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[mlefebvre]

Over the last 3 days, I have tried two times to build up a handheld cache of all my tunes in MC (37,799 to be exact) for my iPod.

The process seems to want to take about 30 hours or so and that's pretty much what I expected. CPU utilization during this time is almost 100% which is also expected given the amount of work that is happening in the background.

The first time, after about 25 hours of caching, I urgently needed to use the computer for some heavy duty work. Since I needed the CPU power, I hit "Cancel" in the "Building Cache" window, sort of thinking that I could re-start the caching process later and MC would merrily continue where it left off. But it doesn't seem to work that way. When I tried to re-start caching (several times, in different ways: Re-start MC, re-boot, etc.) MC would start caching, but would stop after a random number of songs. Sometimes 70, sometimes 1000. No error messages and CPU utilization was almost at zero.

The only way I could get MC to start the caching process again was to erase the cache that was being created over 25 hours and start fresh.

Now I know: "Cancel" means cancel ;-). And maybe the solution is "Don't do that!". But it would be nice to have a "Pause button" for people (like me) who have a serious "MC addiction" and have trouble staying away from the computer for 30 hours or more (I tried, God I tried!). 

Michel

[mlefebvre]

Update:

I've been letting the cache build without interference for 26 hours. Went for dinner tonight and when I came back, the "Building Cache" window was stuck again. This time it made it to about 22,000 out of 37,999 files.... CPU activity was zero.

Any ideas?

Has anyone been able to build a cache for all of the tunes in a large library?

I just started the process once again, but at 30 hours a shot, it's getting a little old... . I'm now on my third attempt...

Michel.

[JimH]

Initialize the ipod and try a small synch.

[mlefebvre]

Initialized the iPod. Did a small sync.... Worked perfectly.

Michel.

[mlefebvre]

The third attempt also failed. 85% of the way....

Michel.

[DarkPenguin]

Are you syncing or are you whacking the "build cache" button?  It doesn't restart where you left off?

[mlefebvre]

I'm hitting the "Build Cache" button. I want to create a complete cache of all my tunes. This way, whenever I synch, it will be fast.

Michel.

[mlefebvre]

bump?

[DarkPenguin]

Any idea what files it is dropping?  Keep in mind that the cache is only a cache of conversions.  So if you do not have your conversion settings set to "always convert" then the cache will only contain files that need conversion.

And it doesn't restart?  It should whip through all the existing files pretty quickly.

[mlefebvre]

I have no idea what file it is hanging on. The Building Cache window doesn't tell you what file it is currently working on.

When it restarts, it whips thru a bunch of files very fast, but it always stalls before finishing.

Michel.

[JimH]

This problem resembles another one:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=39646.0

Might be worth reading for ideas.

[BartMan01]

I never use the 'build cache' feature because of the fact that it does not (at least the last time I tried it) give you any indication of what it is doing, and I think it can only do one file at a time.  I also suspect that it starts over from scratch each time instead of filling in the missing files.  The best way I have found to build the cache without the iPod plugged in is to set up a directory as a 'handheld', turn on caching for that 'device', then sync to that.  If you have the separate cache directories turned on, you can just copy the files to the iPod's cache directory.

[DarkPenguin]

It gives you a count x of y in the action window.  It doesn't start over unless there is another error.

[BartMan01]

It gives you a count x of y in the action window.  It doesn't start over unless there is another error.

Thanks, did not know that.  Does it do 2 files at a time like a regular sync, or just one?

[DarkPenguin]

Just one.  It is a background thing.

[InflatableMouse]

I'm going out on a limb here, but have you ever ran something (anything) for 30 hours with 100% CPU load?

The weirdest things can happen when CPU/System/Harddisk temps rise above a certain amount, not only random crashes of the OS or application.

There are programs out there to monitor temperatures and programs to do burn-in tests on components in a pc.

[mlefebvre]

I'm going out on a limb here, but have you ever ran something (anything) for 30 hours with 100% CPU load?

The weirdest things can happen when CPU/System/Harddisk temps rise above a certain amount, not only random crashes of the OS or application.

There are programs out there to monitor temperatures and programs to do burn-in tests on components in a pc.

It's running pretty cool. Besides, all other programs, including MC were still running. It was just the caching thread that stopped.