Digital "wifi" transfer issue

[Steve Poe]

A "kinda" newby question here:  I transferred over 1000 CDs, one-by-one, and then read in this forum about using the webUI to electronically send files from my computer to my B2.  Mostly works great, but I have several albums that claim they are being copied to the B2, only to not be able to find them when it completes the process.  The artist or album name will not appear on the web page, so I assume they are "lost" to the elements.  I have tried burning a CD with these tracks and have successfully loaded them to the B2.  So they seem to be in the correct file format.

So, any thoughts on what keeps happening or how to solve it without burning hard CDs for each of them?  Transferrence through the webUI sure saves lots of effort & wear & tear on the disc drive.  

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi

The FIRST thing to do when things do not seem to appear is to run a "Scan Disk" this normally sorts things out.

However there are also some good practice "things" to remember when placing music on the B2's disk

1) while doing this do not ask the B2 to do anything else at the same time (eg listen to music etc.)

2) if you have asked the B2 to do something let this finish before you start the next piece of work.

3) check the length of file names ( I believe there is a 172 character limit)

4) Assuming you are asking the B2 to compress, allow it to do this - and complete the compression - after about every 20 to 30 CDs before loading the next set.

5) after about each 60 CD loads, do an "Export to USB C (or A)" which will make you an incremental backup of your work (allow compression to finish first).

6) Run a scan disk after every CD batch load.

Understand that the Brennan UI (web or front screen) when displaying music, is NOT looking directly at the Hard Disk to tell you what it holds. Rather it uses a contents database (generated by the Scan Disk) for this information. This database and indeed playlists are all text files containing pointers to the actual music on the Hard disk.

Fred

[PMB]

Hi ssher...,

Also if the files that you are uploading are not organised by Artist > Album > Tracks, the B2 will store the upload under 'unknown' or 'various' for the Artist, so might be an idea to check those categories on the web UI.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[William White]

I am unsure whether it is the browser (Safari) I am using, but I find I also have to refresh the B2 webpage after running a scan disk for the changes to be visible.

Regards, Willy.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Willy

I do not find that surprising, I may be wrong but it is my understanding that basically the browser generates the web page by processing the code for that page obtained by the web server (in this case the B2). After this the B2 does not "reach out" and update the page. 

Frequently the browsers are 'helpful' in caching the data content sent by the server and will look to this cache rather than going back to the server when the user asks to change the content. 

A reload will normally refresh the cache, except that sometimes with phone apps even this refresh happens with cached data (to save network traffic). This is why sometimes we ask users to manually/force clear the device caches to correct some

problems users are seeing.

Fred

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Sorry,

NOT "obtained by the web server " 

BUT "obtained from the web server "

[Steve Poe]

I tried the suggestions (scan disk, expecting the B2 to do no other concurrent actions, etc) and some of it worked on a few of the earlier rejects.  I'm still at a loss for not being able to send some of the files that appear to be in the correct Artist>Album>Tracks order.  I was puzzled to find some of the artists I tried to load were listed on the B2 afterward, but the album and song files never appeared.  I deleted the artists with no music attached to their names.

I also checked the "Unknown" and "various artists" listings to no avail.  Still wondering why I can put them on CD and that appears to work. 

[PMB]

Hi ssher...,

The B2 does need a good WiFi signal to work reliably, so please check this - using the front control, go to Settings >> Maintenance >> 'WiFi Strength'. It needs to be around the -50dBm mark (-40dBm being a stronger signal and -60dBm a weaker one).

I have heard that trying to transfer too many files at the same time can sometimes cause issues, so try uploading one of the troublesome Albums on it's own.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Davywhizz]

If I'm reading this right, you are  burning albums which are on your computer to writeable CDs for transfer to the B2? If so,  it may be easier to load them onto a USB stick and then import from that. I did a lot of my initial CD ripping that way (using dBpoweramp software).

At first I didn't transfer many files directly from the laptop to the B2 using the NAS function,  because they were on different wifi systems. I've done some of that more recently, since we got a whole house mesh wifi system. I find I have to be very careful with the clicking and dragging of the files: a couple of times an album has disappeared into the wrong artist's folder (undoubtedly by human error) and they can be very hard to find again.

[Steve Poe]

Thanks for all the suggestions.  While I am still baffled by the "whys" of the refusal to send files, between the burning of CDs and the importing thru usb drives, all the intended files have been loaded to my B2.  Thanks for using your time/efforts to get this accomplished.  

[PMB]

Hi ssher...,

Glad to hear you found a successful work around.

Paul

Brennan Support.