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[jrobbins]

Hello, Jim and the rest of Team JRiver.  My use case for JRiver is for remote listening -- either streaming off of my iPhone or, as in today, sitting in my office in downtown Minneapolis with a nice little desktop system.

I had been running JRiver at home very successfully on a ComputerAudiophile-designed CAPSZuma server (i7 processor, 16Gb RAM) using Windows Server 2016 in Desktop Experience mode optimized with Audiophile Optimizer 2.20.

Well, now I went and changed things.

I now have JRiver up and running on the same server, but with Windows Server 2019 in Desktop Experience mode optimized with Audiophile Optimizer 3.00.

Here's what's going on:

In my office downtown, I remote back home using MC24 24.0.75 64 bit.  JRiver is properly connecting back home to my library and presents all folders, subfolders and files as expected.  I have made no changes to my downtown setup.  When I go to play a track -- FLAC, SACD, it doesn't seem to matter -- the software looks as though it is about to start playing -- and then the error message "Playback Problem -- Something went wrong with playback" appears, but without any further indication of why.

In a similar vein, I listen to JRiver using JRemote on my iPhone 7 Plus, running iOS 12.3.1.  JRemote continues to properly connect to my home and I can pick files to play without problem.  However, any file I attempt to play now produces the error message "Audio streaming error -- there was a problem playing the current audio file."

A postulated theory:  all my music at home on my Synology NAS is read by JRiver through the path \\N7700\Media.  Now, when I set up the server yesterday with Windows Server 2019, it would not allow me to access the NAS.  So, I associated the drive letter J with \\N7700\Media using the "net use" command.  I note that in my other music playback application, Roon, I had to go into the "storage" settings in the Roon app to change the path for all music, and for nightly library backups, from \\N7700\Media to J.  In this light, I am wondering if I need to reassign similarly for JRiver.  I note that the library I am accessing is the restored library from when I was running Windows Server 2016 the day before, using the \\N7700\Media path -- and that is the path still showing in the filenames of my remote library at my office.

If you indeed think that I'm on to something, I assume there is some batch way to change all library folder and file prefixes in JRiver from \\N7700\Media to J, but I don't know how to do that.  Might be the first place to start to fix this.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.  Cheers.  JCR

[JimH]

It could be several things.

Firewall.  See the wiki topic on Network Access.

File location.  Can you play locally at home?   See the wiki topic called Moving Files.

Version.  Use the same version on both sides.

[jrobbins]

Hi Jim.  Thanks for your note.  As to the items you describe:

Firewall.  Audiophile Optimizer disables the Windows firewall.  As to my router, I continue to have (and did not change) port forwarding from the home server internal static IP address 192.168.0.233 using internal and external ports 52199 for TCP.  Given that I can access the home library itself remotely at my office, and also on my iPhone, would suggest to me that the firewall is not the issue.

File location.  Your wiki describes the "base path."  At home, the base path reads "Media (\\192.168.0.2) (J:)".  On the remote library at my office, the base path reads "\\N7700\Media".  The files were not moved.  They are in the same place on the NAS.  192.168.0.2 is the internal IP address at home for my NAS.  Perhaps I need to find a way to edit the remote library so that all base paths read like home, rather than as they read now?  But, I can't do Library Tools from my office, as I get the error message that "this tool is not available when connected to a server."

Do I just bite the bullet and reset my library at home to do a full rescan of all of my music files, figuring that the new correct base path will attach on?  Or is there a way to edit the remote library?  And how would editing that impact my iPhone's similar inability to play? -- I assume the problem is the same.

Version.  I upgraded my office PC to MC25.  It didn't help.  Of course, there is no update for my iPhone to a newer version of JRemote than what I have, so I don't think the versioning is the issue, either.

Your continued sage advice appreciated.  Thanks.  JCR

[Scobie]

I would certainly look at the drive path as it sounds as if the library is pointing to a location that is not accessible by the file system.

Do the icons in MC have the small red circle with the line through on them?

Depending on the amount of media you have it may be simpler to just reimport, as all the links including the media files themselves and cover art etc might be broken. You could do a quick PoC and reimport a couple of folders and see if they play.

[RoderickGI]

Do I just bite the bullet and reset my library at home to do a full rescan of all of my music files

No.

I disagree with Scobie on this. Re-importing files is always the wrong solution to fixing Library issues. Unless all metadata has been saved in tags in the file, and it hasn't been, then you will lose some information that is only stored in the Library, not the files.

What you need to do, on the MC Server, is use the "Find & Replace" functionality of the "Rename, Move, & Copy Files" function to Find "\\N7700\Media" and replace it with "J:\". Then the MC Server will be able to find the files to play them from JRemote and your office PC. That will get things working again. Search the forum for "Find & Replace", or check the Wiki for the RM&CF function for more details on how and what to do.

But actually, in your situation, I would solve the underlying problem and leave the Library alone. That is, I would get my Windows Server 2019 installation to be able to see the "\\N7700\Media" location again, as it should. The issue there will be Network Discovery services aren't running, or similar. If stepping up from Windows Server 2016 to Windows Server 2019 is anything like stepping up from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and I believe it is, then Microsoft would have disabled SMBv1 by default, and you would need to use either SMBv2 or above, and set up the appropriate services to run for Windows to be able to discover network locations.

I wrote a post about what to do in Windows 10. I don't know the equivalent in Windows Server 2019. See https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,114852.0.html

[Scobie]

That is, I would get my Windows Server 2019 installation to be able to see the "\\N7700\Media" location again, as it should.

+1 on this, using a mapped drive letter is not a good idea.

And yes, I concur with Roderick here. To put some context around what I said earlier unless the library is trivial or completely hosed a reimport, while it will sort your issue,  is a last option.

But a quick reimport of a couple of folders will certainly rule out firewall / comms issues if successful.

[jrobbins]

Hi all.  Thanks for your input.

Replacing \\N7700\Media with J:\ using Library Tools has worked.  I can remote in from my office and off of my iPhone, just as before. 

One new glitch:  In my office downtown, file types designated as SACD do not play.  File types designated (even for the same album) as dsf do play.  I am using a DragonFly Red DAC so I do have all bitrates above 96 adjusted to convert within JRiver to 96 or 88.2, as appropriate.  Not sure why the SACD ISOs are recognized but not playable.  Thoughts on this?

As to Roderick's point about getting network discovery up and running again, I was able to locate both the Function Discovery Provider Host and Function Discovery Resource Publication services under services.msc (Windows Server 2019 and Windows 10 are a lot alike) and changed to Automatic (Delayed Start).  My network has been and continues to show as private.  However, turning on network discovery with auto setup of network connected devices does not restore my ability to see the NAS through the network.  Only through the drive letter J.  And J is not persistent when rebooting the server, even though I set it up in net use with /persistent:yes.  I have to manually enter the password for the NAS on each reboot of the server for the NAS to become discoverable by the server even under the J drive letter.

So, while I've solved my problem, I guess I've not really solved it in the way that you all think it should get done.  If any of you has further thoughts on why the network discovery isn't working, I'd appreciate it.  Thanks.  JCR

[RoderickGI]

Alas, I can't help with the SACD issue. But there have been lots of posts in the forum about the format, playback, etc., so the answer may be there. I think the recommended resolution for using the format was to rip it to the DSD (DSF) components, and play those instead.

On the network issue if you have the Network Discovery services running and the Synology still isn't visible, then I suspect it is a Synology setting, setup, or issue. You might need to ask Synology. After all, a Windows Server 2019 installation should be able to see a NAS via URI (\\N7700\Media). Although it could be that Windows Server 2019 in Desktop Experience mode doesn't have some components, or as you have optimized with Audiophile Optimizer 3.00, that software may have turned off some components. After all, my understanding is that is what it does. You may have missed something in upgrading to version 3.0. It is also still in Beta, isn't it?

[jrobbins]

Fortunately, I do have DSF files for each iso so the inability to get MC25 to play the iso natively is not fatal to my listening enjoyment.

Audiophile Optimizer does indeed have a Network related services feature which, quoting from the published manual, states:

“Network related Services
This is one of the most important settings to decide about. Especially on the AudioPC it is very important to disable all network related services; this will result in a very nice step-up in overall sound quality. If you decide to disable network related services, Remote Desktop and Windows Remote Management will be automatically disabled as well. Depending on your scenario (ControlPC for example), disabling all network related services also means dealing with some drawbacks. Depending on your needs, it might be best not to disable network related services on the ControlPC. If you use network drives or a NAS, you won’t be able to connect to them anymore.”

Noting the last sentence, I have not disabled the network related services. I had much the same problem with URI with the same server running WS2016.  Right now, all is working correctly, so I should leave well enough alone. Thanks. JCR