Adding Admin Password to Twonky breaks Content Scan?

[R_P_H]

Hi, whenever I set an admin password on the Twonky Server Page (so that no one else on my network can interfere with media server settings); the hdd gets stuck on a continuous content scan. I have attached photos showing the problem. Any suggestions ?

P.S. I am attempting to use the same username and password as the one I use for the admin user on the my cloud dashboard.

[TonyPh12345]

It doesn’t actually break the content scan (as the last screenshot shows) … it breaks the My Cloud’s UI’s ability to get the information.

Since the My Cloud UI uses Twonky API calls to get that information, putting an Admin Password directly into Twonky breaks it.

In general, making changes directly via the Twonky UI is problematic as the My Cloud UI needs to be in control of the whole show.

[R_P_H]

Alright…The My Cloud Dashboard just displays “Scanning” contiuously and won’t sleep…Surely one can protect the Twonky Server Settings page though with a password and it should work ? Else why have it…

Thanks

[TonyPh12345]

R-P-H wrote:

 Else why have it…

 

Thanks

Twonky Server is its own product that WD incorporated via license.

Twonky (a/k/a Packet Video) writes their own code; WD just included it.   It’s not open source, so I guess WD couldn’t modify it.

[cpt_paranoia]

 Twonky Server is its own product that WD incorporated via license.

I’m glad you used the word ‘incorporated’, rather than ‘integrated’, because my experience is that Twonky has just been dropped onto MyCloud, without any real concern for how they get along…  MyCloud is pretty hostile to Twonky:

• stopping and starting media streaming via the Dashboard trashes config settings made via the Twonky UI

• MyCloud firmware upgrade does the same…

• …and can render useless a saved Twonky config file…

• …and disable Media Serving

• the default directory names for shared media are incompatible with non trivial media search settings in the Twonky UI

[cpt_paranoia]

Hah!  I now see that WD have quietly added an ‘important’ note to this page:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3299/~/how-to-access-the-twonky-media-server-on-a-wd-my-cloud,-ex2,-ex4,-my-book-live,

Important: The Twonky UI port 9000 provided by the WD device is to allow end users to verify if the Twonky service is active or not. Any modifications to the share settings using the Twonky service UI are not supported by WD. Please be aware that WD NAS UI settings takes precedence over the Twonky UI settings.

Oh well, at least they’ve acknowledged the problem.  I’d rather they did a proper integration job and fixed the problem, though…

[R_P_H]

Hi, so there is no way to secure this page ? So anyone on my network can inadvertently mess with the settings…

[cpt_paranoia]

Well, if you use the Twonky UI to set a password, can’t you also use the same UI to control scans?

Contrary to WD’s recent cop-out guidance about only using the Twonky UI to see what’s going on, I avoid touching the Dashboard controls for media streaming, once enabled, because of the issues I mentioned earlier.

The ‘Advanced’ page has Server Maintenance controls.  You can also set a suitable rescan interval.

It appears that Twonky will still do its stuff; it just won’t let the Dashboard know the status of the scan.  Not a big deal, as far as I can see.

[R_P_H]

Hi, it is a big deal because the My Cloud won’t go to sleep as it’s continuously “scanning”…That’s how I first discovered the problem…

[cpt_paranoia]

Does it go to sleep if you remove the access control?  There seem to be lots of reasons for not sleeping…

[R_P_H]

Hi, yes, it is the password that breaks it for sure…

[cpt_paranoia]

Okay.  That’s one for a Support call, then.  But I guess they’ll just point to that statementvI posted earlier, that they consider the Twonky UI is only there to see what’s going on, not to make changes…

Another example of poor integration of Twonky and MyCloud…

One thing you might try is to turn off Media Streaming in the Dashboard, so MyCloud won’t go looking for the server status (hopefully), and then SSH in as root, and start the Twonky service from the command line…  The command you need is:

service twonky start

Other related commands are:

service twonky stop

service twonky restart

service twonky status

It’s a bit of a kludge, since you’ll remove what little integration there is between Dashboard and Twonky, but it might get it working the way you want.

Let me know if it works, and I’ll add it to the long list of Twonky FAQs I’m writing up…

[R_P_H]

Thanks, Surely everyone has this same problem, not just me ?

[cpt_paranoia]

I don’t need to protect my Twonky settings.  I suspect few people do, since it is essentially a consumer product, rather than for public-facing business use.  It’s not visible to the external world, and is only accessible to devices connected to your local network, which you protect with an access code.  It doesn’t give the ability to modify router security settings or delete media files*.  So it’s a low risk.  You can save a copy of the /CacheVolume/twonkymedia/twonkyserver.ini file if you want, so you can restore settings more easily.

If your kids fiddle with the settings, administer punishment as for any other misdemeanor…

* whereas the fact that media files are stored in the Public area means that anyone logged on to your local network can delete those files; I don’t think you can modify access rights on Public, but maybe more experienced users can comment on that.  I have no need to modify permissions like that.