Full Rescan

[ddjksa]

Hi

I've been having a couple of problems with inaccessible tracks (which exist and play on other servers). Did a couple of rescans...no change. Then googled this forum about MinimServer cache, found it on my Windows 10 PC, deleted it and performed a full rescan again. Problem solved My question/observation really is that should a rescan not first delete the old cache automatically in order to benefit from any changed tags/file locations etc.? Apologies if this is a daft newbie question!

DDJ

[simoncn]

A full rescan reads information from every file. This takes a long time. A normal rescan doesn't read files that already have up-to-date cache information from the last rescan.

To check whether the cache information for a file is up to date, MinimServer looks at the modification time of the file and the length of the file. If you have updated a file's tags using a tagging program that doesn't change the modification time of the file (some tagging programs have a configuration setting to do this), MinimServer might think the file hasn't changed and might use cached information for the file.

The solution is to configure your tagging program to update the modification time of the file when any tags are changed.

[ddjksa]

(20-09-2018 08:58)simoncn Wrote:  A full rescan reads information from every file. This takes a long time. A normal rescan doesn't read files that already have up-to-date cache information from the last rescan.

To check whether the cache information for a file is up to date, MinimServer looks at the modification time of the file and the length of the file. If you have updated a file's tags using a tagging program that doesn't change the modification time of the file (some tagging programs have a configuration setting to do this), MinimServer might think the file hasn't changed and might use cached information for the file.

The solution is to configure your tagging program to update the modification time of the file when any tags are changed.

Thanks for the explanation Simon...I tend to use TagScanner which does change the Modified Time when the Tags are updated but is probably some other glitch somewhere on my part

DDJ

[simoncn]

One other small point: to force a full rescan, you can set the startupScan property to full. This (despite its name) also controls whether or not a user-initiated rescan will use cached information.

[der_skeptiker]

Hi,
I experienced exactly the described behavior using 'Picard' tag editor on macOS as I carelessly set 'leave file date unchanged' while saving files. Now my Minim on a QNAP NAS (arm based) doesn't scan all the altered files. How do I force a full rescan using the QTS operating system's version of Minim? I tried to alter the content path once and go back to the right one using 'http://myNAS-IP:9790' but there is Minim's cache which I don't know how to delete under QTS's file structure. Would someone help me please?

Cheers,
Jens

[simoncn]

Set startupScan to 'full', do a rescan, then set startupScan back to 'true' (the default value).

[der_skeptiker]

Hi Simon,
thanks for the reply. I guess to set this startup parameter I need MinimWatch since it's not possible to control Minim's behavior on a QTS based NAS directly. MinimWatch needs Java and since a lot of time I avoid to install Java on my macOS computer. Therefore MinimWatch is no option for me.

But I found a workaround: Under my 'music' folder on the NAS there are several folders for the music itself. I renamed these folders and startet the scan again. Minim scans all the files freshly and the problem is solved.

Thanks again also for providing us MinimServer, it's great and best of all it sounds the best of all UPnP servers I tried. Soundwise it makes an easy recognizable difference using Minim than some other UPnP software.

Cheers,
Jens

[simoncn]

Thanks for your kind words about MinimServer.

I am interested to know why you are OK with having Java running on your NAS but not with having Java running on your Mac.

[der_skeptiker]

It's easy to explain why I'm not a good friend of Java: It annoys as a malware source and target and as an update monster which permanently needs observing and action in some way. And I have no other software that would need it at the moment.

On a NAS it is another game: On ARM systems there is no real alternative to Minim. Twonky sounds really bad, QNAP's own UPnP is very slow, Plex is a nightmare regarding hardware resources and Linn's Kazoo for ARM doesn't work properly with my NAS. I don't know other UPnP server for ARM based NAS'. Minim simply is an install and forget solution (in a positive manner) and therefore I love it. With 0.8.5.2. yesterday I read I can uninstall Java JRE for ARM and I does so.

If I would use a dedicated server for audio it gets complicated: Some like Audiodata or RIPnas actually use Windows (I had one and luckily get rid of it), some use specially made Linux based OS where I cannot take real control of it's behavior or they sound bad and some vendors simply don't reveal which OS they use. If all of them make use of Java or something else is often not explained and therefore they are black boxes for me which makes things even worse.

Cheers,
Jens

[simoncn]

Thanks, this is helpful. The ultimate solution would be to improve the MinimServer web UI so that it can do everything that MinimWatch does at present.