Music jukebox database does not use Tracklist.xml

[wallygator]

I have some doubts/questions how the firmware produces music.db database. It is mentioned in the Music Jukebox tutorial that it reads the Tracklist.xml (if one exists), and then processes it to build the database. However, I first noticed that I cannot re-arrange the order of albums (by using an updated the Tagscanner script that changes album labels). I conducted some investigation, and these are my findings:
1. TrackList.xml is generated correctly by the Tagscanner (it includes updated album labels used for sorting).
2. Even if I manually change the album labels for something easy to recognize (e.g. adding some numbers to the labels), it is not reflected in the jukebox view
3. I also previewed the music.db database - it is readable enough to find the album and track labels - it doesn't contain the changed values as well
The conclusion is that firmware bulids the music.db based on its default settings (so generating default album labels) and the tags included in the files. For some reason the Tracklist.xml is ignored.
I experimented with changing name of the Tracklist.xml to TrackList.xml (the name is used inconsistently in the tutorial), but without a result. The file is read- and write-enabled.

If anyone is able to confirm that, I'll put the description in the BUGS subforum.

[Maasbommel]

Some verification steps:

When you changed the content of the Tracklist.XML file, did you do a rescan on your favorite folder where the Tracklist.XML file is in the root of it?

When you remove the mede8er.db file, and keep only the Tracklist.XML file in, and you do a rescan, do you see a new mede8er.db file created?

[wallygator]

Some verification steps:

When you changed the content of the Tracklist.XML file, did you do a rescan on your favorite folder where the Tracklist.XML file is in the root of it?

Yes, of course.

When you remove the mede8er.db file, and keep only the Tracklist.XML file in, and you do a rescan, do you see a new mede8er.db file created?

Yes, it is re-created (actually, it is music.db, not mede8er.db).

[jer1956]

Are you expecting tracks to be listed by their Tag names?  They are not.  They are listed as files..which is why we suggest using the "Name from Tag" function in Tagscanner so that  they are consistent.


Is the .db created in the same folder as the XML? Is the muisc MP3?

[wallygator]

Are you expecting tracks to be listed by their Tag names?  They are not.  They are listed as files..which is why we suggest using the "Name from Tag" function in Tagscanner so that  they are consistent.

No, I just want to list the albums in a custom way, according to the procedure described by you in some other thread.

Is the .db created in the same folder as the XML? Is the muisc MP3?

Yes, it is created in the same place (root folder of the music collection).
Yes, all the music is MP3.

[jer1956]

Where is the music stored, on the internal drive, or on an NAS?  Are you scanning via a Favourite link?

It looks like you have created a configuration where the XML is not being detected..so the mp3 scan is being used instead.

[wallygator]

Where is the music stored, on the internal drive, or on an NAS?  Are you scanning via a Favourite link?

All music is stored on the internal HDD.
Yes, I invoke scanning via the favourite link.

It looks like you have created a configuration where the XML is not being detected..so the mp3 scan is being used instead.

That's what I suspect, too. However, my configuration is exactly following the Music Jukebox creation tips, and is quite typical.
I cannot figure out what could be the reason. Any kind of operations log would be great, but probably there is none.

[jer1956]

Can you describe the folder stucture on the hard drive?  Some people just link the root..and expect to scan very deep folder structures. What is linked, and how deep the folder structure is, are both  known to create issues.

[Maasbommel]

To explain further:

You need to link the favorite link to the upper folder of you music collection.
The Tracklist.xml file needs to be in the root of that folder.

e.g.
If you have a folder called music in the root of your drive, and all music is below it in subfolders, the Tracklist.xml file needs to be in the music folder and not in the one of the folders below.
The favorite link needs to be linked to the music folder.

[wallygator]

The folder structure is quite straightforward, I think:

• root of the HDD contains media type folders, eg. music, photos, movies etc.
• music is the main folder for all audio files, and contains Tracklist.xml and music.db
• the favourive links point to the main media type folders: music, photos etc.

Scan is performed on the favourite link to the music folder.

Personally I think that the structure of folders is OK, as the scan (probably executed based on mp3 tags) produces correct database (all files are found and contain correct paths)/ The problem is that scan for some reason does not find and ignores Tracklist.xml when generating the database.

Some other remarks that could be useful for identifying the problem:

• TrackList.xml is a well-formed XML file (all tags are correctly closed and nested)
• TrackList.xml is generated with the script that was published on the forum (the script was not modified by me).

Thanks in advance for any suggestion. It is possible I am making a foolish mistake when following the procedure.

[jer1956]

With which  firmware was the drive formatted? How do you scan to create the XML..over lan, or using slave mode?

Undetectable files is a known issue due to descrepencies  created by the NTFS emulator. You can try running NTFSfix, and then chkdsk on a PC.

[wallygator]

With which  firmware was the drive formatted? How do you scan to create the XML..over lan, or using slave mode?

I don't remember exactly, but most probably it was 2.0.7 or (rather unlikely) 2.0.6. The disk is visible as HDD (not C:).

Undetectable files is a known issue due to descrepencies  created by the NTFS emulator. You can try running NTFSfix, and then chkdsk on a PC.

Thanks, I'll try out your advices. I thought also about creating another jukebox, in a different folder, with separate Tracklist.xml and music.db files. I'd like to see if this Tracklist.xml will be correctly read and transformed.
If I find a solution, I'll report it on the forum immediately.

[wallygator]

In order to verify the problem, I set up a separate folder with audiobooks (parallel to the music folder) - with a separate Tracklist.xml and music.db files. However, it appears that scan again is based on mp3 tags, and not on the Tracklist.xml content.
Therefore, I do not think it can be an accidentally undetectable file (though I didn't try to fix the filesystem yet - I'll try it later) - probably it is either my repeated mistake in setting up the jukebox, or some kind of bug.

[jer1956]

The problem with declaring something a bug is everyone should have it. If only some have it it's more lilkly a configuration issues of some kind. You could argue then that a Med should  be self configurable...but the devices that are use Upnp..and with upnp you can't implement fancy things like jukebox.

[wallygator]

Well, I definitely do not claim there is a bug. I agree that most probably it is a rare config problem on my side, but currently I cannot trace the origin of it.
I only expressed some doubts if it is an accidental NTFS problem, since it re-appears in different folders.