Troubleshooting problem with file numbering display

[Budgie]

Minimserver running on Qnap NAS with bubbleds as controller on S6 phone.
Data tagged using Easytag using ID3v2.4 on openSUSE Leap 15.3.

I have a problem with the display of the file numbers on my control point and am starting here.
I have two opera CDs which comprise a complete work and have been ripped to flac. Rather than having to load two albums I have combined the ripped files into one "album" and edited the file numbering so these run sequentially. ie. the first 29 files are numbered 1 to 29 and the second 29 are numbered 30 to 58. (There are 29 tracks in each CD.) I edited the track numbering using Easytag and as far as I can see they all look right on the Easytag screen.

The tagged files have then be loaded onto the NAS and I have rescanned in minimserver and on BubbleDS and the control point shows all the tracks in the one album but the numbering of the tracks after 29 is showing 13. 42 -
14. 43 - and so on up to 29. 58 and then 1. 30 - 2. 31 up to 12. 41 -

I can sort of understand what I am looking at but cannot see any reason why the numbering is as it is. Is there an automatic numbering system somewhere in minimserver which is being confused by my tagging?

Grateful for guidance here please.
Budgie.

[simbun]

How bizarre!

Do all 58 tracks belong to the same disc number?
Do you have any custom formatting that includes track number e.g. title.displayFormat?
Are you using the MinimServer sort order rather than BubbleDS?

A screenshot might help.

[simoncn]

If an album has two discs tagged DISCNUMBER=1 and DISCNUMBER=2 and these discs are merged by MinimSrever into a single album, the track numbers on the second disc are automatically adjusted by MinimServer with all track numbers on the second disc incremented by the hghest track number on the first disc.

For example, with tagging:

DISCNUMBER=1 TRACKNUMBER=1
....
DISCNUMBER=1 TRACKNUMBER=29
DISCNUMBER=2 TRACKNUMBER=1
....
DISCNUMBER=2 TRACKNUMBER=29

the track numbers on the second disc would be shown by MinimServer as 30 to 58. For more information, see this section.

There was discussion some time ago about changing this so that track numbers on the second disc would not be incremented if the lowest track number on the second disc is greater than the highest track number on the first disc. This hasn't yet been implemented.

Edit: Actually, this change was implemented in the transition from MinimServer 0.8 to MinimServer 2. Thanks to simbun for pointing this out.

[simbun]

(01-06-2022 20:11)simoncn Wrote:  There was discussion some time ago about changing this so that track numbers on the second disc would not be incremented if the lowest track number on the second disc is greater than the highest track number on the first disc. This hasn't yet been implemented.

Are you sure you haven't implemented this yet?
I was the one that brought this up some time ago now, and I was replying to the OP of this thread with much the same content as your previous reply (even though it doesn't actually correspond with their description of what the track numbers look like which is why I asked for a screenshot), but before submitting I thought I'd just check and for the life of me I can't reproduce it.

Originally I was able to just change the discnumber of the last few tracks of an album (all residing in the same folder) to demonstrate this behaviour, but track numbers now seem to follow logically e.g. 1-x. Likewise, for an album with multiple discs (across multiple folders, one per disc), if I change the track numbers of the second disc to follow the track numbers of the first (instead of 1-x per disc) it still shows them correctly, and doesn't leave the gap.

I installed 0.8.5.2 and the behaviour is back.

Unfortunately in testing this I forgot to deactivate the license for MinimServer 2 as I needed to remove it because v1 was inheriting the existing profile, so could you please delete the Windows license I have activated, sorry. Because of this I wasn't able to test a fully default v2 even though I did reset the profile.

[simoncn]

I checked back and you are correct that this change was implemented as one of the improvements from MinimServer 0.8 to MinimServer 2. I will edit my earlier post to correct this.

I will contact you by PM regarding the license activation.

[Budgie]

(01-06-2022 20:11)simoncn Wrote:  If an album has two discs tagged DISCNUMBER=1 and DISCNUMBER=2 and these discs are merged by MinimSrever into a single album, the track numbers on the second disc are automatically adjusted by MinimServer with all track numbers on the second disc incremented by the hghest track number on the first disc.

For example, with tagging:

DISCNUMBER=1 TRACKNUMBER=1
....
DISCNUMBER=1 TRACKNUMBER=29
DISCNUMBER=2 TRACKNUMBER=1
....
DISCNUMBER=2 TRACKNUMBER=29

the track numbers on the second disc would be shown by MinimServer as 30 to 58. For more information, see this section.

There was discussion some time ago about changing this so that track numbers on the second disc would not be incremented if the lowest track number on the second disc is greater than the highest track number on the first disc. This hasn't yet been implemented.

Edit: Actually, this change was implemented in the transition from MinimServer 0.8 to MinimServer 2. Thanks to simbun for pointing this out.

Hi and many thanks for the info. A trip down memory lane which I am finding harder as I get older!
Will need help in capturing a screen shot from my BubbleDS screen but meanwhile there are many other parameters I may have messed up so certainly do not assume it is a fault with your excellent software which I have been using for many years.

I suspect the problem is from when I rebuilt my machines when I upgraded hardware. I cannot find my notes for when I set up Easytag and Luckybackup but these are my key suspects and it is quite possible that changes to a tag of metadata are not being identified by rsync when I run Luckybackup.

My original intention had been to preserve the file dates of my data as the dates when I first ripped my CDs. This tended to be when I purchased them as I usually rip them on receipt.

I have a vague memory of date issues when using Easytag, which often I need to re-visit as tagging classical CDs requires much editing. I am now confused as to what preference in Easytag I should use:- "Preserve modification time or not" and "Update parent modification time when writing files or not" I certainly didn't want the update the parent directory but have forgotten what I used to do with preserving the modification time. To me the meaning is confusing.

The subject problem first appeared when I put together in one playlist all the tracks from two CDs. which together comprise the complete work. In this case I had begun to use the album in unedited form so the tags were whatever I received from the initial ripping. To get the playlist right I just edited the list and used it until now.

When I came back to this my first and normal practice has been to combine all tracks into one directory for the Work and edit the file numbers so that they show the complete work numbered from 1 to whatever, in this case it is 58 files. I do all this on my master data set on my workstation I then save and copy it to the NAS using Luckybackup where minimserver serves the data to the network.

As far as I can see from "Filestation" on the NAS the complete work is now in one album with all tracks correctly numbered and in the right sequence. It is quite possible however that my last run of Luckybackup didn't see any change as only some metadata was edited. I shall look to Running Easytag on the NAS data directly and see if that does the trick. Will call for help when I have done more homework and thanks for your reply.

Regards,
Budgie

[simbun]

(02-06-2022 14:34)Budgie Wrote:  Will need help in capturing a screen shot from my BubbleDS screen

This assumes Android 12, but should mostly be the same, depending on your handset manufacturer:

• Open BubbleDS and navigate to the screen you'd like to capture.
• Press and hold down the Power and Volume Down buttons for roughly one to two seconds.
  

This will take a screenshot and save it to your Downloads directory, which you can then select when creating a new post on MinimServer.

If you find it easier to write forum posts on your desktop then it might be easier to send yourself the screenshot via email and pick it up from the desktop; to do this, straight after Android has taken the screenshot you'll see a notification popup with a share link (3 dots connected by two lines creating an arrow pointing left), click this and then select your email client putting your email address in the to list.

(02-06-2022 14:34)Budgie Wrote:  I suspect the problem is from when I rebuilt my machines when I upgraded hardware. I cannot find my notes for when I set up Easytag and Luckybackup but these are my key suspects and it is quite possible that changes to a tag of metadata are not being identified by rsync when I run Luckybackup.

My original intention had been to preserve the file dates of my data as the dates when I first ripped my CDs. This tended to be when I purchased them as I usually rip them on receipt.

I have a vague memory of date issues when using Easytag, which often I need to re-visit as tagging classical CDs requires much editing. I am now confused as to what preference in Easytag I should use:- "Preserve modification time or not" and "Update parent modification time when writing files or not" I certainly didn't want the update the parent directory but have forgotten what I used to do with preserving the modification time. To me the meaning is confusing.

Preserving the original file timestamps is generally not recommended as everything from backup programs to MinimServer use file modification dates to identify changes.
That's not to say it can't be done, but you'll need to adjust nearly every program to suit this approach:

• I believe MinimServer checks the file's size and the time of last modification to identify changes, but the FLAC format uses padding so small tag changes will leave the files looking unmodified, meaning you'll be forced to perform full rescans every time (startupScan property to full).
• rsync by default will also check the file's size and the time of last modification, so you'll need to change the rsync call accordingly (--checksum) which can slow things down considerably.
  

I understand why you might want to retain this date, but I captured this date by adding the tag RIPPED_DATE to my tags, which I was then able to use in MinimServer to browse by recently added, before this functionality was available natively.

Apologies if you've already considered everything I said and are happy to take the responsibility of configuring downstream tools, just thought I'd mention it in case you took some bad advice along the way, as it certainly makes things more complicated.

[Budgie]

Hi and very many thanks for all the above. Much needed info here. OK for screenshot but now not needed yet as there are clearly changes I must make following your explanations.

First retaining historical ripped dates is no longer important to me so I shall in future adopt your suggestion for adding a ripped date henceforth.

I understand the point about minimserver and if I allow the changed date/time this should not be a problem however I don't buy many disks any more and always do a full rescan when I put a new album/work on the NAS. .

I suspect my problem is with rsync and probably have a mistaken memory of what I had in Easytag preferences did before the rebuild of the machines. Will make some changes and see how I get on. Will reply again if I still have a problem. Meanwhile very many thanks for your help which is much appreciated.
Regards,
Budgie

[simoncn]

I have deleted the large amout of unnecessarily quoted text from recent posts. This makes the discussion very hard to follow.

It is only necessary to quote text when replying to a specific point in a previous post. In this case, only the relevant text should be quoted.

To post a reply without quoting any text, use the large New Reply button instead of the small Reply button. To post a reply with selected text quoted, use the small Reply button and edit your reply to remove unnecessary quoted text.

[simoncn]

(02-06-2022 18:16)Budgie Wrote:  I understand the point about minimserver and if I allow the changed date/time this should not be a problem however I don't buy many disks any more and always do a full rescan when I put a new album/work on the NAS.

There is no need to do this when adding new files. A full rescan only makes a difference when existing files jave been modified without changing timestamps.