Author Topic: Yet another uninstall question  (Read 2279 times)

deraudrl

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I used the installer version to put MB on three computers, one Win7, two Win10, all accessing a common repository of MP3s on a network share (drive "M:" on all three computers). Upon further review, I decided to switch to the portable version, for reasons that seemed good at the time. Two worked fine.

The third (one of the Win10 laptops) seemed to uninstall, but running the portable version failed miserably: during the unzip operation, it shows 'skipped' for all the files, as if it thinks MB is still/already there. It's certainly gone from C:\Program Files (x86) and everywhere else I can think of to look, so I'm looking for suggestions before performing a scavenger hunt for registry entries and the like.

Any help here?

psychoadept

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Where are you trying to install the portable version to? It sounds less like the files are already there and more like you might not have write access.
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deraudrl

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If only it were that easy...

I'm trying to put the portable version in a new empty folder. Not an access problem, as it doesn't even try to write the files, just says 'skipped' for every file in the extraction process. When I'm done, the folder is still completely empty. A search for 'musicbee' on the entire C: drive shows only the downloaded install file.

And no, running in admin mode doesn't help either.

psychoadept

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Well, that is an odd case. It's the installer telling you they were skipped, right?  I just tested the portable installer on my own system, and a folder on the desktop worked fine, but when I tried to install it in a folder in Program Files, I got the messages about everything being skipped. So I still think it's some sort of permission or ownership issue.  The fact that running as administrator didn't help may be indicative of some deeper problem, though.
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deraudrl

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There's definitely some sort of hidden historical cruft left behind somewhere. Just for giggles, I just tried reinstalling the 'installer' version: install went fine, first attempt at startup claimed it could not find a file in C:\users\...\Music\MusicBee, a folder that didn't exist. I created an empty folder of that name, restarted, and am now waiting out the scan of 11K or so MP3s.

If this works, I'll just write it off as "unexplained Win10 weirdness" and move forward...at least this laptop has enough disk to keep everything on C: without too much drama.

deraudrl

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No joy: it goes through the scan process but apparently it doesn't actually create the library files. I can see/play the music, but on exit it (still) says it can't find the library file it presumably just created, and that folder is empty. Stupid question: where did all that data go? I know it wasn't just held in memory, this machine doesn't have enough, even with the page file.

On restart, it can't find the library (duh, there are no .mbl files anywhere on the disk), and an attempt to create a new library just does the same thing: scan, apparent success, no actual evidence of a library being created. Yes, it feels like a permissions problem...except the latest attempt was in C:\users\Public\..., which, last I checked, has full-control permissions for everybody.

I've got the errorlog.dat file, but I don't see any way to attach files to posts here...this is just the latest new library creation attempt:

3/13/2019 10:37:06 AM - 10.0.17134.0 - 3.2.6902.32258 - System.IO.FileNotFoundException: The system cannot find the file specified. [C:\Users\Public\Music\NAS\]
   at #=zf67MEopCrwJkUkPlGumBqLA=.#=zworXhnS61bwz.#=zxIq5PeQ=.#=zc3YHqDk=(#=zkilhrE$cypVhjQ8q52qKxTQ= #=z0k4Bx$M=, Boolean #=zmFaAsvwdppoG)
   at #=zjyXLHZtxcuOO$I_VXEWeIlk=.#=znebkksw=.#=zY$bG2Mw=(#=zkilhrE$cypVhjQ8q52qKxTQ= #=z0k4Bx$M=)
   at #=zjyXLHZtxcuOO$I_VXEWeIlk=.#=zyvZgoERts9lF(#=zkilhrE$cypVhjQ8q52qKxTQ= #=z0k4Bx$M=)
   at #=zx9H$0K5tc$nGAYtoyncaKErOthcW.Main(String[] args)
3/13/2019 10:37:06 AM - 10.0.17134.0 - 3.2.6902.32258S - System.IO.FileNotFoundException: The system cannot find the file specified. [C:\Users\Public\Music\NAS\]
   at #=zf67MEopCrwJkUkPlGumBqLA=.#=zworXhnS61bwz.#=zxIq5PeQ=.#=zc3YHqDk=(#=zkilhrE$cypVhjQ8q52qKxTQ= #=z0k4Bx$M=, Boolean #=zmFaAsvwdppoG)
   at #=zjyXLHZtxcuOO$I_VXEWeIlk=.#=znebkksw=.#=zY$bG2Mw=(#=zkilhrE$cypVhjQ8q52qKxTQ= #=z0k4Bx$M=)
   at #=zjyXLHZtxcuOO$I_VXEWeIlk=.#=zyvZgoERts9lF(#=zkilhrE$cypVhjQ8q52qKxTQ= #=z0k4Bx$M=)
   at #=zx9H$0K5tc$nGAYtoyncaKErOthcW.Main(String[] args)

phred

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Try installing to a non-windows protected directory. Ideally on another windows partition, but if you only have one (C:\) then create a new directory under the root, C:\MusicBee, and install there. Either the installer version or the portable should work fine from there.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

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deraudrl

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Uninstall and (re)install or just create a library in C:\MusicBee?

phred

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Uninstall and (re)install or just create a library in C:\MusicBee?
Uninstall. Then reinstall either the portable or installable in C:\MusicBee. Note that MB's "library" is really only a directory and files that consist of settings, playlists, podcasts, etc FOR THAT LIBRARY. You can have multiple libraries, but let's try to get you settled before going into any of that. Say you named your library "deraudri" the "library" will be a directory under C:\MusicBee\deraudri. Your actual music tracks can be anywhere you want them to be, including on a mapped network drive. Just don't put them in C:\users\<username\Music, or anywhere else in the C:\users directory.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

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The FAQ
The Wiki
Posting screenshots is here
Searching the forum with Google is  here

deraudrl

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Ok, that worked, although I cannot for the life of me understand why...seems a bit brute-force from where I'm sitting.

What I'd really like to do is put everything MB-related on a network share (more to the point, a folder on the Synology NAS), and have each machine run it from there. I know it's a bad idea to have multiple machines sharing a library, but is it possible to have multiple libraries running (possibly simultaneously) off the same executable/DLLs/etc, or do I need to install multiple instances of the portable version in separate folders? (I'm assuming the portable version has no dependencies outside of its root folder tree.)

frankz

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Ok, that worked, although I cannot for the life of me understand why...seems a bit brute-force from where I'm sitting.

What I'd really like to do is put everything MB-related on a network share (more to the point, a folder on the Synology NAS), and have each machine run it from there. I know it's a bad idea to have multiple machines sharing a library,

It's not as long as you don't have multiple instances writing to the library at the same time.

but is it possible to have multiple libraries running (possibly simultaneously) off the same executable/DLLs/etc, or do I need to install multiple instances of the portable version in separate folders? (I'm assuming the portable version has no dependencies outside of its root folder tree.)
Having one library with filters on what you want to separate is the best way to accomplish this.

I have one library.  I have one permanent music tab filtered only to "popular" (i.e. non-Classical) music and another filtered to only Classical music.  It's much easier to manage this way.

deraudrl

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Having one library with filters on what you want to separate is the best way to accomplish this.

I have one library.  I have one permanent music tab filtered only to "popular" (i.e. non-Classical) music and another filtered to only Classical music.  It's much easier to manage this way.
I'm obviously not being entire clear on what I'm trying to accomplish: I'm not trying to separate the music, I'm trying to separate the players. Here's the situation:

1. All the music files and playlists are in one folder tree on the NAS, in the typical artist/album/track hierarchy.
2. There's a big desktop upstairs, the only machine with a CD drive and decent speakers, that I use to rip, organize, edit, generate playlists, etc.
3. There's a very small laptop in the living room, hardwired to the stereo, with a remote control good enough to play/pause/change volume etc. MB stays running on that machine 24/7.
4. There's a laptop in the kitchen that gets schlepped around the house, out to the patio, whatever. The outdoor Bluetooth speakers and headphones are paired to it.

The goals are to be able to add music and edit playlists on the big desktop and have those changes propagate to the other two machines, and to be able to have two or more of those machines playing different music simultaneously, e.g. my wife in the living room, me out in the garage or with the headphones on.

deraudrl

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And yes, in retrospect, I realized I'm overthinking this: I'm still not used to the idea of using "terabytes" in the same sentence as "free space".  :)

At the moment, the portable version is running on all three machines from separate folders on the NAS, (re)scanning the music files.


frankz

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[
The goals are to be able to add music and edit playlists on the big desktop and have those changes propagate to the other two machines, and to be able to have two or more of those machines playing different music simultaneously, e.g. my wife in the living room, me out in the garage or with the headphones on.
The first goal is possible using one library in a central location. I do this daily.

You will run into big problems playing music from the same library simultaneously in different locations.

The flip side is that having multiple libraries, which will enable goal two, will make managing goal one infinitely complicated.

It sounds like you want a plex-like media server setup. In that case, you'll want to use a too built for that. MB is not.

That said, there is a dlna plug in for MB that will accomplish exactly this. It is no longer supported. Some people use it with great success. Some people experience infinite frustration with it. It is known to randomly use up all system memory for no reason sometimes even when not in use. I am hesitant to suggest it, but it will provide the server functionality you want if you can get it working. With this running in MB as a server you can use any dlna player on the other systems simultaneously.
Last Edit: March 13, 2019, 11:46:45 PM by frankz

deraudrl

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The flip side is that having multiple libraries, which will enable goal two, will make managing goal one infinitely complicated.
Ok, I'll bite: why "infinitely complicated"? Only one of the machines will ever make changes to the underlying music repository. Worst case, it may require a restart of MB on the other machines to recognize those changes.

Obviously multiple copies of MB on separate machines can happily coexist when simultaneously accessing music files on a network share. All I'm proposing (and successfully doing as we speak) is having those multiple copies reside in separate folders on a NAS.

I had asked whether the "multiple copies" of MB were required to support multiple libraries: in retrospect, I think they are, mostly because I want different font sizes on different machines, meaning multiple instances of the MusicBee3Settings.ini file. (It's unclear to me whether the 'AppData' directory is part of the "library" or not: if it is, a single copy of the MB executable/DLLs might suffice.) Then again, it's not like I'm short of storage space on the NAS.