My whole music library is missing!

[brodricj]

I've just now gone to select a CD from my music library but to my horror the library is empty, my whole music collection has just vanished off my Kaleidescape system!

Under my user/home tab it says there are 235 albums in my library, but when I go to the user/music tab it's completely vacant. No CD coverarts in the UI, nothing! But the movie library is intact.

Is anybody else currently experiencing this problem?

 

[brodricj]

UPDATE: Next day dawned and the music library was re-instated back to normal. So I'm left wondering what happened here, does the Kaleidescape system re-index content on the server from time-to-time, and in doing so temporarily close out access from that library?

 

[brodricj]

...and now another weird issue. I have a MP2 reporting "Unexpected error. An internal problem in the software has been detected. Please restart your Kaleidescape system" yet at the same time I have an M300 trucking alone fine doing what it does.

You'd think an internal system software error would apply globally across all players on the network??

 

[JerryL]

When Ive had weird problems in the past its usually been traced to a switch that is failing.

 

[brodricj]

Oh, that might explain it as the MP2 connects to the server via a switch that the M300 doesn't...

 

[brodricj]

Update:
Kaleidescape Tech support picked up on this thread on their own initiative and ran some diagnostics (bless them!!). It turned out to be a simple explanation why my whole music library went missing for about 24 hours...one of my servers had dropped off the network, and it turned out this server held my whole music collection. Why the server went down in the first place is not yet known (I didn't turn it off), nor how it came back to life again without me having to intervene (I have two servers in a group, normally they behave as a single entity). Both servers are connected to the same power outlet and gigabit switch so its not as if a power interruption explains just a single server going offline.

The interesting aspect of this is the system was still reporting the correct number of albums despite one of the grouped servers going off-line. I'm to understand Kaleidescape are going to address this aspect via a future KEAOS update so that the album count correct matches the content that is available for system playback?

As an end-user it wasn't obvious to me that a server had dropped off line. I'd have anticipated that if a system comprising two or more servers that are configured to be grouped together, should one server drop out of that group for any reason, then the remaining server would suspect something was amiss and an error message would be listed on the system home page.

I have been seeing a few weird issues with my system lately, flakey audio playback from the M300 (once), an internal software error message (once), server dropping off line without explanation (once), I wonder if I have an underlying network hardware issue?

Anyway, as always the Kaleidescape Tech support has been first class!

 

[Mr.Poindexter]

I had a server go offline before and I didn't notice it until I couldn't find one of the kids' movies that I was certain I had loaded. Only then did I walk back into the equipment room and notice one of the servers was off. (A breaker tripping was what caused my issue).

 

[brodricj]

I've used flat type unshielded cat6 patch cables to connect up my network hardware. I've just been doing some homework on these flat cables and it seems they are known for being "noisy"...has anybody else experienced issues with using the flat cat6 patch cables? Might I be better off changing my LAN cables to shielded cat6? It's just that it's a big job to change cables (they run through walls and roof space), I thought I'd throw to the forum audience for advice here before needlessly pulling cables.

 

[JerryL]

I hate to sound like a broken record, or skipping CD , it sounds to me like its a bad switch. This is exactly the kind of thing Ive seen. Also my crestron which shares the network would have wacky behavior- sometimes fine- sometimes delayed. And yet there were ports on the switch which worked fine. It seems switches fail on me at a bad time, so I keep two spares on hand. I would recommend this to anyone. Its a good ideas to have a spare switch or two- depending on how many switches you have. I have two. The cable could be an issue but if it was working for a while with those cables and then all of a sudden it wasn't, then the cables seem to be in the clear unless you moved something like a microwave oven near by.

Btw- I'm glad you're seeing how good K support is. They are really excellent.

 

[brodricj]

The switch was sitting on top of a 7ch amp in my server rack and it was getting quite warm. I've repositioned the switch to a cooler spot in the rack to see if this helps...

 

[JerryL]

That might help but if its fried/ shot/ not working/ its not going to restore it. One thing I never thought of a few years ago when I setup my network is that switches fail. They are actually "switching".

 

[Transepoch]

As an end-user it wasn't obvious to me that a server had dropped off line. I'd have anticipated that if a system comprising two or more servers that are configured to be grouped together, should one server drop out of that group for any reason, then the remaining server would suspect something was amiss and an error message would be listed on the system home page.

I wouldn't mind a tiny little icon that directed me to check an alert page in the system menu cluster on the device or the web interface. However, I intentionally move servers between groups and would find putting-up with full error messages to being even more annoying, when I knew darn well that it should be gone. Maybe if it bypasses the alert if the change is due to activity on the groups page I would be all in favor.