Synology 214play - MinimServer & DiskStation Not Working

Hi David, very frustrating. I presume you can see all your music files from your PC or Mac? Have you tried indexing Media Server? If you can install other apps to your NAS it is unlikely to be MinimServer and the installation issue with that may be a separate problem. Can you stream from another source eg a PC to your streamer via your router? Can you stream video files from your NAS to your TV?

I would try and work through some of the points above so that you can pinpoint better where the problem lies.

Regards, Mike

What is the health of your disk(s)?

I'm supposing an imminent disk failure

I got that file fail error message when I reinstalled Minim after the DSM upgrade. I took Minim off (keeping the backup option) and installed it again. After about half an hour for Minim to trundle through the albums (its status showed as 'starting') it sprung into life and has been fine since. I'd certainly try reinstalling Minim. Does the Synology Media Server work since the upgrade to DSM 6?

Regarding the Minimserver install issue and DSM 6, check out the solution posted on the minimserver general forum thread "Synology DS415+ With DSM 6.0" for an answer.

Sorry can't help with the other issue

Nick

Simon Nash has written extensively about problems with the Synology NAS, DSM 6.0 and MinimServer.  

You can find the information here http://minimserver.com/install-synology.html 

It all looks a bit complex but it's not as bad as it seems.  I had similar problems to the ones you report and resolved it quite quickly with help from Simon.  

R

Thank you for your replies. They are appreciated!

I have tried indexing the Media Server but that didn’t solve the problem. I don’t think MinimServer is able to carry out a Rescan as it only takes a few minutes before it is running again after clicking on ‘Rescan’. That's rather fast for 450 GB of music to index.

I agree this is unlikely to be a MinimServer issue as I can install and run other apps.

Sometimes I am able to see the files on the NAS from my MAC and other times I can’t access the NAS files (even though I can always access DiskStation).  I can't access the files right now, for example.

The NAS reports both disks as being fine as System Health is ‘Good’.

The Media Server works since the upgrade to DSM 6 as I can stream one of the movies, for example, from the NAS to my iPad.

The MinimServer error message is, according to Simon Nash, a problem with DSM 6.0 meaning that it is unrelated to the problems with my NAS. This makes sense and the issue I have is exactly the same with both MinimServer and DiskStation. I suspect whatever system files they both use is corrupt in some way and re-indexing won’t solve the problem.

Hi David, I wonder if this is actually a network problem, posssibly your router?

I assume you can play a file from a USB drive directly plugged into the streamer?

I know you have streamed a video from the NAS to your iPad, but can you stream music files anywhere else, eg a smart TV? If your files are in FLAC they may not play, but should be seen by the TV.

If you can sometimes see the files and othertimes you can't then I would be looking at trying to borrow a router.

Simon in Suffolk usually seems to be able to solve network issues. Not sure if he is following this thread?

Regards, Mike

David, i suspect it is not network related but application related - there seems to have been a spate of issue of people running media servers on NASs - something I really don't recommend. You could run your media server on a PC or Mac to see if it all works.. if so then try a mini server like a Pi or change NAS. 

Quite frankly UPnP should not be difficult  - and it has always worked flawlessly for me - more reliable than direct CD and LP overall  but I run my media server on a little £30 RaspberryPi and get that to access the NASs it needs - complications seem to arise on this forum when people run media servers  on the same platform as the NAS in some instances

Simon

I have tried indexing the Media Server but that didn’t solve the problem. I don’t think MinimServer is able to carry out a Rescan as it only takes a few minutes before it is running again after clicking on ‘Rescan’. That's rather fast for 450 GB of music to index.

I can't help with the rest of your problems, I'm afraid, but I can say that Minimserver running on my DS215j can rescan my library (not a dissimilar size) in about 30 seconds. Usually once I've clicked rescan, e.g. after editing some metadata, I bring up the input options on the Naim app on my phone to clear the UPnP cache. By the time I'm ready to press the button, the rescan is not far off complete.

So just because it does it more quickly than you'd expect doesn't necessarily mean the rescan isn't happening.

Good luck solving your other issues, though.

David235 posted:

Sometimes I am able to see the files on the NAS from my MAC and other times I can’t access the NAS files (even though I can always access DiskStation).  I can't access the files right now, for example.

 

Hello David

Can you provide a little more information on this issue?  This points to some potential conflict (app or network).  What app or method are you using to access the files from your Mac and from your iPad.

On the Minimserver scanning issue - you can temporarily set the logging level from Debug or Verbose and then kick off a Rescan.  Then you can definitely tell if Minimserver is scanning by checking the log.  The easiest way to do this is using Minimwatch installed on your Mac.  From the Minimwatch menu - Show Log, change to Logging Level Verbose, keep the log window open and then Rescan.  Once you confirm that scanning is happening. Change the Logging Level back to Info and close the log window.

I'm pretty sure if Minimserver is running at all it will be scanning correctly.  I also think it will report any music file corruption or system file problems in the log at the basic Info Logging Level.

Simon-in-Suffolk posted:

David, i suspect it is not network related but application related - there seems to have been a spate of issue of people running media servers on NASs - something I really don't recommend. You could run your media server on a PC or Mac to see if it all works.. if so then try a mini server like a Pi or change NAS. 

Quite frankly UPnP should not be difficult  - and it has always worked flawlessly for me - more reliable than direct CD and LP overall  but I run my media server on a little £30 RaspberryPi and get that to access the NASs it needs - complications seem to arise on this forum when people run media servers  on the same platform as the NAS in some instances

Simon

Many many have been running the various media server packages on nas's for years now.  I think that the issues in part (large part in my estimation) come down to the fact that Synology's environment is not exactly the same as QNAP's, then add in a couple others, and then add in the fact that Oracle updates Java from time to time.  The nas/MinimServer issues seem to pop up after an OS or Java update, and/or a MinimServer update, and its proprietor, also a Simon, seems to be able to address the issues rather promptly.  (I go to the MinimServer support message board when needed, and read similar things with people running in on Windows as well as nas's.) 

All in all, given the price of registering MinimServer, which I have of course, it's pretty good.  I would not feel bad about (continuing) recommending running a media server on a nas.  It has advantages over running a PC full time including lower energy use, lower heat output, but sure absolutely there are trade-offs.

BTW I installed a MinimServer update yesterday on my qnap, and now it's broken.  Get a Java error.  Did the typical things to no avail.  Working through it with that Simon.  I feel the pain of all those with such issues; and I can still play music via UnitiServe and my Synology nas.  (Yes one might argue that one should not need redundant systems!)

Simon, you are a genius! For reasons I really don’t know, running MinimServer from my Mac did not cross my mind.  I installed MinimServer onto the Mac and was up and running in minutes. The streamer and app now work perfectly.

Assuming this is possible, how do I set MinimServer on my Mac to transcode from FLAC to WAV?

David, glad its now working on your Mac   ... so you need to load minimStreamer if not loaded already - and control this via MinimWatch - again another app that loads on your Mac and has a little icon on the top OS X status bar. MinimWatch will allow you to configure MinimStreamer and set the transcoding options. The instructions are on the MinimServer web site...  

Happily transcoding.  Perfect!

David do you anticipate using the Mac as your primary music server, or is this a temporary solution?

Bart this is a permanent solution. It does leave me questioning why I bought a NAS in the first place.

David - the NAS is best placed for the storage - the media server function as you have found can in some circumstances be better provided away from the NAS - which are not usually optimum platforms for running a media streamer application - although in consumer land yes it does provide a degree of connivence when it works. 

You might want to look at a little RPi or another little mini server or even a different NAS if you don't want to tie up your Mac for streaming duties

Simon

I agree with Simon and that's why I asked David.  To me, a 'computer' is not the best solution as it must be 'on' to be used whilst the typical home computer or laptop is not designed to be 'on' all of the time. Further, the Macbook probably has a relatively small hard drive and one you don't want to fill with music.  I too would suggest in the first instance that storage is best on a nas.

Earlier this week a MinimServer update broke itself, but that lasted just 12 hrs; the fix, once I learned what was needed, was a simple uninstall / reinstall of Java on the nas. 

I'd not let your recent experience deter you from running a server on a nas, but even if it has, I really wonder whether a Macbook is THE solution that's best for you.

That's an interesting question Bart. I have a 27" iMac i7 with a 250 GB SSD and 2 TB HDD. The SSD contains the operating systems, applications and all my photographs. It has 48 GB of space. The HDD holds everything else including all my music, which is also available on the NAS, and has 82 GB of space.

Given that I don't add many albums to my collection each month there is sufficient space for quite a few more years. So space is not really a consideration and the computer is on for many hours each day as the kids use it to do their homework.  More recently my wife uses it more than she used to and I use it whenever I get the opportunity!

This means that when I do listen to music the chances are that the computer will be on anyway. Even if it's not, I doubt there is a considerable difference between having the computer on rather than the NAS in terms of power usage. Since getting the NAS, I have installed Plex on the computer and the NAS. It works perfectly on both so, if needed, I could stream movies from the computer rather than the NAS.

Given all of this, I am wondering why I need a NAS at all.

If it works for you, and you have a backup system in place that works - then why not see how the iMac works out long term.  The iMac should be set to go to sleep / hibernate when not used.  Will trying to play music wake it?

Yes, having backups is extremely important. In addition to backing up everything on both drives through Time Machine, they are also backed up to the cloud using LiveDrive.

The computer does go to sleep after ten minutes of not being used.  As the Naim app won't wake it up, I have just installed an app called Splashtop which I can use the wake up the Mac from my iPhone.

I also had a horror story where I used one of my nas's to fill the Melco and found out I was missing albums and piece of albums, just ensure you have backups on non nas drives as they are not affected by power outages ....