WINDOWS 7 - Set up Naim Uniti Core’s SSD of WAV files on Windows Network

So I have just checked my Windows 7 pc and I can see the downloads folder on my SSD in my Core over the network and therefore do things to it like add files or edit those that are there.

This is using the latest Core firmware, but I had to restart my Core just now to get it to accept the connection from my PC.

Or an I misunderstanding what you are trying to do?

best

David

I’m trying to do two things:

1) look inside the file folder on the network. This is the file inside my Uniti Core.  I haven’t been able to peer inside to see what’s there, how its organized.  Finally, in frustration, I responded “yes” to Windows insistent request to assign a Media Manager, the only one available being Windows Media Manager.  Now, if anything, I’m in a worse pickle as i can’t detach it from Windows a Media Manager.  I even hired a tech to do that and he couldn’t.  

2) Download music from one or more of the hi res sites.  Can’t do that because I can’t “see” inside the file.  I think of that SSD inside the Uniti Core and visible in my network as I think of any Windows File.  Accessible by File Manager with Folders and Files.  What’s so difficult???  Why can’t I look inside???

Now a further frustration(!).  I always stream via the Naim app on my iPad but I ran out of battery so I switched to my iPhone.  This is just an hour or so ago.  The iPhone app said a new version of firmware was available, did I want to download it.  Yes.  So the update finished, the app searched for the files and couldn’t  find them.  I’ve tried a half dozen times.  No luck.  Now how can it not find the file.  When the update started it interrupted the music I was listening to!  Where could it go....  In the event of trouble, I t suggests I reboot my router, my app, my iPhone, etc etc etc   I guess I might have to do that tomorrow, but why should I have to???

I will give you a full answer to this but I don't have time just now. But I will post again later today.

best

David

David Hendon posted:

This advice from Naim support is plainly wrong. I am afraid that whoever gave it to you is completely mistaken. If you look in the Core support wizard, it tells you how to do it over the network and some of the recent beta testing of the recently released Core firmware was about connecting to the Core downloads folder over the network from different PCs. But I'm not sure how to suggest you proceed since the technical support people who knew what they are talking about have apparently left Naim now.

best

David

If you could have seen the first reply from Support you would realize how hapless the support staff seems to be because I was advised to remove the SSD from inside the Uniti Core and install it internally to my computer, add the downloaded hi res  file, return the SSD to the Uniti Core.  Hmmm, not only would that involve opening up the Core with a special tool, but figuring out how to install it internally into my computer!!  And it would have also meant rolling back my carpet and pad, pulling out my stereo console from the wall in order to provide enough access to uncable the Uniti Core, etc etc. and then reversing the process.   I responded “you’ve got to be kidding....”.

Would you mind sending me a link to this “Core Support Wizard”?

David Hendon posted:

So I have just checked my Windows 7 pc and I can see the downloads folder on my SSD in my Core over the network and therefore do things to it like add files or edit those that are there.

This is using the latest Core firmware, but I had to restart my Core just now to get it to accept the connection from my PC.

 

best

David

After I’ve slept in tomorrow, I will open File Manager and see if the impossible has finally happened, I can view inside the SSD containing my ripped music.  Though I don’t recall being asked to upgrade the firmware using the iPad app.   

Echolane posted:

I’m trying to do two things:

1) look inside the file folder on the network. This is the file inside my Uniti Core.  I haven’t been able to peer inside to see what’s there, how its organized.  Finally, in frustration, I responded “yes” to Windows insistent request to assign a Media Manager, the only one available being Windows Media Manager.  Now, if anything, I’m in a worse pickle as i can’t detach it from Windows a Media Manager.  I even hired a tech to do that and he couldn’t.  

2) Download music from one or more of the hi res sites.  Can’t do that because I can’t “see” inside the file.  I think of that SSD inside the Uniti Core and visible in my network as I think of any Windows File.  Accessible by File Manager with Folders and Files.  What’s so difficult???  Why can’t I look inside???

Now a further frustration(!).  I always stream via the Naim app on my iPad but I ran out of battery so I switched to my iPhone.  This is just an hour or so ago.  The iPhone app said a new version of firmware was available, did I want to download it.  Yes.  So the update finished, the app searched for the files and couldn’t  find them.  I’ve tried a half dozen times.  No luck.  Now how can it not find the file.  When the update started it interrupted the music I was listening to!  Where could it go....  In the event of trouble, I t suggests I reboot my router, my app, my iPhone, etc etc etc   I guess I might have to do that tomorrow, but why should I have to???

@Echolane I will have a go at explaining this for you. Let me say that you shouldn't give up. This will get sorted out.

Now to your questions.

1)  You have to understand that the Core folders are not just "file folders on your network" The Core is a computer just like your PC is a computer. It runs Linux rather than Windows, but it's a computer all the same. If two or more computers are on the same network then each of them only allows a connection from another computer to those of their own folders that are "shared". The default for obvious security reasons is that nothing is shared.

In the case of the UnitiCore, it is set to share its Music and Downloads folders on the network and so if another computer (say your own PC) tries to look at one of those folders, the Core should allow the connection. But in firmware version 2.5 there was a bug that prevented this working properly in Windows 7. It has been fixed in the latest Core firmware version 2.5.1and so if you try to look into the Downloads or Music folders, it should work fine. I will come back to how you do that in a while.

The assign media manager is a total red herring and you should just forget about it.

2. You can do this but you are trying to do it the wrong way. You can't just look into the folder like any other folder on your network because it has to be shared by the computer that it is, in. In this case, the Core. If you read my earlier postings with the analogy of the Core not agreeing to open the drawer for your PC to look inside, it's because the Core is responsible for deciding which computer can and which cannot look at something inside itself.

3. The fact your iPhone offered you the updated firmware is good because you need the latest firmware to get this working. When the Core has finished doing the update, it has to be restarted. In my experience the Core asks for permission to restart and you give permission, but a technically competent friend of mine told me a couple of days ago that his Core didn't ask to be restarted and he had to do it twice himself before everything was back to normal.

Restarting the Core is easy to do, but because it has two different standby modes, you can by mistake not fully restart it. So I think that unless you really know what you are doing then it's best to turn the Core off by pressing the on/standby button on the front for several seconds and then once it has apparently shut down, pull the power plug out completely, then plug it in again and let it restart. Another Core user reported in the forum that his Core did a rescan after he did the update. I never had that happen, but obviously he did.  Depending how many discs you have ripped, this can take some minutes or hours to do. But it will do it in its own eventually.

I don't fully understand your description of what happened with your update, but restarting the Core will probably get it all back. Restarting the router and the app is just a way of starting with a clean sheet so to speak. It's nothing to be concerned about. All your music will still be there.

HOW TO DO WHAT YOU WANT

Now the important bit. How to look inside those folders. First of all you should look in the Core pages in the app and write down what it says the Core's IP address is. It will be something like 192.168.0.4 and while you are at it look at the system version and check its 2.5.1. There may be some numbers after the 2.5.1 and you can ignore those.

Now in your Windows 7 PC select "Computer" on the right hand side of the screen that pops up when you click on the start button. That should open a screen that lets you see all of the drives on your computer. Right at the top there is a bar which will say something like "computer" Now click on that and press delete. Now the dialogue box will be empty and you can type \\192.168.0.4 or whatever your Core IP address that you wrote down is into it instead. Make sure you use the backward slash \\ and not //

Now press enter or return and wait. You should be presented in a few seconds with a screen that shows two file folders graphically with the words downloads share and music share against them. You can click on one of them and you are now navigating inside that folder in the Core. You can do whatever you like in the downloads folder but in the Music folder, where the Core stores it's rips, actually in the MQ subfolder, you can look and indeed you can copy but you cannot and must not delete or change anything in there.

There is another way to do this, which is called "mapping the folder in Windows". It's much easier to use once it's setup but it's a bit tricky to get right so I should leave that for now.

Regarding the Core support pages on the Naim website, you can easily, and should go and,  find them yourself. They aren't conventional pages but rather a wizard or simulator. There are lots of ways to find it, but the simplest is to go into the Streaming Audio room in the Forum and the seventh topic down in the top part before all the member postings is a topic called Uniti Support Assets. If you open that, scroll down, and read the bit called Uniti Core Support Simulator. That tells you how to find it.

Its worth having a good poke round this simulator but the bit you need especially to read is "How to use the Downloads folder". It describes the process I just went through above. Apparently Naim technical support should read it too before they give anyone else advice on this!

Anyway good luck and let us know how you get on. As I said before, we will sort this out.

best

David

Actually the link from the Uniti Support Assets topic just takes you to marketing fluff now. So to find the simulator, go to the Core product page on Naim's website, scroll down to the bottom to where there are four horizontal bars and select the Support bar. That takes you to the Simulator and the downloads folder explanation is in the General operation section.

best

David

David,

  You are too wonderful!  Much, much appreciate your taking the time to be so helpful.   Now to get on with all that’s to be done.  First up, getting the Core back.......

Gratefully yours,

Janet

Janet, I've edited the Core Support Assets featured topic to remove the broken links and give a link to the Uniti Core Product page.  As David mentions above, scroll down to the bottom of the page for the support bar.

David, brilliant support as ever????

Gazza posted:

David, brilliant support as ever????

It’s one of the wonderful things about this forum, David and other posters are extremely knowledgeable on Naim and allied areas, and often spend what must be quite a bit of time writing long posts to give very clear and helpful information to people seeking support. It’s very generous of them all, I didn’t list others because I would miss some and that would be unfair.

I do feel very fortunate to have had such generous support and I am so appreciative!

The reboot of the Uniti Core restored functionality to my apps.  Both my iPad and iPhone apps now have the same firmware, 2.5.1.  One oddity is that the firmware update on my iPad, which was done some time ago, did not interrupt anything; there was no need to reboot the Core.

Following David’s very clear step by step directions, I was able to view the folders and contents of the Uniti Core’s SSD.  Now I am only a few homework steps away from downloading and listening to some hi-res music, something I have longed to do for some months now.

The firmware update may have resolved another issue I was having which was the sudden stopping and sometimes shutting down of the Uniti Core while playing music. (I think that’s the third bug fix listed below)

 List of bugs fixed 

2.5.1 - Core Patch release fixes:

Fixed: Occasional failures when formatting certain hard drives
Fixed: Ripping the second disc of a compilation album would sometimes overwrite the first disc
Fixed: Sometimes Core would enter standby during local playback
Fixed: Improved artwork cache to speed up browsing experience
Fixed: Sometimes would not discover NAS network shares
Fixed: Sometimes would not discover Naim HDX or Uniti Serve network shares
Fixed: Sometimes Uniti Core network shares would not be visible on the network
Fixed: Could not access shared folders from Apple Mac running macOS High Sierra
Fixed: Some FLAC files with very long metadata would fail to play
Fixed: Prevent folders that start with "." from being hidden
Fixed: Genres view on UPnP missing some genre categories that were present on Naim App
Fixed: Files in Downloads folder would not always refresh if metadata changed by user with a 3rd party metadata editing application

Now back to making sure I understand how to download music to the Downloads folder.  This’ll probably sound silly, but honestly, I feel a little like a kid waiting to open some birthday presents, and at my age, recreating that feeling takes me  back a very long way ????.

Janet

Hi Janet

I'm very happy to hear that you have solved your main problem. Yes that is the release notes  list of bugs fixed with firmware 2.5.1 but of course it's not an exhaustive list and there will be other things that were fixed during the work.

Regarding your iPhone and iPad, you have to think of these as two telescopes that each let you look at the Core's firmware. It's the firmware in the Core that got updated, not the apps.  The apps do get updated often but that is separate, like polishing the telescopes! So if you can see it's 2.5.1 in one of your Apple devices, it is 100% going to say 2.5.1 in the other one (or the other 25 or 100 Apple devices if you had that many). The Core has no way of knowing how many telescopes are looking at its firmware status, You only do the firmware update of the Core once per update.

You pretty well always have to do a restart after you do a firmware update on the Core. It's a computer! If you update it's firmware then a restart is needed so the bits of software it was using during the update process can be updated too if necessary. As I said before, normally you should get a message in the app asking you if it can do a restart. But if you don't see that, once you are sure the Core has finished updating (like you have left it alone for ten minutes after it went off line or something like that), then restart it anyway. Patience is always a virtue when you do updates.  If you interrupt it mid update, it can be a major problem to sort it out.

The 2.5.1 update release was only a couple of weeks ago. So the one you mention as done some time ago was probably 2.5. But anyway it's the same rule every time. And if ever your Core seems to be misbehaving, give it another restart and that may well get things right again.

If you don't know about network sleep and deep sleep then you should have that as a homework assignment to look it up in the Core simulator because putting it into network sleep isn't a restart at all, whereas putting it into deep sleep mostly is a restart. But pulling the mains cord is definitely a full restart, which is why I recommend it if you aren't sure where you are.

Downloading high resolution music is a whole separate subject and you will find lots more people in the forum know about this that there are those that know about the Core. If you run into problems then I suggest you open a new topic with an appropriate title in the Streaming Audio room and there will be lots of help forthcoming.  But you really should read the "Downloads folder" bit of the Core support simulator because the later parts of that do tell you how Naim likes you to organise the files in the download folder. It's less important if you download FLAC because the metadata is embedded and the Core will probably work it out, but with WAV it may be or it may not and if it is not then the Core likes to have an artist sub-folder in the downloads folder, then a sub-folder within that for the album and then one file per track within that album sub-folder. The artwork has to be a jpg file in the album folder (unless it is embedded in the FLAC, which it may be) and the file has to be renamed cover.jpg or folder.jpg   Both of these work.

What I would do is assemble the folder with its sub-folder and files on your PC and then open a second explorer window alongside your newly discovered window with the downloads folder on it and copy and paste the whole new artist/album folder into the Core's downloads folder. But this is just normal file manipulation in Windows. I keep a copy of the music on my pc as well as the Core and I also put a copy from my PC onto a USB stick and I backup my Core using the Backup music function in the app. But that's another story and if you get stuck doing that, then post another topic here in the Streaming Audio room of the forum and we will help you out. Incidentally you can edit stuff in the downloads folder in the Core without taking it out first. But you must never do that in the Music/MQ folder where the Core stores its own rips. You can only edit those using the metadata editor in the app. Note that the metadata editor in the app won't allow you to edit things in the Core downloads folder. You have to do that with a PC as just described.

Anyway I do hope that you enjoy your forthcoming birthday present-like experience! Tell us how you get on!

best

David

Regarding your iPhone and iPad, you have to think of these as two telescopes that each let you look at the Core's firmware. It's the firmware in the Core that got updated, not the apps.  The apps do get updated often but that is separate, like polishing the telescopes! So if you can see it's 2.5.1 in one of your Apple devices, it is 100% going to say 2.5.1 in the other one (or the other 25 or 100 Apple devices if you had that many). The Core has no way of knowing how many telescopes are looking at its firmware status, You only do the firmware update of the Core once per update.

This one is definitely a “duh”, shame on me for not thinking, of course, it was the firmware that was updated, not the app.  

If you don't know about network sleep and deep sleep then you should have that as a homework assignment to look it up in the Core simulator because putting it into network sleep isn't a restart at all, whereas putting it into deep sleep mostly is a restart. But pulling the mains cord is definitely a full restart, which is why I recommend it if you aren't sure where you are.

The restart is a good thing to know.  And it definitely worked.  I know about Standby Time, which is just turning off the power button.  Deep sleep is holding down the power button for a number of seconds.

The downloading music will have to wait a bit as suddenly my schedule is somewhat busy for a few days.  I will also have to hunt up some music I think will be worth paying a premium to download.  Judging from a couple of hours spent browsing, I expect shopping for music will chew up a lot of my time shortly.

I did notice in the documentation that downloading FLAC will be easier than downloading WAV because WAV doesn’t bring metadata along with it.  So, not especially wanting to deal with the folders needed to setup WAV correctly, I’ll stick to FLAC at first. I do consider your write up on downloading will be very very useful and I am saving the link on this thread so I can turn to it when I need it.

 Sadly, my good DAC does not decode DSD, so I guess I won’t have an opportunity to buy DSD and weigh in on the DSD vs PCM subject.  

Lastly, I feel so very lucky that you took so much time to help me!  I couldn’t have made any progress on several  very frustrating problems without your help and I am so relieved and grateful to have them sorted out  - thank you so much!

Janet

it was my pleasure, really.

best

David

Echolane posted:

 

I did notice in the documentation that downloading FLAC will be easier than downloading WAV because WAV doesn’t bring metadata along with it.  So, not especially wanting to deal with the folders needed to setup WAV correctly, I’ll stick to FLAC at first. I do consider your write up on downloading will be very very useful and I am saving the link on this thread so I can turn to it when I need it.

When you download flac, yes it (almost) always comes to you with metadata embedded in the files. BUT, sometimes the metadata is not quite right . . . so all consumers of downloaded music files should learn how to edit the metadata on a home computer.  The recommended programs are dbPoweramp (versions for Windows and Mac) and Metadatics (Mac only).  The best practice is to download the files to your computer, use one of those programs to view and perhaps edit the metadata (for example, if you like R.E.M., sometimes it'll be REM and you'll end up with 2 different artists in the Naim app one "REM" and one "R.E.M."; thus best to edit).  Then once edited copy the files to your server.

It's always better to edit BEFORE copying to your server.

As Bart says.....

best

David