Local Node Only vs Entire Library

[meowzamusic]

I've seen this topic a couple of times in the forum but not any specific solutions.

When I open MusicBee the search engine defaults to "Local Node Only" and I have to direct it to "Entire Library" for my initial searches and often for subsequent searches. Eventually it starts defaulting to "Entire Library" but if I close and reopen the program it defaults back to "Local Node Only"

In searching the forum I've seen a suggestion to set search parameters to fix this problem but do not see where that might be located in the preferences. I am running MusicBee on several networked computers that are reading from a shared library file.

Thank you!

[psychoadept]

This could be a consequence of the shared library file. If you have MusicBee open on more than one system at once, then a change made in one place will be overwritten when closing the program somewhere else. There's not a big problem with sharing the audio files but each system should have its own database and settings.

[frankz]

There's not a big problem with sharing the audio files but each system should have its own database and settings.

Should is not the right word here.

I have MusicBee (portable) shared and used across three computers using the same library.  It works fine.  Why should each of them have their own database and settings when using the same database and settings works perfectly for what I want to do (and what I suspect the OP wants to do)?

OP, are you using the same install across the systems as well (MB portable in a shared directory)? 

[meowzamusic]

There's not a big problem with sharing the audio files but each system should have its own database and settings.

Should is not the right word here.

I have MusicBee (portable) shared and used across three computers using the same library.  It works fine.  Why should each of them have their own database and settings when using the same database and settings works perfectly for what I want to do (and what I suspect the OP wants to do)?

OP, are you using the same install across the systems as well (MB portable in a shared directory)? 

Thanks for the responses and questions! I'm at WORT-FM and MB has been a great tool for organizing our Digital Library.
Yes I'm sharing a library file across 7 computers on a network with the library file in a central location.
Each machine has it's own install of MB but I used the regular Windows installation. Does the Portable version have unique features?
As I noted I'm not having trouble with the shared library file across all the computers, everything updates nicely but in each location the search engine defaults to Local Node Only and I want it to default to Entire Library. It's certainly not a problem when training people to tell them that when they open a new search tab to make sure it's looking at the Entire Library but I haven't uncovered any way to change this default.

[frankz]

The portable version has all of its settings and cached files etc in one folder that you can share on the network.

Such a setup won't work if you need to have more than one location open at any given time, but you shouldn't be doing that with a shared library for the potential of corruption anyway.

I use it this way for my own use in the house on three computers, and the advantage is to have only one set of settings to change when I want to adjust something and only one copy to update when a patch is released, which is frequent. Keeping multiple copies up to date and looking the way you want is tedious.

[The Incredible Boom Boom]

I use MusicBee the same way as @frankz and love it.
The portable MusicBee installation lives on a drive connected to my server.
Others have had success using the same portable installation from OneDrive.

I would experiment with installing the portable version on each of the computers and trying it out among them before messing with your current setup.

[meowzamusic]

Thanks for all the information. We'll experiment and see if we can make our system as stable as possible.