New Uniti Core

David Hendon posted:

No quarter posted:

Richard,I sent an email to Naim support,I have not brought it up to my dealer yet.

i have some new developments...I am now using UPNP again,and I am getting the same problem,but it plays for about thirty seconds now before stopping.

i went into settings>Manage music store,and it reads

Int hard drive 

ATA samsung

READ ONLY

format NFTS

capacity 0kb

Available 0 kb

i also can see my external drive under manage music stores,and it says the same things with regards to "read only" and 0 Kb capacity and available

These things seem odd to me,read only,and 0 capacity,I wonder if I should delete it all?or re-format the drive and start over.Can anyone look at their settings and see if they seem to match mine?All these problems started when I added the music from my external drive,when I played only the CD's I ripped to the SSD,it worked good,but I only used UPNP at that time.

 

I looked at my Core which has a 500 GB Samsung SSD and that says read/write and the capacity and availability are non-zero.

I wonder if this is because your's is full. Why don't you use your PC to delete a few albums. Maybe that will make the Core reassess the state of your SSD? And maybe that will stop the music stopping issue.

Dont forget you must not delete from the Music folders but you can delete from the Downloads folder.

best

David

David,when I look on my PC,the Core appears under "Network locations",and when double click on the Core,it opens up,all I see then are

albums,artists,composers,conductors,genres,newest CD's...there is no "downloads folder" here.This appears to be what I am seeing in the app.

Ah, so Windows is a bitch and you have to map the Core downloads folder before you can see the folder and its files. There are instructions in the Core support stuff on line which says you put the IP address in and navigate from there. That never worked for me, but mapping the folder did. It might work for you though.

best

David

Ok another thought. You could turn the Core off, take out the full SSD, plug your USB drive back in, turn the Core on again, and tell the Core to regard your USB drive as a share. If it all works, you know the issue is your full SSD.

best

David

David Hendon posted:

Ok another thought. You could turn the Core off, take out the full SSD, plug your USB drive back in, turn the Core on again, and tell the Core to regard your USB drive as a share. If it all works, you know the issue is your full SSD.

best

David

I may try taking the SSD drive out,in windows I do see the albums,and can probably delete them from there,it is just that it is not technically under a downloads folder like you said

Another thing,under shares,under share scanning,it says "no drives found"...which is why I had to copy my files under stores,because the option was not there under shares,but was under stores,I don't know?

No quarter posted:

David Hendon posted:

Ok another thought. You could turn the Core off, take out the full SSD, plug your USB drive back in, turn the Core on again, and tell the Core to regard your USB drive as a share. If it all works, you know the issue is your full SSD.

best

David

I may try taking the SSD drive out,in windows I do see the albums,and can probably delete them from there,it is just that it is not technically under a downloads folder like you said

Another thing,under shares,under share scanning,it says "no drives found"...which is why I had to copy my files under stores,because the option was not there under shares,but was under stores,I don't know?

Well if you delete albums in the app, it's fine because that updates the index. But if you can get Windows to treat the SSD as a normal hard drive, you can do a lot more.

Before it will find a share, you have to configure it. The point is that you can have all sorts on your network but you don't want the Core scanning them without permission!  If you go to Configure Music shares, which is now the second option in manage music, not the first, for some reason that defeats me, you should be able to define what you want to be a share.

best

David

Adding to the above, why didn't the Core find a share that you could configure?

My general experience is that the Core can sometimes be really slow to do something for no reason that is obvious. Sometimes you have to tell it to take an action, abandon that after it hangs and try again, maybe two or three times, but it gets there in the end. (My most recent example was formatting a new USB HDD for a backup destination, which took 20 mins of faffing about, before it suddenly did what Naim's support wizard said it would do.)

So if you plug in the USB HDD and then turn the Core on, it really should find it sooner or later.

best

David

I agree with David about sometimes appearing to ignore commands. Some times it appears to have ignored a command, but has then done it in the background. But as mentioned it does get there, and does sound very good when you get these issues sorted.

Gazza posted:

I agree with David about sometimes appearing to ignore commands. Some times it appears to have ignored a command, but has then done it in the background. But as mentioned it does get there, and does sound very good when you get these issues sorted.

Agree that it's worth staying with it although mine found and formatted the Samsung 1TB SSD drive in seconds. It's the app that's been most temperamental. I have an iPod with the previous version installed and that's fine.

Ravenswood10 posted:

Gazza posted:

I agree with David about sometimes appearing to ignore commands. Some times it appears to have ignored a command, but has then done it in the background. But as mentioned it does get there, and does sound very good when you get these issues sorted.

Agree that it's worth staying with it although mine found and formatted the Samsung 1TB SSD drive in seconds. It's the app that's been most temperamental. I have an iPod with the previous version installed and that's fine.

So you are saying when I go into shares,and it says " no drives found",I should just sit there and wait?,because it is not scanning or anything. As far as formatting the drive,in order to share it,will that not erase all the data on it?I am at work now,so I can't really try anything until tomorrow,but keep the idea's coming guys,I am willing to try anything,I already have the SSD in place,which cost me 500 dollars,so I want this thing to work.How do I stop the power button from flashing?and why would it be flashing,when nobody else's Core is doing this?

Because it's faulty?

Hungryhalibut posted:

Because it's faulty?

Always to the point HH,love it!

You really need to discuss with your dealer, and, if appropriate ask to have his demo unit while he or Naim fix your unit to your satisfaction. Just a simple matter of transferring your ssd to his demo unit and seeing if all is OK. If it works OK insist on a new replacement, or have their demo unit whilst they sort it out.

Excellent suggestion. He might also want to set yours up on his network to see if he experiences the same problem. All seems very odd but contrary to one view expressed here the Core isn't a piece of junk - in fact running coax into my NDS it comfortably beats streaming from my QNAP. I find that some people just like to be rude or want us all to follow one fixed point of view. What a dull world that would be!

Sorry guys,not that easy...he ordered me this unit,so does not have another one.

No quarter posted:

Ravenswood10 posted:

Gazza posted:

I agree with David about sometimes appearing to ignore commands. Some times it appears to have ignored a command, but has then done it in the background. But as mentioned it does get there, and does sound very good when you get these issues sorted.

Agree that it's worth staying with it although mine found and formatted the Samsung 1TB SSD drive in seconds. It's the app that's been most temperamental. I have an iPod with the previous version installed and that's fine.

So you are saying when I go into shares,and it says " no drives found",I should just sit there and wait?,because it is not scanning or anything. As far as formatting the drive,in order to share it,will that not erase all the data on it?I am at work now,so I can't really try anything until tomorrow,but keep the idea's coming guys,I am willing to try anything,I already have the SSD in place,which cost me 500 dollars,so I want this thing to work.How do I stop the power button from flashing?and why would it be flashing,when nobody else's Core is doing this?

Shares and stores are different.

A share is somewhere where music is stored and which you want your Core to index and present to you in the app alongside other shares and stores. You never need to format a share (because by definition it's been done before somewhere and if you do format a share, you will lose all your music that was on it.)

A store is a place where the Core will place ripped music (the Music folders, which are LQ, MQ and HQ). Rips are always put into the MQ folder. And there is a Downloads folder into which you put downloads or the Core will put imported music that wasn't ripped by a Naim server. Imported music which was ripped on another Naim server will be put into the Music folders. You have to format a store the first time you use it. But not any other time.

The Core leaves music in shares alone and just indexes it. Importing music also leaves the source as it was but makes a copy and stores it inside the Core, as above.

If you can't configure a share because the Core can't see it, then the two strategies are 1) reboot the Core and leave it to sort itself out and 2) don't reboot the Core and leave it to sort itself out. A few days ago I noticed that my Core could see my Unituserve folders but when I rebooted the Core it didn't see them again for a few minutes. Not sure why that is.

The difference between a store and a share is very important.

The info on your SSD is weird but maybe the Core marks a disc as read only when it's full. Maybe this is causing the stop-start behaviour. That's why I would 1) free up some space on your SSD by deleting a few albums and 2) try your Core without the SSD in and have it read done music from a share, like a USB HDD.

But if none of this works and since you aren't close to Salisbury, I tend to agree that back to your dealer to ask for help is the right thing to do. And if as Gazza suggests you can get your dealer to try your full SSD in his Core, that will tell you a lot about where the problem lies.

Good luck

best

David

NQ I have just edited my above posting a little, so please read that and not any emailed version!

Best

David

It really shouldn't be like this. Something is clearly amiss, whether it be physically sick or there is something in the setup. Ravenswood's experience shows how it should just work. Your dealer has a responsibility here, and the Naim support too. The dealer needs to get it working or replace it. They shouldn't be selling things they don't understand. The fact that it has flashing lights shows something is wrong and there seems little point trying anything else until the machine is stable. Let's hope that you get it fixed soon, but get your dealer on the case. You shouldn't be left high and dry. 

If he has no demo unit, at least he should be paying for the call to Naim to sort this out. Once Naim are in the loop I am sure they will call you, and collect the phone bill or the dealer, for that matter.

I am going to try what David suggested,remove the SSD,and see if a thumb drive works.I suspect that since there was more music on the external drive that I copied ,than there was space on the SSD(1TB)...it never finished that process completely,so is in limbo (pure speculation).I may have a bunch of partial files or something,before removing it,I will try deleting 50 albums or so,giving it some free space left.it is my bed time now though,so it will be a while until I do this.I will contact my dealer today too.

Thanks for all the advice

I know nothing about the Core and agree with the suggestion that you should seek help through your dealer and the distributor (@Manu from Plurison, the Canadian distributor, is sometimes found in these parts). 

That said, it might be worth popping in a fresh HDD - any low cost, low volume drive on the approved should do, and the smallest WD should be way cheap. Start again with the new product install, watching carefully to understand each step is working properly and you can see all the folders and options mentioned by others. Don't do any big thing until a small test sample works (ie rip one or two discs and be sure they are in the right MD folder on your store, import one or two tracks and be sure they are in your downloads, insert the USB drive and add it as a share to see if its music content becomes visible, etc.)  

I suppose this "start again fresh" approach assumes that the blinking fault light clears when you cycle the power and boot with a clean unformatted disc in the caddy... but if that doesn't happen you really need to seek warranty support asap to ensure you don't compound whatever internal issue has gone wrong on your new device. 

Best wishes for success. Stay calm during this frustrating period, knowing this, too, shall pass and your system will work as well as anyone's. 

Regards alan

My core wouldnt find my NAS shares. (production release ios app, v 1.4 production release firmware on core). No amount of rebooting it etc worked.

It also wont restore from backup, and i get into a loop of death whereby it adds multiple instances of the internal store to the list of internal stores... of which it can have only one. Despite reformatting the SSD every time. 

Phil@Naim VPN'd in and updated me to a late beta of 1.5 core firmware. Immediately the shares were found. Which has proved that issue is in 1.4. I am back now on 1.4 pending release of 1.5 sometime soon I hope.

My 1st September deadline is looming closer... 5 weeks to go. I accept that I will have to put up with the dreadful IOS app until naim decide they want to rewrite it. However, either Core delivers workable editing, confidence inspiring ripping, a backup/restore that works (current doesnt reliably), or it gets dropkicked out of the house.

9 months after retail purchase is long enough to wait. 

I have made some progress!First of all,I tried to delete some music on my PC,to free up space on the SSD,but there was not even an option to delete any of the files when I clicked on them.I use a windows computer,by the way...so I took the SSD drive out of the Core next.I grabbed an  empty thumb drive and stuck it in the Core,and formatted it under music store.Then I removed the thumb drive from the Core,stuck it in my computer,it now is called Naim...and a few numbers.Now when I click on the icon to open it,there IS a downloads folder.I copied Pink Floyd-The Final Cut only on to the thumb drive,stuck it in the Core,and I am now listening to it on my XD's through SPDIF,with no stoppage or cut outs...sounds really fantastic.So,this tells me that I need to format the SSD again,and start over with my ripping and transferring files.Where I think I went wrong was by plugging my external drive into the Core,and transferring the music to the SSD there,when I should of transferred it on the PC...I think!

Good you are getting there! You can't delete files in the downloads folder with the app. But you can use the app to delete some ripped CDs, or you should be able to.

Two other things. If you map your Core's SSD in your Windows PC, then you will see the downloads folder and you will be able to use your PC to delete files that you imported onto your SSD by mistake. Mapping folders isn't something I can tell you how to do from here, but Google will take you to many explanations. Also look at downloads folder in the online Core support documentation because Nsim tell you there how to use your Core's IP address to navigate to the downloads folder.

Abd secondly you don't have to import the files from your external drive. You can leave it plugged into a USB socket on the Core and define it as a share (not as a store). Having defined it as a share, you leave it alone and in a few minutes the Core will automatically index the music and you can access it via the app. You don't have to move the files anywhere!

best

David

Just when I thought I had it all figured out...I am trying to re-format my SSD,start from scratch,well now this will not work.I get to the part where it says "re-formatting will erase all data from the drive",the icon is spinning,like it is doing something,then it either says formatting failed,or the stupid window pops up that says "streamer not responding" and it kicks me out of the screen.Then I try resetting the app,router,unplug the unit,unplug the Ethernet cable...tried this sequence at least ten times.VERY frustrating,David,when you say re-boot the Core,do you mean holding down the power button until it shuts down?,because I have tried this several times too,I am giving up I think.

No quarter posted:

Just when I thought I had it all figured out...I am trying to re-format my SSD,start from scratch,well now this will not work.I get to the part where it says "re-formatting will erase all data from the drive",the icon is spinning,like it is doing something,then it either says formatting failed,or the stupid window pops up that says "streamer not responding" and it kicks me out of the screen.Then I try resetting the app,router,unplug the unit,unplug the Ethernet cable...tried this sequence at least ten times.VERY frustrating,David,when you say re-boot the Core,do you mean holding down the power button until it shuts down?,because I have tried this several times too,I am giving up I think.

I found it difficult to get my Core to format my new SSD, but in the end it did. One thing that worked when I hit the same problem with a HDD which I used before I bought an SSD is to tell it to format it for FLAC rips rather than WAV rips. That worked straight away and then I told it to reformat it for WAVs and that now worked straight away too. I don't think there is any difference in the formatting per se, it's just telling the Core what format to rip to, but anyway that worked for me.

I had a similar problem formatting a new USB HDD for backup. I think Naim have a bug with their Core formatting engine for which they haven't released a fix yet (I have reported this several times to the team in Salisbury but never got any feedback from Naim developers.) Formatting a 1TB drive should take under a minute.

Have you tried the 5.7.2 app which has just appeared in the App Store? This might have fixed your phone losing sight of your Core. 5.7 and 5.7.1 were very buggy at finding and remembering streamers. 5.7.2 is much better. 5.6 is also ok.

When I say reboot the Core, I mean turn it off by holding the power button for more than three seconds, then unplug it from the mains for a few seconds so everything switches off and then plug it in again. It should start automatically (although mine doesn't do that - I have to unplug it from the mains again and immediately plug it in again to get it to start up.)

best

David