WiiM Amp USB Album Artist / Compilation issue

[slartibartfast]

Right everyone. I've received a reply from WiiM to my ticket and the response is...underwhelming.

"Dear [***],

Thank you for reaching out, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

The issue you're experiencing is due to the categorization being based on 'artist' tags rather than 'album artist' tags. What you're observing is expected behavior. We have noted your request and will consider it in future updates.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Best Regards,
WiiM Support"

So there you have it everyone, the App is operating as designed with no functionality to read the Album Artist tags. Seems poor to me. @goodmore @Djinn @pbutler68 : WiiM now have my feedback on the issue, so feel free to add your voices to the conversation too by submitting a problem/Feature Request here: submit a ticket or make a request.

Thanks to @simbun and @Steve Woodhouse for ably assisting with the troubleshooting. Hopefully this thread will help provide an answer and relevant links for anyone else suffering from the same issue.

In the meantime, I'll just leave this here: Raspberry Pi - Media Centre Forum.

So what happens if you only have the Album Artist tag and no Artist tag?

 

[simbun]

WiiM stores the metadata in a sqlite database in the root of the USB drive (WiiM_Cache/files.db I think).

If you fancied tinkering, you could update the ARTIST field with the value from CREATOR for those records in the DETAILS table associated with music tracks - assuming it's not the indexing that's broken.

 

[middleagedgrump]

So what happens if you only have the Album Artist tag and no Artist tag?

The Tag Police come and take you away for being so naughty.

 

[Djinn]

WiiM stores the metadata in a sqlite database in the root of the USB drive (WiiM_Cache/files.db I think).

If you fancied tinkering, you could update the ARTIST field with the value from CREATOR for those records in the DETAILS table associated with music tracks - assuming it's not the indexing that's broken.

Could you elaborate? What tables are involved? Is the MySQL client valid for this operation? Finally, could you put an example with the needed SQL sentences?

Thanks

 

[simbun]

Could you elaborate? What tables are involved? Is the MySQL client valid for this operation? Finally, could you put an example with the needed SQL sentences?

Thanks

I've tested with MiniDLNA and unfortunately it's not going to work. In addition to loading the file metadata into DETAILS it builds the browsing hierarchy in a table called OBJECTS, and I can't see a way to rebuild OBJECTS (needed to redefine albums) without rebuilding DETAILS (overwriting the changes).
Whilst the data model is qute crude it does open up the possibility to build your own browsing hierarchy!

If you're on Linux the easiest way to browse the database is with sqlite3; for Windows it's probably DB Browser.

I hope to hear from WiiM in the next day or two so that's probably the best way forward at this point.

 

[Djinn]

I've tested with MiniDLNA and unfortunately it's not going to work. In addition to loading the file metadata into DETAILS it builds the browsing hierarchy in a table called OBJECTS, and I can't see a way to rebuild OBJECTS (needed to redefine albums) without rebuilding DETAILS (overwriting the changes).
Whilst the data model is qute crude it does open up the possibility to build your own browsing hierarchy!

If you're on Linux the easiest way to browse the database is with sqlite3; for Windows it's probably DB Browser.

I hope to hear from WiiM in the next day or two so that's probably the best way forward at this point.

Does WiiM Support listen to users? I mean, do they usually fix bugs reported by users? Do you know of any case where a reported bug has NOT been fixed?

Thanks

 

[simbun]

Does WiiM Support listen to users? I mean, do they usually fix bugs reported by users? Do you know of any case where a reported bug has NOT been fixed?

I have a couple of outstanding bugs, but the number of users affected will be small - and I haven't really chased them as I don't use the WHA.

It's been a bit of a bumpy road with WiiM. There was a time when they'd fix one bug only to introduce another (which is probably what's happend here).
With that in mind, after every update I perform a number of tests, and if something has broken I'll provide screenshots of before and after. This has worked well a number of times over the last 6 months and I hope it continues.

 

[Djinn]

I have a couple of outstanding bugs, but the number of users affected will be small - and I haven't really chased them as I don't use the WHA.

Come on, please tell us those bugs, I'm interested because I do use the WHA.

 

[simbun]

Come on, please tell us those bugs, I'm interested because I do use the WHA.

I use my Pro primarily as a UPnP renderer with a third party control point, so my testing is based around its external connectivity and DLNA browsing.

Going back over my tickets there hasn't been an external connectivity issue since last July when they broke eventing (the way WiiM communicates track progress to third party control points). The only WHA UPnP UI issues I still have open are:

• The Now Playing screen (possibly that of the Ultra too) uses the file metadata of the active track, instead of that provided by the server
• Disc subtitles are displayed at the top of the track listing whereas they should preceed the tracks of the related disc

Most users won't be affected by those bugs.

Browsing is handled quite well now by the WHA, it's the functionality that needs to improve.

 

[Djinn]

Ok guys, this is the response from WiiM Team:

Thank you for contacting us, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Currently, we categorize by artist tag, not artist album tag, which is causing the issue you're experiencing. We have forwarded this to the product team and will consider improving it in a future update.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Best Regards,
WiiM Support

And this is my reply:

Please note that many albums are compilations with various artists, so if you ignore the Album Artist field with the same value on all tracks to group all tracks together (e.g. by assigning ‘Various Artists’ to the Album Artist field), then the user has to assign the value ‘Various Artists’ to the Artist field to group them together, thus losing the artist information for each track and, in my opinion, this would be a serious bug in your music indexing engine, forcing many users to use alternative ways to index their library.

Please take this request into consideration as soon as possible. I bought the WiiM Ultra to easily create a complete and organized music library without using third party solutions. There are more users on the official forum who want you to change this behaviour, because they are not happy with how music compilations are currently managed. Please see again the thread where we are currently discussing this issue:
https://forum.wiimhome.com/threads/wiim-amp-usb-album-artist-compilation-issue.6388/

Thank you again for your understanding and regards,

I suspect that this petition will sadly fall into oblivion...

 

[simbun]

I suspect that this petition will sadly fall into oblivion...

I have a slightly different response, although maybe it's the precursor to yours:

We have forwarded your issue to our product team for further investigation, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

That I don't own an Amp/Ultra makes this slightly more difficult - as previously they rolled back my firmware for testing - but this will get resolved, in time.

 

[simbun]

I suspect that this petition will sadly fall into oblivion...

Could you load and index a single compilation album and attach files.db back here?

 

[Burnside]

From the very brief look I've had with this it seems to be more an app issue than indexing issue. I noticed that a charity compilation CD I had now showed as multiple albums in the WiiM Home app, but if I accessed the USB server album list from BubbleUPNP on Android, or MusicMonkey on my PC (or even Windows Explorer) that it showed as one album. The album does have a compilation tag though when I look at the properties. In Windows Explorer, "album artist" is displayed as a column, but not "artist".

However, I'll need to look at a few more such albums as I've just noticed all tracks have the albumartist set as the track artist - oops...

 

[simbun]

The album does have a compilation tag though when I look at the properties.

MiniDLNA doesn't use the Compilation tag so I wouldn't expect WiiM too.

From the very brief look I've had with this it seems to be more an app issue than indexing issue.

A copy of files.db should answer that, but I don't see how that's possible given the browsing hierarchy is stored in the database - unless WiiM are using search/custom code to fulfill USB browsing.

 

[Djinn]

Could you load and index a single compilation album and attach files.db back here?

Here you go. Rename the file to .db (the .db extension is not allowed).

Thanks for your help.

 

[Djinn]

A bit off-topic because this subforum is for the WiiM Amp, but I also realized that covers are not always displayed on the front display when they are stored in a single cover.jpg file. If I embed the cover into all tracks, then the corresponding cover is always displayed, so I think this is a bug of the Ultra's firmware.

Should I submit this bug to WiiM Support or is already acknowledged? Thanks again.

 

[Burnside]

A bit off-topic because this subforum is for the WiiM Amp, but I also realized that covers are not always displayed on the front display when they are stored in a single cover.jpg file. If I embed the cover into all tracks, then the corresponding cover is always displayed, so I think this is a bug of the Ultra's firmware.

Should I submit this bug to WiiM Support or is already acknowledged? Thanks again.

I feel it’s always important to bug report something personally as your circumstances and device log contents might vary from previous reports and lead to a better understanding of the issue and hence an improved fix.

 

[simbun]

Here you go. Rename the file to .db (the .db extension is not allowed).

From first glance it appears that the 10 tracks do belong to the same album, at least according to the browse hierarchy.

index_0    index_0_object_id    index_1    index_1_object_id    album_name    album_object_id    NAME                    track_object_id
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              01. Blue Curve          1$7$0$0
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              02. Ida                 1$7$0$1
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              03. Altitude            1$7$0$2
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              04. Closer to Love      1$7$0$3
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              05. Living My Dream     1$7$0$4
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              06. Miles Hi            1$7$0$5
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              07. Thankful            1$7$0$6
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              08. Love or Fusion      1$7$0$7
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              09. Getting Closer      1$7$0$8
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              10. Blue Curve (0g Mix) 1$7$0$9

Could you use a UPnP control point to browse your Ultra e.g. BubbleUPnP (Android) or mconnect (iOS)? I have a feeling it's going to be presented correctly (Music -> Album -> Blue Curve).

I only see 'Craig Peyton' in the data. I take it he's the albumartist and the first artist in a multi-value artist tag? An album with 'Various Artists' as the AlbumArtist and varying track artists would have been useful so that I can identify the source.

 

[Djinn]

From first glance it appears that the 10 tracks do belong to the same album, at least according to the browse hierarchy.

index_0    index_0_object_id    index_1    index_1_object_id    album_name    album_object_id    NAME                    track_object_id
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              01. Blue Curve          1$7$0$0
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              02. Ida                 1$7$0$1
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              03. Altitude            1$7$0$2
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              04. Closer to Love      1$7$0$3
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              05. Living My Dream     1$7$0$4
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              06. Miles Hi            1$7$0$5
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              07. Thankful            1$7$0$6
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              08. Love or Fusion      1$7$0$7
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              09. Getting Closer      1$7$0$8
Music      1                    Album      1$7                  Blue Curve    1$7$0              10. Blue Curve (0g Mix) 1$7$0$9

Could you use a UPnP control point to browse your Ultra e.g. BubbleUPnP (Android) or mconnect (iOS)? I have a feeling it's going to be presented correctly (Music -> Album -> Blue Curve).

I only see 'Craig Peyton' in the data. I take it he's the albumartist and the first artist in a multi-value artist tag? An album with 'Various Artists' as the AlbumArtist and varying track artists would have been useful so that I can identify the source.

Sorry, my mistake, I have uploaded a single album with 1 artist.

Here you go a multidisc compilation with various artists. Both 'Album Artist' and 'AlbumArtist' fields are populated with 'VA'. You have all the tag contents here (The TagScanner screenshot).

Thanks.

 

[simbun]

Here you go a multidisc compilation with various artists. Both 'Album Artist' and 'AlbumArtist' fields are populated with 'VA'. You have all the tag contents here (The TagScanner screenshot).

Thanks for that.

It doesn't appear to be reading the AlbumArtist tag at all.

TITLE                        CREATOR          ARTIST            ALBUM
Unforgettable                Nat King Cole    Nat King Cole     Absolute Unforgettable
I've Got You Under My Skin   Frank Sinatra    Frank Sinatra     Absolute Unforgettable
Fly Me To The Moon           Julie London     Julie London      Absolute Unforgettable
Can't Take My Eyes Off You   Andy Williams    Andy Williams     Absolute Unforgettable

Yet the browse hierarchy appears to be fine. Could you browse the Ultra with BubbleUPnP/mconnect to confirm?

When browsing albums served by MiniDLNA albums are grouped by the album tag alone, which is why I think the browse tree is still being built "correctly" (it doesn't need a common AlbumArtist tag).
The problem comes when you have albums with the same name e.g. Greatest Hits (that get merged). I think WiiM have addressed this by including AlbumArtist, but not by modifying the MiniDLNA codebase, hence the browse hierarchy is still correct - which we think is being used by external control points.

There have been a LOT of firmware updates for the Ultra recently, notably 5.2.703434 and 5.2.704152, which specifically mention artist related changes associated with USB indexing. If I had to guess, one of these changes is responsible for the missing AlbumArtist values in the database, and because the new codebase requires a common AlbumArtist tag, albums through the WHA are now being split.

5.2.703434 mentions changes related to the APE format. It might be worth converting Absolute Unforgettable to APE to see what happens!