Help Please - Duplicate Albums

[pamrpm]

Have installed MinimServer on QNAP and use it with Lumin U1. I made changes to the tags on one album using JRiver and now am getting two copies of it (old & new). I tried reloading/updating library but can't get rid of the duplicate. I am certain that the files are not duplicated on the NAS. How do I wipe the database clean and do a fresh reload? I know nothing about MinimServer and so far have only access the MinimServer Status page so plse write to me as you would a 4 year old. Thanks. Patrick

[DavidHB]

Firstly, to control MinimServer properly, you really need to have MinimWatch installed on a PC or Mac. This will enable you to change settings as necessary. You may or may not need MinimWatch to fix your immediate problem, but you will almost certainly need it in future. There are full instructions on the installation and use of MinimWatch on the MinimServer website.

Secondly, a rescan rebuilds the index (which is, in this case, probably what you mean by 'the database'). That will probably not solve your present problem until you have fixed the tags that are causing the problem. Apart from some investigation in the past, I don't know much about JRiver, but it has always struck me a a bit of a lumbering program. You could try a specialist tagging program; MP3Tag is free on the PC and highly recommended, and Metadatics on OSX (which Mac users here have recommended) is only $10 or so.

When you say you are getting duplicate albums, are you seeing all tracks in both the old and the new versions? Does the old name appear in one instance and the new name in the other? If both answers are 'yes', you may have duplicated the album name tag rather than replaced it. If either answer is 'no', you need to describe exactly what you are seeing, so that we can get to a diagnosis.

Then there is the Lumin Control point (which, to declare an interest, I loathe with a passion, but ignore my rant). To see the MinimServer browse list, you have to use its folders view; otherwise Lumin is just using its own indexes, and completely bypassing the MinimServer browsing options. Is the duplicate album visible in the Lumin folders view?

Like all servers, Minimserver identifies albums on the basis of tags not position in the folder/file structure, and therefore has rules (explained in the User Guide) as to what constitutes an 'album'. Assuming that it is the MinimServer browse tree you can see, your tag editing would appear to have fallen foul of these rules in some way, but knowing how depends on the answers to my questions.

I hope that this is of some help.

David

[pamrpm]

Many thanks David. I have installed MinimWatch and have what looks like a black musical note in my menu bar. If I hover over it with the mouse it tells me my MinimServer is running and if I click on it it gives me a dropdown menu with rescan, properties, show logs, about, stop, restart, close, options, refresh and exit. Is there more to it? Thanks. Patrick

[DavidHB]

(02-10-2016 19:22)pamrpm Wrote:  I have installed MinimWatch and have what looks like a black musical note in my menu bar. If I hover over it with the mouse it tells me my MinimServer is running and if I click on it it gives me a dropdown menu with rescan, properties, show logs, about, stop, restart, close, options, refresh and exit. Is there more to it?

No, that's it. But it's actually rather a lot. I can't reproduce the whole User Guide but three important examples will suffice.

Firstly, when you click on 'show log', you get a window showing the current running status of MinimServer. If any errors were detected, for example in a startup scan, they will be listed here. This is a great way to identify things you need to fix in your tags, for instance.

Secondly, and even more importantly, the Properties dialog is where you work with MinimServer, changing settings to suit your preferences. When the User Guide mentions a setting, this is where you change it. ('Options', by the way, are options for MinimWatch rather than MinimServer.)

Finally, the colour of the icon on the taskbar indicates the status of the MinimServer instance to which it refers. Let's say that, on your network, you have a desktop computer, a laptop computer and a NAS, all running MinimServer with a music library (this is, pretty much, what I have on my system). You are working on the desktop computer. The local instance of MinimServer will show up as an icon in the taskbar - green (or transparent on OSX) if it's running properly; the User Guide explains the full colour code.

When you run MinimWatch on the desktop computer it will show a grey icon if it cannot detect any instances of MinimServer on other devices on the network, but will show an icon (usually and hopefully green/transparent) for every instance of MinimServer it does find. So, in my example, there will be three green or transparent icons identified by tooltips for the running instances of MinimServer, the local one provided by MinimServer itself, and the others provided by MinimWatch. With each icon, you can work separately (look at the log, change settings etc.) with the instance to which it relates.

I hope that makes things clear, and encourages you to delve into the details in the User Guide.

David

[simoncn]

(02-10-2016 13:45)pamrpm Wrote:  Have installed MinimServer on QNAP and use it with Lumin U1. I made changes to the tags on one album using JRiver and now am getting two copies of it (old & new). I tried reloading/updating library but can't get rid of the duplicate. I am certain that the files are not duplicated on the NAS. How do I wipe the database clean and do a fresh reload? I know nothing about MinimServer and so far have only access the MinimServer Status page so plse write to me as you would a 4 year old. Thanks. Patrick

To rebuild the MinimServer cache, do the following:

1) Using MinimWatch, select the Advanced tab of the Properties window
2) Set the startupScan property to 'full' and click OK
3) Using MinimWatch, select Rescan
4) In the LUMIN app, reload the MinimServer library

[yurkot]

(02-10-2016 21:54)simoncn Wrote:  

(02-10-2016 13:45)pamrpm Wrote:  Have installed MinimServer on QNAP and use it with Lumin U1. I made changes to the tags on one album using JRiver and now am getting two copies of it (old & new). I tried reloading/updating library but can't get rid of the duplicate. I am certain that the files are not duplicated on the NAS. How do I wipe the database clean and do a fresh reload? I know nothing about MinimServer and so far have only access the MinimServer Status page so plse write to me as you would a 4 year old. Thanks. Patrick

To rebuild the MinimServer cache, do the following:

1) Using MinimWatch, select the Advanced tab of the Properties window
2) Set the startupScan property to 'full' and click OK
3) Using MinimWatch, select Rescan
4) In the LUMIN app, reload the MinimServer library

[yurkot]

I just purchased and installed Minimserver 2.2 on Synology 220+. I have duplicates of quite a few albums and songs. Is there an easy way to find those and remove duplicates? For example I just brought up Yo-Yo Ma Cello concertos and added album to cue. All the tracs come up in duplicate, 1st track followed by the same track which I suspect I’ve downloaded the album twice? What do I do?
Thanks so much help.
George

[stefano_mbp]

You can use Linn Kazoo app.
At the bottom of the track details page you’ll find the Uri of each track
   
   

[simbun]

(04-05-2023 23:53)yurkot Wrote:  I have duplicates of quite a few albums and songs. Is there an easy way to find those and remove duplicates?

If you want to identify your duplicate albums/tracks by tags e.g. ALBUMARTIST/ALBUM/TITLE, then you could use foobar2000 or mp3tag (with some help from excel/calc afterwards). I can put some instructions together if this is your preference.

If you want to identify the duplicate tracks by their audio content then apps like PerfectTunes should help, although I've never had to do this so there may be better options out there.

[simoncn]

If you aren't able to use Linn Kazoo because you don't have an OpenHome renderer, you can use BubbleUPnP to find the track URI. Click the "3 dots" icon to the right of tke track and select Show metadata. The URI is shown as Stream #1.