B2 has stopped Compressing

[Michael Duggan]

Dear Forum Members

Over the past 4/5 weeks, I have spent an enormous amount of time trying to compress around 11k tracks so that I can undertake the first and long-overdue back-up of the music on my B2 to a separate 4T Hard Drive.

All was going well until yesterday, when with only around 550 tracks still to be compressed, the Compress Now function was unable to continue with that process; when using the Compress Now function, via the remote control and front screen, the message shown was Compressing MP3 1 of 546, which, after a few minutes, reverted to the Time & Date screen! I've tried to use the Compress Now function about a dozen times over the past 24 hours, but, to no avail.

Can any of the kind and knowledgeable members of this Forum advise me on how to restore the Compress Now function?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Kind Regards

Mike D

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Michael,

Before doing anything else, can you run an 'Export' on your B2 in order to secure your existing collection.  I estimate that this will take 8 - 9 hours if you are using '.flac' compression.  Working on this type of problem without a backup is very risky.

Are you comressing to '.flac' or 'mp3'?

What version of software is you B2 running on?

You can check which version software your B2 is currently running by pressing INFO on the remote control twice or clicking the COG tab on the web UI. You'll see either B2B xxxx or B2 xxxx (where xxxx is the date). 

Also, this window displays the stats on the file type counts and disk space availability.  If you could post those data here, then that would be helpful.

Regards,

Peter.

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

And until we get you sorted please do not rip any more music CDs

Fred

[Michael Duggan]

Peter and Fred

Thanks for your responses.

Firstly, in response to the questions:

• My B2’s Software Version is B2B 2 Aug 2021

• My B2 has been compressing to MP3 256K

• My B2 currently has 546 WAV files, 1553 FLAC files and 9084 MP3 files

• The capacity of my B2 is 2000.00Gb, with 137.20Gb used

Before posting my initial request for help on 5 October 2021, my B2 had refused to continue with compression with 546 WAV files still to be converted to MP3; before receiving the other advice from Fred W not to rip any more CDs, I did rip a further 200 tracks, which caused the B2 to continue to compress, but, stopped again with 546 WAV files still to be converted! Could there be a problem with that group of 546 WAV files?

I do have a Hard Drive to which to ‘Export’ my music from the B2, but, I understood that I had to compress all of the files before doing so?

I’d be grateful for your further asdvice on how to proceed.

Thanks again and Best Regards

Mike D

[JFBUK]

Hi Mike,

It’s possible that you have a corrupt  WAV file which is causing the compression to stall.

I think Peter posted some instructions about using the debug window of the WebUI to identify which file(s) might be causing compression to halt in a response to a similar issue for another user.

I can’t locate it but If my recollection is correct I am sure Peter will repost if he thinks it might help.

John

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

Ok Mike,

First, it seems you currently have your compression mode set to MP3 . This will act on all your WAV files as first ripped from a CD. And please note MP3 is a lossy compression (but does make small files). The 1553 FLAC files can not be compressed to MP3 by the B2 ( except for the hidden MP3s created by the FLAC+MP3 option).

It is interesting that your recent rips did compress Ok but the compression failed at the 546 WAV files again. Given this, i suspect the compression is finding a bad or corrupted file on the HDD (the same one!)

I am not the expert in finditng/identifying it using the B2's debug window (from web ui). But others here are or  there is recent guidance in othert threads on the forum.

Fred

[PMB]

Hi Mike,

I seem to remember Peter Lowham saying that the B2 compresses the tracks in the same order as they were loaded, starting at the latest one - so the B2 would have compressed the newly added tracks and stopped at the dodgy/corrupted one - probably track 546 in this case.

Have the web UI open >> click the COG wheel (to open the Settings menu) >> click the 'Spanner' tab to open the debug monitor.

On the B2 use the front control to go to Settings >> Compress Now - don't select at this stage

On the web UI click on 'Clear' to clear the debug screen.

Select 'Compress Now' - press and release the front control

The debug monitor screen should show the title of the track it is trying to compress. I would delete that complete Album and then try Compress Now again.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Michael Duggan]

Paul

Thanks very much!

I've followed your very clear suggestions and have reached the final stage of the process; the debug monitor screen shows 24 messages/instructions relating to 6 CDs and 8 specific tracks from those CDs. Each of those messages/instructions begins with one of the following three pieces of wording:

• getArtPathforThisTrack - this wording appears 12 times and goes on to refer to CDs, but, not individual tracks, with some of the 6 CDs referred to more than once

• ffmpegEncode - this wording appears 8 times and each refers to one separate track from the afore-mentioned 6 CDs

• compressTrack - this wording appears 4 times, referring to 4 of the 8 tracks mentioned in the second bullet-point

My questions are, firstly, are these messages/instructions to be expected and, secondly, do I need to delete the 6 CDs before I can return to the Compression process on my B@/

Many thanks once again for all your help so far and I look forward to receiving your reply.

Kind Regards

Mike D

[Jeff. M.]

Hi Mike. Ffmpeg will be for a video I think, B2 will not take these, what specific album are these on, we can look it up and advise.

[Michael Duggan]

Jeff

Thanks very much for your kind offer to check out the albums at issue; the six CDs are:

• The House That Garage Built [CDs 1 & 2]

• Global Underground 034 - Felix Da Housecat in Milan [CDs 1 & 2]

• Journeys By DJ (Compiled By Gilles Peterson & Norman Jay) - Desert Island Mix [CDs 1 & 2]

I look forward to receiving your advice at your convenience

Kind Regards

Mike D

[Jeff. M.]

Mmmmm, have looked at track listing on these, and none mention a video, but i'm pretty sure that mpeg is a video. Sorry can't help much more, other than to say have you tried playing them on a PC? this would show if they do have a video track I would think. Cool CDs btw. Hope someone else comes up with something.

[Daniel Taylor]

I think MP3 is part of the mpeg family.  So ffmpegEncode could be part of the attempt to compress to MP3.

If the debug information shows a song title, and then goes on to another one, I'd think the earlier named song would have been successful.  I'd expect that when it stops trying to compress, the last named file would be the problem.

In the WebUI, search for all the WAV files.  Look for the eight names you saw in the debug information.  You can display alphabetically.  I'd expect some of those to have been converted and not show up in the WAV list.  Of those eight, one of them that still appears in the WAV list could be the problem file.

[Jeff. M.]

I think you're right Daniel, I was thinking mpeg and jpeg! Oh well, I'm learning.

[JFBUK]

Hi All,

From what I have read  ffmpeg  inspects a file content and dependent on what it finds , which could be a mix of audio and video streams, it will create various output files. 

So if finds an audio stream it will create an audio output for it.

https://ffmpeg.org/about.html

John

On Thursday, October 7, 2021 at 1:47:23 PM UTC+1 Daniel Taylor wrote:

[Michael Duggan]

Daniel

Thanks very much for the information about ffmpegEncode and advice on how to deal with my outstanding Compression problem. 

I'm afraid that I'm going to have to show my ignorance again by asking how do I secure access to my WAV files?

I look forward to receiving your further help.

Kind Regards

Mike D

[Christian Sunderland]

Without stepping on Daniel's shoes, who takes credit for helping out your dilemma...  Go to the WebUI and in the search bit, simply type '.wav'... (obviously, without the quote marks...)

Christian

[JFBUK]

Type in '.WAV'  or else you will get everything that contains 'WAV' 

plus you need to make sure your are searching tracks (select the musical note from the options)

I have no '.WAV' files so nothing displayed

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

As Christian says

Do this in the Web UI - (I have no WAV files so I entered MP3 in the blue circled area)

Fred

[Michael Duggan]

Dear Brennan Forum Members

Thanks for all of your advice.

I have followed all of those pieces of advice and have deleted all the CDs whose tracks were mentioned on the debug monitor screen as well as still showing as .WAV files in my B2 Library.

The result of that process has reduced the number of .WAV files to be compressed from 546 to 411.

However, my B2 is still unable to compress those remaining .WAV files; now, when I go through the procedures set out by Paul from Brennan support, the last three messages on the debug monitor screen read as follows:

• compress Code ( ) started: files to Compress 411

• compress Code ( ) done

• ########## flushSetting

So, I'm stuck! I can't continue with compressing the .WAV files, which has to be completed before I can back up my library to a hard disc!

Once again, are there any kind colleagues on the Forum who can help?

Kind Regards

Mike D

• 
  

[Daniel Taylor]

Those last three lines from the debug screen are not encouraging at all.  So I fear the problem is more serious than we'd hoped.

I've lost track of whether you've replaced or re-flashed the SD card.  If that hasn't fixed it, my next best guess is that the hard disk may need to be reformatted.  Let's wait for others to weigh in on that before you proceed.  At any rate, please consider doing a full Export, even with those remaining WAV files.  That way, you won't lose most of your work.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Mike,

You can do an 'Export' backup at any time; the 'wav' files will be backed up along with all of the other compressed files.  The compression does not need to be complete for the 'Export' to be done.  So do an 'Export' now in order to secure your valuable music collection.

In the meantime we will try to figure what is happening here.

Regards,

Peter.

[JFBUK]

Hi All,

Once Mike has completed an export backup is there any value in guiding Mike through making a copy of his B2DB file and posting it here for analysis? I assume that the B2DB keeps entries for WAV files as well as FLAC and MP3.

Mike,

The B2DB file is the database that the B2 maintains of all the tracks you have loaded on the hard drive.

John

[Michael Duggan]

Dear Brennan Forum Members

I've started exporting the music from my B2 to a Toshiba 4T Hard Drive.

I had to format the Hard Drive to FAT32 using my Mac Book, because the relevant function on my B2 would not work!

Having said that, the export stops after about 120 tracks or so, with the B2 returning to its start-up screen, and I have to keep going back into USB Functions to start the export again!

However, the B2 has now stopped exporting completely with only 427 tracks on the Toshiba Hard Drive!

Once again, I need your advice.

[I've turned off the B2 and have unplugged the Toshiba Hard Drive, pending any help that may be forthcoming]

Kind Regards

Mike D  

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

Mike,

Before going further  I am concerned that your backup device is 4TB . FAT32 can only adress 2TB!

Others on this forum need to advise if this matters in this instance. BUT I think you need to verify that the backup does indeed contain all your

B2 music. Plugging the drive into a PC or Mac will enable you to do this, you need to look at the drives properties to verify size of content and numbef of files, then look at the content with a file manager to check things look Ok.

You must have a good backup that you are 100 percent sure is ok before any reformat of the B2's HDD, which is what I suspect you may need/be asked to do shortly.

Fred

[PMB]

Hi Mike D,

Where in the World are you? I wouldn't add any further music to the B2 until we have sorted this issue.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Michael Duggan]

Paul

Thanks for your message.

I haven't added any further music to my B2 for a few days.

I live in South East London.

I've looked at the Hard Drive I used yesterday on my MacBook, on which I previously formatted the Hard Drive to MS-DOS (FAT32). Even though it had 4TB capacity, it now shows as Capacity 1.8TB, with 1.8TB Available. In addition, there is no sign at all that the 427 tracks that the B2 indicated it had exported to it before stopping the process are on the Hard Drive.

Should I purchase another 2TB Hard Drive and what else should I now do?

I look forward to receiving your reply.

Kind Regards

Mike D 

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

Hi Mike

I thought this may be the case - but I do not have the knowledge to know if formatting a 4 TB HDD to FAT32 - just sets up 1/2 of it and makes that 2 TB half usable (for your backup) or if it leaves the HDD in a sort of "undefined" state that means you should not use it. I do believe others on this Forum WILL be able to answer this. So you could wait until they do - or you could go out and get another backup disk.

If you do the latter and have the funds, I would be tempted to get a 2 TB USB SSD device. But a 2TB USB HDD would also be fine.

Fred

[Daniel Taylor]

It is my understanding that if you format a 4TB disk to FAT32, you will get a 2TB partition and the other half of the drive will be unavailable.  There are utility programs that can partition the drive so that the other 2TB can be in a different format.  But I don't think that's in play here.  If the B2 recognized the drive and started copying files to it, then the B2 thinks it's good.

If I read correctly, it seems that the B2 stopped well short of copying the entire contents of its internal HDD to the backup drive.  And when checked on a computer, no music at all was present.  Is that correct?

[Michael Duggan]

Daniel

Thanks for the message.

You have summarised my current circumstances exactly.

Kind Regards

Mike D

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Mike,

Regarding the Export, if you plug the USB HDD into your MaBook and using Finder, can you see on the USB HDD a top level folder named 'b2Export'?

If you can see this folder, can you open it and see a folder named 'music'?

If you can see the 'music' folder, can you open this and see if it contains a list of folders which are artist names?

Regards,

Peter.

[Michael Duggan]

Peter

Thanks for the message.

I tried looking at what was on the USB HDD as you suggested, but, there was absolutely nothing on the HDD.

Kind Regards

Mike D

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Mike,

OK, so that would suggest that the USB HDD format has not been successful.  There are known issues with Mac OSX and FAT32 formatting, so that could be the problem. I have MacBooks and PC laptops, so I do any formatting using the PC.

In this case, because the USB HDD is larger that 2TB, the B2 cannot format the HDD.  I have a 4TB HDD myself and it has to be formatted on the Windows PC.

I think that your best way forwards is to purchse a 1TB or 2TB USB HDD, which the B2 will be able to format to FAT32.  Then run the 'Export' in order to secure your music collection.  Given that most of your collection is in mp3 format, I estimate that the Export should run in about 5 hours.

Also, have you run 'Scan Disk'?  I don't see any mention of that having been run in this thread.  If you haven't run it, then do that and we can go from there.

Then we can see what to do next.

Regards,

Peter.

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

Mike,

As the backup is not there, it would not hurt to try using the B2 to format the backup HDD. Then try the export again.

F.

On Friday, 8 October 2021 at 13:12:34 UTC+1 michael...@me.com wrote:

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

But from what Peter just posted as I was typing, it seems that won' t work🤔 

[Peter Lowham]

Hi All,

@Fred; I'm testing disk formatting on Mac OSX (on Catalina) right now, and I have tried to format a 500GB USB HDD.  What is happening is the the Mac OSX 'Disk Utility' does not have a 'FAT32' option.  It has 'exFAT', 'FAT' and 'FAT16', none of which are any use here.  The B2 can read FAT and FAT16 partitions but these have maximum volume sizes of 8MB and 4GB respectively.  The B2 cannot read 'exFAT'.

When I chose 'FAT16' it formatted the disk and the disk shows as 'FAT16' & a partition size of 4GB, which is the maximum partition size for FAT16.  We need FAT32 but it is not an option here.

@Mike; Another option would be if you know someone who has a PC, use it and download 'IM-Magic Partition Resizer' (a free download from the Web), and use this to re-format the 4TB disk to 2TB.  You usually only need to format a disk once, so it would be a one-off job.  If you want to try this then let me know and I'll send you a screenshot showing the settings to use.

Regards,

Peter.

[Rob Harriman]

Hi Peter,

I hit this scenario a few months back - I'm on Big Sur rather than Catalina, but I believe  this will work for either.

Just to let you know, Disk Utility worked fine on my MAC.

I discounted it before because I couldn't see FAT32 under the new format options.

That was my mistake.  I found a youtube video that showed the formatting being done and if you select 'erase' and enter MS-DOS FAT for the new format  it happily goes away and creates a FAT32 disk.

Give it a try.

Cheers

Rob

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Rob,

Thanks very much for your update.  I have re-run the 500GB HDD format, this time with 'MS-DOS FAT' and it has seems to have formatted the HDD correctly as FAT32. 

So, I took my 4TB HDD and formatted it on the MacBook and, lo and behold, it also seemed to format correctly to a 2TB partition in FAT32.

I plugged this USB HDD into one of my B2s and it recognised the HDD immediately.  I just started a full Export about 15 minutes ago, and it looked like a normal Export.  I can log into the Brennan through a 'back door' and I can watch the music folders being written to the USB HDD. 

However the Export stopped unexpectedly after a few minutes, and when I examine the content of the music folders in the Export (about 6 artists, 12 albums), most of the folders are missing music tracks.  So the Export is not working correctly when the 4TB HDD is formatted on the Mac.

So, for Mike, this looks like the same problem that he is having with his 4TB HDD.  The good thing is that we are getting closer to understanding the root cause of the problem.  I will re-format my 4TB HDD on the PC and will restart the Export shortly.

I'll post an update here probably in an hour or so just to keep you up to date with progress.

Regards,

Peter.

[Michael Duggan]

Peter, Rob & Fred

Thanks very much for all of your contributions and advice.

I did, in fact, format the 4TB HDD to MS-DOS (FAT32) on my MacBook and had pretty much the same experience as Peter in trying to export the music to the HDD from my B2; in short, I'll have to try another way to back up my B2!

I think that I'll buy a new 2TB HDD so that, if necessary, it can be formatted by the B2. Presumably, I can format the 4TB HDD back to its original settings via my MacBook, restoring its previous full capacity for use with devices other than my B2?

Referring to a previous point also made by Peter: before I take any other action, should I run 'Scan Disk'? If that is the case, what outcomes should I be looking for from the 'Scan Disk' routine, should I try to continue with Compression after the 'Scan Disk' or should I try to back up to a new HDD after the 'Scan Disk' routine?

I'm now away from home until Sunday afternoon, so, will not be able to access my B2 until then, but will be keeping up with further posts to this conversation.

Thanks again for all your help.

Kind Regards

Mike D

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Mike,

Yes, you should be fine with a 2TB HDD.  I'll see what the Mac OSX format does for my 4TB drive and will let you know the outcome.  Then we can get back to the original problem with the comprssion problem!

My latest Export is still running well so my Export process is back to normal with the properly formatted drive.

Regards,

Peter.

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

Hi Mike

Scan Disk  ( before I take any other action, should I run 'Scan Disk'? If that is the case, what outcomes should I be looking for from the 'Scan Disk' routine,)  ..... some background.

The Brennan "Scan Disk" function READS afresh the content of the Brennan Units HDD. As it does so it creates a separate database file of this content, noting where on the disk files are and what they are called (in terms of their file name path).

This file is NOT part of the music content but it is used by the Brennan software to populate the Web UI and Front screen information (eg in terms of displaying number of WAV/FLAC files, sizes of content and albums, artists, tracks etc).

Running a "Scan Disk" is a READ operation over the music and does not change the content of the HDD's music in any way.

One needs to run a Scan Disk - to refresh the database file after loading music from NAS, or making changes to the music content - deletes, renames etc.

I suspect Peter asked you to do this (if you have not done so recently) so as to be sure that the File numbers and sizes you were reporting to us are up to date and correct as we compare this information with what a PC/MAC would report when analysing the content of the backup device.

Hope this helps

Fred

[Michael Duggan]

Peter and Fred

Thanks again for your further very helpful advice.

I've ordered a new 2T HDD, which will have been delivered by the time that I'm back at home tomorrow. So, tomorrow afternoon, I'll, firstly, run 'Scan Disk' and, then, secondly, I'll attempt to export all the music on my B2 to the new HDD.

Dependant on what next transpires, I'll post again to this Group.

Enjoy the weekend and best wishes.

Mike D

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Mike,

The Export that I was running on the re-formatted 4TB HDD (formatted to 2TB on a PC) has worked successfully.  I have reconciled the Export down to folder and file counts and everything is present and correct in that Export.

So there is a problem with formatting very large HDDs to FAT32 using Mac OSX.

I'm running a test on formatting a 2TB HDD on the MacBook, just to see if that will work.  But your new 2TB HDD should format directly on the B2.  I've just tried that this morning and it worked fine on the B2.

Likewise, have a good weekend!

Regards,

Peter.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Mike,

This is just to let you know that the Export to the 2TB USB HDD that I formatted on a MacBook has completed successfully.  So the MacBook  formatting problem seems to only occur on HDDs that are larger than 2TB.

Regards,

Peter.

[Michael Duggan]

Peter and Fred

As promised, here's an update on the actions taken on your very helpful advice after I arrived home yesterday.

• Firstly, I ran 'Scan Disk' and, to my surprise, I found that the B2 had compressed all the outstanding tracks and reported that I had 0 WAV 1553 FLAC 9400 MP3 files

• Secondly, I formatted my new 2TB HDD on my MacBook to FAT32 and plugged it in to my B2

• Thirdly, I exported all the tracks successfully to the HDD

• Fourthly, after the completion of the export, information on WUI shows that the B2 has 10953 tracks in 806 albums by 388 artists, whereas, WUI indicates a slight discrepancy on the USB of 10953 tracks by 388 artists, but, in only 804 albums 

In spite of that slight discrepancy, I have to say that I'm much relieved!

My outstanding questions are:

1. How do I resolve (if it's resolvable, of course) the afore-mentioned discrepancy between the numbers of albums between what's on the B2 and what has been exported to the HDD?
2. Can I assume that all is now well with my B2 and that I can return to ripping CDs to the B2; as well as compressing after each day's ripping is complete and backing up weekly?

Once again, can I thank for your patience and terrific advice.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards

Mike D

[Davywhizz]

Not sure if this helps - your fourth point suggests two different album totals on the WUI - but when I'm checking the accuracy of my backups I add together the artists and albums showing on the B2 and compare the total to the number of folders showing in the properties of the backup disk. The folders on the disk are always two more than the B2 artists plus albums total, which is logical.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Guys,

Mike; that's really good news all round.  You now have a full Export backup so your music collection is safe! 

The 'Scan Disk' process probably fixed a minor corruption problem within the B2's internal database management file (named b2db) by rebuilding it.  This then enabled the compression to resume automatically.

As Davywhizz has stated, there can be a difference of two between the counts.  If the B2 is showing a count of 804 and the Export is showing 806 then that is OK. 

You should be able to resume ripping now.  I would rip say two CDs and then wait to see if the compression resumes.  If all is well then you could begin mass ripping.  I do ripping in batches of 20 - 30 CDs and let those compress to completion.  Then rip another 20 - 30 CDs and let those compress, and so on.  That allows the B2 to clear each batch and tidy itself up between batches.

The next Export backup will be much quicker because the Export is incremental, so only new material added since the last Export will be added.

Regards,
Peter.

[Michael Duggan]

Davywhizz & Peter

Thanks again for your invaluable advice.

My B2 is actually indicating that it has 2 more albums than those shown as having been exported to the HDD, but, the same numbers of tracks and artists. Both of you have stated that if the HDD is showing 2 more albums than the B2, then, that is okay; does that also apply if the HDD shows two less albums than the B2 after an Export?

Best Regards

Mike D

[Davywhizz]

Hi Mike 

I've now realised you are using a Mac, which is a foreign country to me. Thus we may be talking about two different things. I'll explain my Windows-based approach a little further, in case there's something similar you can apply:

In Windows the "properties" of an attached drive don't show albums, rather "files" and "folders". 

On the B2 there are folders for each artist and also for each album. If I add these together, then look at the "folders" on the HDD, I always get two more on the backup than on the B2.  This seems logical to me in that the B2 export is structured into two sub-folders, "music" and "playlists", so two more than the combined album and artists folders.

So if your export has completed in full, and the correct stats are 388 artists and 804 albums, I'd expect the backup HDD properties to show on a Windows computer as 1194 folders (388+804+2).

NOTE: the total number of "files" on my backups is way more than the number of tracks, because it also includes the non-audio files on each CD, most obviously the album art, though some CDs have more than one extra file. Thus comparing B2 tracks and HDD files doesn't help confirm if an export is complete.

If my backup drive was showing two files less than the B2, rather than two more, I'd assume that the export was incomplete but, again, the Mac may do things differently.

[Rob Harriman]

 I have an iMac and I can confirm that it doesn't do anything different conceptually to what you would expect here.

The B2Export file contains sub folders called music and playlists as normal.  In my case I have 23154 tracks and 1985 albums from 305 artists.

My music folder actually contains 30139 files due to the many non-music files per album.  I've certainly not seen any export errors but I've not used it in anger to confirm.  I would certainly expect the backup to contain a great deal more files than the just the combination of tracks, albums and artists, and I would certainly be worried if it contained any less.

Hope this helps.

[Kathleen Peters]

My B2 has also stopped compressing.  I'm following this string and On the web UI I do not see anything identified as a "spanner tab" or "debug monitor".  Further direction would be appreciated.

Kathy

[JFBUK]

Hi Kathy,

on the web UI you should see a little cog wheel icon.

Click on this first to get a new window displayed which has the 'spanner'  

John

[JFBUK]

Kathy replied to me directly

Thank you John.  Followed your directions.  B2 just went back to clock after pressing Compress Now.

This is what I see on the debug screen.  I have NO idea what this means or what to do.  Can you help?

Kathy

[JFBUK]

Hi Kathy,

I can't see anything in your screenshot that indicates a failure but can you post a screenshot of your status from when you first click the cog wheel

This bit

Thanks

John

[Daniel Taylor]

It looks like the B2 found 44 files that are yet to be compressed.  But then it didn't do any of them.  From what I've read here, it might be that the first file it tried to compress was somehow corrupted.  But it doesn't name any track that it was attempting to compress.  So there's no indication of what the problem file might be.

I don't know if the B2 starts compressing with the most recently ripped album tracks, or the oldest tracks.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Kathy,

If you run 'Scan Disk' (it's in the Settings & Status' screen than Jon has posted above, and then run 'Settings' --> 'Compress now' and see if that gets the compession running again.

@Daniel; the compression is done in the order that the CDs were loaded, so the oldest tracks will be done first.  Processes such as compression just start at the physial start of the music folder and work their way thhough to the last physical file loaded.  'Export' does the same thing.

So it looks like Kathy has 44 files to be compressed as you say, but we can see what happens after 'Scan Disk' is run.

Regards,

Peter.

[JFBUK]

Hi ,

I think Kathy only replied to me so reposting.

Originally the info screen showed 44 WAV files.

I ran  Scan Disc and then Compress Now.

I could see the scan running and when I pressed Compress Now it seemed to immediately go back to clock.  I assumed it didn't work but when I went back to the info screen the WAV files were gone!  Not sure what happened but it appears to be fixed now.  Thank you all for the guidance.  Will try ripping a few more cds and will keep my fingers crossed.

Kathy

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Kathy,

What has happened it that 'Scan Disk' has rebuilt the B2's internal music content database (this is what it does).  That rebuild has cleared the problem that was preventing the compression from completing.  So the B2 just started compressing again when the fault was cleared, but found that there were no files to compress, now that the B2's internal database has been corrected.

The thing to do now is check the last 4 CDs that you have ripped, just to be sure that they look OK (44 tracks seems like 3 or 4 CDs).  Usually everything is OK but it's good to check.

These glitches happen occasionally and sometimes happen if you are playing music while ripping CDs.  The Brennans are happiest when they are only asked to perform one major task at a time.

Regards,

Peter.

[Daniel Taylor]

I wonder what happens in the following scenario:

You have ripped some CDs.  You go away, and after five minutes the B2 goes into Standby and then starts compression.  Sometime later, the B2 is still compressing and you come back and one of two things occurs:  A) you start playing music; B) you turn off the B2 (without Saving).

In case A, does the B2 exit compression mode gracefully?

In case B, is a certain amount of housekeeping left undone, which then causes confusion later on?

I would think that any time compression is interrupted, for whatever reason, there is a good chance of things getting left in such a state as to cause the B2 confusion next time it tries to start compression.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Daniel,

When the B2 begins compression it reads the 'xxx.wav' file and creates a 'tmp' file which will become the '.flac' equivalent (or mp3) upon completion.  At conversion completion the 'tmp' file is renamed to 'xxx.flac'.

If the compression is interrupted, the 'tmp' file is left in the album folder.  When the B2 restarted, the compression process searches for the next file to compress and finds the 'tmp' file.  It deletes the 'tmp' files and starts the compression of the '.wav' file again.

So, in case A, the process recovers from the interruption by tidying up and rerunning the compression process on the incomplete file.

In case B, the situation is more complex. With the B2 being powered down without 'Saving', there is a chance that the HDD could be corrupted if it is in the middle of a disk write activity.  If the disk is not corupted, then fate is being kind to you and the situation in case A applies.

Regards,

Peter.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Daniel,

My apology; the 'tmp' file name should read 'temp' file.

Regards,

Peter.