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HP MediaSmart Server - Itunes will not stay enabled
HP MediaSmart Server - Itunes will not stay enabled
- Anyone having this problem? The server finds and gathers my Itunes library, but once it has completed copying all the songs, it goes from "Enabled" to "Disabled". When I enable it again, it will appear on my network for about 10-15 seconds, then it disables and disappears. I have contacted HP, but so far they have not solved the problem. We have deleted the Itunes library from the server and allowed it to reacquire the database with the same results. Itunes streams from the server while the library is being populated, but disables when complete.
- Moved byKen WarrenMVP, ModeratorSaturday, February 14, 2009 2:58 PMnot a hardware/installation question (Moved from Windows Home Server Hardware and Installation to Windows Home Server Software)
Answers
- Ken,
I contacted Ron at Firefly and he was able to solve my Itunes problem. It turned out to be one corrupted song in my library which was causing the program to crash. Here's Ron's instructions which enabled me to solve the problem:
"My guess is that there is a file or something that is making it crash.
Being a headless machine, it's tough to troubleshoot the windows home servers, but here's generally how.
Log into the console of the server by using windows terminal services (start -> run -> mstsc). Connect to the server using a username of administrator, and a password of whatever your home-server password is.
Once you are at the console, use notepad to edit c:\program files\firefly media server\mt-daapd.conf
Change (or add, if it isn't there) an option called "debuglevel" with a value of 5 in the [general] section.
Then, delete the songs3.db file and start the firefly server.
It will crank around, indexing the music for a while. At some point it will crash. When it does, look at the log file in c:\program files\firefly media server\firefly.log.
Find the last song it tried to index and move it out of the way. Then start it again and repeat as necessary."
Hope this helps anyone else with similar issue.
Bob
All Replies
- Just a thought: did you enable album artwork? It's no longer supported in Firefly, the underlying DAAP server, and when you enable it you will see pretty much what you describe. Firefly will start, but will shut back down almost immediately.
- Ken, yes, album artwork is enabled on my PC. I will turn it off when I get home tonight and see what happens, but I am not optimistic that this will solve the problem. The server disables Itunes before any iteration of it is opened on network PC's. I am wondering if it has anything to do with the size of my Itunes archive. 173 gig. The strange thing is that I can enable it on the server while it initially finds music from the PC's. It remains enabled and streams across the network until the libraray is complete, then disables.
HP looked into it for a few days then called me to say they did not have an answer, but have other reports of "Itunes issues". They told me there would be a server update "soon". No indication when that will be. - You shouldn't need to make any changes on your PC.
Enabling album artwork for Firefly (it's a setting in the firefly config file) will result in exactly the symptom you describe. The server will start, then a few seconds later it will stop. This is because Firefly album artwork support was causing problems in other situations, and therefore was removed from the server. See this thread in the Firefly forums for more details. - Ken, I appreciate your help! I am going to need some specific instructions, though. I do not know how to get at the file you are talking about. I have the HP MediaSmart 475. It comes pre-configured by HP. At this point, I only know how to access the server through HP's interface. This gives me folders for Users, Photos, Music, Videos and Software. How do I get to Firefly? (Is this what HP is using on their server?) I do not see any reference to it anywhere so far.
Also, do you know how I would go about putting an APC UPS on this box? There is no CD drive so how do I install and configure PowerChute?
Thanks!
Bob - HP is using Firefly.
If you haven't done any specific configuration of it, then album art is not turned on, and you're back to finding out if Firefly has a problem with a really big music library. The largest one I'm aware of is around 80k tracks, though, so I'd be surprised...
There have been several threads recently about installing a UPS. An APC UPS with a USB connection will be recognized as a battery when connected to your server, so there is no need for installation of PowerChute. To configure shutdown:
- Start/Run, type mstsc and press Enter.
- Type your server's name (probably HPSERVER) and press Enter.
- Type administrator for the user name, and the password you created when you set up WHS. Press Enter.
- Read the warning that appears. Take it to heart; if you're not very familiar with server operations there are a number of opportunities to get in trouble, and there are more because Windows Home Server is designed so that you shouldn't need to do what you're currently doing (in most circumstances), so there are things that you would think are safe, but which will break your server badly enough that you will have to perform a server recovery or even a server reset.
- Once you've finished quaking in your boots at the awful consequences that await, close the warning. You're not going to do anything risky.
- On the server, Start/Control Panel/Power Options. Click on the Alarms tab.
- Since your goal with the server should be an orderly shutdown when the power goes out, not maximizing runtime, I suggest you ignore the Low Battery alarm. Set the Critical Battery alarm level to 50% or so, then click on Alarm Action...
- Turn off notifications; they're local. Under Alarm action, check both checkboxes, and set the alarm action to "Shut down". Don't bother configuring a program to run. Click OK, then Apply.
- Log off of your remote desktop session (don't just close the window, use the Log Off option on the start menu).
- Ken,
I contacted Ron at Firefly and he was able to solve my Itunes problem. It turned out to be one corrupted song in my library which was causing the program to crash. Here's Ron's instructions which enabled me to solve the problem:
"My guess is that there is a file or something that is making it crash.
Being a headless machine, it's tough to troubleshoot the windows home servers, but here's generally how.
Log into the console of the server by using windows terminal services (start -> run -> mstsc). Connect to the server using a username of administrator, and a password of whatever your home-server password is.
Once you are at the console, use notepad to edit c:\program files\firefly media server\mt-daapd.conf
Change (or add, if it isn't there) an option called "debuglevel" with a value of 5 in the [general] section.
Then, delete the songs3.db file and start the firefly server.
It will crank around, indexing the music for a while. At some point it will crash. When it does, look at the log file in c:\program files\firefly media server\firefly.log.
Find the last song it tried to index and move it out of the way. Then start it again and repeat as necessary."
Hope this helps anyone else with similar issue.
Bob - I am having the same problem with iTunes not staying enabled.
In trying the suggested "cure" of finding potentially corrupt files, I found that firefly crashed when it got to a file called "Champagne Bottle Cork.m4a"
There seems to be nothing wrong with the file; however it is very SHORT and is listed with a time length of 0 seconds. Could this alone be the causing the problem perhaps ? - DaveJ_ca said:It sounds like the file is corrupted somehow. Remove the file from the Music share on your server and restart. See what happens. Then check the file on whatever desktop PC it came from.
I am having the same problem with iTunes not staying enabled.
In trying the suggested "cure" of finding potentially corrupt files, I found that firefly crashed when it got to a file called "Champagne Bottle Cork.m4a"
There seems to be nothing wrong with the file; however it is very SHORT and is listed with a time length of 0 seconds. Could this alone be the causing the problem perhaps ?
I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :) - I've been reading this and other threads with interest. I was having multiple entries on the server in my iTunes library. I deleted all of the music off the server, in the expectation that it would all sync up nicely. Since I deleted the files last night (12+ hours ago) nothing has synced.
I have three computers: desktop, Laptop #1 and laptop #2. iTunes are only on the desktop. I turned off the iTunes sync on all the computers, and on the server once I had deleted the files.
I turned back on the iTunes server on the server itself then turned syncing back on the desktop only. Nothing!
I did go into the server and checked the 'firefly.log' file - it seemed to be looking for files on Laptop #1, which there were none, and finished.
I *had* set up the server (the WHS not just the iTunes server) through Laptop#1 since the desktop is running Vista x64 but had installed the 64-bit connector on the desktop and originally it worked fine - until I got the multiple file problem.
I also noted a comment about the "songs3.db" file. Should I delete this since I had manually deleted all the files and have the iTunes server re-configure? Would that work?
Thanks for the help.
Murray - I was having a similar problem and tried installing and uninstalling software on both my computer and server. It turned out to be a very simple issue. The Bonjour service was disabled on the server, as soon as I enabled the service the iTunes server started right up and stayed up.
- I am having the same problem on my HP Server. This is how I have my set up configured.
1. 125 Gig on music is on the server. In the directory Music/ artist name
2. Music is in various formats
When I turn on ITunes share on the server.
It will stay actove for a short time and then become enbled.
3. Itunes is installed on 5 PC throughoout the house.
I point the ripping of new music to the server
A allow the local PC to add all the server music to there local lib.
HELP please. How do I make this active. I am having the same problem on my HP Server. This is how I have my set up configured.
1. 125 Gig on music is on the server. In the directory Music/ artist name
2. Music is in various formats
When I turn on ITunes share on the server.
It will stay actove for a short time and then become enbled.
3. Itunes is installed on 5 PC throughoout the house.
I point the ripping of new music to the server
A allow the local PC to add all the server music to there local lib.
HELP please. How do I make this active.
Hi,
The answer is posted above: please follow the advice in the reply marked as answer by ssart.
If you are unable to do this, please contact HP.
Thank you
Lara Jones [MSFT] | Program Manager
Community Support and Beta | Windows Home Server Team
Windows Home Server Team Blog
Connect Windows Home Server
Windows Home Server- Can you please tell us step by step how to enable the Bonjour Service on the server ?
- Log on to your server using physical console or Remote Desktop connection.
- Click the Start button.
- Click Run...
- Type services.msc in the text box and press Enter.
- Find "Bonjour Service" in the list. If it's already started, don't proceed, just log off. You don't have this issue.
- Right click it.
- Select Properties in the context menu.
- On the General tab, make sure that Startup Type is set to Automatic.
- On the Log On tab, make sure that Local System account is selected.
- Click Apply.
- Either click the General tab, then the Start button, then OK, or click OK, then right click the service and select Start from the context menu.
- Log off your server.
Note that directly connecting to your server's desktop is unsupported and potentially dangerous, as there are tools available to you that can cause serious issues with Windows Home Server functionality.
I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)- I'm having a similar though perhaps more extreme version of this problem. I do not have an "iTuens Server" tab in the main WHS console though I do have a iTunes server tab in the settings dialogue. From images on the web it seems that I'm missing this tab? Is that correct or did the tab disappear with the 2.5 update?
Anyway this is not the principal problem. My main concern is that I cannot enable the itunes server. I enable the server through the settings dialogue click OK/APPLY. WHen I return to the itunes server window in the settings dialogue any changes I've made are not enabled. It really seems like nothing happens when I click enable.
I've made very few changes to the EX485 - I added a drive, installed Avast and Tivo Publisher, set up remote access, thats about it. Everything seems to be working well. We recently got iPhones and while I'm not a fan of Itunes I'm not stuck with it and would like to get theitunes server working on the WHS.
Thanks in advance for your help.
-SS I'm having a similar though perhaps more extreme version of this problem. I do not have an "iTuens Server" tab in the main WHS console though I do have a iTunes server tab in the settings dialogue. From images on the web it seems that I'm missing this tab? Is that correct or did the tab disappear with the 2.5 update?
Anyway this is not the principal problem. My main concern is that I cannot enable the itunes server. I enable the server through the settings dialogue click OK/APPLY. WHen I return to the itunes server window in the settings dialogue any changes I've made are not enabled. It really seems like nothing happens when I click enable.
I've made very few changes to the EX485 - I added a drive, installed Avast and Tivo Publisher, set up remote access, thats about it. Everything seems to be working well. We recently got iPhones and while I'm not a fan of Itunes I'm not stuck with it and would like to get theitunes server working on the WHS.
Thanks in advance for your help.
-SS
There's a screenshot of the 48x series console here and the 2.5 update here. The problem you're describing may be related to the firefly service crashing the minute it hits a song that's encoded in a way it doesn't like or when it hits a file it thinks is corrupt. Which means you will have to use the method outlined above by ssart.
If this does not work, you will need to contact HP Support as the iTunes server/Firefly service is an add-in they provide and your MediaSmart server should still be under their service contract.
Thanks.
Lara Jones [MSFT] | Program Manager
Community Support and Beta | Windows Home Server Team
Windows Home Server Team Blog
Connect Windows Home Server
Windows Home Server- Edited byLara JonesModeratorFriday, June 26, 2009 8:00 PMtypo
