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[bblue]

Hello all!

I have been using drive E: as the physical drive on my main server.  It houses all video and audio files in different directories on that physical drive.

But I have one client in the house (my main workstation, unfortunately) on which drive E: is no longer available.  It's a registry bug of some sort but I have been unable to find any solution to the problem.  So, to keep the concept of utilizing the switch (which for the life of me I can no longer find) where you enable it to let the client play the file locally, if the filenames including drive, match exactly.  I have always had mine set to enabled since about MC24 or so and that has worked fine.  But now that I can't mount the network server drive on E: locally, that no longer can work.

Back on the server, now, how do I change the physical drive with which MC sees the main database?  I have no problem changing the physical mount point to, say, V:, but MC doesn't notice that and says that everything that is supposed to be on E: is missing.  I've tried re-importing a backup of the library files thinking that then it would notice the drive should now be V:.  Nope, that doesn't work.  I don't see any mechanism in library controls to change all the files prefixed with E: (all of them, basically) can be changed to another letter.

Am I just missing something obvious, or is there a specific procedure that must be followed?

Once that can happen, the new V: can be shared (actually it already is) with other clients just like E: used to be.

All the MC's are currently 24.0.43.  The OS on the server is Windows 10 2004 1903, and on all the clients is Windows 10 20H2.

Can anyone tell me how to change file locations on the server, or maybe a wiki with specifics?  (couldn't find one)

Thanks

[JimH]

The wiki topic on Moving Files has some tools that you can use to change the drive in MC.

Make sure you have a good backup of MC's library.

The switch you're looking for is in Media Network settings.  The options page has a search window at the bottom.

[David Sydney]

Just a comment - hopefuly helpful. The journey you are on is the very reason I always create an M: drive in windows for my "media", even since itunes days before JRiver. This way no mater where your physically library is, the root folder of your media I always map it to the M: drive in windows explorer, home, this PC, Map network drive. It does not have to be on a network. Over around 3 builds of PC, and other laptops my media library is always on M:

My old machine all my docs, files and media were on D:, but the root folder of media was also mapped to M:. Just so happens that this new machine I built 6 mths ago I started with a clean RAID drive and directly assigned it M:. Start "Computer Management" console, in the disk management section, right click the drive "Change drive leter and paths" to change it to M: instead of letting Windows choose for itself. You will have to do this on new install not once the PC is up but before you have installed everything. If you do this on an established setup all your programs will loose their place, and it will screw JRiver library. I mean keep this in mind when you get your next new machine prior to installing software on it.

[tij]

I assume its on Windows

Google "subst" command.

While at it google "mklink" ... also interesting command that might proove useful someday

[justsomeguy]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question but why can't he just use the "Rename, Move, & Copy Files"? Set that to "Update database to point to new location" and use the Find&Replace option, Find: E:\, Replace with: M:\
I've actually done this before.

[tij]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question but why can't he just use the "Rename, Move, & Copy Files"? Set that to "Update database to point to new location" and use the Find&Replace option, Find: E:\, Replace with: M:\
I've actually done this before.

 I was thinking of mapping media on different drive letter on client ... then using SUBST command to map request to E: to that drive letter ... but since E: is not available ... this might not work

Maybe drive letter E was permananetely assigned to some external drive or DVD drive ... this can be done in Disk Manager ... would explain why E: letter is not available

... but in any case ... Rename thingy will work (i think) ... here is steps for it https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=76108.0

[David Sydney]

Yes I think that is what Jim is pointing to.... F6 is how you move the whole library using find& replace (the example list something similar to what bblue is trying to do). I have also done this after I have renamed the folder names in my music library (away from "itunes library"). It is best doing it overnight as the command is quick - but it goes through every file to update the library information so you are best off letting it do it's thing updating every single file with out multitasking or doing some other thing in JRiver while it updates over several hours.

[tij]

Link i posted is exactly what @justsomeguy said ... i should read post fully before posting reply to avoid feeling silly later lol

[bblue]

I must not have been clear enough.  No one seems to have gotten my goal.

First, the File/rename/copy option in Library manager is for MOVE related changes (as is the wiki).  None of the options will let you changed the DRIVE: referenced -- that's all.  No moves, nothing else.

There's no problem changing the DOS drive letter assignment.  I change that on the server to V:, then run MC and the library still has every entry pointing to the E: drive.  As a result, all entries are 'missing' (cannot be found).  I simply want to change the database's notion of the BASE DRIVE from E:\ to V:\.  No moves, no copies, nothing else.  But only that much can be changed, because there is a specific hierarchy below that that cannot be changed.

Thanks.

It's a very simple request that doesn't seem to be addressed in any way on MC.

subst and friend are windows operations which are unneeded since the drive ID is easily assignable already in Drive Manager.

By doing this, then network sharing the drive V: so other client machines will see it as V: and I can set that network drive on each client, to the V: drive.  Now when a MC is run on a client, the database also shows V:, which agrees now with the exact path for the local location of each song.

Other ideas?

The problem from preventing the use of E: on my workstation is a W10 2004/H2 and up, bug which has not been fixed yet.  One other machine I have had the same issue, but the solution for it was easy to find.  On this workstation, there is no E: drive iassigned by the drive manager, and the position is not showing as used by any driver or device.  "This PC" shows it as a CD/DVD drive, but right now other such drives are disconnected.  You can't disable any device to make the phantom drive to go away (thereby showing E: available for reassignment.  I've spent hours on this one thing, searching the net, searching microsoft, etc, lots of mentions of phantom E: drives in this version of W10, but no solutions that solve the problem on this machine.

[bblue]

... but in any case ... Rename thingy will work (i think) ... here is steps for it https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=76108.0

That references a post that Matt made for MC17, but the "Update database to point to new location"  doesn't seem to exist in the current wiki or MC itself.

[justsomeguy]

The option to update database only in the Rename, Move, & Copy Files absolutely exists. I just tested it on a few files. Select a few files then press F6, or go to "Tools>Library Options>Rename, Move, & Copy Files", or a 3rd option right click on your selected files then Library Tools>Rename, Move, & Copy Files

[leezer3]

Find and replace tool is probably what you want.

This operates on the filename field just fine.

Wouldn't necessarily recommend it mind, I'd personally be reinstalling the offending machine.

Something like this is normally a sympton of wider problems.

[bblue]

The option to update database only in the Rename, Move, & Copy Files absolutely exists. I just tested it on a few files. Select a few files then press F6, or go to "Tools>Library Options>Rename, Move, & Copy Files", or a 3rd option right click on your selected files then Library Tools>Rename, Move, & Copy Files

Thanks much for posting that picture.  I had never picked up on the fact the first entry at the top was a 'mode switch' that affected the behavior of the entries below it.  The labeling might be clearer, or maybe I'm just dense.  In any event what you showed me worked perfectly, thanks.  Jimh's post got me to the wiki, but I could never get it to do anything that didn't involve copying or moving files.

All the MC clients here are now receiving the updated database which matches the network share.  Great!

--Bill

[bblue]

Find and replace tool is probably what you want.

This operates on the filename field just fine.

Wouldn't necessarily recommend it mind, I'd personally be reinstalling the offending machine.

Something like this is normally a sympton of wider problems.

Yeah, Microsoft Bugs!  This machine is one I just rebuilt from scratch from its predecessor, which couldn't be updated from W10 1909 to 2004.  The hardware would support 2004 on another boot drive, so it was something in the installed programs or a registry problem.  Days of searching and attempting to update were fruitless, Microsoft was no help, etc.  I finally reinstalled everything in another machine, and it took about three weeks.  Y'see, this isn't just a workstation, it's my DAW, Video editor, and other misc with some 500 programs and plugins, and WSL Linux installed..  Very very tedious maintaining all the configurations, updating software that had to be re-licensed, etc.  Shortly after that, the drive E: problem just showed up after a reboot.  No explanation, no other errors.  It's a well known problem at Microsoft and there are several solutions/recommendations made, but none work here.

No, I won't be rebuilding this any time soon.

--Bill

[zxsix]

UNC paths also work, which would negate the need to make sure the drive letters were mapped consistently on each client.
So in that find and replace tool, you could replace E:\ with \\server\share instead of a different drive letter.
I've used UNC for years and have clients connecting as MC library clients as well as DLNA devices.  If the UNC path is legit from the client, it will play the file directly instead of streaming/transcoding it via the MC server.

[bblue]

UNC paths also work, which would negate the need to make sure the drive letters were mapped consistently on each client.
So in that find and replace tool, you could replace E:\ with \\server\share instead of a different drive letter.
I've used UNC for years and have clients connecting as MC library clients as well as DLNA devices.  If the UNC path is legit from the client, it will play the file directly instead of streaming/transcoding it via the MC server.

Good point.  I never tried since I had a couple of other programs which needed access by letter.  I'm pretty sure they have been updated now so that's no longer an issue.  Thanks for the suggestion.

[TheShoe]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question but why can't he just use the "Rename, Move, & Copy Files"? Set that to "Update database to point to new location" and use the Find&Replace option, Find: E:\, Replace with: M:\
I've actually done this before.

I’ver used this feature for exactly this reason: changing drive letter “X” to “Y” but leaving rest of the path the same.  Works perfectly.

[justsomeguy]

I’ver used this feature for exactly this reason: changing drive letter “X” to “Y” but leaving rest of the path the same.  Works perfectly.

Just make sure you change "X:\" to "Y:\", if you specify just "X" to "Y" you'll get any "X" anywhere else in your path/filename changed to "Y" as well.