Metadata changes not saved (was: New User Trial version)

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spud36
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 11:57 am

Metadata changes not saved (was: New User Trial version)

Post by spud36 »

Hello

Can someone tell me please when using the trial version is the Metadata function disabled? I have been updating metadata but when I switch to iTunes on my desktop there are no changes to the metadata. When I revert back to the iHomeserver console the changes made have gone from there too.

Thanks
bizmodeller
Posts: 458
Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:40 pm

Re: New User Trial version

Post by bizmodeller »

Nope, metadata editing is not disabled in the trial.

couple of questions

1. Are you editing the metadata from the Watch folders tab or the iTunes library tab of the iHomeServer console?
2. Are you using the iHomeServer console or the iHomeServer web interface to change your metadata
3. Do you have iTunes configured to copy added media to the iTunes Media Library?

thanks
spud36
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 11:57 am

Re: New User Trial version

Post by spud36 »

Hello

Thanks for the response

1. I am editing the metadata on the iTunes view tab using Get Info and then use the search web button.
2. I am using the iHomeserver console. It is running on a Windows 7 PC which I am accessing through Remote desktop as it being used as a file server and doesn't have a monitor.
3. I have both "keep iTunes media folder organised" and "copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library" Unchecked.

Thanks

I may have found what I am doing wrong. I have not set any watched folders. I did not want anything being added to iTunes automatically. Do I have to set watched folders?
bizmodeller
Posts: 458
Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:40 pm

Re: New User Trial version

Post by bizmodeller »

Thanks for the update; FYI you shouldn't need to set Watch Folders up to edit metadata.

if you can zip and email us your iHomeServer log files then we can better get an idea of what's going on. You can find information on how to find the log files here - http://www.bizmodeller.com/iHomeServer/ ... _files.htm

best wishes
spud36
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 11:57 am

Re: New User Trial version

Post by spud36 »

Hello

Log files sent

Thanks
bizmodeller
Posts: 458
Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:40 pm

Re: New User Trial version

Post by bizmodeller »

Thanks for the logs. Looks like iHomeServer is getting a permission denied when attempting to open the video files for modification. Write access is required in order to update the metadata in the actual video file. Will check why you aren't getting an error displayed in the user interface though, as you should do.

Can you check the permissions of the share \\SERVER\Films please?
spud36
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 11:57 am

Re: Metadata changes not saved (was: New User Trial version)

Post by spud36 »

Hello

I checked the permission of //Server/Film. It is shared with everyone as read/write access. I am able to change the meta tags within iTunes.

I did a test and removed a film and re-added it using the mapped drive (F:Films) and all changes were saved when I downloaded metadata in the iHomeserver console.

I perviously added all the films via the UNC path as recommended in the user manual. Also the library media folder is mapped using the UNC path.

Thanks
bizmodeller
Posts: 458
Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:40 pm

Re: Metadata changes not saved (was: New User Trial version)

Post by bizmodeller »

Your F: looks like a local disk, so if modifying a file under F:\Films\ worked but using the UNC path failed, then it still sounds like a permissions issue.

The reason that changes within the iTunes app may still work is that iTunes tries to write file changes to the source files, and then updates its own database. If it cannot write the changes to the source files then it can still update its database. We do the same approach for metadata updates to audio tracks, however, for video files we write metadata changes directly to the video files and then tell iTunes to re-read the files - this is because we support more metadata fields than the iTunes API supports (eg director, rating, etc).

If you want to test this theory then try to update the metadata of a video track in the iTunes UI using an F: path and then make an update to another file that is on the UNC \\SERVER\Films path. You should see that the F: file's modified date changes whereas the UNC path one doesn't. If this is the case, then it suggests neither iTunes nor iHomeServer can modify files using the UNC path.
spud36
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 11:57 am

Re: Metadata changes not saved (was: New User Trial version)

Post by spud36 »

Hello

I made changes to metadata for a film in UNC path and one that is F: in iTunes. Both changes remained even when i viewed the info on my mac iTunes library. They are both currently looking at the same set of media files.

When I made the changes in ihomeserver only the local path stayed. Is there any reason why I can't use the local path?

Thanks
bizmodeller
Posts: 458
Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:40 pm

Re: Metadata changes not saved (was: New User Trial version)

Post by bizmodeller »

You can use local paths - sure.

We advise server users to use UNC paths over local drives just to decouple the physical drives from your music library; if you change your disk drive layout later, then if you use UNC paths there would be less impact to your library than if you indexed your drives directly.

Am still keen to get to the bottom of why the UNC path is giving different results to the local path - the logs give a straight Operating System access denied message when we try to access the file so am intrigued as we haven't seen these symptoms before.
spud36
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 11:57 am

Re: Metadata changes not saved (was: New User Trial version)

Post by spud36 »

Hello

I think I may have found an issue. I use Drive Pool (www.stablebit.com) to pool my hard drives. The film folder (shared) lives on this. I copied a film to a hard drive which is not pooled (but shared) and i loaded the film into iTunes via the UNC path and updated the metadata in ihomeserver and it worked. I am guessing the issue lies with the pooling of the hard drives.
I am not entirely sure how the pooling software works but as you have said in an earlier post its a permission problem. I will try to have a look at this tomorrow.

I am thinking I will empty iTunes and reload via the local path. The iTunes library files are on the same server as the media so I cannot think of an problem doing this.

Thanks
bizmodeller
Posts: 458
Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2013 8:40 pm

Re: Metadata changes not saved (was: New User Trial version)

Post by bizmodeller »

We certainly have users running Drivepool successfully using UNC paths, however, it does sound like something maybe inconsistent with how the drivepool drive permissions are set up which means that depending on the source of the request you are ending up with a different instance of the file being served with perhaps different permissions. Unfortunately I don't know enough about DrivePool to give a better answer, but googling for DrivePool permission issues reveals several possible problems/solutions:

eg

http://forum.covecube.com/discussion/52 ... -denied/p1
http://forum.covecube.com/discussion/57 ... issions/p1
http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Utilities

Might be also worth asking on the StableBit forums if the above doesn't give any insight.
spud36
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2014 11:57 am

Re: Metadata changes not saved (was: New User Trial version)

Post by spud36 »

Hello
Thanks for the links. I haven’t been able to look into this problem but I have loaded everything in iTunes using the mapped drives and meta-data is being updated.

I have had a more pressing problem which I found after installing iHomeserver. My home sharing and airplay only worked intermittently, when iTunes was either open on the desktop or as a service. I have a MAC on the network and all has worked fine for this, but when I installed iTunes on a window PC nothing really worked.

I spent a good few hours searching the net and tried different solutions (which there are many) including:
1 Disabled IPV6 on the Windows PC
2 Adding the ports for iTunes to the firewall. (iTunes was in there already).

This improved things but the results were very hit and miss and would stop working after a while.

What seemed to snap everything into life was this, which by chance I read on a forum:
I have a netgear router and in advanced settings/set up/WAN Set up there is an option "Disable IGMP Proxying". This was ticked. The advice was to deselect this option (enable IGMP proxying).
All of a sudden things started working and the airplay symbol appeared in the windows iTunes for my XBMC box. It’s not fallen down since.
No idea what this does is so better look into it.
I mention this as it may be useful for someone if they have problems with home sharing.
Time to get the credit card out and get a licence.
Even if I didn't get the home sharing working I was still going to get a licence as the meta data tagging is worth the licence alone. :D

Regards
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