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[Vocalpoint]

All

Was very excited to hear of developments in the last year or so - where a library backup (with Thumbnails) would potentially restore the libraries thumbnails when setting up a fresh install of MC.

Yesterday - I did just that - built a new media PC with new hardware and reinstalled MC from scratch (28.0.92) into the new machine. The day previous - I did several full backups of the master library - complete with thumbnails this time as I thought finally I would not have to mess around manually to get my thumbnails back in place.

Well - the library restore (which is brilliant BTW) puts everything else back exactly as it was the day previous - with the large and glaring omission of the thumbnails. After the restore - MC prompts you to restart - which I did and then when the app came back up - I immediately started checking all my key settings like Tools-Options-Startup (making sure that Media Server starts etc etc) - all the standard library settings were perfect. Nothing more to do or adjust.

But then to my disappointment - I move over to Help->System Info and under Processing  - expect to see 82866 thumbnails built - (the exact amount listed prior to yesterdays full backup) - because logically - if the restore actually placed my backed up thumbnail files correctly (see attachment) I should see a complete thumbnail set with NO rebuilding action from MC whatsoever.

But it was clear as I scrolled thru my standard views that the thumbnails were being rebuilt (at least previews) and when I went out to Explorer to check the actual thumbnail folder and it's files - the same 6 file names shown in the attachment were all there - but the file sizes were tiny - the "Thumbnails (large).jmd was around 4K and all other files were clearly just staring to be populated.

So I closed MC - and rolled over to:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 28\Thumbnails\{B02FE01E-8369-4EAA-A033-FA63D1C18EB5}\Normal (v3)

and deleted everything

I then copied the same six files shown in the attachment - (From a file to file mirrored backup the day previous) right back to the directory above - started MC and then went back to

Help->System Info and under Processing  - and see exactly 82866 thumbnails built

AND - MC is clearly not building, rebuilding or refreshing any thumbnails, thumbnail previews or anything else related to thumbs. I could choose any view, scroll with the mouse and there was no screen repainting (as is the case when previews are being created) and certainly no empty album cover art slots (where a preview has yet to be built)

So - unless I did something really wrong - I fail to see how including thumbnails in a library backup is a good thing - at least with this outcome. Isn't the whole point of restoring a backup to not have to do any additional work and get a 100% correct library (and all it's trimmings) upon restore?

Very happy to be schooled on what I am missing here.

Cheers

VP

[Matt]

I just restored a library backup with thumbs and they all came in properly.

[Awesome Donkey]

I've had this happen several times on Linux when I was distro hopping from Arch Linux to Ubuntu to Fedora with fresh MC28 installs, restoring the backup restores the library and settings but not thumbnails. Thankfully I keep manual backups of the thumbnails which I was able to manually restore successfully.

[Vocalpoint]

I just restored a library backup with thumbs and they all came in properly.

Happy New Year Matt!

I think you need to try a restore against a brand new install of MC - where MC has never existed before.

This use case is very specific to restoring the library to a brand new machine, brand new Windows build etc - where MC does not exist - is installed first and then the library backup is restored as the second step.

I did 3 passes of this last setup of mine - 2 on VMs and then 1 on the real PC and all three did not restore at all.

There is something going on here...

VP

[Awesome Donkey]

Happy New Year Matt!

I think you need to try a restore against a brand new install of MC - where MC has never existed before.

This use case is very specific to restoring the library to a brand new machine, brand new Windows build etc - where MC does not exist - is installed first and then the library backup is restored as the second step.

I did 3 passes of this last setup of mine - 2 on VMs and then 1 on the real PC and all three did not restore at all.

There is something going on here...

VP

I have an idea, try checking to see if the Thumbnails folder is created or not before attempting to restore the backup with thumbnails on a clean install. If it doesn't create a Thumbnails folder try repeating the test but this time manually create the Thumbnails folder before restoring the backup with thumbnails and see what happens.

[Vocalpoint]

I have an idea, try checking to see if the Thumbnails folder is created or not before attempting to restore the backup with thumbnails on a clean install. If it doesn't create a Thumbnails folder try repeating the test but this time manually create the Thumbnails folder before restoring the backup with thumbnails and see what happens.

Well - I am all installed here now and will not be testing this any further until the next rebuild

But yes - you have a point. I think there is something very wrong with the backup archive folder creation (but ONLY on an untouched just installed machine)

I am thinking in a clean install scenario - MC is laid on disk but has not done anything with Thumbnails until the user forces that issue. And in my case - I am doing absoutely NOTHING in the way of config:

1. Install MC
2. Kill that useless message about scanning for media
3. Immediately move to restoring my master backup with ALL my settings and (hopefully) the thumbnails as last saved.

If MC cannot put my Thumbnails folder back to exactly where it was, with the same name and everything else identical to the way it was when creating the last master backup - it's obvious where the problem is. And my manual work bears this out.

VP

[Matt]

I'll try this next build:
Changed: A directory is created before moving to hopefully fix thumbnail restore problems with an empty library (feedback appreciated).

It looks like we moved the files, but didn't build the directory first.  I was able to reproduce it not moving files nicely with our test function before the change.

[Vocalpoint]

I'll try this next build:
Changed: A directory is created before moving to hopefully fix thumbnail restore problems with an empty library (feedback appreciated).

It looks like we moved the files, but didn't build the directory first.  I was able to reproduce it not moving files nicely with our test function before the change.

Right on Matt!

Looking forward to this update.

Cheers!

VP