Migrating Sources from USB Drive to NAS

[Paligap]

I’m in the process of setting up my Vero V to use sources on a QNAP TS-216G NAS instead of an external USB drive I’ve used for a while, both on my Vero4K+ and now my Vero V. The files and folders are all the same; in fact, I used the USB drive to populate the NAS. I know a wired connection between the Vero V and my router would be optimal, but it’s not practical in my situation, so I’m using wireless, which, honestly I’ve had no trouble using even upstairs streaming 4K DV/Atmos content.

I’ll admit that it took me a while to figure out how to provide access to the folders on the NAS from the Vero V, but I finally did, using the “simple” NFS method described here: File sharing with a NAS, media server, windows share or other device

The first source I added was my “Atmos Music” folder that contains album folders that contain Atmos m4a files created from MKV files ripped from my audio blu-rays with Atmos streams. These files have always played flawlessly from the USB drive, but when I ried to play them from the NAS, they either wouldn’t start or would have extended stops before starting again, only to stop again.

I decided to try another, possibly less taxing source, so I added my “Stereo Music” folder that contains album folders that contain 2.0 FLAC files ripped from my CDs. Some of these played better than the Atmos files, but there was still some stopping. Frustrated, I decided to create a log the next morning.

After I followed the process to create a log, I played sections of several stereo songs, but there was no stopping today. I then tried to play some Atmos songs, but the same problems as before remained. At that point, it appeared not to be a global problem as it had before, so before I create and submit a log (or multiple logs?), I’m going to add my multichannel music sources and my video sources to see if there are playback problems.

In the meantime, I have a few questions:

1. Before I added my Atmos Music source from the NAS, I removed that source from the USB drive. With my Stereo Music source, I edited it to change the path from the USB drive to the NAS. Is one way preferable to the other?
2. Considering that there hasn’t been much, if any, music added to these sources recently, is there any reason to have KODI scan the “new” source? It took a really long time with my Stereo Music source.
3. With my Source folders on the NAS, I’ve been giving my Vero V “read only” access, but I have an Artist Information folder that contains Artist folders that contain pictures and other info. My understanding was that Kodi might scrape artist info and possibly update and/or create those folders, so I gave the Vero V read/write access. Is my understanding about that wrong?
4. When I try to change the path for the Artist Information folder under Settings/Media/Music/Library information sources and I select NFS, do I have to select “New Folder”? When I’m adding or editing a music or video source and select NFS, the only options are OK and Cancel. If I select OK, the screen that allows me to enter the new path appears. If I do that with the Artist information folder, it tells me to ensure the path is valid, implying it’s not. Something similar happens when I try to update the location of the folder in the Artist Slideshow add-on. If I select NFS and OK, it just puts “nfs://” in the custom location and doesn’t allow me to put the rest of the path.

Thanks for any info or suggestions.

[fzinken]

@Paligap

With my Stereo Music source, I edited it to change the path from the USB drive to the NAS. Is one way preferable to the other

Changing the path of the source doesn’t change the location for anything already scanned into the library.
for that you either want to use path substitution or if library not too big rescan.

Please see [HowTo] Repairing File Paths with Path Substitution for details.

[fzinken]

@Paligap

NAS, they either wouldn’t start or would have extended stops before starting again, only to stop again.

We suggest to check your network with iperf3. Please read this howto

[How To] Check Network Performance with iperf3

Sometimes it is important to check the network performance between your OSMC Device and the device providing your media (NAS, Server, PC). Especially when you are connected via wireless the throughput variations can harm you viewing experience. This short How To should give you the required information how to install iperf3 and how to run the respective tests. When doing these tests it is suggested to have a simple setup (single switch between Sender and Receiver and avoid other traffic on the …

[Paligap]

@fzinken

@Paligap

With my Stereo Music source, I edited it to change the path from the USB drive to the NAS. Is one way preferable to the other

Changing the path of the source doesn’t change the location for anything already scanned into the library.
for that you either want to use path substitution or if library not too big rescan.

Please see [HowTo] Repairing File Paths with Path Substitution for details.

Yeah, I’ve gone through this before when I went from a 4TB drive to a 12TB drive. I think I decided to just do the rescan(s). My real question was whether it is better to remove the old source and then add the new one or to simply edit the path of the existing source to the new location. I’ve chosen the latter with rescans.

[Paligap]

@fzinken

@Paligap

NAS, they either wouldn’t start or would have extended stops before starting again, only to stop again.

We suggest to check your network with iperf3. Please read this howto
[How To] Check Network Performance with iperf3

Running iperf3 seems a little daunting to me. Luckily, I remembered that I had my Vero V connected to the 2.4 Ghz band because I used it only for updates. I switched to the 5 Ghz band, and the Atmos files played flawlessly.

[Paligap]

So nobody uses the Artist Information folder, huh?

[darwindesign]

@Paligap

My real question was whether it is better to remove the old source and then add the new one or to simply edit the path of the existing source to the new location

If you edit a Kodi source then anything you have in the library currently will not have its paths updated. If you remove a source Kodi will ask if you want to remove everything using that path which is what you would likely want to do and then just make a new source to the new location. As stated in the aforementioned guide if you were to go with the path substitution route then you would not update or change the Kodi source at all, but just an entries in an advancedsettings.xml to get it to swap the old path for the new on access.

@Paligap

So nobody uses the Artist Information folder, huh?

I use one. As for adding one you will probably have the most luck by adding your network share in the file manager in the settings and then for the location setting for that folder use the browse option. That setting uses paths from file manager and not the other source locations. It is a bit funny about manually entering UNC paths, I don’t know why.

Also Kodi does not write to that folder and it does not update you music library if you change files there. It simply looks at that folder when you either scrape a new item, refresh an item from its information screen, or, in the case of artwork, if it is missing when you navigate to that item it will look to see if it has been added IIRC. Once anything has been scraped into the library, be it video or music, Kodi no longer looks for local metadata as it uses what is stored in its database and thumbnail cache instead.

[Paligap]

I posted this over on the QQ forum, where I also asked for help:

" I did give the Kodi device read/write access to the Artist Information folder on the NAS, but I gave it read-only access to the actual music folders on the NAS. Do I need to give it read/write access to ALL the folders?

I’m using the default OSMC skin in Expert mode, but when I switch to Aeon Knox Silvo, I essentially get the same results and choices when trying to change the location of the Artist Information folder from the USB drive to the NAS. I’m running the latest version of the OS (OSMC) and Kodi 21.2. The Artist Information folder on the NAS has the same permissions as the Music folders on the NAS I have been able to add as sources, except for the read/write, read-only difference I noted above.

When I go to the Storage settings in the Artist Slideshow add-on, it shows the existing location on the USB drive:

When I select that, this screen appears:

Note that the only two options are OK and Cancel. When I was at the same point in adding music folders on the NAS as sources and selected OK, a screen would appear where I could enter “nfs:///Path”. Here, when I select OK I get this screen:

Note that it has replaced the location on the USB drive with an incomplete location for a NAS share, and there is no way for me to complete it. When I go to the Media/Music settings, this screen shows the location of the Artist Information folder on the USB drive:

When I select that location, I get this screen:

Note that here, there are three options: OK, Cancel, and New Folder. When I select OK, I get this screen:

Again, I wasn’t given a chance to direct it to the folder on the NAS. If I select New Folder, it does, but I wasn’t sure if that would somehow create two locations for the folder. If it doesn’t, and selecting New folder and directing it to the folder on the NAS is the way to go, that still might not address the problem with updating the location in the Artist Slideshow add-on. To be honest, though, I haven’t used that add-on anyway, and even without it, the Vero still puts an image from the Artist Information folder as background when that folder is accessible."

So the bottom line is that I was able to provide the locations of my music and video folders on my NAS as sources on my Vero V, but I am still unable to do so for the Artist Information folder with the same permissions at the same level on the NAS. I guess I’ll try putting the folder on a USB thumb drive and see if that works.

[darwindesign]

@Paligap

Do I need to give it read/write access to ALL the folders?

The only reason I could think of to have a requirement of giving write access to Kodi would be if you wanted to export metadata.

@Paligap

When I select OK, I get this screen:

As you should since you didn’t navigate down to a valid file path. You need to go to settings>file manager>add source> and add your NAS as a source. Once you have it there you should be able to browse to it for the artist information folder location setting and it should accept it without issue. As for concern that Kodi will have it confused with two locations this isn’t a concern. All that folder is providing is information when Kodi adds information and it pulls it into is library. Unlike the actual music and video files Kodi doesn’t store file paths to that information. The file path of whatever it is currently pointed to as a base path and then a folder titled with the artists name is the only option so there is no need for it to actually store the various file paths in its database.

[Paligap]

@darwindesign

@Paligap

Do I need to give it read/write access to ALL the folders?

The only reason I could think of to have a requirement of giving write access to Kodi would be if you wanted to export metadata.

@Paligap

When I select OK, I get this screen:

As you should since you didn’t navigate down to a valid file path. You need to go to settings>file manager>add source> and add your NAS as a source. Once you have it there you should be able to browse to it for the artist information folder location setting and it should accept it without issue. As for concern that Kodi will have it confused with two locations this isn’t a concern. All that folder is providing is information when Kodi adds information and it pulls it into is library. Unlike the actual music and video files Kodi doesn’t store file paths to that information. The file path of whatever it is currently pointed to as a base path and then a folder titled with the artists name is the only option so there is no need for it to actually store the various file paths in its database.

I wonder why Kodi/OSMC says to make sure the folder is writable?

I added my NAS as a source in file manager, and when I select that source in file manager, I can see all my music and video source folders, as well as the Artist Information folder. However, when I try to browse to that location in Media>Music or in the Artist Slideshow add-on, I get the same messages as before.

[darwindesign]

@Paligap

However, when I try to browse to that location in Media>Music or in the Artist Slideshow add-on, I get the same messages as before.

Media>Music and add-ons would be using the library sources, not the sources from file manager. I’m not sure why it one would be working and not the other. If you felt like diving a bit deeper you could go down to the file system and compare ~/.kodi/userdata/mediasources.xml (the file that stores sources added to file manager) with ~/.kodi/userdata/sources.xml (the file that stores the library sources file paths) to see if their is a difference.

[Paligap]

@darwindesign

@Paligap

However, when I try to browse to that location in Media>Music or in the Artist Slideshow add-on, I get the same messages as before.

Media>Music and add-ons would be using the library sources, not the sources from file manager. I’m not sure why it one would be working and not the other. If you felt like diving a bit deeper you could go down to the file system and compare ~/.kodi/userdata/mediasources.xml (the file that stores sources added to file manager) with ~/.kodi/userdata/sources.xml (the file that stores the library sources file paths) to see if their is a difference.

I don’t know how to access, much less interpret, those xml files. I was hoping that another user had run into a similar problem with accessing the folder on a NAS, but I suspect that most Vero users don’t even use the folder.

I was able to put the folder on a thumb drive and direct Kodi to it in both Media>Music and the Artist Slideshow add-on.

[Paligap]

Okay, so I am SSHed into my Vero V. How do I go down to the file system and find and compare those two files?

[Paligap]

I don’t see a mediasources file, only a sources file:

osmc@osmc:~$ ls
 Movies   Music   Pictures  'TV Shows'
osmc@osmc:~$ cd .kodi/userdata
osmc@osmc:~/.kodi/userdata$ ls
Database      Savestates  addon_data  guisettings.xml  library          playlists     sources.xml
RssFeeds.xml  Thumbnails  fstab       keymaps          peripheral_data  profiles.xml

[darwindesign]

@Paligap

How do I go down to the file system and find and compare those two file

Using “cat” or “more” would be typical ways. ie…

cat .kodi/userdata/sources.xml
or
more .kodi/userdata/mediasources.xml

@Paligap

I don’t see a mediasources file, only a sources file:

That file only exists after you add a source to File Manager. That file not being there seems to contradict your earlier statement that you had.

[Paligap]

Nope. As I said, I had to put it on a USB and direct OSMC/Kodi (and Artist Slideshow add-on) to it there:

[Paligap]

Sorry, I misunderstood your comment: This shows where the NAS and the USB exist as sources in File Manager:

This shows the AIF, along with my video and music sources exist as sources from the NAS:

This shows where the AIF exists as a source from the USB:

[ActionA]

https://kodi.wiki/view/Adding_music_to_the_library

[darwindesign]

@Paligap

This shows the AIF, along with my video and music sources exist as sources from the NAS:

I don’t have any clue on why mediasources.xml would be MIA in your case. That is where file manager sources are stored in my own devices and the only exception that I can think of would be if you were using profiles in which case it would be in ~/.kodi/userdata/profiles/profile_name/ but I don’t see that folder in the ls you posted above either which would discount that theory.

[Paligap]

Yes, it’s a bit vexing. I’ve found other instances on the Internet where people had similar problems. I’m still working on it with other resources, but thanks for your responses.