Updating USB library on second WiiM Home app

[Gary Robertson]

My first post as a new user getting everything set up, so please excuse me if these are dumb questions. I'm learning!

I have copied our CD collection onto a USB stick, and the WiiM Ultra is a fantastic way to access and play the music.

I have the Home app installed on my phone, and I have also installed it onto my wife's phone.

I have just updated the USB stick with more CD's and rescanned it using the Home app on my phone. All good, all the new music immediately showed in my USB library.

But on my wife's phone the USB library listing on her Home app wasn't automatically updated with the new music. I did get it there by scanning the USB again using the Home app on her phone, but I don't know if it was necessary to do that? Is there a better, more correct, way of getting a second Home app to see USB library updates?

Also, and this might be a related question, I didn't eject the previous USB on the Home app, I just pulled the old one out and put the new one in (I hadn't seen the eject option). It worked fine, my Home app recognised that I had changed the USB and asked me if I wanted to scan, but should I have ejected? What does that do?

Many thanks!

 

[simbun]

But on my wife's phone the USB library listing on her Home app wasn't automatically updated with the new music. I did get it there by scanning the USB again using the Home app on her phone, but I don't know if it was necessary to do that? Is there a better, more correct, way of getting a second Home app to see USB library updates?

What you're seeing is expected.

There's a media server component on the Ultra (based on MiniDLNA) that scans the tags in your tracks and builds a database in the root of your USB drive (wiim_cache\files.db). I believe this database contains the browsing hierarchy you'll see if you were to browse the Ultra with a third party control point e.g. BubbleUPnP or mconnect.

The WHA then has - what WiiM like to call - "Advanced" mode, which perfoms further processing of the data to build a unified WiiM browsing experience for local media - also available to those running select third party UPnP media servers e.g. MinimServer. This process takes place in the WHA and the transformed data lives on device, so there is duplication of effort (and data).

Also, and this might be a related question, I didn't eject the previous USB on the Home app, I just pulled the old one out and put the new one in (I hadn't seen the eject option). It worked fine, my Home app recognised that I had changed the USB and asked me if I wanted to scan, but should I have ejected? What does that do?

As long as you weren't performing a scan (writing to USB) I don't think it really matters, but an eject should unmount (after the synchronization of any writes) and power down the disk for safer removal.

 

[Gary Robertson]

Thanks simbun