Some edits, etc not applied after moving database to NAS [solved]

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1

I have moved my files and my Roon database from a Mac based Thunderbolt HDD to a QNAP NAS. I followed the instructions in the User Guide and this forum for setting up the NAS and migrating the database. All of my 90,000+ files appear to have transferred. However, I had several tag groupings that have been lost. Essentially, wherever I have chosen to use my metadata instead of the Roon metadata has been lost.

Is there a way to get this stuff back or do I need to reapply these choices.

Thanks

2

Hey @Ron_Ackermann – can you describe exactly how you migrated? Did you remove your storage devices from Roon along the way?

Do you have albums showing as new?

3

Almost all of the albums are showing as new. The steps I followed in migrating my database were…

  1. Copied my existing Roon folder to the desktop and to an external drive as backup. The external drive was then disconnected.
  2. Renamed the desktop copy as “RoonServer”
  3. I then deleted the Roon folder from my iMac library and un-installed Roon from my desktop.
  4. I created a shared folder on the NAS called RoonServer
  5. I ran the QNAP application package provided by Chris Rieke
  6. After the application was installed on the NAS, I stopped it (as Chris instructed)
  7. I then copied the RoonServer folder (my original Roon folder renamed) from my desktop to the RoonServer shared folder on my NAS. This resulted in replacing the files that had been installed when the RoonServer app was installed in step 5 above.
  8. I then downloaded and re-installed a new version of Roon onto my iMac
  9. I turned the app back on in the NAS
  10. I then ran Roon as a remote from my desktop.
  11. I opened settings and pointed to the new music that I previously transferred to the NAS

One thing I just noticed…the tag names that I had created show up if I click on the “tag” icon within an album screen, but the albums themselves no longer reflect the tags that they were previously assigned. Also, as mentioned previously, albums that I manually “identified” are no longer.

4

I think I may have figured this out. Since I added some new recordings (files) to the Thunderbolt drive in the last couple of days, I used FreeFileSync to copy the new files to the NAS. To my surprise, every file that I had previously copied to the NAS needed to be updated. All of the NAS files had one byte more than those on the Thunderbolt drive. This may have been the result of my method of moving files which was to drag and drop from the Thunderbolt drive to the NAS drive.

At any rate, it appears to be the cause of the metadata migration problem. If a file looks different (even by one byte) I assume Roon cannot recognize it as a previously tagged album. I think this would also explain why all of my albums were labeled new.

I deleted all of the files on the NAS and am now in the process of using FreeFileSync to move the files. So far so good. All of the metadata seems to be correct so far.

5

Any chance you still had old storage devices configured when you added the new storage locations?

Roon should be looking at the audio data in each file to identify whether the file is new, so slight changes (or even renamed files) shouldn’t matter.

What will matter is if the old storage device is still configured in your Storage Settings when you add the new location. With the old location still configured, Roon will assume that the old device is going to come back online at some point, so the" 2nd copy" of every file you’re adding will be just that – a 2nd copy, with no edits, play history, etc.

This is covered in our Knowledge Base but my guess is that if you remove all storage devices and cleanly re-add the new locations you’ll be ok here. If not, you may want to try moving your database into place again, and adding the storage devices as described.

Let me know if that helps, or you’re still having problems here. Thanks!

6

Based on what you are saying, removing the old storage device probably is what actually solved it. When I redid everything, I definitely removed it, but in looking at the steps I provided in an earlier post, I did not list it, so I’m guessing I forgot that step.

Regardless, my issue is solved!

Thanks

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