BluOS refuses to connect to my local music folder

[crazyfingers]

I just got a new Mesh wifi router system with three nodes. My computer with my local music files and my NAD 658 are even connected to the same node. After getting the NAD connected to the new wifi network the BluOS software refused to locate my music library that's on the same computer as the BluOS software.

When I try to add a Library, I click the Browse button and browse to the "Music" folder where all my artist subfolders are located. I click OK and all BluOS shows in the field that would show the path is C.

It's very frustrating. I can still play music via Airplay from iTunes or the BOSE wireless Link that connects to the NAD. But I'd prefer to use the BluOS software because that's where I adjust the volume and can control the base/treble. The Software can still control the NAD. It just won't recognize/connect to my local music library.

This is what I get after I've selected the music folder. Grrrrrr

 

[crazyfingers]

Unlike when I first set it up it's telling my to type in the path in the URL format
\\Computer\share

So I typed in
\\johne\Users\johne\Music\Itunes\Itunes music\music

And it tells me to enable sharing but sharing was already enabled before I switched routers and when I click to authorize anyway it fails.

 

[lovinthehd]

Try rebooting the gear?

 

[crazyfingers]

I can try turning the three off and on when no one needs internet. Right now the rest of the family are watching hockey.

I went to file sharing and it's telling me the path is
\\JOHNE\CUsersjohneMusiciTunesiTunes MusicMusic
So I tried that and still nothing.

I'm going to uninstall and reinstall that I'm the only user and see if that works.

It's infuriating because when I first installed this back when I got the NAD it had no problem letting me browse to my music folder.

 

[crazyfingers]

Uninstall and reinstall as a single user did nothing.

 

[crazyfingers]

Before I got the mesh router and there was low signal strength at the NAD, BluOS would tell me that my music library doesn't exist and then when I reconnected the NAD it would be there again. Strangely, the BluOS Controller could still control the NAD (volume, switching between inputs like line in, Phono, etc, adjust balance and tone. But would sometimes lose track of the music library.

It's a puzzle that the BluOS Controller software that's on this computer will not find my music library. I don't know of the library Index exists on the NAD or on the computer. I don't know if changing the routers caused this problem or if it was a coincidence.

It's really strange.

And still the BluOS Controller software can control the NAD as above but won't connect my music library. So the the computer/BluOS controller software is talking to the NAD over wifi but the library can't be indexed.

I don't get it.

The NAD understands Airplay so I'm using iTunes to play music to the NAD but I use the BluOS controller to adjust the volume, balance, tone, etc. The remote works too. I'm not dead in the water but it's not as convenient than if the BluOS software would just index my music.

 

[adk highlander]

You should test that network path with another computer to see if it is reachable? What protocol is required? SMB shares can get turned off in windows and if you are using it without any authentication than that could be it.

 

[crazyfingers]

You should test that network path with another computer to see if it is reachable? What protocol is required? SMB shares can get turned off in windows and if you are using it without any authentication than that could be it.

Thanks I will google those terms to see if I can understand that and what to do.

Separately I was following some BluOS throubleshooting instructions on fixing the problem and all that did was make iTunes unable to launch! Freaked me out because at the moment I'm using iTunes/Airplay to play my music. Fortunately I was able to backtract what I did and iTunes is working again.

 

[highfigh]

I just got a new Mesh wifi router system with three nodes. My computer with my local music files and my NAD 658 are even connected to the same node. After getting the NAD connected to the new wifi network the BluOS software refused to locate my music library that's on the same computer as the BluOS software.

When I try to add a Library, I click the Browse button and browse to the "Music" folder where all my artist subfolders are located. I click OK and all BluOS shows in the field that would show the path is C.

It's very frustrating. I can still play music via Airplay from iTunes or the BOSE wireless Link that connects to the NAD. But I'd prefer to use the BluOS software because that's where I adjust the volume and can control the base/treble. The Software can still control the NAD. It just won't recognize/connect to my local music library.

This is what I get after I've selected the music folder. Grrrrrr

View attachment 65922

The computer is always running and the music is being shared, right?

 

[crazyfingers]

The computer is always running and the music is being shared, right?

Yes. Well the computer is on when I am up. It's this computer I'm on now. And the folders that have the music are shared.

 

[crazyfingers]

Yes. Well the computer is on when I am up. It's this computer I'm on now. And the folders that have the music are shared.

I didn't do anything different to the computer when I set up the new wifi routers. BluOS was connecting to my library before the router change, except when the wifi signal to the NAD wasn't strong enough.

 

[nicoleise]

\\JOHNE\CUsersjohneMusiciTunesiTunes MusicMusic

One really clever thing about IT is that there's no universal understanding of what a path is supposed to look like.

So naturally, Linux and Windows chose the opposite in every conceivable way.

Often these issues arise because different OS's will interpret the path incorrectly. And often they can be solved by encapsulation in ' or " characters. Or by specifying the path in the way the source OS reads a path rather than the destination OS.

Your library appears to be on a Windows PC, and I assume BluOS is Linux based?

Edit: I notice there's a space in the URL also. This is also something Linux and Windows disagrees on. So maybe it's a simple as this:

\\johne\Users\johne\Music\Itunes\"Itunes music"\music

This is how Linux likes spaces in paths handled. Windows again has other preferences...

 

[crazyfingers]

One really clever thing about IT is that there's no universal understanding of what a path is supposed to look like.

So naturally, Linux and Windows chose the opposite in every conceivable way.

Often these issues arise because different OS's will interpret the path incorrectly. And often they can be solved by encapsulation in ' or " characters. Or by specifying the path in the way the source OS reads a path rather than the destination OS.

Your library appears to be on a Windows PC, and I assume BluOS is Linux based?

Edit: I notice there's a space in the URL also. This is also something Linux and Windows disagrees on. So maybe it's a simple as this:

\\johne\Users\johne\Music\Itunes\"Itunes music"\music

This is how Linux likes spaces in paths handled. Windows again has other preferences...

I don't have Linux. If BluOS Conroller software is Lunix I have no idea. I downloaded the Windows program.

As for the path, I've tried so many variations. With \ without \, with space, without. When it was working I did notice that the path did not have \

I got that most recent one when I was double checking that the folder was shared and windows gave me that path.

This is the proverbial last straw. I've been thinking about getting a new laptop for a while because of various issues I'm having. So today I ordered a new Laptop. The multitude of reasons are in the "What new stuff have you bought" topic. It arrives around March 4. I'll probably just use Airplay for now until the new Laptop arrives.

What New Stuff Have You Bought? If You Care To Share Thead! :)

I could really get into that, though on the only surround system I have it probably wouldn't sound nearly as good as the LP does in my 2.1ch music room. I haven't had a chance to sit and listen to it yet, only a few tracks, but the Atmos does sound pretty good. I only picked up on one small...

forums.audioholics.com

 

[nicoleise]

BluOS is based on Linux, just checked. And it's using SMB (Samba) to access Windows shares. So it seems like BluOS is expecting a network share that it can mount to its filesystem, while it seems you're specifying an absolute path to a folder it cannot process.

That's also likely why it's stripping the slashes from the name. It's common to remove what the programmer considers invalid characters from an input field as it prevents so called escape characters misuse.

It seems to me that if you set up a network share on a host with the IP 192.168.1.10 and named the share MyMusic, you should input in this field:

//192.168.1.10/MyMusic

So since this happens with your change of WiFi, a simple question is if the computer hosting your music library changed IP or it's hostname dropped or changed in the process?

To keep things simple and rule out stuff like ARC entries, I'd try with the IP of the computer (as above) rather than the name of the computer. You can find the current IP of the computer by pressing Win + R and type cmd, the ipconfig -all and somewhere in the list, you should find your ethernet interface and its IP, typically something like 192.168.1.123

Ideally the PC would be setup to use the same IP always. Dunno if yours is that, but it makes things easier if not using a professional setup where you have proper control over host and domain names.

But in any case, it seems you should not be specifying the full folder path since the share strategy appears to be for BluOS to mount a network share. It just seems odd considering their UI decision to have a "Browse" button that lets you choose other things than network shares.

 

[crazyfingers]

It just seems odd considering their UI decision to have a "Browse" button that lets you choose other things than network shares.

When I first got the NAD and installed the BluOS Controller the Browse worked fine. What was strange is that it has a network Browse and a Local Browse. Two different places to set up the connection. I guess the Network one was for if the music library was on a different computer or the like. I set it up on the Network browse and BluOS moved it to be listed under the local Browse.
But regardless, same computer. Browse worked before but not now.

 

[crazyfingers]

I've been working on this for 10 days. I finally got an answer back from BluOS support. It appears that somehow Windows File Explorer is giving me an alias folder name for my Music folder. The Music folder in iTunes was shared. I had to share Music2 which according to Windows File Explorer, does not exist. Why would windows create alias file folder names?

Anyway, after sharing Music2, BluOS is now able to access my music library.

???????

 

[Trebdp83]

Now, wasn't that easy?

 

[nicoleise]

Why would windows create alias file folder names?

Windows generally doesn't, but it does have a few alias folders. I believe this was introduced around Windows XP/Vista (like all good things in computing).

Stuff like Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc. are place holders or aliases, where you can right click on the folder and select which location (real folder) it should display content from.

So probably you have a real folder named Music2 and your Windows Music folder, of you right click on it and look for something like "Location" will be pointing to that.

The real question is more like why that doesn't resolve correctly. Essentially it's like a symbolic link, so it should just refer bluOS to the correct folder.

It sometimes causes odd issues just like this, though. Similarly, I use NextCloud which is a free alternative to Dropbox. Works great. But when I hookup a Lacie Rugged external backup HDD and run the backup tool, there's one folder on my entire PC it does not show in the list to select for backups. My NextCloud folder. And since this is obviously where I put all my data, it's a very counterproductive problem. IT can be great at times.

 

[crazyfingers]

When I right click on the music folder > Properties> General tab I get

C:\Users\Johne\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music

When I click on the Sharing tab I get \\Crazyf*\Music2

* In place of my full name which is different from Johne

iTunes found it fine.

BluOS is now working fine looking at Music2.

If I navigate to the music folder from the OS root it's
OS (C: ) >Users>Desktop>Music>iTunes>iTunes Music>Music

It substitutes JohnE with Crazyf with Desktop all depending on how I check the folder.

It's really strange.

I'm getting used to making sure I navigate to the correct place. There are two Pictures folders. One is in OneDrive but it's empty and I've disabled Onedrive and uninstalled it but the computer still puts program files in OneDrive folder. If I delete that second Pictures folder the computer creates it again.

I did get this new computer 4 days ago. It's registered with Windows using the same gmail as the old computer. Imagine how confused I got when I accidentally put some pictures on my old computer when I had it turned on!

And I definitely don't have two copies of my music library. I would notice an extra 250GB of data if there were two copies. Besides, I've added a CD to iTunes and BluOS even though iTuuses music is in "Music" but the BlueOS is looking in Music2??????

I just finished doing a search for Music starting from C: with File Explorer and it found the correct Music folders in the string Music>iTunes>iTunes Music>Music

The same search came up empty on Music2. Music2 does not exist but BluOS likes it.

Windows is nuts! But at least everything is working now.

It's a crazy puzzle but all is working now.

 

[lovinthehd]

Kinda sounds like when I was using itunes years ago and migrated to a new laptop and couldn't access much of my music....but didn't know about these alias folders. Interesting.