I recreate them? Can minim do this?

Whilst control points (WiiM Home app/BubbleUPnP etc) can store user ratings (held in app) they're not supported by UPnP, so they're not written back to the server. If ratings are important to you then you'll likely need to look elsewhere e.g. QMusic/Symfonium/PlexAmp/Lyrion.

 

[Aquaman]

If you haven't done so already install MinimWatch on your desktop as it allows you to configure a remote MinimServer instance and view the log from a scan (MinimWatch > Show Log). Check the log first for any errors/warnings, then change the Logging level to Verbose and perform another rescan which will list any playlists encountered (towards the end of the log).

… or simply search for ‚*.m3u‘ in the library directory with Windows explorer and delete directly. A little prosaic but effective and no hassle.

 

[simbun]

… or simply search for ‚*.m3u‘ in the library directory with Windows explorer and delete directly. A little prosaic but effective and no hassle.

It sounds like they've already renamed the playlists to .bak.
With no knowledge of QNAP I'm assuming some trash or backup folder is being indexed.

Either way, checking the log is always a good idea.

 

[iPete]

OK Thanks for your input people, I've made some progress but not that much!

I installed the Minim Server and deleting .m3u files does work. You need to rescan the Minim server on the Qnap and then rescan on the Wiim app aswell. Then any changes made to the .m3u files are updated from the qnap to the wiim app including all the ones that are annoyingly named 00.m3u. Great. Good. There are a few caveats. The list of playlists found by the MinimServer is only make up of .m3u files held in the folder structure where all the flac files are stored. It doesn't include the very playlists I am really interested in, the ones I made in Qnaps' own Qmusic app. As explained in a previous post I can create instant playlist simply by specifying for example, 4* rated music, genre type, eg jazz or folk, and a year range. I've not seen and other app that does this so easily. (Have you?) The Qnap's own DNLA server called Media Console offers up all these playlists too and the Wiim app can see them and play them. The problem is that they are lost in the hundreds of useless empty and broken playlists that I can't delete. Why can't I delete them? Firstly I CAN delete them but I'd have to do it one by one because not all of them are empty, secondly the qnap media indexer doesn't pick up the changes unless you re-index the whole music folder and then you lose all the meta data (the entered music ratings and year info etc) used to create all the playlists.

So in summary, of all the (free) apps that have been suggested to me I have not found one that can organise you music libray and create custom playlists as well and the Qnaps own Music station 5. I've tried Minim, Jellyfin, Plex (useless on a qnap). Unfortunately once you have a problem with Music station and need to reindex you have to start again. Ofcourse you don't lose the files just your extra metadata, all the ratings you have made.

What I'm doing now. I'm continuing wiy Qmusic but as I create playlists and am exporting the music files to a separate directory of playlists. This is useful for two reasons. I have mirrored the directory to a large USB so I can update a USB drive I use in my car. Every few week I can bring in my car USB and run a backup update and hey presto I have new tunes on my car USB. Secondly this serves as an extra backup of my favourite tunes.

I will edit out all the empty .m3u files from my collection and reindex and start the process of re-rating everything again ... when I have a week to waste!!

 

[Aquaman]

This os a typical case of a digital trap.
First learn what a certain technology is and roughly know how it works. Then evaluate the consequenses of using it for you personally. Sounds posh and will hardly ever work 100%. What I mean is, don‘t use it just becauese it‘s there.

I don‘t even try to work with ratings across various platforms, even though it may be possible. In fact I only use playlists for special temporary use cases, then they get deleted.

QNAP software is probably the worst of all softwares for music library management. I‘ve dipped my toe into it a few times out of curiosity and always turned away again in disgust.

Get Foobar200 for your complete library organisation including comprehensive tagging.

Others will disagree with my rigorous approach, I don‘t care. I only use what I can manage and have zero problems.

 

[simbun]

As explained in a previous post I can create instant playlist simply by specifying for example, 4* rated music, genre type, eg jazz or folk, and a year range. I've not seen and other app that does this so easily. (Have you?)

As stated before, Symfonium, PlexAmp and Lyrion (I think) have smart playlists so should all be able to handle that.

I can vouch for Symfonium with Lightweight Music Server but I see you're on iOS, so PlexAmp (Chromecast only) or Lyrion might work for you.