Does LMS usually need to rescan after hard drive disconnection?

Timmy C

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In recent years I've been using a 24/7 powered up NAS to store music and a Rasp Pi with Max2play to run LMS but have recently been exploring other options, one being a USB hard drive attached directly to the Pi.

However, it seems that if I disconnect and reconnect the drive, LMS requires a rescan. So I then tried again with my NAS and it seems if I power off the NAS at the mains and power back up, the same thing happens. It will remember and still play the last album I had listened to but everything else is blank so full rescan required. Is this just the way of LMS or something I can perhaps fix?

I'm sure some of you LMS users must disconnect/reconnect drives from time to time. Do you have to rescan every time? Any thoughts greatly appreciated,
 
Mine doesnt rescan on reboot (running lms on pi with internal ssd). It didnt need to rescan when I ran it on my NAS either.

Guessing maybe either a database issue, or maybe a setting in LMS to rescan on reboot (although I wouldn't have thought that would cause it to rescan on disconnecting and reconnecting the usb drive). Maybe @jamieu can help.
edit: grammar
 
I had a feeling that might be the case as I thought I would have noticed it at some point in the past. I'm wondering if it's a Max2play issue. I'll look again at LMS settings though.

Edit: Just to be clear, it's not automatically rescanning, it's just losing almost everything so I have to force a rescan to get it all back.
 
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If the NAS drive or attached hard drive is unmounted or disconnected it can cause this issue.

You shouldn't need to rescan once the drive is reconnected but either a mount command at the command line or a server reboot may be required for the files to show up.
 
If the NAS drive or attached hard drive is unmounted or disconnected it can cause this issue.

You shouldn't need to rescan once the drive is reconnected but either a mount command at the command line or a server reboot may be required for the files to show up.

I tried restarting LMS via the max2play interface but that didn't work. I don't know if rebooting the Pi itself would help so my might try that later but it's not an ideal solution.

So from what you have said, should I assume I'm likely to have the same issue if I were to move from max2play to picoreplayer to run LMS? I'm toying with the idea of upgrading my Pi3 to a Pi4 and was going to stick with max2play as I'm familiar with it but if there's a chance it may fix the problem I may jump ship.

On that front, are there any other reasons I may benefit from moving over to picoreplayer? It does seem from comments in the past that it's a more popular choice for running LMS.
 
You don't need picoreplayer on the pi to run LMS - you can just have LMS installed, unless the pi is also the music player as well, in which case you will need picore or m2p.

For mounting the HDD have a look here for a guide: Music on Linux USB hard drives - SqueezeboxWiki

Mounting issue would make sense, as my vero behaved the same way if it or my NAS was rebooted, I would have to remount it.
 
So from what you have said, should I assume I'm likely to have the same issue if I were to move from max2play to picoreplayer to run LMS?
I never had the issue you're having but I never feel the need to disconnect the drive. I installed the SMB extension in PCP so I can simply access the USB drive attached to the Pi. Obviously LMS needs to do an update scan if I copy more music on the the drive but that's to be expected.
 
You don't need picoreplayer on the pi to run LMS - you can just have LMS installed, unless the pi is also the music player as well, in which case you will need picore or m2p.

For mounting the HDD have a look here for a guide: Music on Linux USB hard drives - SqueezeboxWiki

Mounting issue would make sense, as my vero behaved the same way if it or my NAS was rebooted, I would have to remount it.

I see, I think! I know next to nothing about computers or how a Pi works so installed max2play as it was the operating system and LMS all in one fairly idiot proof package. I was under the impression Picoreplayer was a similar thing or have I misunderstood?

I have no need for a music player on the Pi itself, just LMS so if I do get a Pi4, I'll install max2play again unless there's a better idiot proof alternative.
 
I never had the issue you're having but I never feel the need to disconnect the drive. I installed the SMB extension in PCP so I can simply access the USB drive attached to the Pi. Obviously LMS needs to do an update scan if I copy more music on the the drive but that's to be expected.

I set up a samba share so I can access the drive and update my music files without disconnecting so perhaps once I stop messing about with it I won't find it to be such an issue. I just thought that if it were something that could easily be solved I may as well do it.
 
Yes Picoreplayer is a similar sort of thing. Like max2play it can be used in various ways and just like you I'm using it specifically as a dedicated LMS server. The thing I prefer about PCP is the interface makes it very easy to setup both USB and Network mounts as desired, as well as using a disc attached directly to the Pi I've also been experimenting with using my router as a basic file server.

If you have a spare SD card it's easy to give PCP a try without losing your current setup, I tried a few options on my Pi to run LMS and IMO PCP is perfect for the job.
 
I'll give that a go then.

One more question as you two seem like the right ones to ask. I'm currently using a Pi 3 with a USB 3 HDD attached. As you probably know it only has USB 2 ports. Would upgrading to a Pi4 with USB 3 ports make a noticeable difference to scan times and using LMS or do I really need to be looking at a Pi4 and SSD for worthwhile improvements?
 
I see, I think! I know next to nothing about computers or how a Pi works so installed max2play as it was the operating system and LMS all in one fairly idiot proof package. I was under the impression Picoreplayer was a similar thing or have I misunderstood?

I have no need for a music player on the Pi itself, just LMS so if I do get a Pi4, I'll install max2play again unless there's a better idiot proof alternative.
Im the same, I love the pi but no idea how to code on them and have to do a lot of reading to try and see how to do stuff.

As Jamie said, it can be used in a few ways, as noted I have a pi with just LMS as a server and then a separate pi with just picoreplayer as the streamer, but it can be installed with LMS as an all in one.

Just ordered a new pi4 (not many about at the moment, dont look at amazon the prices are crazy), as looking at improving my streamer as wanting to add an lcd to display song info (bit rate etc) although struggling to find working solutions plus have a better option for usb out.
 
Im the same, I love the pi but no idea how to code on them and have to do a lot of reading to try and see how to do stuff.

As Jamie said, it can be used in a few ways, as noted I have a pi with just LMS as a server and then a separate pi with just picoreplayer as the streamer, but it can be installed with LMS as an all in one.

Just ordered a new pi4 (not many about at the moment, dont look at amazon the prices are crazy), as looking at improving my streamer as wanting to add an lcd to display song info (bit rate etc) although struggling to find working solutions plus have a better option for usb out.

Where from? I was looking at getting a kit from pihut but a bit uneasy about using the official case as it apparently gets too hot. Don't really want to buy a kit if I then need to buy a second case.
 
I'll give that a go then.

One more question as you two seem like the right ones to ask. I'm currently using a Pi 3 with a USB 3 HDD attached. As you probably know it only has USB 2 ports. Would upgrading to a Pi4 with USB 3 ports make a noticeable difference to scan times and using LMS or do I really need to be looking at a Pi4 and SSD for worthwhile improvements?
Not sure on read speeds, but the pi4 will be faster, plus if you use an external DAC and use the usb output it should be better. For a bigger OS the pi4 with more ram should be better, but picoreplayer is so small and light. Also the pi4's do run hotter so need some better cooling
 
Where from? I was looking at getting a kit from pihut but a bit uneasy about using the official case as it apparently gets too hot. Don't really want to buy a kit if I then need to buy a second case.
I ordered the 2gb model from pihut on Friday, thats all they have available. If you dont need any hats with sticky out parts or screens then the flirc or argon neo are good as thee cases are heatsinks and do not have fans. One of my pi 4's is in a neo case with a poe hat, and it only runs at about 39degc. My LMS pi is in the argon one case with fan and runs about 43degc. I wouldnt bother with the official case, as just plastic. I have just got this one for my new pi, so interested how well it works.
Amazon product ASIN B07WQT1RRZ
 
They have the 4GB if you buy the kit. I'm assuming 4GB is not necessary for running LMS but may be useful if I wanted to repurpose it at a later date. I know the case is just plastic as I have one for my current pi but it keeps the dust out and it lives on top of a wardrobe so I'm not bothered about looks. Heat dispersal for the Pi4 does concern me though. They do sell a 4 piece heat sink kit though which is dirt cheap but I have no idea if that would be enough.
 
I haven't tried a Pi4 so I couldn't say, I've not had issues with my pi3 running LMS.
 
They have the 4GB if you buy the kit. I'm assuming 4GB is not necessary for running LMS but may be useful if I wanted to repurpose it at a later date. I know the case is just plastic as I have one for my current pi but it keeps the dust out and it lives on top of a wardrobe so I'm not bothered about looks. Heat dispersal for the Pi4 does concern me though. They do sell a 4 piece heat sink kit though which is dirt cheap but I have no idea if that would be enough.
I went 4gb for my LMS build, according to RasPi check I'm using a whopping 360mb of that for LMS and pihole. Went for that size in case I wanted to do more on it. My new streamer will be 2gb, as thats all that was available, plus won't harm if I need to increase buffer size, as some threads I have read have suggested upping these.

I have them little heat sinks on my pi3, but the heatsink cases are far better, due to their mass. They are robust and do take quite a bit of heat away, as my argon one case is warm to the touch, so obviously doing its job.
Edit: fat finger spelling
 
Found a 2GB micro SD in an ancient phone so decided to give Picoreplayer a go. I can see why people in the past have recommended it over max2play for LMS as set up was a bit quicker. Had a few teething issues but quickly solved by the online help guides and all up and running now. Was quite surprised I managed it with only a 2GB card but all seems good. Yet to check to see if I have to rescan after a hard drive disconnection though.

Also ordered a pi4 4GB and Argon Neo case from Pimeroni as well as a portable 1tb SSD. Will compare the two set ups for LMS use and eventually one will be used for Kodi instead.

Thanks both for your input. Much appreciated.
 
Picore is tiny, it writes to the SD card so quick, although it has to be to fit in the RAM on the older and the zero PIs. It also works very well with the pi touch screen, and allows for VU meters which is always a bonus.

I will be trying Moode out soon on my streamer / player, as it seems to have a bit of software that will work with the LCD and display what I want it too. Going to have a crack at getting it to work with picoreplayer first, as its what I'm used to and it just works, although the code I have found it all seems to have issues in installation / working and even if I get it working it doesn't appear to display what I need it to.
 
Just had to google Moode as that one is completely new to me. Will have to do a bit of reading to see if it offers anything I may want in future. Now I have the second Pi on way I will have one spare to play around with.

I completely cleaned my Qnap NAS and got it up and running again so started to question whether or not it had been worth buying the new Pi, hard drive etc as my original system had worked just fine. Then last night I read there's been yet another new attack on Qnap NAS's (called Deadbolt this time) and people are getting hit all over the place. Made me realise I probablly made the right choice to look into other ways to do things.
 

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