Indexing / Scanning Media - Myth or True

I thought I will never get bit by the “Drive too Slow bug”. But alas it was meant to bite me. I have a 6TB drive and populated 1 TB. Today I switched it off and started after 2 hrs. The access was very slow. Data transfer few Kbps only. Then I read somewhere that the indexing of media files and DLNA build keeps it busy for a long time which can go into years too !!! :flushed:

Firstly is this indexing thing true? I saw it build on dashboard so I think it is true…
Secondly, I don’t want it to be indexed. Can I stop it to save access time? No SSH business please KISS.

Thanks

With that caveat, no.

With the caveat that you will lose remote access, you can turn off Cloud Access, which stops the indexing (it creates thumbnails to serve up for the remote access apps). It will restart when you turn Cloud Access back on again.

It’s the indexing & thumbnailing that takes time. The DLNA indexing is actually pretty quick.

So my assumption that indexing does cause slowing of drive access was right?
Frankly, as of now and for days to come, I intend to use this drive to primarily back and store all my data (movies, music and files) which I will stream either onto my Minix (which by the way I tried today using XBMC and it worked smooth even for full HD movies) or Chromecast onto my TV.
Remote access is not something I intend to do as of now so as you suggest it will be prudent to turn it off so that data updation and copying within local network is faster - Correct me on this if I am wrong.

Also is just like in Android if a folder has a file named .nomedia it is excluded from scanning, is the same thing possible here to exclude my pictures folder from being scanned?

Thanks once again tolerating my “silly” questions.

Read this in one of the posts. Is this what you were covering under caveat?
There is a way to exclude some folders from being scanned by the WDMC process. However the process involves modifying some config files for wdmc and inturn voids warranty!!!

Only to be done if you are comfortable and have some linux knowledge.

Via ssh, look in this file: /usr/local/wdmcserver/bin/wdmc.xml

There you will find a section called “”. In there, you can specify which folders to exclude from the scan.

/.
//found.[0-9]+
/
/~$
//AlbumArt_{
/
/thumbs.db
//desktop.ini
/
/SmartWare/
.sparsebundle
//Recycled/
//RECYCLER/
//RECYCLED/
//$RECYCLE.BIN/
//System Volume Information/

/shares/data/iTunes/*
/shares/data/Drivers/*
/shares/data/Downloads/*
/shares/backups/*

Once you have excluded the folders, delete the hidden “.wdmc” folder that contains the thumbnails in each respective provate folder. After that either restart the wdmc process or reboot the wd cloud drive.

Doable? Does this work?

In addition to what you say, do I really need Twonky running on WD if I am using Minix for streaming connecting via Windows SMB? If not, can I shut it down cause I think it would be doing the scanning too?

Its important to remember that the My Cloud has a low amount of RAM and has a lower power/capability processor. As such if you attempt to do several things at once with the unit its possible for the unit (more likely the Dashboard) to bog down and become sluggish.

When you turn on the My Cloud or reboot the My Cloud wait till the front LED becomes a sold blue. This may take a few minutes depending on how much data is on the My Cloud.

If you are not using Remote access turn it off as Cpt_paranoia indicates above. The Remote Access service scans the drive to create thumbnails and set up remote searching of the drive contents.

There are two services (wdmcserverd and wdphotodbmergerd) that one can disable via SSH that can also potentially improve performance, but if you use remote access stopping/disabling these two services will break certain remote access features (thumbnails and searching). Do a forum search for wdmcserverd and or wdphotodbmergerd and you’ll find numerous threads discussing how to disable these two services. Normally people disable these two services to deal with My Cloud sleep issues.

If you do a subforum search you’ll find several discussions on how to adjust the scanning time the My Cloud uses and how to possibly exclude folders/Shares from Twonky or other My Cloud services. You can access the Twonky administration page (http://wdmycloud:9000) to further exclude folders or Shares from the Twonky media server.

No. My caveat (a warning, or condition) was referring to your stated condition of not wanting to use SSH. If you’re prepared to use SSH and learn a little Linux, and a bit about how the MyCloud services work, then you can disable the scanning services. Note the WD statement says using SSH may void your warranty.

My second suggestion to disable cloud access had the condition that you’re happy to stop remote access.

The Twonky DLNA server media scan and the MyCloud media scan/thumbnail are entirely distinct activities. The Twonky scan takes me about 25 minutes for first scan from boot, and then about 12 minutes for rescans (I have 2TB of media). You can control the rescan interval; see the Twonky FAQ thread. I used to disable these services, but I don’t bother now; I just let them run to completion.

If you don’t need DLNA for any media access, then yes, of course turn it off, and use media apps that access via SMB.

Once the indexing/thumbnailing processes have finished, the device becomes responsive again. It is intended to run 24/7; if you turn it off, it will re-run the indexing/thumbnailing.

Bear in mind that any changes you make via SSH will be eliminated if you upgrade the firmware, unless you take step to restore them afterwards. If modify the userstart file to restore my settings from the DataVolume user data area, which isn’t changed; neither is the userstart file; search the forums for details.

Unchecked folders from sharing.

Since I will be using Minix media streamer or Yamaha receiver for streaming my video and music, I won’t be using Twonky’s services.

Are you sure the Yamaha can access the SMB server? The 477 and 577 are both DLNA devices, as far as I can tell from the manual.

As for your SSH, as Bennor said; get searching the forum. This thread might give you some pointers: