Wiim Ultra- bugs / strange behaviour of local files library (from USB)

[incans]

I've only had the Wiim Ultra about a month, so still finding my way around. For many years (pre-Wiim) i've been streaming my local music (ripped CDs) from a server running either Plex or miniDLNA. The core library consists 3000 or so tracks, 90%+ of which are FLAC ripped from CD, plus a few individual tracks in MP3. My servers are currently out of action, but given the Ultra has a USB port that's compatible with USB storage, I thought I could just dump my music library onto a big memory stick, and Bob's Your Uncle...

This partially works, but I have found the behaviour of the Wiim librarian and local file player features to have some bugs, or possibly "features"?

1. Most annoying is the fact that the library fails to see and index quite a few files that are on the memory stick. For example I have the album "Marc Cohn" (by Marc Cohn) on the USB stick, comprising 11 FLAC files. However the Wiim library only acknowledges 6 of them.
   
   Incredibly, it manages to NOT let me see and play my favourite tracks on this album! (I'm just wondering now if the Wiim somehow chokes on files that have a tag for a high 5-star rating applied by MediaMonkey. That would be pretty ironic.)
   
   
2. After I attached the USB stick for the first time and indexed the contents, I was very surprised to find that I could unplug the USB stick and take it away, but the Wiim would still list AND play the content?! I asume this mean the Wiim doesn't just "index" a source device, it actually copies the data into a local cache on the device. That's ok but-
   
   a) What happens if the USB device (say a USB portable hard disk) is much larger than the Ultra's internal memory?
   b) How do you clear out files that have been cached locally, but you have changed or deleted the file on the memory stick?
   c) Is there any way to get stats on the library? (e.g. % of capacity used, no of "stale" tracks buffered locally)?
   
   
3. A library of decent size is almost bound to include near-duplicates, e.g. the same track on different albums. The Wiim just shows these in a single flat track list. This isn't very helpful. For example I have a AC/DC live compilation album that contains the same track 6 times. The Wiim lists these with identical track names and artists (not unreasonably), which makes it impossible to make a meaningful choice.
   
   My preference would be for tracks that are "the same" (based on a rule such as artist name+track name) to be listed as a single entry for the track, with a sub-list showing the key fields that might differ such as-
   
   a) Album artist(s)
   b) File format, bit rate, (dynamic range?)
   c) Track length
   

I can't believe I am the only user to have run into these issues. Are they well-known problems, and any comment from Wiim on whether they are going to be worked on?

Note: The tag "usb output" makes no sense, but I can't find a tag that does relate to this issue, and the forum seems to insist on having a pre-existing tag assigned to every post.

 

[Goodnews]

Again, show us your files, folder structure and tagging.
Or you can keep on braggin‘ on how things don‘t work.

I don't boast..
I'm not complaining, it just annoys me because I lose a lot of time that I don't have with other devices.

The folders that the Wii has

 

[Aquaman]

When I said files, folders and tags I meant this:

 

[Goodnews]

Gehe über Ordner alles okay

Jedoch über Alben nichts okay


Andere Strukturen sehe ich oder finde ich nicht

 

[Aquaman]

Gehe über Ordner alles okay

Jedoch über Alben nichts okay


Andere Strukturen sehe ich oder finde ich nicht

Go to Windows file explorer and your tagging programme. We needto see the root of the data, not the results.

 

[Aquaman]

Looking at your latest pics I see iTunes.
This is where your problem lies.
Apple is no good for file management and iTunes the death of any library management.

 

[BEE]

Looking at your latest pics I see iTunes.
This is where your problem lies.
Apple is no good for file management and iTunes the death of any library management.

Absolutely! iTunes / Music also stores artwork separately and makes it incompatible with anything else.

 

[Goodnews]

I'm a bit at a loss now.

1. The albums on the hard drives are exclusively ripped CDs from my old collection. The programme that provided the metadata was XLD & included a database (Musibrainz?).

2. Both the old and new Mac Minis are designed exclusively for music, and the necessary data is provided by a streaming service; otherwise, the programmes that are not needed are shut down. I have not used a database in over 11 years, in the sense of ripping or importing.

Audirvana has been instructed not to pair with iTunes.

Since external music player software such as Pure Music / Amarra AND Audirvana became available, I no longer use iTunes.

Hmm, why does this work for USB under the Folder item, but not under the Album item?

 

[jfbuk]

Can you actually post a ripped file that is displaying the wrong details and album art or can you confirm that you have actually checked the metadata on a file with an appropriate tool to verify that it is as it should be ?
AFAIK there are not widespread reports of the issues you are experiencing so there is something about your files that causing this behaviour

 

[Aquaman]

I'm a bit at a loss now.

1. The albums on the hard drives are exclusively ripped CDs from my old collection. The programme that provided the metadata was XLD & included a database (Musibrainz?).

2. Both the old and new Mac Minis are designed exclusively for music, and the necessary data is provided by a streaming service; otherwise, the programmes that are not needed are shut down. I have not used a database in over 11 years, in the sense of ripping or importing.

You may have acted in good intention. But I‘m afraid, in vain.
Apple uses a proprietary file storage system and tagging is all over the place, no matter how good the source was.
Get a Windows PC, load your files or what‘s left of it and see what you can make of it. Then get foobar or MP3Tag to get the tagging right.

 

[Goodnews]

First of all, thank you very much for your help.

You shouldn't change a system that works well... gentlemen... I'm staying with Apple / Audirvana / Qobuz, which is great thanks to Audirvana Studio.


Thank you for everything.

Under the folder item, it´ s all okay ( right)


Under the folder Album, it´ s Chaos ( left)

 

[harkpabst]

First of all, thank you very much for your help.

You shouldn't change a system that works well... gentlemen... I'm staying with Apple / Audirvana / Qobuz, which is great thanks to Audirvana Studio.

It's nice of you to be thankful. But it doesn't make sense to stay with a concept that's proven broken (Apple iTunes).

The irony is that there have been multiple little oddities with WiiM's implementation of the MiniDLNA server. These are mostly fixed now. But if the tagging of your original files are messed up, this is what you get as a result. It's the old concept of gold in, gold out.