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[wdesbrow]

Hi folks,

I was about to sign in for upgrading from 21 to 23 when I experienced a complete HD failure -- with no programs or data save able.  Once I get the new HD installed, what is the best way to purchase the upgrade and get it installed?  What can I do to preserve all data and settings from 21?  (I am NOT a tech-savvy person!).  THANKS

wayne

[RoderickGI]

First, when you get no response from anyone on a thread, don't create another thread to ask someone to look at the first thread. Just find your original thread and add a new post to prompt people to have a look again. Lots of people simply create a post with "Bump" in it. That is fine, but don't do it too often.

If you don't know how to find your original thread, click on "Profile" in the forum menu above, and then click on "Shows Posts". You will see all your posts in reverse chronological order.

Now, to your problem. I did see this thread yesterday and just didn't have good advice. You say you had a complete hard disk failure. It sounds like you don't have any backups of what was on that disk, including no backups of the MC Library. Were your media files (music/video/etc) on that hard drive as well?

I know you said you weren't tech savvy, but if all your data, files, programs, and media files were on the one disk, and it is dead, you do understand that there is nowhere to recover all data and settings for MC21 from, don't you?

Note that if you really have lost everything, and there was a lot of irreplaceable stuff on that hard drive, often much of it can be recovered from the "dead" drive using the correct tools. Sometimes with simple tools a PC support person has, sometimes using professional (expensive) data recovery services. Did you have someone else look at the drive for you, before deciding it was dead? Do you still have it?

Basically, if you have no backups, and this was a single drive PC, then you will be starting from scratch, including collecting all your media files. Unless you have a NAS or Server or somewhere with a copy of what you had. You will probably be able to download media you purchased online again. You will be able to rip CDs again as long as you haven't given away, sold, or lost them. But all the settings from MC21, all the metadata you collected, etc. That is all gone. Forever. Sorry about that.


Honestly, my best advice in your situation is to find a VERY tech savvy friend (not just someone who knows a little bit more than you), or hire a PC support person, and have them help you set up a better environment for the future, including backups, and perhaps set up MC quickly.


Sorry the news isn't good. I hope you get up and running with MC again soon.

[Yaobing]

Once I get the new HD installed, what is the best way to purchase the upgrade and get it installed?

You should re-install MC21 first, and restore your license for it.  This will establish that you already have an MC21 license.  Then you should download and install MC23 and proceed to making purchase (upgrade).

What can I do to preserve all data and settings from 21?  (I am NOT a tech-savvy person!).  THANKS

This may or may not be possible, depending on whether you made any backup of your MC21 library, and where you backed it up.  If the data was backed up on the same drive that is dead, and you can not recover any data from it, then you are out of luck, as RoderickGI said.  If your previous backup was in a different drive, then you can restore your library and settings from that location.

[wdesbrow]

Thank you yaobing and roderick,

I may have been a bit misleading.  I Do have all my music files and some older copies (at least) of the library files on a separate hard drive (NAS) as advised by forum members when I first set up the system.  I also struggled thru setting up an jrmc ID for remote headphone listening.

I will follow Yaobing's instructions tomorrow am after I retrieve my Windows Computer and new hd.

After I download 21 and upgrade to 23 ... Do you have any guidance on how to bring my library files over from another drive?

Thanks much.

[RoderickGI]

Install MC21 and get the licence installed.
Backup the empty library just in case.
If you have a backup of the original MC21 library, which will be a zip file but could be anywhere on your NAS, simply copy (Windows Explorer) that zip file somewhere on your PC and restore that library to MC21.
If you don't have backups of the original library, but have copies of the Library subdirectory, make sure MC is not running and copy the whole Library subdirectory over the new one you just created with the new installation, allowing Windows Explorer to replace the existing files. The library in the new installation will be in something like "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 21\Library".
Start up MC21 and see that is works okay. Hopefully it will have the settings you had previously.

Then upgrade to MC23 at your leisure. You may be tempted not to at this stage, but for the cost, it is worth it. The upgrade will convert your MC21 library to MC23, which is a better idea than restoring an MC21 library into MC23, although that would probably work as well.

Then set up a good backup routine for your library and boot/system drive. You can direct your MC backups to go to your NAS, and you should be able to do a Windows System backup to the NAS as well. But you really should have a backup of your media files on your NAS as well.


I don't have space to backup all my media files, so just backup the System disk, Music files, Photos, and home videos. The other videos I have on DVD, Blu-ray and such, so I can recover them. Some aren't very important anyway. I use an application called "Hard Disk Sentinel" to monitor the health of all my disks and give me warning if they are near failure. If you are comfortable with doing that, I can recommend it.

[wdesbrow]

OK Roderick - THANKS for sticking with this.  Following your directions, I believe I have downloaded and restored MC 21 and installed the license.  All My music files are stored on a western Digital NAS drive -- as are FOUR back-ups of the "Library" stored in an area called "TimeMachine."  I am not 100% sure if these backups were THE latest backups -- but they are all clocked-in at about 442 KB (I have about 1300 albums' worth of music in the system currently. (Does that sound like the right size?)  All the back ups are ZIP files, and I have copied one of them to my DeskTop.  I slla that correct so far?  When you say "...restore that library to MC 21"  -- How do I do that?

What are the next steps?

thanks

[JimH]

442kb would be just the database files, not the music files.

File > Library > Restore

[wdesbrow]

Roderick,

I followed your prompts and the library looked like it was coming back!   But.. I vaguely recall that I had about 1100 (?) albums in the collection, and at the top of the "All Albums category it is now listing approx. 635.  I relize it's possible that I located an older version of the library that only lists about half the albums (?).  I was under the impression that there was an automatic backup feature that would backup a newer version every few days, No?

If the above is a possibility -- I have all of the music files stored on the NAS drive.  Is it possible that there is additional data attached to those files that I could use to add to the library files?

Also -- So far, the library files are moving VERY slowly in making the album art visible.  Is that to be expected?

[wdesbrow]

BTW -- I still have yet to upgrade to 23, which I plan to do once I have recovered as much as I can.

Thanks

[wdesbrow]

UPDATE -- population of album art seems to have STOPPED.  only about 2-3% of the albums visible.

[RoderickGI]

Good that you found some library backups. If you found it in TimeMachine that would imply they are backups from an Apple Mac, as Macs use TimeMachine. But maybe TimeMachine can be run on a Windows PC as well? Sounds like they were TimeMachine backups of the standard MC backup zip files. The normal zip file backup name should include the date of the backup, so I hope you picked the latest. As Jim said, 442KB sounds fine.

There is a regular automatic backup in MC, but by default it saves the backup zip files to "C:\Users\[UserID]\Documents\JRiver\Media Center 21\Library Backups", which means they were on the hard drive that failed, unless you changed the setting in MC at "Tools > Options > File Location > Program Files > Library Backups". I suspect that is where the backups were, and what you found in TimeMachine is a backup of that location. You may now want to change that backup location in MC to point it to the NAS so that in future you will have backups on the NAS and not the boot drive.

Now that you have a working system with the new drive you should also do a Windows System backup to a location on the NAS, if you have space, so that you don't lose it all again someday. That backup should be regularly run. If you had TimeMachine or some other backup software previously, perhaps get that working again and make sure it runs regularly.


The main thing is, did that library have the headphone setup that you were looking for? MC can reimport the music files, but if the setup was difficult getting that back would be good.

So if the restore only showed 635 albums, check the Auto Import settings, particularly locations to watch, and run that again to get the rest. If the files all had tags written into them, you should get all your metadata back in the MC library. So yes, you should see additional data come into MC for the existing imported files and for the files MC is newly finding.

If album art isn't coming through, check under "Help > System Info" and see if MC is still building thumbnails. That is what you are actually seeing in the Views; Thumbnails of the Cover Art stored either in the files or beside them. Building thumbnails can be very slow, depending on the source file sizes, PC power, disk speed etc. As you are building them from files on the NAS I would expect it to be slow. I wouldn't expect it to stop though. If it seems to have stopped and is not shown as running under the System Info Reporter (as above), then run the "Tools > Advanced Tools > Build Missing Thumbnails" function.

If you still don't get all files and album art have a read of the Auto Import and Cover Art topics in the Wiki. You may need to go through some setup again, which means a learning curve again, to get back to where you were.

Keep working on it. You'll get there! 

[wdesbrow]

Roderick..

Thank you again.  I am struggling to answer some of your questions, but....   so far:

1.  Time Machine in this case refers back to what I believe is a pre-set category in the Western Digital NAS.
2.  The restored library I see so far (almost no album art) DOES show the remote ID device.  When I clicked on File Explorer in Windows to see what was contained in that ID, it showed only roughly 50 KB in the library backup; one MB SIZE ON DISK....  but 6.32 GB in the Media file.
3.  When I ran Auto Import the software window at the bottom left of the screen flashed (something like):  "Recovering album art" but only ran for 4 seconds and populated about 8-10 cover art album covers.
4.  Auto Import was and is set to watch "Y:/"   ...But don't I have to re-set the software to point "Y:/" to the NAS drive that holds all of the music files?  ...Don't know if that's a problem, BUT ... I don't recall how to do that.
5. You are right -- the software has apparently "stopped" building thumbnails after 24 out of 7878.  But there is no"Buid Missing Thumbnails" showing after I clicked on "Advanced Tools."


Any thoughts?

[wdesbrow]

UPDATE --

I had to re-connect the auto import function to the NAS drive with all files.  When I did, the software is now importing files....

[wdesbrow]

FURTHER UPDATE --

Now that the full library (apparently) has re-loaded I am seeing that I am still missing about 10% of the album art -- although as I scroll down through the screen -- a few of the "blanks" continue to fill in.  Is there a way to "refresh" and recover all the album art?


also -- It appears that my first attempt at restoring the library (from a zip file on the NAS -- yielded only an incomplete library.  NOW -- I have apparently download the COMPLETE library.  But regardless, it looks like the album files that I already had in the library in the first place have been duplicated. So when you click on the artwork there are TWO copies of each song.  Is there a global way of eliminating the duplicates?

You have been most helpful so far; thank you.

[RoderickGI]

Do any of the duplicate files have an icon to the left that is a red circle with a white line through it? This would be in Standard View showing the files beneath the albums.

Or another test for the same thing: When you have a duplicate file, will both play?

What I'm thinking is that one of each duplicate is an old record of a file that was in the restored library, which has been duplicated when you re-attached the Y:\ drive to the NAS. So one of the duplicates can't play, and the other can, because one points to the files correctly and the other doesn't.

Fixing duplicates can be a big task, and is always specific to the installation. There have been lots of threads on the subject. The hardest thing is usually working out what is really a duplicate, and what is just another copy of a track in a compilation album, for example. There is a Wiki article that describes how to find duplicates: https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Duplicate_Files. Just check everything very carefully before deleting anything.

The album art should keep rebuilding. Check the Reporter under Help > System Info to see the progress of building thumbnails. Once Thumbnails has reached 100% in MC, and if Cover Art is still missing, there is a default SmartList called "Audio -- Missing Cover Art". Run that to see which files need Cover Art, then select one of the files shown (if there are any), right-click on the files and select "Cover Art > Get from Internet". You will then have the opportunity to pick which Cover Art you use, if any is found. If that worked okay, select a few files and repeat. You can also just select Albums instead of individual files. There is more you can do in this area. Best to read the Cover Art Wiki article. But for example, if you have a Cover Art folder.jpg files that just hasn't been picked up you could use that to populate the Cover Art inside your files. Also if some tracks in an Album have Cover Art and others don't you could Copy the Cover Art from files that have it and Paste then into the files that have it missing.


Build Missing Thumbnails should be up in the main menu (see image), but it is also in "Options > Tree & View > Thumbnails > Build missing thumbnails...".

[wdesbrow]

Roderick...
Re: duplicate files... Under standard view I tried several of the albums but no red icon appears next to select files ( although I am sure I saw that happen earlier in  different list view!).  HOWEVER ... In several albums in ALL CASES one duplicate played ... the other did not.

I tried your alternate Build Missing Thumbnails directions and that process is running now ..

I will try the wiki directions for deleting duplicates tomorrow...BUT, wouldn't it be possible to just keep the current Library and Settings , delete all the music files... then reload the music files from the NAS?  You will recall that I still have to do an upgrade to jrmc 23.

Thanks again.

[RoderickGI]

I tried your alternate Build Missing Thumbnails directions and that process is running now ..

Great! Probably best to wait for that to finish before doing the stuff below.

Re: duplicate files... Under standard view I tried several of the albums but no red icon appears next to select files ( although I am sure I saw that happen earlier in  different list view!).  HOWEVER ... In several albums in ALL CASES one duplicate played ... the other did not.

In that case, try this. First, make a new backup of the library in case this doesn't go the way you want.
Then check that Auto Import now has all the correct settings under the "Folders" heading. i.e. That is is only pointing to the Y:\ drive which is your NAS for music files, and check the detailed settings under each watched folder to make sure you are happy with them. i.e. You don't want to be importing Video files that MC finds under a Music directory, and you probably don't want to be importing music files found under a Movies directory. All this is probably correct since you loaded your Library backup, and it should have been correct in there.

Then check the setting at the bottom of the Auto Import configuration called "Fix broken links".
If it is set to "No", then change it to "Yes (protect files on missing drives)". Then run Auto Import and see if some or all of the duplicates go away.
If it is set to "Yes (protect files on missing drives)" or the duplicates didn't go away when you ran the Auto Import above, set it to "Yes" and run Auto Import again.

If the above totall y messes up your library, restore the backup you just made.

BUT, wouldn't it be possible to just keep the current Library and Settings , delete all the music files... then reload the music files from the NAS?  You will recall that I still have to do an upgrade to jrmc 23.

If the above doesn't work you could "Clear" the library, for which there is a button when you select the Library under Playing Now. There are a few things to consider though.

All the thumbnails you are currently building would have to be down again. MC won't reuse those.
Clearing a library also deletes all Playlists, so if you have any of those from the earlier library you want to keep.
If there are tags for any files in the library that could not be stored inside the files, you could lose those. They should be preserved if the MC Sidecar files are left in place, if there are any. That depends on the format of the files. For WAV files it could be an issue. For FLAC, MP3, APE etc. files it shouldn't be a problem.

Probably less important, but I'm not a fan of the brute force approach because of unknown side effects. But you would have the backup you just created above, so you could restore it to undo the Clearing, if required.

You could also just select all audio files in the Library and delete them from the Library, being careful not to also delete them from your NAS. Note that if you do this you will need to make sure MC will re-import them, either by turning off the Auto Import setting called "Ignore files previously removed from the library", or by deleting the record of the deletion from the special database in MC called the "Removed" database. I can explain how to do that later if you want to go down this path. Thumbnails would stil be built in this case, and you may stil lose some tags, but probably not. Playlists would remain safe though.

Bottom line, if the Auto Import settings don't fix all or most of the problem, then Clearing the library, or deleting all audio files from it and reimporting is an option.

[wdesbrow]

Roderick --  (INTERIM UPDATE:)

The "Build Missing Thumbnails" as expected, took a long time but seemed to have zero effect.  BUT ..  I did begin to try to click on each album file , then click on cover art, get from internet, and in MOST cases it is working (!) (Not finished yet...).  In some cases in which I know I had download album art successfully, I just get a window that says (your album -- no art available.)  ALSO -- in the process of doing this I noticed that about 10 % of the "no art" were showing TWO copies.  I checked and noticed that one was an exact duplicate of its twin (located right next to it). Neither had duplicate SONGS, but one DID NOT play.  So I am also deleting the soundless copy of each.  I will report back after that whole process is finished.

PART "B" of your instructions this morning -- I will hold off on those until all of the above is finished and backed up ...

[wdesbrow]

Roderick --

UPDATE -- I finished trying to replace album art using "get [album art] from the internet" -- doing one at a time.  About 75% of the time that worked, but with most of the other albums I am sure I did have album art in the file (!)  So -- where should I go from here?  I have already backed up the new Library.

Re: duplicates -- Along the far left column, If I click on AUDIO>FILES> ALL FILE TYPES I get a very long list (apparently all) of song files, some with the red icon with the white line you described.  In some cases I might see 12-15 of those "red" songs in a row, but in other cases each "red" song title is followed or preceded by the same title WITHOUT the red icon.  Should I use this file system to delete the dupes one by one or should I use the more global approach you described?  And can I always depend on being able to preserve the NON-"red" song titles?

Thanks for your advice on both.

[RoderickGI]

You can see if a file has an image inside it by looking at the "Image" tag using the Tag Action window. It will say either Inside File, a path to the files, or No Image (or something like that). Of course you will also see if the library knows about Cover Art when adding new Cover Art, via the message "your album -- no art available."

If you previously had Cover Art being stored away from the audio files, in a "Specified Folder" as per settings (Options > File Location > Cover Art), and that specified folder was on the drive that died, then they were lost at the same time. You may have had lots of files with external Cover Art in the specified location, and some with Cover Art inside the files. Just changing that setting doesn't move all the files previously store externally into the files. You would have needed to do that yourself. So it is easy to get a mixture of files with Cover Art inside and external.

If MC didn't find any Cover Art for 25% of your files you will need to get them some other way. Manual Google searches most likely. Have another read of the Cover Art Wiki again and the threads attached at the bottom.

My Global Approach to removing the duplicates, being those with a red icon, will not remove the library record for any files that MC can see, and won't remove any files at all. It just updates the Library, so it is safe, as long as you have a fallback strategy with a Library Backup.

The AUDIO>FILES> ALL FILE TYPES does show all audio files. If the files with red icons don't play and are duplicates, there is no downside to removing them with the method I outlined.

If you have any duplicates after doing the above, then you have real duplicate files. Dealing with them is a different issue.

[wdesbrow]

Roderick :

(Not sure what I did, but...)  After running auto import again -- All the files seem to be working and loading, with about a dozen NOT showing album art And showing a BLANK in the tags section under image.  Several of these I recall are "odd" albums that possibly did not have downloadable art oin the first place.  One or two are from albums that I do have physical copies of CD's for -- so when I get a chance, should I try to do a replacement RIP of those (I use DB PowerAmp)?

Also under the startup menu (I believe) there was a box labeled (something like)  "Always load default library"  which I believe I checked (It wasn't checked previously).  At present I have two copies of what we determined was the incomplete library, and one copy and a backup of the "good" library.  How do I label the good library as the default?  ...And should I delete the other two?

Also -- If I am correct in these observations,  Should I buy and download 23 now?  If I am not mistaken, 23 should pick up all current settings and configurations?  As a reminder... I also have a remote room that is running an Id, Linux and  that I purchased through JRiver (drawing files from Main Library ONLY) AND a copy of JRemote on a tablet that I am using to control both playback areas.  Does any of that software need to be updated?

THANKS for all thus far; u-da-man. Have a great weekend.

[RoderickGI]

It sounds like Auto Import had the correct settings to clean up your duplicates then.

You could try ripping the CDs that you have to see if they include Cover Art. While you could use DB PowerAmp if you wish, I just use MC and it does a great job. MC would also import the new files into its Library so you will have Cover Art functionality available to use on them. If you do that, rip them to a separate directory initially, and check them. If all is good you could delete the old versions in MC and move the new versions into their correct location using F6 (Rename, Move, & Copy Files function). If you wanted to keep the old version and just add Cover Art, you could right-click on the new files, select Cover Art > Copy To Clipboard, then right-click on the old files and select Cover Art > Paste from Clipboard. That will add the Cover Art to your old files. If you use DB PowerAmp you will need to import the new files before being able to use the above MC functionality. that's not a big issue though.

The main (default) Library is stored in a specific location ( "C:\Users\[UserID]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 21\Library"), and loaded from that location when the "Always load default library" is selected. To fix your multiple Library situation;
Load and backup the Good Library.
Load the Default Library. Note that the Default Library does not have a button under Playing Now to delete it. Only the extra libraries do.
Restore the backup of the Good Library over the top of the existing Default Library.
Delete the extra unnecessary libraries.
Done. Now the Default Library should always be loaded on MC startup, and it is now your Good Library.

Check the Library is all still good, and if so, make one more backup and label it something like "Backup before Upgrade to MC23" so you will always know which backup was just before upgrading.

Then go ahead and upgrade. The upgrade should find the existing MC21 installation and transfer it across, but if it doesn't just restore that final backup into MC23. MC23 will have all the settings and configuration that MC21 had. Everything should work, but sometimes there are minor issues. Usually fixed without too much trouble.

Of course, the Id will be a different version of MC, but it should still connect and work with your MC23 server. I don't have an Id, so won't be able to help too much on that, but there are plenty of people using the Id for music with MC23. It may need an update. I'm not sure. But if so, wait until after upgrading to MC23 and see if that works. No need to upgrade first.

The other potential issue is that the MC Media [url=http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Network_Access]Network Access[/url] Key for your MC23 server may be different to the Access Key used with the old database, so both the ID and JRemote will need settings changes to use the new Access Key.

Nearly there!

[wdesbrow]

Roderick --

Your advice has all been SPOT-ON.  Last night everything in 23 was working perfectly, after I made tiny configuration changes.  I did keep a copy of 21 on my desktop, as you had suggested.  This morning I clicked on that copy of 21 instead of 23 (both were on the task bar).  NOW -- 21 comes up but I click on 23 (after I say OK to the Permission page, I get a window that says "Your license is for a different product."  Also -- the 23 icon on the desktop now reads, "JRMC23 Widows 41-1216.mjr"

How can I recover?

THX

[JimH]

The mjr file is an Install Key.  Please read this:

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Restoring_a_License

[wdesbrow]

I read the WIKI but... Do I need to download a copy of MC 23 again?

[JimH]

You must download and install MC23 or whatever version matches your license.  That link should answer all your questions.

[wdesbrow]

Jim,

Thx. MC 23 went missing from my desktop -- I assume because some combination of things I did -- but it was replaced by the MC 23 "mjr" icon.  I found MC 23 in my program file and opened it back up.  And all functions seem to work.  But the "mjr" icon remains on the desktop for some reason.

w.

[JimH]

It's just a temporary Install Key.  You could move it to your documents folder.

[wdesbrow]

OK  Thanks.  will do.  Btw, in the meantime I tried the functionality of my JRemote (Android tablet) and my Id (pre-installed with MC 2 years ago, working via wifi) and both seem to work without a hitch, using the already-established key from MC 21 and 20.

Thanks for your and Roderick's support.

w. 

[RoderickGI]

Good work Wdesbrow.

You may want to rename the MC21 icon so that you can clearly see what it is. You can't rename the icon on the taskbar. Find the correct icon in the Windows Start menu to rename, and then pin it to the taskbar and remove the old one. Do the same for the MC23 icon. Or perhaps leave the MC21 off the taskbar altogether, so you don't accidentally start it.

Sounds like you are back up and functional, with an upgrade completed as well. 

[wdesbrow]

Roderick -- ooops I spoke a little too soon.  After everything was functioning properly on my main desktop computer I took my Android tablet up to another room wher I have my JRiver Id set up.  booted everything up and all three playback "zones" appeared and worked properly, and were listed under "My Servers in JRemote on the tablet.  However, this morning, after booting up again, none of those playback zones appear on the table.  The three include my main listening room (a oppo 105) the Id, and the tablet itself ("this Device").

They do however appear on the home screen (left top) of Windows 23.  Can't figure out where they disappeared.  My only guess is that the new copy of 23 is supposed to generate a new product "key" that was somehow delayed and that would have to be loaded into both the tablet and Id.  I read the wiki and went to the firewall permission Windows page and turned on inside and network permissions for 21, 23 and JRiver Extensions.

Also, now on the My Servers page of the tablet -- instead of seeing the playback devices -- I am seeing "Desktop-Vog02be"   That phrase seems to repopulate whenever I try to reboot the system.

Any ideas?  THX

[wdesbrow]

Roderick --  SORRY  I MISSPOKE (above)...

On the tablet on the Myt server page I see "wayne-pc" and three copies of "Desktop-Vog02be"

On the Available Zones page, I am seeing This Device (the tablet), OPPO BDP 105 (the device in my main room) and "Player."  But I cannot retrieve the listing for the Id.  Although, to be clear, it did appear right after the overall system came up yesterday!

[RoderickGI]

I don't use JRemote or have an Id, so it is a little difficult for me to help here.

But it sounds like your MC installation is working fine, and is still using the same Access Key, which came from the Library you restored.

On the tablet the My Server page in JRemote is probably showing servers that have been seen in the past. Is your new Windows installation called "wayne-pc", "Desktop-Vog02be", or something else? Three copies of "Desktop-Vog02be" would seem to indicate there are three copies of MC running somewhere, on a PC called "Desktop-Vog02be". Or possibly three DLNA servers. You do need to make sure that MC21 Media Server isn't still running, and only MC23 Media Server is.

Sometimes the Zones will take a little while to populate, particularly DLNA Zones (which are know as Dynamic Zones and will reappear even if deleted). But This Device (the tablet), OPPO BDP 105 (the device in your main room) and "Player" (which is your PC default Zone ) sounds right. If they appear in MC23 as you say, then MC23 on your PC is working fine.

But for some reason the Id needs some attention. The Id does have access to the internet, doesn't it? It will need the internet to be able to look up the Access Key used, to find your PC on your network. Maybe it needs firewall settings on it to be changed allow MC23 through? In addition to the Windows firewall settings changes you made.

You may have to revisit your original Id setup thread, or ask in the Id forum for help getting it to see MC23 Zones correctly. I don't have the answers. Sorry.


PS: One thing that you may want to check with the Id folk is the version of MC that runs on the Id, and can it connect to a MC23 Server installation? If it is MC21 on the Id, maybe it can't connect to MC23. In which case getting you to upgrade was the wrong thing to do. But the Id uses a DLNA connection, so the versions of MC shouldn't matter.

[DJLegba]

Three copies of "Desktop-Vog02be" would seem to indicate there are three copies of MC running somewhere, on a PC called "Desktop-Vog02be". Or possibly three DLNA servers. You do need to make sure that MC21 Media Server isn't still running, and only MC23 Media Server is.

More likely Desktop-Vog02be has appeared with three different IP addresses. Delete them all from the My Servers list, make sure Desktop-Vog02be has a static IP address, then add it back.

[wdesbrow]

THANK YOU, Roderick and DJ.

DJ,  To things that might be relevant (?):  (!) the three copies of Desktop-Vog02be that appeared, I believe were generate one at a time after I tried to re-boot. and (2) I saw something in the software since my last post that inferred that Desktop-Vog02be might be the new nomenclature for the Windows unit that was just replaced.

Given the above, can I assume your advice remains the same?  And ... How do I delete those three entries and "Make sure that Desktop-Vogbe has a static IP address?"

THANKS

[wdesbrow]

Roderick and DJ --

UPDATE --

I just clicked on all three of the server listings -- one by one -- and got what looks like a descriptive page for each one.  Each one lists a "dynamic" IP address.  ...And at the moment, ALL three playback zones are listed!

[DJLegba]

Roderick and DJ --

UPDATE --

I just clicked on all three of the server listings -- one by one -- and got what looks like a descriptive page for each one.  Each one lists a "dynamic" IP address.  ...And at the moment, ALL three playback zones are listed!

Your network router is probably the device that's handing out dynamic IP addresses. If you know how to get into the admin area on the router you should be able to go to the DHCP configuration page, find the MC server, and tell your router to make the address static. Every brand of router will have a slightly different way of doing this, but if you need help you'll almost certainly find it with Google. Search for something like "DHCP configuration HAL 9000" where HAL is the brand of your router and 9000 is the model number.

[RoderickGI]

So it seems that JRemote does remember any server that it has seen, rather than just the currently active servers. Hence DJ is probably correct. Your router is assigning a new IP Address each time you reboot. It shouldn't do that even when using a DHCP Dynamic address. But shouldn't and doesn't are two different things.

However, I don't like using Static IP Addresses for PCs on a LAN. It can cause its own issues. I prefer to use a "DHCP Reservation" in the router, which still results in a PC always receiving the same IP Address, but works better with some other router functions. So Google "DHCP Reservation" and/or find a manual for your router and look up how to do that. It is a bit technical but not too hard.

Also, let's just confirm that your new Windows installation is called "Desktop-Vog02be" shall we? Run the "System Information" application in Windows. When it starts, under "System Summary" near the top you will see a line named "System Name". That is what your PC is called now. What does it say?

If you want to change your PCs name back to "Wayne's-PC", or something else, this is a good article describing how to in Windows 10: https://www.tekrevue.com/tip/rename-pc-windows-10/

Once all that is done have JRemote on the tablet search for servers again, or refresh the list, or do whatever is required to get just one instance of your PC listed.


I assume as all three zones are listed, you can now play your music on the Id and in JRemote on the tablet?

[wdesbrow]

Roderick (Sorry for the delay...)  Your counsel was right on target.  My isp changed the address of the server to DHCP Reservation.  Everything worked perfectle for a period of time -- then the three units stopped recognizing each other.

I believe by accident, I noticed that my new ocopy of 23 seemd to be shutting down, and also not loading automatically (after windows) when the server computer was booted up.  When I then clicked on 23 to open it I keep getting a small Window that seems to be asking me to "purchase" it, or "continue."  It seems to resume to working properlywhen I click on continue. Just a guess -- but the software seems to think that it is a trial copy -- when actually, I did thew full purchase last week.

It that is true, how can I reploace it with the full version without losing any of my settings, etc.

THANK YOU for staying with this and for well written advice!

wayne

[JimH]

The trial version is the full version, just time limited.

[RoderickGI]

It sounds like you have the MC23 Trial installed. You need to run MC23, then find the mjr file Jim mentioned here:

The mjr file is an Install Key.  Please read this:

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Restoring_a_License

Then double click on the mjr file to install the MC23 licence, which will turn off the "Purchase or Continue" messages.


You also really need to make sure MC21 isn't starting with Windows on rebooting your PC, and that you always run MC23 after that.

So shut down MC23 including the Media Server if it is running in the System Tray.
Find the MC21 icon and start it. Confirm it is definitely MC21 you are running, using the "Help < About Media Center" menu item at the top of Standard View.
Change the settings in MC21 "Options > Startup > Windows Startup" to "Do nothing".
Shut down MC21 and reboot the PC.
Start MC23 and change the settings in MC23 "Options > Startup > Windows Startup" to "Media Center" or "Media Center and Media Server". The latter might be better for you.

[wdesbrow]

OK  Done.  But when I have 23 running and click on the "mjr" (after I enable the permission page) I get a window that says "This file is for a different product"  What should I do next?

[RoderickGI]

OK  Done.  But when I have 23 running and click on the "mjr" (after I enable the permission page) I get a window that says "This file is for a different product"  What should I do next?

That is a question for Jim. It usually means that the licence file you have is not for a Windows version of MC. Could you have accidentally bought a Linux or Apple Mac version? Although if you had a Windows version of MC21 previously, and purchased via the upgrade page, you should have received a Windows licence.

Have a look at the email you received from JRiver with the new licence. It will say what operating system the purchase was for. You may not have made a mistake though, a few people have reported getting the wrong licence version. It is just rare.

[JimH]

You have an MC23 license.  Install and run MC23.

Please read this again if necessary:
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Restoring_a_License

It's all there.