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[Louis]

I'm looking for some advice on how to either clone/move/migrate/sync a Win MC21 library to a QNAP TS-453A MC21 Hybriddesk Station App.
What I've tried so far:

• Applying the Sync Library function = immediate crash of the MC21 HD Station App
• Restoring a backup Win MC21 Library to the MC21 HD Station App and using the "Rename, Move & Copy / Find & Replace" function to change the path to /Share/Audio... = Most files, not all, have red x and fail to play with error file not found, yet file path format appears to be ok
• Auto-Import into an empty Library works okay (shows same Filename path /Share/Audio..), but this doesn't bring the 50 odd playlists or statistics (# of plays) across

Playlists:

• Exporting All Playlists from Win MC21 does not retain unicode characters, and no option for (Linux) file path conversion
• Exporting Playlist in M3U8 format (retains unicode) can only be done one at a time and needs to be manually edited for QNAP NAS file path
• Smartlists not transferred
• There doesn't appear to be any way to move a Playlist between Playlist Groups

Also, I assume standard Folder rules cannot be used because of the Linux file path difference

So my question is, does anyone have any suggestions on how to best migrate to the QNAP NAS platform while retaining Playlists, Library statistics and customization?

As a matter of interest, I am seeking to move to the QNAP NAS for the low power consumption and the multiple functionalities it offers in an off-grid situation

[sekrit]

This is what I did to switch from Windows to Ubuntu

1) Reload the library.  It's too large to modify the file locations
2) Playlists: File locations needs to be modified until you see a common location

e.g:  Windows G:\Server\Music\Hi-Fi\Track1.flac
Find and Replace "G:Server\Music" with "/Media/windowsshare/Music

End result: /Media/windowsshare/Music\Hifi\Track1.flac

Import this file to MC and mixing forward slash and backslash will work.

3) Import the backup library from windows but only the settings.

[Robad]

Louis, did you get anywhere with this?

I would quite like to be able to:
- Run MC on my PC for library management.
- Run MC on a QNAP TS-251 as a UPnP server accessing said library.

Currently I am only doing the former, with the music files on the NAS but its library on the PC.
Library management using MC on the NAS is tedious.
If I connect to the NAS library from my PC the management facilities appear to be limited, e.g. I cannot attach artwork, etc.

I was wondering whether there is a way:
a) To store the library on the QNAP and manage it on the PC, or
b) To manage the library on the PC and sync it with the one on the QNAP.

 Rob

[Louis]

Robad, sorry for the tardy response.
I ran into world of trouble trying to achieve much the same as you, here is what I found (MC ver 21.0.93) :
- MC for QNAP is very sluggish, unstable and cannot be relied upon. It will crash or freeze even when "doing nothing".
- MC for QNAP is, as you point out, rather limited it its libary management capabilities and will fail at certain tasks.
- MC for QNAP apparently caused corruption in the libary, and Playlists stop working (appears to lose the location of the file, even though nothing has changed)
- It is not clear to me where MC for QNAP stores its libary files, they are not readily accessible from the NAS (I asked the question in the QNAP forum, but no one knows apparently). At one stage MC showed my libary as having grown from 23MB to over 400MB, but couldn't find out how to access the libary files on the QNAP to see what was going on, so had uninstall and try again.

I suspect that the different path syntax between Windows and Linux is causing much of the grief and library corruption and makes it hard to migrate a library from a MC Windows to MC QNAP. I've tried many ways and the only way that had some success with was to open the existing Windows library in QNAP then clone it and do a file path replacement on that clone. That worked for a while before the library became corrupted again such that MC wouldn't even start.
So my current situation is that I have abandomed MC for QNAP for now, it simply doesn't do the job reliably or anywhere near as well as the Windows version. My current set up is:

All media files nd libary reside on the QNAP NAS and I leave a PC running 24x7 with MC 21 just to serve MC Clients on various other PCs and Gizmo on Android. Using MC for QNAP as a client for this libary will work sometimes, but it is very slow and unstable and will crash after a while, so now I use Kodi and Plex when I'm playing media files on the QNAP (connected to receiver and TV) and they are stable and work very well, albeit without the MC functionality and library management I would like. (Note. syncing the libary on QNAP with Windows MC Server causes library corruption too).

I had hoped to use the QNAP NAS as the main engine to lower my power usage, but alas that is not possible at the current stage of development. I may revisit this if J River choose to release a MC22 version for QNAP, but otherwise I'll stay clear of Linux and the incompatibilities that are apparent with Windows clients.

[JimH]

Newer builds are available:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,108418.0.html

[Robad]

I have MC21 reasonably stable on the QNAP.  It has been known to crash, but few times since I unticked "Build thumbnails" in the auto-import options. 
My current process is to rip CDs to the QNAP and 'manage' them on my PC.  I know I'm 'managing' an independent library on the PC but I assume I'm not wasting my time...
I agree about the path differences.  I managed to corrupt the library on the QNAP myself.  I was trying to create playlists on the PC then import them on the QNAP.  I had to create them on the QNAP.
I get a similar problem when I open the QNAP library on the PC - make sure auto-import is disabled or you'll get a second instance of everything with the PC's path!
I'm currently running 21.0.93 on the QNAP and 22.0.55 on the PC.  But I suspect it's not worth the hassle & risk of updating the QNAP, and for what benefit?