If that's true then that is extremely frustrating. I want to keep supporting this program, but the client/server functionality was one of the main things that drew me to it. I didn't really see any new features in v.21 that were important to me, but I wanted to keep supporting the development of this great piece of software. Unless this is fixed and restored I am going to stay at version 20 and not waste any more money on upgrades that break important functionality. I hope the team can find a way to fix this issue. Clients should be able to import media into a shared library.
As I said above, the final version of 20 already was like this ... this is not a version 21 change so lets not get all worked up about this. I don't know which exact version, but I checked the 20.0.132.
Clients should be able to import media into a shared library.
careful when you make statements like this. This can be confusing to people.
You are sharing access to the media files, yes. You are, normally, loading a library on your client machines from 1 machine that is running media server. You are not "sharing it" or accessing it directly, it is like a virtual copy - by design. This “copy” updates via auto-sync every so often, if you have that option ticked, or by running a manual sync.
The fact that through mapped drives it was convenient to move files around via clients is one thing. But by design, and Glynor can edit for omissions or errors on my part, there have always been limitations: Forcing a manual Import, Ripping, Cover art manipulation, moving and renaming files, audio analysis … So by using RMCF in that way you actually are modifying the library directly, probably why they made the change as it allowed a workaround using mapped drives visible on the client machines. People were clamoring for read only user access and ways to stop family members to mess with the library. They just closed the loophole.
There are ways to do what you do ... just move the files from a client via Windows into a watched folder and wait for auto-import to take over. Or use Team Viewer or any remote desktop app to work directly on the server machine. I've found the best way is just have a temp “sandbox” directory; its gets imported via the server machine (via auto-import or a direct manual import) ... do your tagging from your clients (you still have access to this for playback every where) and when satisfied just use RMCF on the server machine remotely (or locally).
I'm not saying that maybe there should not be a way to use RMCF across the network, or even maybe change how the server/client set-up works. But I don't think it was there intention that you could directly access a library from a client. Basically one machine running media server; other machines running as clients that can edit metadata is how its been working for a long time. Running media server on multiple machines, and using RMCF from clients I don't believe were ever intentional functionality so saying they have to fix it or restore it doesn't make sense.