BluOS Controller (Windows) 3.20.3: Library/Genres/Show all (Albums) doesn't work
Answered
Hi
Library/Genres/Show all (Albums) didn't work in 3.20.1, didn't work in 3.20.2 and doesn't work in 3.20.3. Before installing 3.20.3 I uninstalled 3.20.2 and deleted the folder C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\BluOS Controller (as recommended in previous posts).
All posts concerning this bug will be marked as "answered", doesn't help very much...
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Official comment
Hi all,
Because of your help, our quality assurance and development team has been able to replicate the software bug. This is caused by special characters on the tracks or albums.
Our team is busy preparing for a build release that should be out soon.
Thank you for your continued patience.Thanks for #LivingHiFi
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Are you serieus with this official comment after 3 months? And no, this is not the anwser we are waiting for.
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Just wanted to add some details on specific issues I've encountered. Running Win10, Raid 1+0 music-only setup to serve the house. Had similar issues as described here and before, with Win Controller not responding to specific play clicks and then losing the library altogether. Deleted the cache file along with all library links, reconnected the library and it performs. But:
Some specific albums won't play when clicking a specific track; clicking Play All does play the album, and clicking Next button works for advancing through songs. In my case, this issue seems to be intermittent - happened on the Jack Harlow rip but not any other recent rips. Also, have noticed no performance issues with iOS controller.
All just FYI. Looking forward to 4.0.
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Any update on the fix? My extensive library is useless until this fix is distributed. Very frustrating.
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Almost 4 months and counting.
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Can somone from Bluesound confirm this will work with the new 4.0 software and that it wont be fixed in the 3.20 software?
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@ Max Dekker. Hey I was able to get back up and running with stability so far. I have 11 players, 9 of which are active, and are of various generations, including a new Soundbar+. I decided to try static IPs using this article as my guide:
I also set a static IP for my server (and printer too while I was at it). It still didn't solve the problem. However, the new soundbar forced me to factory reset the Pulse Flex satellites just to get a stable home theater group. After I got all three up I noticed only the static IP for the server showed up. When I ran diagnostic for another player, that player displayed old shares since deleted plus the new static IP. I decided to try and reset a first gen soundbar, and after setting it up again it worked along with the new soundbar and satellites. And the players picked up their assigned IPs with no problem after reset.
In summary, I reserved IP addresses for all the players and the server, rebooted the router, assigned them in each player, closed the controller, deleted the cache, and then factory reset the player and reestablished to the LAN. Now I only see the network share IP address, and the music plays.
Your mileage will certainly vary and I'm sure mine will too. Just wanted to share how I worked around this.
And in another head scratcher... why on earth did they remove the sub crossover in the new software? That was such a useful setting for blending with different spec subs. Why?!?!?
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@ John Locke,
Thank you John for your detailed anser. Most of what you described I did already. Some of the other things I don't understand but I will study on that.
Thanks again for your post.
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I have the same issue, why is this not being fixed? You completely tanked the usability of an entire product, and seem to be in no rush to fix it. It's insulting to customers who paid for these products.
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Was hoping for a fix in BluOS Controller 3.20.4, but still working as previous versions.
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@Bjorn and Chris M: My guess is that, in their astonishing yet consistent social incompetence, they've bailed on fixing this version in favor of rolling out v4, which is a revamp of the controller interface. Like no doubt many of us I hope this includes firmware fixes too. This is a firmware problem in my estimation, nothing is going to be updated until v4 is released, and they've also elected not to tell anyone this. There is no firm release date I am aware of, only a vague March-April goal. Pretty sure they've bailed on this thread too.
That's how I see it. They get offended if you get frustrated. Your poor experience is your fault. They don't even acknowledge your frustrations in most instances, much less go out of their way to address them quickly and effectively. My sense is they simply do not care - it's minimum required effort all the way - and I base this on direct experience, the dismal support structure they choose to operate under, the long waits for responses, the whole thing.
If you have the know-how, I am still able to get stability and function by assigning addresses in my router, factory resetting each player, then setting matching static IPs in both my music server and in the players. There's a link further up in the thread that was helpful in this pursuit.
I want to love what they do. I want to be a raving fan (shout out to SVS, the gold standard), spreading the good news and all of that. I've got 11 of these things in various models. But it's really not a good idea in life to love anything that won't love you back.
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Hi John,
I've escalated your feedback to a support ticket. A member of our support team will reach out to you soon.
Thank you for #LivingHiFi0 -
If you put in as much effort as you put into the support tickets that were created for me, you might as well just tell him to get lost right now.
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I just received a Support call from a genuinely concerned person who tried to help. They’ve released 3.20.4, but after installation the controller reverted back to the same library issues as before. (I had one typo in one of my MAC addresses but this was not a problem before the update was installed).
At his request, this evening I’ll do a hard core reset of my network, starting with unplugging everything all the way back to my modem, rebooting it first, and only when it’s up, rebooting my router. Then, factory reset each player. Then, one by one, establishing each to its nearest access point, until all are back on the network. Hopefully this will resolve the problem once again. I really don’t know if the new version will fix the problem for others, but Support feels static IPs are the way to go and that this will do the trick. My sense is this remains a firmware issue and that update has not been released yet.
At minimum it was of some benefit that this person reached out - I felt like they were trying to help. I’ll post an update here after I run through this procedure.
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Great that you get some help John, but in my case the issue is the same as OP.
Library/Genres/Show all (Albums) will show "nothing". "Spinning wheel" for a short time, and occasionally the player will disappear from the player drawer for a short moment.
I am currently using 3.18.4, and have tested all versions from 3.4.9 to 3.20.4. The issue started with 3.20.1.
Android app don't have the issue.
Edit: Controller v 3.18.4 don't have the issue.0 -
3.20.4 is the same garbage software as the last one. I installed it and it did nothing different. If it was the firmware on the players, you would see this same issue being reported on the forums for the Android and Iphone controllers but I don't see them complaining.
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Still could be a firmware issue specific to Windows environments.
for Support Crew: during my call we tested 3.20.4 only in Windows. We did not test iOS and I have no Android devices either. Chris M above noted no complaints he was aware of for Android/iOS. So I just checked the same track I had issues with in Windows environment while on the call, and sure enough it played in iOS. Haven’t tested anything else and still haven’t gone through the full reset procedure yet.
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That they have made 5 releases with the same severe issue tells me the either don't care to fix it, or have no idea of what they broke. Maybe all the good programmers are on the other products and the windows guys are the leftovers. It certainly has never looked as good or worked as well as the other controllers, so this may not be a new thing.
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My efforts were unsuccessful and the library is not working well once again. Here’s what I did:
- After powering down all players, access points, my music server, router and modem, I then powered up the modem.
- I waited until fully booted before booting the router. Once the router was booted and I confirmed both network and internet access, I booted the nearest AP.
- I factory reset and booted one player, a Pulse Mini, which is normally hardwired to the back of the router. The same for the server, but it’s running through a gigabit switch, which is directly connected to the same router. I disconnected the RJ45 and reestablished connection via WiFi.
- I set a new, previously unused static IP in the router and the player, taking care to ensure IP and MAC addresses matched.
- Reestablished the library network share.
- Rebooted the router and player.
I left all other players unplugged. Testing the library, had latency issues that weren’t there before, and the one problematic track I knew of was once again problematic, but with a new behavior. I was able to get the first three songs to play, but when I tried to stop play, the player kept playing. I even rebooted the server, and the player kept playing while the server rebooted, only dropping out for a few seconds until it started playing the same song as if there had been no reboot. Had to power cycle the Mini just to get it to stop.
After this I concluded 3.20.4 was a step backwards and did not factory reset anything else. I went on to power up the rest of the APs and players. Had another issue in the Home Theater Group (Soundbar+ and Flex surrounds) with very poor and low volume sound (open ticket already). When I tried to delete the group, right Flex disconnected, but left Flex would not. Even power cycling the soundbar didn’t disconnect it from the soundbar. Had to unplug the Flex, and then sound quality improved but surrounds remain unplugged. Also deleted the cache. Lastly, I was able to play the same album/track via iOS controller with no issues.
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Thank you for testing John!
I really cant believe any more that they test there updates.
How is it possible that it works at there side and not at ours.
It's Becomming a bad soap.
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John Locke should definitely be on their payroll by now, he seems to be the whole test and verification department.
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@Max - no problem, glad to help in whatever way I can on things, but I'd really prefer to not spend time on these matters and instead spend it enjoying entertainment. Hopefully this resolves soon for all.
@Chris - too funny, and I agree I should be compensated for my contributions. Perhaps they could ship me a pristine M17v2i, M28, an M23 to make it a full 9.2. and - just because they love me - throw in top-end PSB towers, center, surrounds and heights. That'd turn me from bitter old man to raving fan, yes?
"If all this seems too complicated, make it easy on yourself. Just send cash." -- Sally Brown
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Testing the library, had latency issues that weren’t there before
Edit: This was my error... forgot to reconnect the RJ45. Once I did, latency went away. Prior to this the Mini was connected via 2.6 gHz WiFi, so this was likely the root cause of the latency.
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They keep telling me they can't give me an older working revision to use because it might have compatibility issues. Their software doesn't do anything right now, what is the worst that could happen with a compatibility issue? It still doesn't work? If there is any chance it works at all, I would be ahead of where I am right now. If spend months releasing non-working software, you have to do something for your customers.
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Update to 3.20.4 is available and taataaaaa... Library/Genres/Show all (Albums) bug is fixed :-)
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@Barvin: thx for the call and update. I downloaded and reinstalled 3.20.4. Quick check shows I can search for albums/songs with special characters, whereas I could not before (e.g. B'Day; Two®).
Still have an issue with specific tracks not playing, but can click Play All and the album starts. Can skip, pause, repeat, no problem. But clicking any specific track in the album returns "Loading Track" and doesn't after say, 5 seconds (e.g. First Class). Then the player does nothing.
I can't see any particular pattern for this: lots of albums don't do this, and some have no special characters in the folder, title or track, but do have the issue. No specific genre. Vast majority of files are uncompressed WAV, rest are FLAC, ripped via EAC or Win Media Player. Use MP3Tag to tidy up the fields, have ~200 needing cleanup but none of those have been problematic as far as I can tell. Again no issues in iOS app.
Was having this issue before, so not sure if the special characters were related or not. But, haven't done a full reboot back to the modem yet and will do so fairly soon. Hope this helps and thx to all for their efforts.
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Now only a few of the genres work, the rest still just cycle and go blank. I uninstalled the old version, deleted all of the files that I could find, installed the new rev, and even deleted and re-built the index. It still only works for a few genres, and not the majority of them. This software is a mess.
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I figured out the pattern, the single word genres work, like Punk or Blues. The two word genres like Hard Rock or Progressive Metal don't. I have one with a / in it, and that doesn't work either.
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Good catch. I did some testing, and any folder name with a special character (& and the like) was problematic. If I rename the folder or sub-directory without special characters, individual tracks play after a quick reindex. Didn't need to rename files presumably due to update.
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A space in a tag shouldn't break your search software. That's pretty basic.
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