My home media network is possibly a little unusual, but it works for me, and I'd very much like to get my new Id to work with it, since I probably can't use it as a video player as I'd hoped when I ordered it (separate post).
My media live on a Synology NAS, as does the MC library (Central Library) which describes all the music and movies. I work on this library (import, tag, etc.) from my office computer (located in a building separate from my house, but wired to the home network), which accesses the Central Library directly. In my house I've had a library server running on an old netbook computer. It too accesses the Central Library directly, so when I'm on my way to the office to diddle with the library, I stop MC on the library server to prevent chaos. Next time I start MC on the library server, it loads the Central Library, complete with all recent changes, and successfully serves it to other devices in the house, both wired and wireless. Both the office computer and the library server access the music files by mapping the NAS drive containing the music to drive M, so the notation in the library fields which denote the location of the music file to be played works on both machines. The library server computer is also the player for music in the living room—controlled via TRemote by a Windows tablet running full MC, which I prefer for that room over the various Android remotes—even while serving other wired and wireless devices in the house; it never stumbles, because there isn't that much parallel use of the various devices in my house.
I would like to replace the netbook library server with the Id, but I can't get it to work as I would like. I have told the Id about the external location of the music files via the External Media Menu, and have mapped the NAS drive containing them to the same drive letter in the Id (M), but whereas the file location in the library field is, say, "M:\Coltrane\Live at Birdland\Alabama.flac", because the file was added to the library by my Windows office computer, that location can't be found by the Id, which needs it to be at "/mnt/M/Coltrane/Live at Birdland/Alabama.flac". So it would appear to be impossible to access the same library directly by both Windows and Linux machines in the way that worked when both machines were running Windows.
I tried importing the music to a library located on the Id, and, as expected, it could then find all the music files, since the library it constructed uses Linux notation for file locations. But this setup has problems. First, not all of the library fields I set up on the Windows machine were imported (I use "Country" for music files, for example). Worse, if I aim the office Windows computer at what is now the Id library server, I can't import files (clicking on the Import button does nothing). So it would appear this setup does not meet my needs, either.
Given the incredible flexibility of MC, I think there's a strong possibility that it can do what I want, but I just don't know how to set it up correctly. I very much like the directness of the setup I have now, with both the office computer and the server looking at the same library, with the library server serving it out to the various devices in the house, but not the office computer. I'm hoping I can get that to work with the Id. I hope the only solution isn't going to be to install Windows on the Id.
Can you clue me to what I am missing in MC?
Thanks!