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[thecrow]

Here is another reason why I no longer use my HTPC.
Just turned it on for the first time in months, library was not up to date so restarted the HTPC but when I checked my server I found it had erased 137 movies from my servers library. Had to rescan to make them appear again.
Not impressed at all, think I will remove MC from the HTPC so that this does not happen again.

[JimH]

Here is another reason why I no longer use my HTPC.
Just turned it on for the first time in months, library was not up to date so restarted the HTPC but when I checked my server I found it had erased 137 movies from my servers library. Had to rescan to make them appear again.
Not impressed at all, think I will remove MC from the HTPC so that this does not happen again.

Probably a disk missing when you started up again.

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

[thecrow]

Probably a disk missing when you started up again.

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

My files are all on the server along with the library which was not restarted, it was the HTPC that was restarted.
Some how starting the HTPC caused the server to erase all the library entries I made within the months which the HTPC had not been on.

[JimH]

MC doesn't "erase" files unless you tell it to.  Please provide more details and I'll move this a new thread.

[thecrow]

Sorry I never said it erased files.
Booting the HTPC reverted my library database back to, what probably was, the state it was when the HTPC was last switched on several months ago.
Obviously all the files were intact on the server, they had just been removed from the database.
What I did to recover was restore my library from the last backup MC had made on my server.
So what I suspect happened was for some reason when the HTPC connected to my server it decided to overwrite the server database with its own copy from several months past. This may be related to the fact the HTPC was not switched off but had been in sleep all this time.

[JimH]

What I did to recover was restore my library from the last backup MC had made on my server.
So what I suspect happened was for some reason when the HTPC connected to my server it decided to overwrite the server database with its own copy from several months past.

MC won't do that.  Please read the link I gave you.

[thecrow]

MC won't do that.

Well MC did something to lose all those movies from it's database.
As I said before I did nothing with the server where all my files are so definitely not a missing disk.
FYI I was looking at my recent movies which is how I instantly spotted it had lost everything I had add in the last months.
Those movies are spread across several drives and I can categorically say all those drives did not go offline.

Waking the HTPC is what caused the database to revert to a previous state whether you believe me or not.

[RD James]

You probably have auto-import set to "fix broken links".
I recommend setting it to either "no" or "yes (protect files on missing drives)".
 
That way it won't remove missing files from the library if the cause is something like a network share or portable drive not being present.
Personally I set it to "no" and prefer to remove missing files manually rather than potentially have to restore a backup in case they were removed unnecessarily.

[thecrow]

Library Server Sync - https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library_Server_Sync

[thecrow]

This is now the second time this has happened to me.

I have just turned on my old HTPC again without thinking and spent another confusing hour trying to work out what has happened and this time it is even worse.

Not only has it written over the MC database on my server with a version from several months ago again, but it has somehow triggered the server to move files around too.

I put my movies in folders that reflect whether it is a direct remux or re-encode. I re-ripped some movies a while back as full remuxes and MC decided to move these remuxes to the location where the original re-encodes used to exist which were on different drives, leaving behind empty folders which MC then asked me if I wanted to delete these empty folders. I also got messages from the server O/S telling me it could not move other files because the target drive is full.

I am now very concerned that actual movie files may have been lost and really need to understand. what is going on here.

Starting up a MC client that has been asleep for several months on a HTPC I stopped using a while ago triggers MC to overwrite the MC server database with its own copy from months ago and silently start moving files around on the server to match what used to exist the last time the client was awake.

I know for certain the server database was overwritten as the list of recent movies changed completely, restoring a library backup recovered the database to how it should be. But I also got confusing messages from the OS saying there was not enough room on drives to store files on that I had definitely not initiated, and movies appeared in folders I had deleted weeks ago which when I checked I found empty folders where they used to be. Additionally MC popped up asking me if I wanted to delete these empty folder.

[JimH]

What you're calling HTPC is a client, right?  And the media is on the machine you call server?

Are you using JRiver's Media Network to share the server's library?

And you say that the "library is on the server".  Do you mean MC's database?  If so, is it the client's?  Or the server's?

You're not using a virtual desktop program, are you?

Explain as much as you can about your system.

[thecrow]

Yes HTPC is a MC client, which loads the shared library from the MC server.
Yes all media is on the server.
Yes I am using JRiver's Media Network to share the servers library.
By library I mean the master MC server database on the server.
No virtual desktop programs.

My server is a Windows 10 machine that has 10 hard drives of music and films, currently running the latest MC26 offering its library via Media Network.
I have a Windows 10 laptop running the latest MC26 that connects to the servers library for uploading media, editing tags and listening to music.
I use JRemote2 to stream music and films to various DLNA renderers.
The problem machine is a old HTPC that runs Windows 10 with MC 26.
Obviously if this was a common problem we would have heard other people complaining, so there is something unusual about what I have done.
Which could be reconnecting a old system to the server that has been in sleep for many weeks without any library updates and as it was in sleep without any program or OS restarts.
As the library update is bi-directional I can see there may be a situation where when the client wakes the system thinks it has a more up to date version of the library for some reason and so overwrites the servers library. But I cannot see why making changes in the library like this would cause MC to initiate the moving of media files around on the server. This last bit really puzzles me.

[JimH]

The only way I can think that the client could "overwrite the server's library" is if you loaded it directly, without using MC's Library Server.  The client doesn't normally have that ability.  It communicates changes with the server (if authentication is in use on the server) and the server manages the library itself.

With 10 drives, have you considered power issues?