[PROBLEM] Blank screen Library > Tags, Albums

[RPI4 Rambler]

In my version of Moode 6.7.1 on a RPI4 (2 MB) and external DAC I'm having problems with the TAG and Album options in the Library drop down menu. 
When I choose Tag, a message appears "Library loading" but the screen remains empty. Only the title appears at the top/middle "Browse by Artists/Year". Why moode chooses "Browse by Artists/Year" is totally unclear to me. Furthermore, there's no way to select a different combination such as "Browse Artist/Album Title" or any another combination. The main thing is that the screen is empty.

Similarly,when I select "Album" from the Library drop down menu, I get the same message "Library loading...". The screen header changes to "Browse by Artist", but again the screen is empty otherwise.

Basically, only one Library options works: "Radio". Radio neatly shows a lists of radio stations, but choosing Folder, I get a list containing "NAS", "SD Card", "Default Playlist" and "Favorites". Clicking on any of these yields no response from moode. But clicking slightly left of the categories reveals a hidden menu with all kinds of options: Add, Play, Clear/Add, Clear/Play and Update this folder. 

So basically, the whole Library section (the heart of the current system) is broken.

My music library is properly tagged, as evidenced by flawless indexing by NAS servers such as Minimserver and Twonky.

Just now, I had to do a cold reset of the RPI and at least I can drill down to my music again via Library --> Folder. The other problems remain though.

Any one has an idea what is wrong with my system?

Cheers,
marco

[vinnn]

Where is the library located? Have you added it as a source?
If so have you imported your library with Update Library?

[Tim Curtis]

In my version of Moode 6.7.1 on a RPI4 (2 MB) and external DAC I'm having problems with the TAG and Album options in the Library drop down menu. 
When I choose Tag, a message appears "Library loading" but the screen remains empty. Only the title appears at the top/middle "Browse by Artists/Year". Why moode chooses "Browse by Artists/Year" is totally unclear to me. Furthermore, there's no way to select a different combination such as "Browse Artist/Album Title" or any another combination. The main thing is that the screen is empty.

Similarly,when I select "Album" from the Library drop down menu, I get the same message "Library loading...". The screen header changes to "Browse by Artist", but again the screen is empty otherwise.

Basically, only one Library options works: "Radio". Radio neatly shows a lists of radio stations, but choosing Folder, I get a list containing "NAS", "SD Card", "Default Playlist" and "Favorites". Clicking on any of these yields no response from moode. But clicking slightly left of the categories reveals a hidden menu with all kinds of options: Add, Play, Clear/Add, Clear/Play and Update this folder. 

So basically, the whole Library section (the heart of the current system) is broken.

My music library is properly tagged, as evidenced by flawless indexing by NAS servers such as Minimserver and Twonky.

Just now, I had to do a cold reset of the RPI and at least I can drill down to my music again via Library --> Folder. The other problems remain though.

Any one has an idea what is wrong with my system?

Cheers,
marco

Menu, Quick help explains the essentials for the Player and the Library.

The symptom "When I choose Tag, a message appears "Library loading" but the screen remains empty" can have several causes.

1. How many tracks in your collection?
2. How have you configured moOde to access your collection?
- Localy attached USB drive or SDCard
- NAS via Samba, NFS or UPnP
- None of the above, I'm using moOde as a UPnP renderer

Reboot then Menu, Library update. Wait for it too finish (no spinner in upper right) then post the Moode log and I'll have a look.

Code:

moodeutl -l

[RPI4 Rambler]

Where is the library located? Have you added it as a source?
If so have you imported your library with Update Library?

Thank you for replying Vinnn. Yes, I did all you mention, and more. I'll explain further. 
The music sources are all located on a QNAP Nas, subdivided in several Shared Folders. These shared folders are the sources in Moode and mounted as such and have been chmoded to 777 (yes I know). So I have 6 mounts in Moode, all correctly mounted according to Moode. Through SSH they can be seen (with contents) in
  

Code:

/mnt/NAS/[name of mount]

or through

Code:

/var/lib/mpd/music/NAS/[name of mount] 

where [name of mount] corresponds to a shared folder on the NAS.

When I descend down to these mounts, all the files are present. Through

Code:

mpc stats

I can see the results of the indexing. I also took a peek at mpd.conf, and aside of its very concise contents, I see no obvious problems. The metatag entry is limited to

Code:

metadata_to_use "+comment"

which would include all default MPD metatags as well. I could make an entry in mpd.conf such as:

Code:

metadata_to_use         "albumartist,artist,album,track,title,genre,date,disc"

A change in some other settings will have the effect of Moode generating a new mpd.conf file, undoing any changes having been made there. mpd.conf will revert back to the default mpd.conf, discarding all the changes being made to it.

As to the Library, there are several ways of updating (parts) of the Library, but most ways simply don't have any effect on the "index" of the Library. 

Now, probably using the NAS music server's own index (if there even is one), would overcome many problems. The RPI4's hardware is just too limited to perform indexing with large music library. But as there's a great variety in music servers (each modeled to the NAS architecture) such as Minimserver, Twonky, LMS, Plex and many others, this isn't a viable option for the developer. 

Back on topic: the Library functions TAG and ALBUM yield no results. 

Cheers,
marco

[kit1cat]

Why do you need 6 shared folders on your NAS? Can't you use one master folder and put your 6 shared folders in it and then mount the master folder? On my NAS I have 1 shared folder called music with a number of sub folders.

[TheOldPresbyope]

@RPI4 Rambler

Hi, Marco.

We can't give good answers if you don't supply basic information.

Post the output from moodeutl -s. This helps us judge the basic health of your system. (I originally wrote -l but -s gives more complete info.)

Since you are struggling with the MPD library, show us what MPD thinks is in it. Since you're comfortable working from the command line:

Post the actual output from mpc stats.

Post the output from, say, mpc list album (or one of the other major tag fields in your collection such as title, artist, genre). This is the information used to construct the views in the moOdeUI.

The RPi4B is quite capable of indexing large collections but the upper limit depends of various factors. I have a modest collection of ca 6000 tracks and even an RPi0W is happy with it. Others have collections well into the 10K to 20K range. 

How big is yours? If it's into the 30K+ tracks range I think neither moOde nor any other MPD-based player running on an SBC will perform well. If your collection is supersized, you could test the hypothesis that size matters by mounting only of your six NAS shares and checking the result.

There is no call for fiddling with system files such as mpd.conf. The moOdeUI provides access to all the configuration parameters a normal user needs and, as you've discovered, overwrites mpd.conf.

Most users problems with the Library have been traced to their tags. What matters is what MPD and its plugins recognize, not  indexing-status info from a NAS package like minimserver.

Regards,
Kent

[vinnn]

Just to add, my collection's at 96k tracks and my Pi3+ is fine, there really is no resource issues and the mpd library is just a few MB.
Same can't be said for my tablet trying to render those mega-lists in the browser though, it needs an upgrade.  

[RPI4 Rambler]

Menu, Quick help explains the essentials for the Player and the Library.

The symptom "When I choose Tag, a message appears "Library loading" but the screen remains empty" can have several causes.

1. How many tracks in your collection?
2. How have you configured moOde to access your collection?
- Localy attached USB drive or SDCard
- NAS via Samba, NFS or UPnP
- None of the above, I'm using moOde as a UPnP renderer

Reboot then Menu, Library update. Wait for it too finish (no spinner in upper right) then post the Moode log and I'll have a look.

Code:

moodeutl -l

Sorry Tim, I missed your reply at first. Here's my first reply:
Library size:

Code:

mpc stats
Artists:  20191
Albums:   18739
Songs:   266810

Play Time:    0 days, 0:00:00
Uptime:       1 days, 1:49:36
DB Updated:   Mon Aug 24 14:35:01 2020
DB Play Time: 827 days, 12:51:11

2. Samba mounts: Library Config --> Create Music Source --> Created 6 music sources all on the NAS. All accepted by Moode by a leading V. No music on any other source.

3. Samba (Qnap 4 bay server). All connected through gigabit ethernet.

4. I'll post the log later.

[Tim Curtis]

Prolly the quarter million tracks is causing a resource limit to be exceeded in any of MPD, PHP, NGINX.

The way to troubleshoot is to start with one of your music shares and see if that works, then add another, etc until things stop working.

[vinnn]

Oof that is a lot!