Unitiserve - Deleting files from MQ folder, issues

Personally I'd not worry about it.  You tried your best to delete them.  YMMV, but personally I'd not be losing sleep that the Copyright Polizi will be after me.

Oh I’m not worried about that as such - could be an education for a buyer after all. 

30 albums ov WAV is a fair bit of memory that won’t be available to the buyer and they won’t even see those albums as none of the apps does. 

Mid theu did want them they’d have to copy them into the downloads folder which would use ioneven more disc space. 

May motive was to leave the disc empty with no rogue files to clutter it up.  

Not sure if in your above description you’ve tried taking the drive out of US and connecting directly to your computer?

May give you possibly more options?

I may well have to resort to this as, ironically, it’s what I ended up having to do with the new Corr which steadfastly refused to ‘see’ the U/Serve! 

Not sure how easy it is to get the drive out of the U/Serve bit if I can it’s just a question of changing file permissions and deleting the files - but it shouldn’t be that way with the H/Serve or the Core really. 

The US drive is not intended to be removable by the user as it is in the Core, so I would be cautious of trying it. 

I know and well intentioned advice.  But in the absence of any obvious way of accessing the 30 files that none of the apps show or can delete and no obvious way of changing the file permissions, I have little choice but to try and remove the drive and delete the files from the MQ folder. 

Quads posted:

Not sure if in your above description you’ve tried taking the drive out of US and connecting directly to your computer?

May give you possibly more options?

NO.  Do this at your own risk and peril.  It likely WILL give one significant option . . . the option to send the unit back to Naim for hdd reformatting or replacement.  The uServe is a "closed" system; be very careful 'messing' with it.

I would give Naim support a call and ask them. I’m not sure if Phil Harris is still available to assist with such matters, but he is the master of the Unitiserve and if anyone can help, it’s him. 

Sorry, I forgot the US is not flexible at hard drive removal like the Core’s is.

I wonder whether they are really there or if a cache somewhere thinks they are. You also have to be careful as the operating system is on the hard drive in US and it isn't in the Core.

If you look at the US drive with a PC, can you still see those files? 

Anyway if I were you, I would leave it alone and sell as is. It won't be worth much anyway.....

best

David

The removal of files should be possible via the Mac / Windows app, not from the iOS App.

The reason I know the files do exist is bacause I am looking at them via windons and Mac computers. As far as nServe, nStream and the web browser interface are concerned the disc is empty. 

May the moment Unitserve are selling on eBay at anything from £850 - £1200 which is a tab more than ‘not worth mhch’ I’d suggest. 

I cant believe that the operating system is  rated working the MQ folder so accessing this, changing those file attributes and deleting only the album folders is hardly likely to be a huge issue. 

Sadly Phil Harris isn’t available to answer questions at the moment and the team, trying to be helpful, don’t rally have much to offer on the subject beyond what I have already done. My dealer is a frustrated as me too as they don’t have any better access to the U/Serve than me. On the face of it there needs to be an administrator level access to it and that I don’t know. 

Sadly 30 odd WAV ripped albums can be around 12GB which is a significant amount of disc to lose and likely to devalue the Initiserve, perhaps to the ‘not much’ you refer to. 

@ Adam. I agree. It is actually possible to remove albums via the IOS App, I’ve done it often for one reason or another - but to remove many that way is laborious. 

I used, initially, the nServe App on a Mac which allows for removal of highlighted albums in bulk and later permanent removal from the drive by emptying the recycle bin. 

Actually this didn’t work too well either and I ended up using the web interface which appeared to handle the files more logically. Via this I DID see the deleted albums in the trash and select empty which, apart from these rogue files, it did. 

Its mkt possible to delete the files directly from a pc or Mac file explorer because the files are locked and cannot have their attributes changed without admin access which is not a user function. 

Have you tried nServe/System Functions/Rebuild DB?

It was recommended to me by someone at Naim as a way to get rid of an album I couldn't remove, although I never tried it.

First off, I don't know the US, not having got one

If you can't change permissions are you able to take ownership of the files (I don't know if you can do this from a MAC, but you can from Windows and, I think, linux) ? If you can then you should be able to then change the permissions and delete the files. I suspect the answer is no, in which case have you asked Naim for the admin id/password ? When the finished laughing did they offer to remote onto your PC to try it themselves with the relevant id?

Are you able to copy the files off the US to your PC, change the permissions of the copies then copy them back ? Again I'll assume a "no", but you don't know until you try (I'm guessing you'll be prompted with a "replace files" dialogue which will throw an error, or ask for admin details when you say yes).

And thinking out of the box, as you probably know which albums they are giving trouble, have you tried re-ripping them ? Id assume they'd over-write the old copy and put the correct permissions on the files....which means you'll then be able to delete them. Hopefully

Daunt, assuming the offending files are in the MQ folder, have you ever, in the past, been tempted to edit them in any way on a computer, rather than via N-Serve or the DTC? This would upset the database, and possibly your problem. 

I do wonder whether anyone is going to worry about 12GB on a 2 TB hard disc - it's only just over half of one per cent of the space.

best

David

Thanks all, a  lot to answer here:

i have tried rebuilding the database to no avail, but it was worth a try thank you.

on further investigation the offending folders were empty so the US  sortnkf did the job though quite why it left those particular folders behind is a mystery. 

Its actually not possible to edit files in the MQ folder for the very reason one can’t delete them, their permissions don’t allow it. I have however edited many albums in nSteam and that hasn’t prevented them from being deleted  so, unfortunately, it’s not related to that. 

I did try to re-rip one of the albums and hey presto, the tracks and album folder appear on the US and can, of course, be seen from any computer in the network as such. Sadly then trying to delete the album results in it disappearing from the database bit not from the disc - so now I have 29 empty folders and one full one - worse!

as for not worrying about the stuff on the disc that’s only half the issue for me. As I am selling the device it’s not reasonable to leave junk on it that a future owner would have the same difficulties rectifying. Whilst I accept that £800-1000 is a trivial sum of money of not want to reduce the resale value by leaving it in less than as new operational condition. 

I am sure Naim mean we’ll but in the absence of Phil Harris the direct support from them has been courteous but sadly not terribly productive.