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[rolf_eigenheer]

When starting MC it takes up to a minute until a database search is possible.
I understand, that it might take some time accessing a sleeping network drive. But as long I don't start playback, I do not expect a waiting time.
My database links to 7 network drives with media contents. It seem that MC accesses at startup one after the other. This will explain that long delay. But it does not explain, why they should be accessed. As long I want to play music from drive X, there is no need to spin up all other drives.

Since MediaJukebox 7 I bought every second release. Every new version adds some nice gimmicks - but speed seems not to be a goal.

[JimH]

You could modify your auto import settings or turn it off.

Seven network drives seems a little excessive.  Just spinning them up at the same time could cause a problem.

MC's Library database should be on a local drive.  Check your settings for File Locations.

[RoderickGI]

Windows, or any NAS, will try to start disks sequentially, so as not to overload power supplies.

Try turning off "Options > Tree & View > Advanced > Display missing file image in lists (slow on network drives)".

[rolf_eigenheer]

You could modify your auto import settings or turn it off.

Seven network drives seems a little excessive.  Just spinning them up at the same time could cause a problem.

MC's Library database should be on a local drive.  Check your settings for File Locations.

Hi Jim
Thanks for the fast response.
I dont watch 7 movies at a time. I use MC as the database which references all of my songs, photos and videos.
MC helps me to find any desired media file. Once I found the title of my movie, it is no problem when it starts after a few seconds delay.
Annoying is the delay after MC start, before I can search anything in the library. Screen is blurred for a long time,  Windows offers to kill the application.

Auto-Import is off, Library is local on SSD.
Roderick suggested to turn off 'Display missing file image in lists'. What would that do ?

[RoderickGI]

Roderick suggested to turn off 'Display missing file image in lists'. What would that do ?

The attached image shows an example of what the "missing file image" is, and where it gets displayed.

If you turn off the "Options > Tree & View > Advanced > Display missing file image in lists (slow on network drives)" setting, MC will not display that image.

I have no idea what the code is actually doing, but I would assume that in order to display a "Missing file image" that first MC needs to check if the file is missing or not. i.e. Is there a file on disk that matches the Library record? That would mean that MC needs to check each and every disk to see if there is a record of each and every file in the MC Library. Once again, I would assume that would mean spinning up the disk and checking the listing of what is on disk. I would hope that it doesn't actually check the individual files themselves, but I doubt it does, because that would take ages. Even checking the Directory Listing would take a little time. Spinning up and checking 7 network drives could easily take a minute. Then, of course, MC needs to display the image for each missing file, so that may be some interface updating to do.

But the big hint is the name of the setting, "Display missing file image in lists (slow on network drives)".

Did you try turning it off, and seeing if MC started up faster? That would only have taken you a minute to check.

[rolf_eigenheer]

Thanks for the exlplanation Roderick. Yes this would explain such a delay - especially when the view contains files from different drives.
But I have disabled this - and still the UI is blocked several long times when changing the view or do some search.

[RoderickGI]

Well, a startup delay is different to a delay when changing Views or doing a search. There may be other features in MC that access drives to check stuff. I haven't looked.

It probably depends to a large degree on how you have connected your seven network drives, the router, switch (if any), controller in the enclosures you are using, particularly if they are all individual network drives, rather than a NAS or server of some type. Windows can take a very long time to spin up and recognise drives, or even just switch to drives. Windows 10 seems to have become even worse than earlier versions, in some situations. Even the Downloads directory on my internal SSD boot drive can take fifteen seconds to scan and show files, I assume because Windows now considers that an unsafe location or something. I haven't investigated yet.

Maybe explain a bit more about your seven drives, the enclosures you use, the network type (ethernet/WiFi) and speed you have, and so on. There may be something you can do.

Also, if you have customised Views, maybe some of the expressions you have used take some time to process.


As a comparison, I have five internal media hard drives in my HTPC, and response at startup and on all Views is very quick, with some 27,500 audio files, 6,500 TV shows, and 1,300 movies.

[rolf_eigenheer]

My Synology NAS (RAID5 4x4TB) holds my images (~200'000) and my songs (~270'000).
~4000 Movies are stored on 8 USB HDDs (~40TB) which are connected to the NAS.

The spin up delay is not a problem, as long as it occurs when I need to access the drive. But it's annoying when I have to wait for my movie drives to spin up when I want to listen music. I just want to turn off any drive access until I start playback or until a database sync operation is manually requested.

The proper solution would be non-blocking drive access. This would be a strong reason for buying the next update.

[RoderickGI]

Wow. I would never even consider using 8 USB hard drives connected to a PC, or as network drives. I think that is asking for trouble. Sure, it works, but it isn't quick and Windows can do strange things with USB management. With a bit under 60TB of data, I would be looking at an 8 bay NAS and using 10 or 12 TB drives. Use the old stuff for a genuine backup, powered up only as required.

Regardless, I have no idea if using non-blocking drive access would be a good thing for MC, given its file intensive nature. That sort of discussion is way out of my league.

My only other suggestion is to look through all MC settings and see if anything else might be waking all the drives at once. I haven't thought through all the settings.