Some Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Twonky, And Some Answers
The MyCloud includes a Twonky DLNA Media Server. Sadly it doesn’t seem very well integrated into the MyCloud, and the two fight for supremacy. I’ve spent a long time trying to understand how it works, and reading the forum, I see many other people also have trouble with it.
So I thought that, rather than trying to answer these questions individually, I’d try to write an FAQ covering the things I’ve found, and the problems I or others have encountered, and the solutions.
I’m not a member of WD staff. I’m not a MyCloud, Twonky or Linux expert (but I’m moderately competent). But I am stubborn, and determined to find out how to make the thing work the way I want it to. If more expert users find fault in this FAQ, or have other insights to offer, then feel free to post comments. I’ll edit this first post and make corrections and add any FAQ&A that are added.
Where I am unsure of something, I’ll enclose it in [brackets]. Feel free to investigate and confirm or disprove my observations…
Where I mention control settings, I use a | to indicate a level of hierarchy in the menu system. This is to distinguish control settings and file system paths.
Starting the Media Server and Setting up a Media Library Q. What is a Media Server? Q. How do I start the Twonky Server? Q. How do I control the Twonky server properly? Q. Where should I put my media so Twonky finds it? Q. Why doesn’t Twonky find my media? Q. Can I stop Twonky searching in certain folders in my media storage folders? Q. What are the ‘Shared Media’ folders for? Q. Why can people using DLNA clients see media in my private share? Q. How do I control when Twonky rescans the media store?
Optimising Operation of the Media Server Q: How does the Twonky service work on the MyCloud? Q. Where is the Twonky database stored? Q. Where are the Twonky settings stored? Q. What do all the settings in Twonky’s configuration file do? Q. How do I clear Twonky’s database and start again? Q. Where can I find debug log files for Twonky? Q. How do I stop MyCloud breaking the Twonky Server? Q. Can I change to location of the ‘Shared Media’ folders? Q. Why does setting a Twonky access control password prevent the MyCloud from sleeping? Q. Can I replace Twonky with another Media Server?
Optimising Behaviour for Media Clients Q. Why does my media player not show the right track information? Q: Why does my media player not see certain types of media? Q. How can I get Twonky to provide full size artwork to clients, rather than crude thumbnails? Q. How can I change the media ‘views’ I see in my DLNA client? Q. Can I add my own category to the Music/Photos/Videos categories?
Note the big warning signs about warranty. IMHO, it’s a bit off to make dire threats like this when you often NEED to SSH login to get the advertised services to work properly.
Some Unix experience will help, but I’ll try to explain all the commands you’ll need. Experience with a Unix text editor such as vi or nano is assumed.
Nb: these instructions are based on the ‘Gen1’ hardware and v4 firmware; the Gen2/v2 device runs a different version of Linux, which appears more locked down. I do not have a Gen2 device, so cannot provide support. Any Gen2 users are welcome to add observations on the operation of Twonky on their devices.
Starting the Media Server and Setting up a Media Library
Q. What is a Media Server? A: A Media Server is a piece of software that looks for media files on a disk, or network, and creates a catalogue, or database, of the files it finds. The server uses the file type and metadata embedded in the file to create the database. Client applications can then interrogate this database, and request the server to send the file to them, or to a media renderer for playback. This combination of file store, database and server is often called a media library.
The Media Server on the MyCloud is called Twonky, and uses the DLNA and UPnP protocols to talk to client applications and renderers.
Q. How do I start the Twonky Media Server? A: You need to set two controls in the Dashboard:
Use the Shares|Public|Share Profile|Media Serving control in the Dashboard to enable media serving on the Public share (or whichever share(s) you have stored your media on).
Use the Settings|Media|DLNA Media Server|Media Streaming control in the Dashboard to turn on the Twonky Media Server.
The Twonky server will now start scanning for media, and build its database.
Two other settings are recommended, since they will reduce the number of times the MyCloud will break Twonky operation:
Fix the IP address of the MyCloud so that it won’t change. This can be done by using your router’s control page to set the IP address it has allocated to the MyCloud to either infinite lease DHCP or Static, or by using the Settings|Network|Network Services control in the Dashboard to set a Static IP address for the MyCloud.
Disable automatic firmware upgrades, and use a regular manual check for upgrades; use the Settings|Firmware|Auto Update control in the Dashboard. The Twonky settings will still be overwritten when you do a manual firmware upgrade, but at least you will know that will happen, and you can save settings before you do the upgrade, and restore them afterwards.
Q. How do I control the Twonky server properly? A: Like the MyCloud, Twonky uses a browser-based control interface. It can be found on port 9000 of your MyCloud’s IP address. You can find the IP address on the Settings|Network page of the Dashboard.
Enter the address and port in your browser’s address field, with a : between them, for example:
192.168.1.32:9000
You can also use your MyCloud’s name, e.g. WDMyCloud:9000
This will bring up Twonky’s UI page. We’ll talk about some of the controls in later questions.
Note that, when you make changes, you must hit the ‘Save Changes’ button to make them take effect.
Q. Where should I put my media so Twonky finds it? A: By default, when MyCloud starts Twonky (when you turn on Media Streaming), it tells it to look for all types of media (music, photos & videos) in all folders in the Public share. If you use the Twonky UI, and go to the Sharing page, you will see just one line:
/Public All Content Types
You can change the folders and media types to suit your requirements, by using the Browse button to select the folder, and the drop-down menu to select file types. For instance, I use the following settings to serve media from my private Media share:
/Media/Music Music /Media/Pictures Photos /Media/Videos Videos
When you’re happy with the changes, hit the ‘Save Changes’ button.
Now go to the Advanced control page, scroll to the bottom, and hit ‘Rescan Content Folders’.
If you want allow people to see your media library within your local network, but not allow them to modify it, you can also create a private share, and put your media in it. Enable media serving on the private share, using Shares|<sharename>|Share Profile|Media Serving
Twonky will serve media from the private share without clients needing to have any file server access to the share. You’ll have to add this share to the list of folders and media types in Twonky’s Sharing list, e.g.
/Private/Media All Content Types
Note that Twonky creates the following folders:
/Public/Shared Music /Public/Shared Pictures /Public/Shared Videos
[These folders are for Twonky’s use only. Don’t put any of your media in them. I know the MyCloud User Manual says that’s where you should put your media, but if I do that, things go very wrong. By much trial and error, I found that not using these folders made all the problems disappear. MyCloud is a Unix system. Unix doesn’t like spaces in path or filenames…]
We’ll see later how to tidy these folders up…
These settings will stay in place provided MyCloud does not restart Twonky; this will happen if you turn Media Streaming off and back on in the Dashboard, or if the firmware is upgraded, [or if you do a System Only Restore].
n.b. These settings will be destroyed if you use the Dashboard to change any of the Media Serving controls on any of the Shares.
You can reduce the rate at which MyCloud damages these settings; see the later question ‘How do I stop MyCloud breaking the Twonky Server?’
Q. Why doesn’t Twonky find my media? A: That’s a good question, [and there are probably many reasons]…
If Twonky fails to find some of your media, it may be because it doesn’t understand the file type, and doesn’t recognise it as a media file it understands.
Another common reason seems to be that, following a MyCloud restart or firmware upgrade, it comes back with the Shares|Public|Media Serving turned off. This seems to manifest itself as Twonky scanning the directories, and finding lots of media (viewed using the Settings|Status page of the Twonky UI), but, when it finishes the scan, it seems to suddenly realise that Media Serving is turned off, and goes and deletes all the entries from its database, and the media counts fall back to zero, [or near zero]. The default state of the MyCloud is confused; Media Serving defaults to OFF:
but Media Streaming defaults to ON:
In order to get the media server to work, both of these settings have to be ON, so these default settings are inconsistent and cause confusing behaviour.
Q. Can I stop Twonky searching in certain folders in my media storage folders? A: Yes, you can do this by adding the name of the folder to the list of ignored directions, using the Settings|Advanced|Ignore Directories control in the Twonky UI. The list is simply a set of comma-separated strings.
[Note that this list will do a substring match on folder names (i.e. it will exclude any directory that includes one of the exclude strings), so you can exclude folders by mistake, if they include one of the exclude strings.]
I use this list to stop Twonky looking at .m3u files that are produced during the ripping process; I like to keep them as a log of the rip, but I don’t want them in the library, so I put all rip logfiles for an album in a sub-folder called Riplog in the album folder, and add Riplog to the list of ignored directories. I also have other files stored in Media, that I don’t want scanned (e.g. library processing scripts), so I add these folders to the exclude list.
Q. What are the ‘Shared Media’ folders for? A: Twonky has the ability to find other music libraries on the network, and to ‘aggregate’ these libraries into its library, thus presenting one composite library to the user. There are three options for this, selected by the Settings|Aggregation|Aggregation Mode control in the Twonky UI. The three modes are:
Ignore - don’t aggregate Aggregate - include logical links to the other libraries AutoCopy - take a copy of the media in the other libraries
[If you select the AutoCopy mode, Twonky will copy the media, and place it into the Shared Media folders.]
If, like me, having these folders offends your sense of tidyness, then you can control where Twonky creates these storage areas. See “Q: How can I change the location of the ‘Shared Media’ folders?”
Q. Why can people using DLNA clients see media in my private share? A: If you have enabled media serving on that share, Twonky will serve it, regardless of the access controls you have applied. This is a feature of the way DLNA works; it doesn’t respect access controls.
This feature can work in our favour: see ‘Q. Where should I put my media so Twonky finds it?’
Q. How do I control when Twonky rescans the media store? A: Some users find that their MyCloud never sleeps. [This seems to be associated with Twonky scanning for new media]. The rescan behaviour can be controlled using the Settings|Advanced|Rescan Interval control in the Twonky UI. The default value is -1, which should make it ‘talk to’ the file system, so that changes to the file system cause a re-scan. [However, I’m not sure that this works properly]. Setting the control to a positive value will set a rescan interval in minutes. I use 1440 to give a rescan once per day.
If you add new files to your file store, and want them to be seen in the library immediately, you can force a rescan; initiate a library rescan, using either:
Settings|Media|DLNA Database|Rescan in the Dashboard, or Settings|Advanced|Server Maintenance|Rescan Content Folders in the Twonky UI.
Q. How does the Twonky service work on the MyCloud? A: [Twonky is installed as a Linux service. Like other such services, there is a service control file in the /etc/init.d directory]:
/etc/init.d/twonky
This is called when the twonky service is invoked, and there are a number of options for the control of Twonky using an SSH root login:
service twonky start service twonky stop service twonky restart service twonky status
If you execute the start or stop commands with Media Streaming turned on in the Dashboard, you are likely to confuse the Dashboard; you may get an Error 400162.
‘start’ calls writeTwonkyContentDir.sh, which, as we’ll see later (Q: How do I stop MyCloud breaking the Twonky Server?), reads the /etc/contentdir file and modifies the twonkyserver.ini file to set the media search paths and types, and then starts the Twonky server.
[It is assumed that the MyCloud Dashboard uses these Twonky service calls to start and stop the Twonky server].
Q. Where is the Twonky database stored? A: Since Twonky is a service running on MyCloud, it is not visible in the shared space, so you have to log in via SSH, and navigate around the MyCloud’s Linux file system.
Once you have logged in, use the cd command to change directory to Twonky’s area:
cd /CacheVolume/twonkymedia
Now see what’s there with a directory list:
ls -l
Q. Where are the Twonky settings stored? A: One of the files listed above is the Twonky configuration file:
twonkyserver.ini
This file contains all the settings that control how Twonky works.
Now, this is where some of the fighting occurs, because both MyCloud and Twonky can modify this file…
When you are happy that Twonky is working correctly, I’d recommend making a copy of the file in your Public area, where it won’t be mangled by MyCloud firmware upgrades or restarts. For instance:
If things go wrong, you can reinstate this file by swapping the source and destination.
Q. What do all the settings in Twonky’s configuration file do? A: [Most of them are provided with comments that explain their purpose].
[There are some ‘magic numbers’ embedded in the configuration file that seem to cause problems, and I don’t know what changes those; I suspect that a firmware upgrade does it. If anyone can monitor these values before and after a MyCloud firmware upgrade and report any changes, I’d be obliged:
# UserID Please Do NOT change it manually userid=<redacted> # twonky info for Media Feeds Please Do NOT change it manually twonkyinfo=<redacted>]
Q. How do I clear Twonky’s database and start again? A: If Twonky doesn’t seem to be behaving correctly (not finding media correctly, or partially, or finding unwanted media), then it may be useful to clean up the database.
There are a number of escalating actions you can take. Starting with the mildest, and increasing in severity, these are as follows:
1. Initiate a library rescan, using either: Settings|Media|DLNA Database|Rescan in the Dashboard, or Settings|Advanced|Server Maintenance|Rescan Content Folders in the Twonky UI.
2. Initiate a library rebuild, using either: Settings|Media|DLNA Database|Rebuild in the Dashboard, or Settings|Advanced|Server Maintenance|Restart Server in the Twonky UI.
3. Finally, you can completely clear out Twonky’s working area. [This can be useful if you notice the [Error] - LOG_SYSTEM: Error: 2 No such file or directory report in the Twonky logfile. I don’t know what causes this error, or whether it has serious consquences, but I have found it to be associated with periods of diffcult behaviour.]
Turn Twonky off using the Settings|Media|DLNA Media Server|Media Streaming control in the Dashboard. Then SSH root login, and hide the entire Twonky working area:
cd /CacheVolume mv twonkymedia twonkymedia_bak
Restart the Twonky Server using the Dashboard; it will re-create Twonky’s working area with a clean version with default settings. You can then use the Twonky UI to put your settings back in place. You might try doing this one-by-one, saving the settings and restarting the Twonky server from the Twonky UI each time, then checking the logfile after the Twonky UI has re-appeared.
Once you’re happy with the operation of the clean startup, you can delete the old Twonky working area:
rm -f -R /CacheVolume/twonkymedia_bak
The -f -R flags mean ‘delete EVERYTHING from here down… yes, I mean it’. nb. it will only delete the Twonky database; it won’t delete any of your media. But do be careful that you type the command in correctly; rm -f -R is a powerful command (-f means force, -R means recursive), and could do a lot of damage if you get it wrong…
Q. Where can I find debug log files for Twonky? A: You can enable activity logging using the Settings|Advanced|Logging control in the Twonky UI. You can also open the logfile from there.
Alternatively, the logfile is stored in Twonky’s area: /CacheVolume/twonkymedia/twonkymedia-log.txt
There’s also a MyCloud system logfile that records actions on the Twonky server, such as start and stop: /CacheVolume/update.log
Q. How do I stop MyCloud breaking the Twonky Server? A:Firstly, go to the Settings|Firmware page in the Dashboard, and disable Auto Update: firmware upgrades completely destroy the /CacheVolume/twonkymedia area, and replace it with new, default version, so you’ll be back to square one.
Secondly, don’t use the Dashboard to change the Media Serving settings on any Shares; if you do this, it will overwrite any changes you make via the Twonky UI, setting any enabled shares back to ‘All Content Types’.
Thirdly, we can stop the problem of Media Streaming restarts overwriting the Twonky UI settings. Using an SSH root login, enter the following commands:
cd /usr/local/sbin mv writeTwonkyContentDir.sh writeTwonkyContentDir.sh.old
This disables the script that MyCloud calls when it starts Twonky, which overwrites your settings.
Another way of fixing the settings is to leave this script alone, but change the file it uses as the source of the settings. Admittedly, this will still override any changes made via the Twonky UI. The file is found here:
/etc/contentdir
Replace this with a single control line, with no line terminator, e.g.
The format is a comma-separated list of shares and media search and aggregation control flags:
+ enable media searching on the share - disable media searching on the share A look for all media types M look for music P look for pictures V look for videos
lower case letters enable aggregation of these media types.
The | terminates the media type string [you can search for multiple types in a share].
It is possible to modify the MyCloud’s user startup script to perform a number of useful tasks every time it reboots, such as stopping the indexing and thumbnailing services, and restoring the /etc/contentdir and twonkyserver.ini files from a location in User space. Here’s an example of the /CacheVolume/user-start file:
Finally, NEVER USE THE ‘SHARE FILE’ FUNCTION. It will destroy the settings, reverting back to ‘All Content Types’ in the root of any share that has media sharing enabled. For absolutely no good reason, since remote file sharing and local media server are completely unrelated functions; the media server cannot be accessed outside the network. Sadly, once again, WD deny all responsibility for destroying your carefully-honed media server settings, with the pathetic excuse “Twonky may be part of our product, but it is a 3rd party software. We don’t provide support for third party products or software.”
Q: How can I change the location of the ‘Shared Media’ folders? A: This brings us deep into the guts of the twonkyserver.ini file… There are a number of settings that control where Twonky stores uploaded files and ‘servermanaged’ media, [which are used for aggregation], and there is no control setting for them in the Twonky UI. To change the location of the folders we have to do an SSH root login and edit the twonkyserver.ini file. The lines in question are as follows:
uploadmusicdir=/shares/Public/Shared Music uploadpicturedir=/shares/Public/Shared Pictures uploadvideodir=/shares/Public/Shared Videos servermanagedmusicdir=/shares/Public/Shared Music servermanagedpicturedir=/shares/Public/Shared Pictures servermanagedvideodir=/shares/Public/Shared Videos
You can change these locations to suit your desired file system. For instance, you could create a single ‘Shared’ folder in the your media share, with sub folders for the different media types, e.g. I use:
uploadmusicdir=/shares/Media/Shared/Music etc.
Or you could create a Shared sub folder within each of your main media folders, e.g.
uploadmusicdir=/shares/Media/Music/Shared
However, if you choose that option, you will need to stop Twonky searching there, by adding Shared to the list of ignored directories discussed above.
Q. Why does setting a Twonky access control password prevent the MyCloud from sleeping? A: It has been reported that if a username and password are set using the Settings|Advanced|Secured Server Settings control in the Twonky UI, that the MyCloud then never sleeps. [It appears that the MyCloud continues to interrogate the drive in some way, hoping to get status of the Media Server from Twonky, but Twonky won’t talk to it because it doesn’t have the required permission.].
I don’t think this is very important, since the MyCloud is mainly intended for home use, and the Twonky control UI isn’t visible external to your local network, and all users on your local network must be trusted*, since you’ve given them the network access code, [and they have access to the Public area, and could wreak havoc there…]
If you need to make your music library available to visitors who cannot be trusted, create a private share and put all your media under that, then enable media serving on that share, and get Twonky to search for media in that private share. DLNA ignores access control, so DLNA clients will be able to see the media on your private share, but visitors will not have access to your private share via network file access.
[However, if you feel that secured access to the Twonky UI is necessary, then I would suggest that you disable the Twonky server using the Settings|Media|Media Streaming control, then SSH login as root, and start Twonky using the command:
service twonky start
You won’t get the media scan status in the Dashboard, but the Twonky Server and UI will be running.]
* Breaches of this trust should be punished in an appropriate manner…
Q. Can I replace Twonky with another Media Server? A: Yes; forum users hvalentim and Nazar78 have posted good threads about this:
I haven’t tried this, and can’t give advice on how to install the newer version. You’re welcome to try it, and report back here… This thread might give some clues:
Note that you’ll have to buy a licence to allow this to run after a 30-day trial period. It’s currently about €15.
Q. Why does my media player not show the right track information? A: A media server looks at the metadata stored in the file, as well as the path and filename. There can be all sorts of metadata tags within a file (Artist, Album Artist, Album, Track Title, Publish Date, Composer, etc, etc), and a media server will fetch these and provide some or all of them to media client applications.
If a file does not contain metadata, a media server cannot provide it to clients, and the only way clients can then select media is using the ‘By Folder’ view. If you have ripped CDs without manually entering metadata, or downloading metadata (e.g. from freedb.org), or using a media library tool to infer metadata from the filename, your files will not contain metadata.
Correct metadata is the bane of a digital music collector’s life. Metadata downloaded from sites like freedb.org is frequently in error, or in a format that you don’t like (if you you have obsessive-compulsive tendencies). However, it is essential if you want to use a media server. In which case, if metadata is missing from your media files, you’ll need to add it with a media library tool (such as WinAmp, MediaMonkey, or even Windows MediaPlayer), or a dedicated metadata tagger such as MP3Tag.
Twonky offers a number of different options for the metadata that is offered to clients. This is controlled using the Settings|Sharing|Media Receivers control in the Twonky UI; use the ‘Navigation Type’ column drop-down menu to select what is offered to each device that is connected to Twonky.
Media clients also have different ways of sorting file lists; some allow the sort order to be controlled, and some use different sort orders with different metadata views, as discussed here:
Q: Why does my media player not see certain types of media? A: When your media player first connects to the Twonky server, it should tell Twonky what it is, and what media it will support, using a ‘profile’. Twonky will only reveal media in its database that the media client says it is able to handle.
Sometimes, the media client will present an incorrect profile. The profile that Twonky has found for a client can be found in the Settings|Sharing|Media Receivers settings. You can select a different profile if the one automatically selected is not correct, or is unsuitable. See the next Q for discussion on how to edit or create profiles.
Q. How can I get Twonky to provide full size artwork to media-playing clients? A: The resolution of album artwork presented to clients depends on the client type. This can be set using the Settings|Sharing|Media Receivers control in the Twonky UI. Find your client in the list, and use the ‘Media Receiver Type’ drop-down menu to select an appropriate type.
There’s a useful thread on this issue on the Twonky user forum:
The profiles of the clients are held as xml files, and can be found here:
/usr/local/twonkymedia-7/resources/devicedb
[If you create new profiles, or edit existing ones, it’s probably a good idea to store them somewhere safe, as I suspect they’ll get overwritten by a firmware upgrade.]
Music artwork appears to need to be called ‘folder.jpg’ to be found by Twonky [actually, I’ve recently found it picking up other artwork; it might be simple alphabetical selection]. Video artwork must have exactly the same filename as the video file, apart from the extension.
Q. How can I change the media ‘views’ I see in my DLNA client? A. Twonky uses some XML files to define the the behaviour of each view, and which views are presented for each ‘navigation type’. These XML files are found here:
/usr/local/twonkymedia-7/resources/views
The file that defines the behaviour of the views is view-definitions.xml. This creates structured views, using database properties that can be found in this document:
These view definitions can be edited, or copied to create new views to suit your needs. It looks a bit hairy if you’re not familiar with XML, but it’s nicely structured with indentation that should help you copy the stuff you need.
Each ‘navigation type’ has an associated file that defines which views are presented. For the ‘Advanced Navigation’, this is advanced.view.xml. This is simpler than the view definition file, since it is essentially just a list of the defined views.
You would download the latest zip file, and then extract the device definitions from resources/devicedb/ and copy them into the matching folder on the MyCloud.
Note that I haven’t tried doing this. I’d recommend backing up the devices folder before you try it.
Q. Can I add my own category to the Music/Photos/Videos categories? A. There’s a useful-looking discussion thread by Phibertron on the twonkyforum:
[edit: a word of caution is needed here, as I note that people are reading this FAQ as ‘gospel’: it certainly isn’t; it’s just a collection of my findings, and I may be wrong (as I made clear in my original post). I find that putting my media into Twonky’s ‘Shared Media’ folders causes me trouble. BUT, given that there must be tens or hundreds of thousands of MyCloud users, and we’re not seeing them all here, cursing Twonky, I suspect that most people have no problem following WD’s advice to use these folders. I’m sure my advice will not cause you problems, but, equally, WD’s advice may not cause you problems. It’s just one thing to try if you do have trouble. If you have no trouble with the ‘Shared Media’ folders, or if you do, please share your experience, and we might be able to get to the bottom of the problem.]
[The purpose of the ‘Shared Media’ folders has finally dawned on me. They’re not meant to be folders that Twonky creates for you to put your media in; they’re folders Twonky creates to store media it has copied from other media libraries it finds on the network, as part of its ‘aggregation’ function.]
[Of course, since Twonky starts up by default when you first turn on your MyCloud, it has already created these folders by the time you first see the Public share folder, and, with no explanation to the contrary, it seems that is where you’re supposed to put your media*. YOU ARE NOT… Don’t put anything in the ‘Shared Media’ folders; leave them for Twonky to use.]
I’ve added an FAQ on how to move these aggregation folders somewhere more tidy.
* Oh, and the reason why it seems that you should put your media in the ‘Shared Media’ folders?
Because those are the names that Windows uses for its public access ‘All Users\Documents’ media folders… And the User Manual repeatedly says this is where you should store your media. All I know is that if I do put my media in the ‘Shared Media’ folders, Twonky doesn’t behave properly.
I tried to get to the bottom of two Twonky mysteries; the 'magic numbers in the twonkyserver.ini file, and the ‘[Error] - LOG_SYSTEM: Error: 2 No such file or directory’ report in the log file.
Here’s the log of my investigation process, starting from a Twonky system that seems to be working, but reports the Error 2.
# turn off media streaming via Dashboard
# SSH in
# take a backup of the current configuration file
cd /CacheVolume
cp twonkymedia/twonkyserver.ini /shares/Public/twonkyserver.bak
# hide the existing Twonky working area
mv twonkymedia twonkymedia_bak
# restart media streaming via Dashboard
# take a copy of the 'clean' configuration file
cp twonkymedia/twonkyserver.ini /shares/Public/twonkyserver.clean
# compare the userid and twonkyinfo magic numbers in the configuration file
# they're identical
# check the log file twonkymedia-log.txt
# media shares are as per /etc/contentdir
# but aggregation folders are back to 'Shared Media'
# and, of course, friendlyname, ignore directories, compilation folders & rescan interval are now default
# no Error 2
# so, what causes Error 2?
# Using Twonky UI
# change friendly name & restart server
# no Error 2
# change rescan interval to 1440 & restart server
# no Error 2
# change compilation folder
# no Error 2
# change ignore directories
# Using SSH
# edit twonkyserver.ini to change aggregation folders to 'Shared/Media' & restart server (Twonky UI)
# no Error 2
# edit twonkyserver.ini to set ignore_embedded_thumbnails=1 & restart server (Twonky UI)
# no Error 2
# take a copy of the modified 'clean' configuration file
cp twonkyserver.ini /shares/Public/twonkyserver.clean2
# use WinDiff to compare twonkyserver.bak and new twonkyserver.clean2
# only differences are:
# logging verbosity setting v=4095 vs v=0
# ignore directory list (order only; I'd changed it)
So, I’m no nearer to understanding what the magic numbers are, or what changes them, and no nearer understanding what causes the ‘Error 2’ message. I just don’t get that message any more.
Which has to be good, right…?
Oh, and, with the new configuration, twonky found the same number of media files, and took the same time to do it…
I had a funny last night; my router lost internet connection for some reason, and I had to restart it. Coincidentally, the loss of connection occurred whilst trying to edit a post on this forum… Hmmmm…
Now, when a router loses connection, the MyCloud does a reset. I’m not really sure why it feels it needs to do this, but it does. Twonky appeared to come back up correctly; all the media counts were correct, and it took about the right time to do the scan.
But, browsing the Twonky library this evening, having updated the BubbleUPnP DLNA/UPnP client, I noticed that the Twonky media server had lost the first level of hierarchy; no Music/Pictures/Video folders appeared, just the music metadata views. Thinking it might be a Bubble funny, I checked on another tablet that I hadn’t updated, and that showed the same, as did Kinsky. So the media type view had indeed vanished.
I used the Twonky UI to perform a Server Restart, and everything is now back to normal. The restart and media scan took less than 15 minutes for 65k music tracks & 5500 pictures. Good that the fix was simple, but bad that the thing didn’t startup correctly in the first place, and bad that MyCloud restarts whenever it loses connection to the router, for any reason.
This morning, the video and photo folders have disappeared again.
*sigh*
[edit]
Think I’ve figured it out; it’s not an indexing problem, it’s to do with the media receiver type I set to enable high resolution artwork. Setting it to be a Naim streamer seems to tell Twonky to only present audio, which is pretty fair if the media renderer can only handle audio. Setting it to a generic media receiver presents all three types of media. i.e. I’d set the wrong Receiver Type profile, so it didn’t show me photos or videos.
Hi, I got a question, does this work on different drives? I do not have a My Cloud, but I have an EX 2 and I would like to try some of this, but I’m not sure that the folder architecture are the same on both drive (while viewing through SSH).
Is there a way to add “media types” to the preconfigured ones (music, pictures, videos)? I’d like to separate tv recordings from private videos and change the configuration of the twonky media server who aggregats them in one category.
No, I don’t think you can add categories to those that are predefined (music, pictures & videos).
So I would suggest using metadata tags or folder structure to split your video library. Twonky provides the following metadata views for its video library:
Album
All videos (alphabetically grouped)
By date
By folder
Playlists
Title
The Album and By Folder views look most useful for you.
[edit: I have found a method, and added a new FAQ on this problem.]
I prefer to do it the easy way though. You have 2 mac addresses for the WD MyCloud. 1 under the device itself and another for the other devices where the twonky server sits as an unknown device on windows 8.1. Block the unknown device mac through the modem/router and when you double click on your WDMyCloud via windows explorer to access network shares, it will log you into the twonky GUI with a nice user friendly interface.
The ‘nice, friendly GUI interface’ can be accessed via port 9000 of your MyCloud’s IP, and yes, I discuss that, and assume that will be used for many settings. But that friendly GUI won’t let you control Twonky to do many of the thing I discuss, or stop the MyCloud breaking the setup…
Many thanks for going to the trouble of posting this, it very informative, well presented, and a massive help for new guys like me.
I have just purchased a WD EX2 NAS, and following initial setup a couple of weeks ago, it suddenly lost its Twonky setting, ie I couldnt access using port :9000, meaning I couldnt access my films on my smart TV etc.
I am pretty new to the world of Twonky and this was exactly what I was looking for - I now have a fully functional twonky service - if I’m allowed to say that - many thanks
