Streaming media to an iPhone from MBL media server

WD Legacy Products My Book Live
1

Hello all,

Has anyone managed to get the Apple Remote app to work with the media server (forked-daapd) on MBL? I’ve seen several posts on this subject, but none of them was very conclusive.

I’ve made some progress with the pairing process, as shown in the following extract from the forked-daapd log file:

[2015-01-26 15:04:17] mdns: Avahi Browser: NEW service '83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462' type '_touch-remote._tcp' proto 0
[2015-01-26 15:04:17] mdns: Avahi Browser: NEW service '83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462' type '_touch-remote._tcp' proto 1
[2015-01-26 15:04:17] mdns: Avahi Resolver: resolved service '83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462' type '_touch-remote._tcp' proto 0
[2015-01-26 15:04:17] mdns: Avahi Resolver: resolved service '83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462' type '_touch-remote._tcp' proto 1
[2015-01-26 15:04:17] mdns: Service 83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462, hostname JamesLiPhone.local resolved to 192.168.1.46
[2015-01-26 15:04:17] remote: Discovered remote JamesLiPhone (id 83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462) at [192.168.1.46]:49393, paircode E590D42F4BF23649
[2015-01-26 15:04:17] remote: Remote id 83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462 not known, adding
[2015-01-26 15:04:17] mdns: Service 83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462, hostname JamesLiPhone.local resolved to 192.168.1.46
[2015-01-26 15:04:17] remote: Discovered remote JamesLiPhone (id 83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462) at [192.168.1.46]:49393, paircode E590D42F4BF23649
[2015-01-26 15:04:17] remote: Remote id 83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462 found
[2015-01-26 15:04:48] db: Running query 'SELECT * FROM inotify WHERE wd = 2;'
[2015-01-26 15:04:48] scan: File event: 0x2, cookie 0x0, wd 2
[2015-01-26 15:04:48] remote: Adding Remote pin data: name 'JamesLiPhone', pin '8754'
[2015-01-26 15:04:48] remote: Remote 'JamesLiPhone' found
[2015-01-26 15:04:48] db: Running query 'SELECT * FROM inotify WHERE wd = 2;'
[2015-01-26 15:04:48] scan: File event: 0x8, cookie 0x0, wd 2
[2015-01-26 15:04:48] remote: Pairing hash for 83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462/JamesLiPhone: 9D7BBBBCAB6854A7F3ED80CB0C3CD917
[2015-01-26 15:04:48] remote: Adding Remote pin data: name 'JamesLiPhone', pin '8754'
[2015-01-26 15:04:48] remote: Remote 'JamesLiPhone' not known from mDNS, ignoring
[2015-01-26 15:04:48] remote: Pairing succeeded with Remote 'JamesLiPhone' (id 83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462), GUID: 75BFD0D31A55A012
[2015-01-26 15:04:48] db: Running query 'DELETE FROM pairings WHERE remote = '83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462';'
[2015-01-26 15:04:49] db: Running query 'INSERT INTO pairings (remote, name, guid) VALUES ('83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462', 'JamesLiPhone', '75BFD0D31A55A012');'
[2015-01-26 15:04:51] mdns: Avahi Browser: REMOVE service '83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462' type '_touch-remote._tcp' proto 0
[2015-01-26 15:04:51] remote: Remote 83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462 not found in list
[2015-01-26 15:04:51] mdns: Avahi Browser: REMOVE service '83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462' type '_touch-remote._tcp' proto 1
[2015-01-26 15:04:51] remote: Remote 83E60E12-EB5C-4D38-BAB6-845925892462 not found in list

 The last few lines indicate that the iPhone is not correctly registered in the database.

A new library (without a name) did show up in the Remote app on my iPhone, but it was grayed out and impossible to open by clicking on it.

If it’s the case that no-one has managed to get the Remote app to work with the MBL media server, what apps are folks using for media streaming? I tried a few, including MediaConnect, MLPlayer, FusionStream and SimpleDAAP. The latter crashed when I tried to access the media server, FusionStream doesn’t always find my media server, but the first two worked fairly well, until I removed a bunch of media files on the server - the apps didn’t seem to take into account the changes, and displayed folders which I’d deleted (although I got an error message when I tried to access one of the files of course). I don’t understand where these apps get their information about the files available on the media server, but it can’t be from the database generated by forked-daap (/CacheVolume/forked-daapd/songs3.db).

I’d be interested to learn whether anyone has been more successful than me in streaming media from the MBL media server to an iPhone.

James

2

Hello jamesmcpl, have you tried using the WD My Cloud app to access your files? 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wd-my-cloud/id450655672?mt=8

3

Hello jubei04,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I’m aware of the My Cloud app and use it frequently. However, the interface is a bit clunky, and it’s more of a file browser than a media player (no lists by artist, album etc and no playlists).

I have made some progress with media:connect, concerning the display of folders and music files which I had deleted. I disabled media streaming from the MBL Dashboard, and then re-enabled it. The deleted folders and files no longer appeared. I don’t believe mdeia:connect (and similar apps such as MLPlayer) use the forked-daapd server, because if I stop the server they continue to work. I think they’re using Upnp (Universal plug and play) but not dlna.

I haven’t been able to get playlists to work with media:connect. I produced some test files in both xml and m3u format and neither of them show up in the playlists. They do work with iTunes running on my iMac.

James