USB Song Indexing Issues

[Carolina Blues]

Very strange, the app shows 99% of my USB songs as 'unknown'. I've done a few scans and have done one since upgrading to the new firmware that was released today.

These are all purchased or ripped FLAC and MP3's so the MetaData is there. My PC reads it, and my Oppo reads it.

Please note at the bottom, Blues Traveler is playing and it shows the Metadata. However right above it in the index, it is 'uknown'.

The ONLY songs it indexes corretly is my 10,000 Maniacs folder. Coincidentally, this folder is actually the newest folder I have as it is the last one I ripped, and it is also the very first folder in the list. I think it is more that it's the first folder in the list, as I have tons of ripped FLAC files elsewhere on the drive. I think it it only indexing that first folder. Anyone else seeing this issue?

 

[Carolina Blues]

Hmm, zero responses so I think this is the issue that has made my mind up to return my Ultra.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Pro Plus but this is just something else that doesn't work right with the Ultra so I just have no reason to upgrade.

 

[simbun]

You could delete files.db and the wiim_cache folder from the root of your USB drive and try again.

 

[LennyBruce]

Very strange, the app shows 99% of my USB songs as 'unknown'. I've done a few scans and have done one since upgrading to the new firmware that was released today.

These are all purchased or ripped FLAC and MP3's so the MetaData is there. My PC reads it, and my Oppo reads it.

Please note at the bottom, Blues Traveler is playing and it shows the Metadata. However right above it in the index, it is 'uknown'.

The ONLY songs it indexes corretly is my 10,000 Maniacs folder. Coincidentally, this folder is actually the newest folder I have as it is the last one I ripped, and it is also the very first folder in the list. I think it is more that it's the first folder in the list, as I have tons of ripped FLAC files elsewhere on the drive. I think it it only indexing that first folder. Anyone else seeing this issue?

View attachment 10656

That's strange.
I just plugged a 2.5"HDD with a few albums on it to see if it would power it.
It worked fine and they all indexed perfectly.
Firmware: 5.2.626448

 

[Carolina Blues]

You could delete files.db and the wiim_cache folder from the root of your USB drive and try again.

I have not done that specifically, but I have tried a few different USB drives with the same result.

 

[Carolina Blues]

I have not done that specifically, but I have tried a few different USB drives with the same result.

I'll try again, this time without the 10,000 Maniacs folder as it seems to be the only one it reads right. It seems to ignore everything after that.

 

[simbun]

I have not done that specifically, but I have tried a few different USB drives with the same result.

You've had exactly the same outcome using a number of different USB drives? That is odd!

I notice you're going to exclude the 10,000 Maniacs folder, it might be worth excluding the next folder too just in case it's the one responsible for crashing the process - even though it sounds like the total number of songs is reported correctly.

You could browse the internal database (files.db) using a sqlite browser to see what's files are being indexed and what tags have been read.

Do you see the same thing if you browse via Home Music Share?

 

[Carolina Blues]

You've had exactly the same outcome using a number of different USB drives? That is odd!

I notice you're going to exclude the 10,000 Maniacs folder, it might be worth excluding the next folder too just in case it's the one responsible for crashing the process - even though it sounds like the total number of songs is reported correctly.

You could browse the internal database (files.db) using a sqlite browser to see what's files are being indexed and what tags have been read.

Do you see the same thing if you browse via Home Music Share?

Well I deleted the first 4 folders and now everything is unknown. So it was indeed reading the 10,000 Maniacs folder correctly but still nothing else. Also keep in mind the 10,000 Maniacs is the only folder I recently ripped. Everything else is Amazon Purchases or older rips. Home Music Share indeed shows the same thing.

It's just odd that it knows the Metadata when it's playing a song, but not when doing a scan.

 

[simbun]

It's just odd that it knows the Metadata when it's playing a song, but not when doing a scan.

It could be pulling metadata from the file during playback, but I wouldn't expect it to do that.

I'd have a look in the database (files.db) to see if anything jumps out at you.

Have you sent feedback from the WiiM app?

 

[huw]

It could be pulling metadata from the file during playback, but I wouldn't expect it to do that.

I think it is doing exactly that. On iOS with the default settings in MinimServer for me the WiiM app shows the Album Artist as the artist. However, now when the track starts playing this changes on the now playing screen. See pictures - here the Album Artist tag is "Sasha & John Digweed" and the Artist tag is "The Future Sound of London". This is accompanied by the album art shrinking and growing in size so perhaps this change is to do with reading the cover art from the FLAC if available (in my case the cover is not embedded) which would involve reading metadata from the file during playback?

 

[Onthemarc]

I have experienced the same unknown issue on a 45gb HDD of fairly older ripped MP3's. One wrinkle, once I select one of the unknowns and play it, the right information including album artwork shows up. This is a local copy of the same files I use on my DLNA server, which when it's connected the Ultra displays perfectly. I have pretty much given up trying to fix this as nothing seems to work, including rescanning. I'm going to try ripping the CD again and see if they display properly.

 

[simbun]

I think it is doing exactly that. On iOS with the default settings in MinimServer for me the WiiM app shows the Album Artist as the artist. However, now when the track starts playing this changes on the now playing screen. See pictures - here the Album Artist tag is "Sasha & John Digweed" and the Artist tag is "The Future Sound of London".

I don't use the app much as there are much better third party alternatives on Android, but noticed a problem with the track artist display in the latest WHA app release a few days ago, but yes it looks like it's been accompanied by an even bigger problem on the now playing screen.
My MinimServer configuration uses extensive tag formatting so nearly every element on the Now Playing screen is now incorrect. It feels like it's one step forward and two steps back at times!

I'll raise a ticket and I suggest you do to.

EDIT: If you have a licensed version of MinimServer you can work around this by enabling transcoding, essentially stripping the tags from the served file. I used this approach with someone using a Cambridge Audio CXN v2, which did the same stupid thing on its display.

 

[huw]

My MinimServer configuration uses extensive tag formatting so nearly every element on the Now Playing screen is now incorrect.

ok so that confirms the metadata shown on the Now Playing screen when the track is played is not sourced from the server. So in the case of external USB drives in this thread the fact that correct metadata is shown on the Now Playing screen is irrelevant as this is not sourced from the database written when the drive is scanned.

 

[WiiM Team]

Hmm, zero responses so I think this is the issue that has made my mind up to return my Ultra.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Pro Plus but this is just something else that doesn't work right with the Ultra so I just have no reason to upgrade.

Sorry to hear that. We want to help figure out what's going on. Can you help send feedback through the app? Settings > Feedback.

 

[simbun]

ok so that confirms the metadata shown on the Now Playing screen when the track is played is not sourced from the server. So in the case of external USB drives in this thread the fact that correct metadata is shown on the Now Playing screen is irrelevant as this is not sourced from the database written when the drive is scanned.

Correct. I've described the issue here which I'll link to in my feedback.

 

[quantech]

I just got my Ultra a few days ago and one of the first things I did was check out the USB media/MP3 feature.

I plugged in a 64gb flash drive, did a scan...it found all 7,161 songs in just a few minutes. I was pleased with that.

Then I started scrolling through the library and lo and behold, I kept seeing "UNKNOWN" over and over again (exactly as pictured above by the OP). The cover artwork was appearing, but that was it. That was puzzling as I have been using the same files in a multitude of devices for the past several years (iPods, car stereos, cell phones, other various media players and MP3 devices), and never once had I ever had any issues. I had been making sure to keep all the ID3 tags in order using either Tag&Rename or MP3tag.

Long story short, I got out pen and paper and noted down all the albums and most of the songs that were showing up as "UNKNOWN" and opened these files in MP3tag and looked over the ID3 tag information. I saw nothing wrong. A small smattering here and there somehow had the year listed twice ex: "Year: 2013//2013". No idea how that happened, but I fixed those. Since I couldn't see anything that could be wrong, I literally just started "re-saving" the existing ID3 tags again and when I erased the WIIM cache folder and re-scanned, to my amazement, all the ones I re-saved were now showing the proper information for artist, title and album.

Clearly whatever part of the firmware that builds the library in the Ultra is super-touchy and a little peculiar. No clue why just re-doing or re-saving the MP3s fixed the metadata in all those files, but it did. As I said, outside of re-doing the Year field in perhaps several dozen files, I did not edit or change anything else in any of the files. I just highlighted them and then saved them again.

Hopefully the algorithm or logic behind the library/cache creation for USB media part of the firmware can be re-worked/revamped or tweaked so that it's not so sensitive to whatever small, unseen things that cause the UNKNOWN issue to pop up. Thankully it's most certainly not a hardware issue, so if the engineers can figure out what's going on with the scanning/library building procedure and make it less picky or buggy I would feel less trepidation about adding my main music library to the Ultra without worrying about thousands of UNKNOWNS littering the database!

 

[kaidou]

I don't use the app much as there are much better third party alternatives on Android, but noticed a problem with the track artist display in the latest WHA app release a few days ago, but yes it looks like it's been accompanied by an even bigger problem on the now playing screen.
My MinimServer configuration uses extensive tag formatting so nearly every element on the Now Playing screen is now incorrect. It feels like it's one step forward and two steps back at times!

I'll raise a ticket and I suggest you do to.

EDIT: If you have a licensed version of MinimServer you can work around this by enabling transcoding, essentially stripping the tags from the served file. I used this approach with someone using a Cambridge Audio CXN v2, which did the same stupid thing on its display.

What android alternatives are there for the app?

 

[Mr Ee]

Bubbleupnp
Free to try, pretty cheap to buy.

 

[simbun]

What android alternatives are there for the app?

As @Mr Ee states BubbleUPnP is the best but Hi-Fi Cast is good too - although needs an upcoming WiiM firmware fix.

 

[Carolina Blues]

I just got my Ultra a few days ago and one of the first things I did was check out the USB media/MP3 feature.

I plugged in a 64gb flash drive, did a scan...it found all 7,161 songs in just a few minutes. I was pleased with that.

Then I started scrolling through the library and lo and behold, I kept seeing "UNKNOWN" over and over again (exactly as pictured above by the OP). The cover artwork was appearing, but that was it. That was puzzling as I have been using the same files in a multitude of devices for the past several years (iPods, car stereos, cell phones, other various media players and MP3 devices), and never once had I ever had any issues. I had been making sure to keep all the ID3 tags in order using either Tag&Rename or MP3tag.

Long story short, I got out pen and paper and noted down all the albums and most of the songs that were showing up as "UNKNOWN" and opened these files in MP3tag and looked over the ID3 tag information. I saw nothing wrong. A small smattering here and there somehow had the year listed twice ex: "Year: 2013//2013". No idea how that happened, but I fixed those. Since I couldn't see anything that could be wrong, I literally just started "re-saving" the existing ID3 tags again and when I erased the WIIM cache folder and re-scanned, to my amazement, all the ones I re-saved were now showing the proper information for artist, title and album.

Clearly whatever part of the firmware that builds the library in the Ultra is super-touchy and a little peculiar. No clue why just re-doing or re-saving the MP3s fixed the metadata in all those files, but it did. As I said, outside of re-doing the Year field in perhaps several dozen files, I did not edit or change anything else in any of the files. I just highlighted them and then saved them again.

Hopefully the algorithm or logic behind the library/cache creation for USB media part of the firmware can be re-worked/revamped or tweaked so that it's not so sensitive to whatever small, unseen things that cause the UNKNOWN issue to pop up. Thankully it's most certainly not a hardware issue, so if the engineers can figure out what's going on with the scanning/library building procedure and make it less picky or buggy I would feel less trepidation about adding my main music library to the Ultra without worrying about thousands of UNKNOWNS littering the database!

Yeah I'm sure they will get it sorted out, thanks for sharing your experience! I have not put it a ticket or looked into it any further myself mostly due to lack of time and USB playback not being a primary concern for me right now. I still prefer to do that with my Oppo so I can see the display on my TV and use the remote for navigation. I can see my TV across the room much clearer than I can see my phone right in front of my face but of course that's just me and my old eyes