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[Will N. Dowd]

I moved my MC32 library from my Main Lenovo Laptop to my smaller ASUS laptop.
My Lenovo needs service, so I wanted all my files on my ASUS laptop too.

I don't have an external SSD so I did it via ethernet and a switcher.

Each laptop plugged into the switch with ethernet and then I told the ASUS to sync library with the Lenovo Main library in MC32.

It did work, but it was very slow and took several days since I have 359GB of music.

I have done this before with an older laptop without issues.

This time though, very little album artwork showed up. The album covers are stored in the music file with tag.

After the transfer was finished, covers started showing up, but only about 250 have out of the 1124 albums I have.

If I close MC32 on the ASUS laptop a window pops up and says saving tag changes, and counts down from the total 12500 files to 0 about 1 file a second.

After I open MC32 again, only a few more covers have appeared though.

But, If I choose an album with no cover and select get from internet, my 500x500 cover art of the file transfer is there and I can choose it and save it.

So, why didn't most cover art show up in the transfer, and why do they only show up in the get cover art from internet option?

I don't want to get from internet cover art for almost 1000 albums and I don't want to spend a few more days to try to transfer again in the hope the album covers will show up.

[zybex]

If the files on the Asus are on the EXACT same path and folder structure as the files on the Lenovo (ie, C:\MUSIC or C:\Users\EXACT_SAME_USERNAME\Music", then you can simply make a Library Backup with Covers on Lenovo's MC and restore it on the Asus. This replicates the DB and covers (edit: actually, only thumbnails), as the media files were already copied.

AFAIK, a simple client/server sync does not copy covers.

Did you try this new MC32 feature? It should take care of covers:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,137825.0.html

Copying 360GB over a gigabit network should take a couple of hours max. Even with a 100Mbps switch is should not take more than a day, unless your disks are very slow (possible, with an old Asus spinning disk). Disabling the antivirus temporarily on both machines can also speedup the copy.

[Will N. Dowd]

If the files on the Asus are on the EXACT same path and folder structure as the files on the Lenovo (ie, C:\MUSIC or C:\Users\EXACT_SAME_USERNAME\Music", then you can simply make a Library Backup with Covers on Lenovo's MC and restore it on the Asus. This replicates the DB and covers, as the media files were already copied.

AFAIK, a simple client/server sync does not copy covers.

Did you try this new MC32 feature? It should take care of covers:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,137825.0.html

Copying 360GB over a gigabit network should take a couple of hours max. Even with a 100Mbps switch is should not take more than a day, unless your disks are very slow (possible, with an old Asus spinning disk). Disabling the antivirus temporarily on both machines can also speedup the copy.

Thanks for the reply. The 2 laptops are connected to slow wifi but the actual connection between them was gigabit ethernet. I have synced libraries before in Canada on my fast network there which is all wired to the internet with wifi turned off and it worked much faster with all artwork copied too in a few hours.

I'm in the Philippines now for winter and my laptops are connected to slow wifi and not wired internet. I only made the connections with ethernet to copy the files between them. The USB powered DLink switch shows green fast and orange slow speed lights and annoyingly the Lenovo was only doing 100mbps and not the 1000mbps it is capable of so it took several days. The ASUS was doing gigabit but was slowed down by the Lenovo. Both laptops were bought new within the last 2 years have SSD's but the ASUS has no ethernet so I was using a UGreen gigabit ethernet to usb c adapter with power delivery pass through. I thought perhaps they were both slowed down by the slow wifi they were connected to because the transfer over ethernet stopped if the wifi was out strangely. I can't understand why wifi would affect a transfer between two laptops but it did. As soon as wifi was out the ethernet transfer stopped!

I'll try all of this again on my fast wired ethernet internet network when I'm back in Canada in a month for spring and summer.

The new MC32 feature in that thread doesn't show up on my MC32, no option to "Copy Library and Files from Server" on my MC32.

Both my laptops have the exact same path and folders so please post detailed instructions on how to restore the Lenovo library serever backup onto my ASUS client so I can try it!

[zybex]

I can't understand why wifi would affect a transfer between two laptops but it did. As soon as wifi was out the ethernet transfer stopped!

Then it was using wifi. This comes down to the preferred network/route settings in windows. The best is to give the wired cards on each PC a distinct IP address in a range different from the Wifi range and then connect using that instead of the hostname. Ie, if wifi is on 192.168.1.x, give the wired connection 192.168.5.10 on PC1 and 192.168.5.20 on PC2, then connect from PC2 to PC1 using "\\192.168.5.10". There are other ways too.

Both my laptops have the exact same path and folders so please post detailed instructions on how to restore the Lenovo library serever backup onto my ASUS client so I can try it!

After checking, you may need an extra step for the covers - the backup includes thumbnails, but not the covers themselves :-/
Perhaps you already copied the covers and MC is just regenerating the thumbnails. If so, doing the backup/restore may be enough.

Backup: On the lenovo, do File > Library > Backup Library. It will ask if you want to include thumbnails, say yes.
Restore: On the Asus, do File > Library > Restore Library. Check if all is good.

If covers are still missing, you need to copy the "Covert Art" folder. It's located in:
%appdata%\J River\Media Center 32\Cover Art

[Will N. Dowd]

Then it was using wifi. This comes down to the preferred network/route settings in windows. The best is to give the wired cards on each PC a distinct IP address in a range different from the Wifi range and then connect using that instead of the hostname. Ie, if wifi is on 192.168.1.x, give the wired connection 192.168.5.10 on PC1 and 192.168.5.20 on PC2, then connect from PC2 to PC1 using "\\192.168.5.10". There are other ways too.
After checking, you may need an extra step for the covers - the backup includes thumbnails, but not the covers themselves :-/
Perhaps you already copied the covers and MC is just regenerating the thumbnails. If so, doing the backup/restore may be enough.

Backup: On the lenovo, do File > Library > Backup Library. It will ask if you want to include thumbnails, say yes.
Restore: On the Asus, do File > Library > Restore Library. Check if all is good.

If covers are still missing, you need to copy the "Covert Art" folder. It's located in:
%appdata%\J River\Media Center 32\Cover Art

Yes that makes sense now how it was over wifi and so bloody slow!

I'll try to do another transfer over ethernet here by turning off the wifi on both laptops so it defaults to ethernet I assume.

I'll erase some files and see if they transfer over ethernet with wifi off. Don't see why they shouldn't.

If I can't figure it out I'll just leave it and then erase all on my ASUS and do a proper wired transfer over ethernet when I'm back in Canada in a month.

I'm happy to say I figured out how to do the library backup from the Lenovo onto the ASUS and all artwork ahowed up. I didn't realize that backups on the Library Server Lenovo would also show up on the client ASUS through a network. I thought the backup was specific to the laptop and couldn't be seen on another laptop. I learned something more.

[Will N. Dowd]

My goodness I'm cursed with problems here!

I've now wired my switcher into the internet router and to both laptops and they have connection.

I'm trying to do a wired library sync now instead of my previous one over wi-fi.

But now, my ASUS client laptop doesn't see the Lenovo laptop server even though they're plugged in the same switch and sitting next each other!

I've adjusted firewall settings and public or private networks and no difference.

When I click sync library on my ASUS client, it says attempting connection to various ip addresses, and then attempts them again 3 more times before giving up.

I don't understand how they connected fine on the same network over wifi but now on the same network over ethernet it doesn't work.

[Will N. Dowd]

Even microsoft couldn't solve it when they took remote command of both laptops.

I can see each laptop on the other laptop and share and copy files between them without using JRiver, but when I try to use MC32 to sync client with server, it says:

connecting to server please wait, and then lists a series of ip addresses it tries to connect to but can't and gives up after 3 tries.


How can my ASUS client laptop see and copy files from my Lenovo Server Laptop without MC32 but with MC32 it can't see it on a wired ethernet network?

[EnglishTiger]

Will - Since those 2 laptops refuse to See Each Other when connected by the switch try bypassing the switch by using an Ethernet Cross Over Cable to connect them to each other.

[zybex]

You're saying that the LAN connection is working in windows (without wifi), but not in MC, correct?
Have you rebooted/restarted MC Server (including tray icon/Media Server) so that it updates the IP Address list associated with your Access Key? Then restart MC Client so that it fetches the updated list. MC Server needs internet access in order to update the Key, and Client also needs it to get the updated IP list.

You can check which IP Addresses are associated with your access key here (replace YourAccessKey):
http://wr.jriver.com/libraryserver/lookup/YourAccessKey

If the LAN address doesn't show up there then it won't connect.

Further troubleshooting:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Network_Access
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=103229.0

If that fails, you can try generating a new Access Key on the server and then reconnect the client to the server using the new key.

[Will N. Dowd]

Thanks for all the help here people!

I've done more experiments and after closing and reopening MC32 on the Lenovo server laptop that fixed the problem of the missing ip addresses and I could sync libraries again. Annoyingly the artwork was still missing after sync finished.

I then tried to do the restore backup on the ASUS client to get the artwork, but it now doesn't see the latest Lenovo server backup anymore. It sees the laptop, can load the library and sync with it, but doesn't see the latest backup, only old ones...very annoying.

I then erased the whole library on the client and then just used windows network function to copy the music file from the server to the client over ethernet through switcher. Speed was limited to about 11MBPS so it took 9.5 hours to move the 359GB from server to client but all artwork showed up. The switcher supports 1000mbps gigabit speeds so I don't understand why it was so slow.

I then tried the suggestion about bypassing the switcher and plugged ethernet directly from the Lenovo server into the ethernet to USB-C adapter and then into the ASUS client laptop. I then deleted the whole music folder on the ASUS client again and used thee windows network function again to copy the music folder from server to client and now that it wasn't going through the switcher, the speed increased 10X to 110mbps and it transferred the 359GB in just over an hour! Annoyingly, bypassing the switcher still doesn't solve the backup issue and the latest backups are still only seen on the Lenovo server and only old backups on the ASUS client.

So big improvement in speed by not using the switcher, but I still don't understand why MC32 on the client doesn't see the latest backups of MC32 on the server.

Why should I have to bypass MC32 to get the latest music folder updates from server to client?

[zybex]

I think there's some confusion or misunderstandings.

- You seem to have the Asus configured as an MC Client, connected to the Lenovo as MC Server. This works fine when you have both machines available, but you're saying you want to send the Lenovo for service - when you do this, the MC in ASUS will NOT work because it won't see the Lenovo anymore - even if you copied all files to the Asus.

- You misunderstand what a backup is and how to put it on another machine. A backup is just a file saved to the machine where you create the backup. A backup file will not show up on the other machine - you need to copy it manually. The files you see on the Asus are backups taken by the Asus MC instance itself (check the filenames/timestamps, they're not the same between the 2 machines).

What you need to do is:
1. copy all media files to the Asus, to the exact same folder location (done?)
2. copy the "Cover Art" folder from %appdata%\J River\Media Center 32\Cover Art on the Lenovo to the same folder on the Asus (just paste that address including the %% signs into the Explorer address bar to open that folder)
2. make a backup on the Lenovo; when it asks you where to save the backup, select your DESKTOP folder (or make a note of where it is saved).  Tell it to include thumbnails.
3. copy the backup file from Lenovo's desktop to the ASUS (desktop or other folder)
4. create a new empty library on the Asus
5. Restore the backup file - use the BROWSE button to locate the backup file you copied

That's it. Then you will have an *independent* MC install on the Asus and you can unplug the Lenovo. There's no sync in this method, whatever changes you make after this will NOT show up on the other machine.

[zybex]

As an aside - if you have MC32, all of the above can be done automatically by simply using the new Migration feature:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,137825.0.html

You should perhaps try that first, as it's a ready-made solution with no other manual steps. Again, after you do this you have 2 *independent* installs.