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Support => Questions => Topic started by: Orion on February 15, 2016, 08:23:17 AM

Title: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: Orion on February 15, 2016, 08:23:17 AM
I have just bought a NAS (QNAP TS-231) and wish to use MusicBee to access to the very numerous files I stored on it. I created a new collection encompassing all the musical files on the NAS. For now, it's about 30.000 files, but I haven't transfered all my files yet : it will be much more in the end.

I've come across two problems :
- I have asked MusicBee to automatically scan the NAS for new files each time I start MusicBee. But it doesn't.
- When I ask manually MusicBee to scan for new files, it actualy scan ALL the files, including those it has already scanned and memorized. As a result, the process is very long (and it sometimes block for a long time when arriving at the one or two last files to scan...).

What is surprising is that I read on the Wikia that there was a feature asking MusicBee to scan only new files, but I can't find it anymore... how to account for that ?
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/musicbee/images/a/af/Rescan-Add.png

Thank you very much in advance for your help.
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: phred on February 15, 2016, 01:41:48 PM
What is surprising is that I read on the Wikia that there was a feature asking MusicBee to scan only new files, but I can't find it anymore... how to account for that ?
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/musicbee/images/a/af/Rescan-Add.png
That "feature" was removed quite some time ago.  To accomplish what you're trying to do, either press INSERT or File > Scan Folders for New Files and from the resulting window, select the folder(s) to be scanned.
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: Orion on February 15, 2016, 01:50:34 PM
May I ask why it was deleted ?

The fact that we are now forced to select folders actually means there is no more automatic syncronization...

Is there a chance such a feature could be reintroduced ?

May I ask you if it is normal that editing two or three album tags from files located on a NAS is very long (some times one or two minuts whereas it is quickly done with other softwares ?) ?
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: redwing on February 15, 2016, 02:16:37 PM
The feature wasn't removed, only the option in that dialog. It's now controlled by settings with enhancement of file monitoring: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=13648.msg89322#msg89322

I don't now why it doesn't work for you. Try different settings to find out possible causes.
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: Orion on February 15, 2016, 03:03:46 PM
May I ask you some help with this ?

I checked in the Preferences and everything seems normal : scan is configured to be executed at start, not continuously and I can't find any other option about new files scanning. Yet, the software still rescan every file each time I ask him to look for new files. Thousands of files being stored on a wireless ness, I let you guess it takes hours each time I ask for a scan...

I also checked with MusicBee 3.0 (but installed in the same folder as MusicBee 2.5). Same result...
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: redwing on February 15, 2016, 03:24:28 PM
Try with files on the same drive with MB. If it works fine, then it could be a connection issue with your NAS.
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: Orion on February 15, 2016, 04:30:45 PM
I tried to scan a library on my computer. Of course, MB scans all the files to detect new ones, but it's much faster : a few seconds, while it takes a LONG time for the files located on the NAS.

What is strange is that it's far from being that long with a software like jRiver. What is more, my WIFI is not that bad and the NAS CPU is far from being fully used when MusicBee scans the files...
Do you think the difference comes from the fact that MusicBee connect to the NAS as a wireless hard disk drive whereas jRiver can connect to the NAS as a network server ?
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: redwing on February 15, 2016, 04:51:51 PM
You said MB didn't find new files at startup despite the setting. Does it do that for files on the same drive?
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: Orion on February 15, 2016, 05:13:35 PM
I'm currently in the middle of a big scan on the NAS : I will check as soon as it's over. Thank you !
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: redwing on February 15, 2016, 05:24:04 PM
If it's not working properly, it would be helpful if you post the screenshot of your library settings.
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: Orion on February 15, 2016, 05:52:28 PM
I guess you are thinking about the "Collection" part of the Preferences window ? Or about the window that open with the "Instert" shortcut ?

Here is the first one (in French : can't change the language while MB is scanning the NAS) :
(http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_801235CollectionCapture.jpg) (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=801235CollectionCapture.jpg)

And the second one :
(http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_197403ScanWindowCapture.jpg) (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=197403ScanWindowCapture.jpg)
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: redwing on February 15, 2016, 06:28:05 PM
They look fine. Just tick the third option of library setting "on startup check for updated or missing files", which will update files you edited or moved externally.
When you test files on the same drive as MB, monitored folder setting should only include that folder. Then it should find new files in monitored folders on startup.
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: Orion on February 15, 2016, 06:37:31 PM
OK. Scan should be over within an hour. I will try what you adviced me to.

If I consider scan will be over in one hour, it means that it took MB nearly 3 hours to scan 40.000 files on the NAS, amoung which 15.000 were new and, so, 25.000 had already been scanned. Does it look incredible or rather normal to you (knowing that my TS-231 NAS is brand new, connected by cable to my box and that my laptop is very close to the box) ?

Once the scan is over, I will try to scan with only one album more to see how long it take to add it the the collection.

Thanks again for helping me !
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: redwing on February 15, 2016, 06:46:50 PM
Before buying your NAS, you must have already added those tracks to MB. How long did it take for the first import?
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: Steven on February 15, 2016, 07:01:42 PM
its also worth trying using MB version 3 as i have made some optimisations with regards to file rescanning
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: Orion on February 16, 2016, 08:09:42 AM
@ redwing : I didn't, as my collection is too big to be stored on my computer. Yet, scanning is obviously faster when dealing with files stored on the computer : I tried with a folder of nearly 20 GB and it was very fastly done.

@ steven : I have now downloaded V.3, with the last patch. I used it to scan over 6000 files tonight. I was very long too, which I can understand. After all, once the collection is entirely scanned, I hope it will be faster to add just a few albums.
Yet, I've just tried something : I added only one file to the 6000 files that had already been scanned. I pressed Insert and lauched a new scan for new files. What is very strange is that the first 4500 files were scanned nearly instanteanously and then the scan slowed down abruptely and the last 1500 files were very long to scan. What I can't explain is that those files had already been scanned : I only added one album including a dozen of tracks, that's all... It doesn't make sense...

I must say I'm a bit lost...
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: redwing on February 17, 2016, 12:50:34 AM
I've seen a few cases like you in the forum who had reported a similar connection problem with their NAS. I don't know what causes it, but if JRiver does it well without a problem, it is possible MB needs some enhancement with that area. It could be an issue of OS, network protocols, brand, model, ... who knows.
So what I'd like to suggest you is post a wish about this including detailed tech specs of your NAS and what you have experienced with MB as compared with JRiver. Then other users with a similar issue would report their problems, and if enough info is obtained, some day Steven might investigate the issue to enhance the performance. As you see, you can't just compare one-man-hobby project with a team of paid developers. Using MB needs some patience and self investigation especially when you have a device-specific issue.
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: Orion on February 17, 2016, 03:56:40 PM
Thank you for trying to help me with that.

Actualy, it's very strange, but since I faced this issue, the scanning speed has improved. MusicBee doesn't rescan every file, only the new files, which obsiously takes more time.
I also tried to use an ethernet RJ45 cable connected to the box instead of scanning by WIFI and it's faster, of course. I guess I should scan the whole collection this way and then use WIFI only when I will add just a few albums.

I think that jRiver is faster because it's not connected the same way to the NAS. While MusicBee considers the NAS mereley as a remote hard disk and has to scan every file in it, which takes time, jRiver can connect to the media server generated by the NAS itself : I guess it means part of the job has already been done by the server software (Minimserver, Plex, Emby, etc.) directly on the NAS. That's why it much faster.

Maybe MusicBee could be improved by adding a media server feature. Yet, I guess it must be quite something to set up and that Steven, unfortunately, won't have the time to do it...
Title: Re: Scan for new files : why rescanning all the files ?
Post by: BeeBeeKing on August 22, 2016, 05:12:33 AM
Old thread I know, but relevant.
I set up my second computer with MB latest version 3.
I have 86,600 files on my Netgear NAS hardwired on my network.
I can't remember how long it took to scan these files initially, but I think it was less than an hour.

What I'm finding now is that the auto scan on startup and scan continuously don't seem to be working, if they are then I haven't waited long enough.
However the manual File/Scan folders for new files found one added album in amongst these 86,500 in less than 5 minutes. I do not use this computer for anything other than playing files, and it seems quite snappy.
 I will have to do a longer trial where I leave new files on the NAS for an hour or so and see if it adds them automatically.
EDIT:
Just changed some tags (via Windows) in an album and mb reflected those straight away from the NAS, so not sure what the bottleneck is? I had "on startup check for updated or missing files" ticked. So that seems to work. I guess because there were no missing files it didn't show a message asking me to delete from the library.