Weekly MinimServer Rescan on QNAP NAS

[Spile]

Problem:
QNAP TS-464 with QTS 5.2.7.x does not provide a GUI Task Scheduler for user scripts, and I couldn't get my head round cron via the command line which meant MinimServer’s rescan cannot be triggered directly on the NAS.

Workaround: Use a Windows PC running MinimWatch to trigger a weekly rescan.

Steps

1. Install MinimWatch on Windows PC and make sure it can see NAS MinimServer.

2. Create a control script

rescan.txt (any folder) containing:

Code:

rescan

rescan.cmd in C:\Program Files\MinimWatch\bin:

Code:

@echo off
cd /d "C:\Program Files\MinimWatch\bin"
call mscript.cmd -a <NAS_IP> -c rescan

Replace <NAS_IP> with QNAP’s IP address.

Test by double-clicking — MinimServer should start rescanning.

3. Schedule it in Windows Task Scheduler

Trigger: Weekly, Sunday 03:00

Action: Start a program → rescan.cmd

Settings: Tick Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed

Optional: Run whether user is logged on, with highest privileges.

Notes

PC must be on for the scheduled time; if off, it will run when the PC next powers on.

This bypasses QNAP scheduler limitations and uses MinimServer’s supported rescan command.

Summary:
Not ideal — ideally a QNAP GUI scheduler would allow direct NAS scheduling or even better this functionality would be in Minimserver itself. But this method is reliable, fully supported, and automates weekly rescans without manual intervention.

Suggestions for a better approach welcome.

[simoncn]

Thanks for posting this. It seems like a reasonable solution given the QNAP limitations.

Why do you prefer this approach instead of doing a manual rescan immediately after adding new music, which would enable you to listen to the music immediately instead of waiting up to a week?

[Spile]

(28-12-2025 17:27)simoncn Wrote:  Thanks for posting this. It seems like a reasonable solution given the QNAP limitations.

Why do you prefer this approach instead of doing a manual rescan immediately after adding new music, which would enable you to listen to the music immediately instead of waiting up to a week?

It's not always the music I am updating; sometimes it's the tagging and the artwork. I sometimes forget to run the scan, and it's reassuring to know that a week or so later, my server will be up to date without me having to check that this is the case.

[simoncn]

Thanks for the explanation, this makes sense.