Vault 2i freezes.
Answered
Since the recent 4.0.2 update Vault 2i keeps freezing unexpectedly, on playback and when ripping CD's. Worked fine with no problems before the update.
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Official comment
Hi folks, we are deploying 4.0.5 BluOS update today to apply some patches for the drive issues. Few comments: This updates the freezing issue and also cleans up a couple behaviour issues. What is also does is to stop allowing the Vault to be in Server Mode as this was contradictory as the Drives are already in that state and allowing shares from Vaults was causing a lot of secondary issues. So to be clear, the new update means that USB media inserted is seen only on the Vault and not extended. If you want content extended please add it to the Vault and reindex. We are planning another maintenance release on Tuesday for global BluOS to update some other things but as we discussed the team is releasing these updates today
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I can't see a good reason not to roll back to V3 ASAP.
My Inbox is filling up with posts about V4 issues right now. Prior to V4's arrival, I'd received 14 emails all year in relation to Bluesound community posts. That's less than two a month. Since V4 has arrived, however, I've received a further 44 posts. That's nine a day, i.e., over 3,000 a year.
The large number of issues reported regarding V4 suggests the likelihood of continued disruption for a quite while as Bluesound tries to iron out the issues. This isn't what one would wish upon existing users, let alone a new customers.
I can therefore see all brand-new Vaults and Nodes that are being unboxed right now being sent back as no good because, put simply, they won't work properly.
V4 is, therefore, already causing issues with retailers and distributors and will be doing no end of reputational damage right now. It's also worth remembering that it's affecting NAD as well as Bluesound.
With the number of problems being reported it'll take many days to identify the root causes, let alone devise proper 'root and branch' fixes and then test them thoroughly.
If two months of Beta testing with a large number of users wasn't enough to ensure a relatively trouble-free release, then how will a couple of days of hurried guesswork and trial and error help?
I've seen this before, and time and a breathing space are what's needed in order to work out the correct approach to take with V4 going forward.
Rolling back to V3 will grant that time and space.
Remaining on V4, however, will just subject developers and testers to excessive pressure and will create conditions under which their effectiveness will be reduced while, at the same time, the entire user base struggles with their products and, in some cases, wonders what to replace their Node or Vault with.
If this were a corporate system then it would have brought the business to a halt, and a rollback would already have happened.
One question.... was the correct software build deployed?
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Tony W.
re your response "way ahead of you..."
I wasn't necessarily offering support to BS, really asking for provision of more communication of information re progress (or lack of, or roadblocks) in relation to both Devs and Support Team.
There's been little advancement displayed, no indication of added delays to submitted tickets, and a centralised parking place where users can 'read only' your posts without trawling through the growing mountain of user posts.
Moreover, given that there has been a scarcity of published progress info, the growing need to get users back on their bikes with a V3 Rollback as a temporary measure of appeasement may offer some way to save face.
Unless V3 was a 3rd party development that had an End Date Licence might by one possibility.
Underlying my personal concern is that many of your Users are in an age range span considerably below me.
Retired for 10+ years, I used a considerable lump of my pension on the best Audio Hardware, now this.
I have limited years remaining, health conditions etc, and there will soon be a point where the plug will be pulled on Vault. At least the Flex & Sounbar will be useful with Airplay. So, to the way ahead.
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Hi Folks, I thought to jump in here. Based on all of your good and valued feedback we discovered a kernal bug in the way that the Vault works. Being transparent we are working on the fix, we have replicated the issue in the lab and are working on fixing it. The first step is finding the issue so we hope to have a fix out shortly, we will target a specific release for these products when we do and not wait for the general update. We apologize for the frustration that the 3 issues between the kernal bug the desktop library and the server mode all had with Vaults, we hadn't expected the kernal issue and the others.
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OK, I have to come to the defense of Bluesound here. Just my $0.02.
I will be retiring in a couple years after an over 40 year career in software development. I have done it all - from customer support, sales, project and program management, development, testing, etc. etc. I'm sure Bluesound is just as frustrated as we are. I do not know the circumstances under which these flaws were released, so I cannot comment on what measures Bluesound could have taken to prevent it. Comments like, "They should have tested it" are not particularly helpful. I am sure they did. I also suspect they will take measures to devise tests or inspection practices to prevent flaws being released from the same cause in the future.
It's quite possible they could have done more extensive testing to begin with - but keep in mind, there are market pressures and cost considerations that come into play.
Another comment. It's not very common anymore for vendors to offer responsive service to users for free. I know I am greatful for this, even though I too occasionally get a bit frustrated by their responses.
I wish I could claim none of my teams ever let a serious bug into production, but I cannot. But we learn the cause, fix it as fast as we can, and put processes in place to prevent a defect from that cause from ever escaping into production again. This is what Bluesound is working on now, I am sure.
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Tony, I've done this twice, and it didn't fix it. And I know some people who have tried this initially thought it fixed the problem, but it didn't.
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Vault restore begun yesterday froze after an hour or so, only 6.5GB restored of 700 on drive.. Restore time estimate increased to 800 hours.
Today, Factory Reset Vault 2i, replaced into normal LAN with Static IP also on Flex 2i x 4 + SoundbarInitiated another Restore, which initially estimated 14 hours, but after 30 minutes that has blown out to 24 hours. Again, only 10GB of files restored and no activity for 20 minutes.
No Server Hub enabled, all devices = Bluetooth OFF. all on LAN
99.9% usage is my Music Collection ex CD, infinitesimal use of Music Services, so this is a massive hit.
It's replicated on NAS as well as AAC on Mac but both Navigation and Technical Quality remains superior on Bluesound.
Given the long lead time waiting for V4 and the plethora of issues others experienced, which may take considerable time to sort out, I would personally prefer a V3 Rollback to enable users to resume their listening pleasure uninterrupted. The longer the disenchantment persists the reputation will decrease for Lenbrook.4 -
The task at hand must be enormous and frustrating for the dedicated Bluesound team. It is highly likely that the project may take quite some time to produce satisfactory results. Therefore, there is no shame in providing a possibility to obtain a former firmware version for those users who encounter serious problems and are willing to install the image themselves. Just in case the development takes longer than foreseen. This would relieve the pressure on the technicians a bit and allow users to enjoy their equipment in anticipation of a more stable release.
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I have followed Tony's instructions to a T (disconnecting the USB backup drive, rebooting and re-indexing). With 42,000 tracks, it took a little over an hour to rebuild the index. Once I started playback from my Vault 2 library, the audio dropped out once again after only 19 minutes of playback.
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I have the same problems: Vault 2, hardwired to network, with Node and Pulse (both WiFi). I don't have anything connected to the USB port on the Vault. Since the upgrade, music playing on the Node and Pulse intermittent or non-existent (I experience many of the experiences on these threads). I followed Tony's advice (reboot VAULT, Rebuild Index from the diagnostics page), and reindexing stuck at 16,500 tracks, and has been for a couple of hours.
P.S. Earlier I turned off Bluetooth, and rebooted all devices, to no avail.
P.P.S. the index rebuild must have finished overnight, since I have a blue LED on my Vault and what looks like an updated Library. Nevertheless, music playing from Vault to Pulse stopped after a few minutes with usual symptoms.
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Having the same issues with my Vault 2 stopping playback after a few minutes. I rebooted and reindexed as Tony W instructed. The reindex has stalled about halfway through the process and has been stuck for a few hours now. *PLEASE* let us revert back to the previous OS!!
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Tony, I can assure you this wasn't the case for me -- unless the index rebuild failed without notifying me. But I kept my eye on progress for over an hour and saw no indication of incompletion. And yes, I did go into the Diagnostics setting to rebuild the index. Audio playback still cuts out anywhere between 30 seconds and 20 minutes.
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Thank you, Tony. I suspect - in fact, I'm sure - that at least some of the "successful" remedies have worked only temporarily. If I'm wrong, I hope you're able to identify a remedy that will work for all of us.
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I tried to rebuild the index on my Vault 2.i using the command under the Diagnostics menu. It failed (stuck) the first two times, so I searched for help and found this:
https://support1.bluesound.com/hc/en-us/articles/204103486-Why-is-my-BluOS-index-not-completing-
I followed that advice and initiated the rebuild from my PC: this time it worked. So I turned off all the BS devices, waited, rebooted the network, waited, reintroduced the BS devices.
So far this seems to have resolved the problem with playing music directly from the Vault HDD to the attached amp and speakers. I've played music that way for about 2.5 hours now with no problem - way longer than at any other time since I installed 4.0.2
But when I streamed from the HDD over the (ethernet cabled) network to a Pulse mini it stopped within 20 minutes.This time it displayed an error message on the app controller: FLAC__STREAM_DECODER_ABORTED
As ever, the only way to make it work again was to unplug the Vault then power it up again.
Like others, I don't believe this is solely a network issue. All the BS devices on my network, Vault 2i included, still play streams from various online sources without any problem at all. Its only when I switch from streaming sources to playing music from the Vault HDD that the freezing problem occurs.
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@Eric Reiss
If you go to the top of the first page of this thread you'll see 'official' advice by Tony W, both about rebuilding the Vault index and - lower down, via a link to another thread - rebooting your network and your BS devices.
The link I included does say that its about submitting a log file with a support message. But the command there initiated a successful rebuild of my library, after the rebuild command in 'diagnostics' failed to do so twice.
I appreciate it could just be third time lucky but posted the information in case that method also worked for others whose rebuilds have failed.
Hope this helps, good luck.
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Thank you all for your patience and understanding. A special shout-out to those of you who have used the long-standing Send Support Request feature in BluOS so we could review your log file.
As suspected we are seeing two separate issues with the VAULT. The recommendation of disabling server mode as per the KB I have posted earlier (here it is again; https://support.bluos.net/hc/en-us/articles/360037137354) will resolve your issues if your symptoms are;
- Music Library is missing
- Not all my music is there
- Host is down
- Cannot Rip CDs
To resolve this;
- Disconnect all USB drives
- Disable Server Mode in Music Libary
- Reboot the VAULT
- Rebuild the Index from the Diagnostics Page
- If you want Server Mode and have multiple players, consider installing the USB drive on another player
This will NOT resolve music stopping when the VAULT is playing Music by itself or as part of a group. We are continuing to find the root cause of that issue. Some recommendations I can make to help this;
- Please ensure the VAULT is not ripping or Indexing while playing Music
- Temporarily - if you can, avoid using the VAULT as a playback device in a group
- If you do use it in a group, try making it the primary player meaning start the Music with the VAULT then add other players
- Disable background services if you don't need them such as Bluetooth or Server Mode
There is no need to factory reset your VAULT and there is no need to restore backups. In fact restoring backups are adding processing to the VAULT.
I will continue to keep you updated as news becomes available.2 -
4.0.4 tried loading tracks ex Mac.
- terminal copy command
- finder copy
both failed with less than 10GB & ~ 40 minutes
I later tried a single Artist Folder of 8GB, the method Tony W. suggested, and after 5 minutes that failed with the same Mac Error Code I'd previously seen 100060.
I must be somewhere in the line waiting for the lodged Support Ticket to be actioned, but like others who are spending testing time rather than playing music might prefer the V3 Rollback to materialise, let the developers knuckle down with V4, rather than this whole congregation be treated as beta testers.2 -
Jason J.
in absence of official response, I lodged a diagnostics ticket and got an automated email reply.
Given the current excremental increase in issues I anticipate a blowout in the response times.
As there is also Bluesound Commercial involved there might possibly be prioritisation complexities if the Support teams are not segregated.
re : “ anyone supposed to be responding to the diagnostic help requests? I can't even be sure that mine have ever gotten through as the app just reports that it's sent, but no confirmation or anything ever gets emailed to me.“re: It's been too long without even a "We're working on it" from Bluesound
There have been several informative Support Crew posts interspersed within this and other threads, but ‘novice’ users need to wade through all of our posts.
A central Support user only spot, say the “What’s Hot” box might work as a spot news placeholder if Support gets time to do so.2 -
Hi Dave, I would refrain from doing a backup to a USB drive, perhaps copy your Vault cross your network to another machine if your existing back up is out of date.
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Good idea, I have ordered the DMP A6 as Master Edition. :-)
Furthermore, I will now install the 4 Tb SSD.
The Vault 2i can only be sold if it works properly.
At the moment it's just a bunch of expensive plastic junk.
I have rarely experienced such a bad and bumbling update.
The topic of Bluesound has therefore fortunately done.2 -
I worked in IT from 1985-2020 in various roles, from analyst/programmer to test analyst, test manager, development manager, and project manager, and I tend to agree with a lot that Dennis Gibbs says.
I also welcome Andrew H.'s update, but it does make me wonder how long it will take to identify the kernel issues, devise fixes, test them thoroughly, including integration testing and a load of scenario-based e2e testing (certainly not something to rush through in a panic), and then package them for distribution. During that period, without a rollback, we Vault users will continue to not have proper use of their Vaults. (And we are the real ambassadors of the brand.)
Similarly, new Vault owners will find that their exciting new product lets them down unless Bluesound pulls all upgrades or renders them unavailable to machines on BluOS V3.
In short, V4 has clobbered Bluesound's business and, when a software release does that, the normal response is to roll back and revert to the previous stable version. I therefore remain completely flummoxed as to why this hasn't happened.
It's also nice to become part of the solution in some respects, and I'm sure some users will be happy to help, but that role should be voluntary, and not mandatory.
It's now a week or so since I 'upgraded' and I am fed up that I can't rip new acquisitions or amend faulty metadata and re-index, or back my Vault 2 up, or even play an album all the way through.
Alarmist as it might sound, it feels almost like someone on the inside wants Bluesound to fail since, instead of shielding its customers from the problem, it feels as though they're rubbing their noses in it while also raising two fingers to new customers.
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I tried backing up all the CDs I had already ripped to the Vault by copying the library to a folder in Windows Explorer and it will only get a few GBs in before the Vault says "nah" and just freezes up. At this point I'm just going to shut it down and wait for BS to figure this out. Can't rip, can't backup, can't stream my library. I know, first world problems and all and I really hate being Grumpy Consumer, but this thing is a $1400 paperweight right now.
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while waiting for more communications re the “aftermath” release of V4, I’ve got partial use of Vault, Flex & Soundbar. I always had several “mirror” libraries (+ Vault HDD Backup) with one residing on a NAS, though I had never linked it BluOS as a share. Gave it a try, waited for indexing and it’s a goer. Some delays when navigating to open an Album, eventually the Tracks appear. Did same for Soundbar, same result.
Adding the 4 Flex 2i’s was painful, zero progress on indexation but now some 24 hours later, they also seem done.
Not ideal, but like others are concerned that while now of the Trifecta of Troubles, zero is known about how progress is going, and any estimate of an end date.
Ditto re the work of the Support team as response times have blown out, but again zero communication from those that know. That speaks volumes for the regard customers are held in, and there will be major reputation repercussions in the HiFi world outside this enclave unless some respect is shown for those who’ve paid for the tickets. Communication is king, silence ain’t golden, if ferments doubt.
Noted earlier, in retirement, after 50 years in Broadcast TV, with gear from Calrec, Neve, JBL, Euphonix etc, and never experienced communication deficiencies like this.2 -
coincidence ? the moment I posted above, Support Email my Ticket arrived.
- noting my request not forgotten, just delayed to be responded ‘as soon as possible” (lodged Wednesday)2 -
My Vault came back from repair with a new HD and latest firmware.
I restored my back up, that took 45 hours, so far so good.
Played an album from the library and the first song stopped playing after a minute or 2.
I.o.w. the same behavier as noted in the posts before in this thread.
did all the tips from the official anser but that didn't help.
Spotify, Radio Paradise and TuneIn all work fine.
In basic my Vault became a Node and that is not why I bought It, simply can use my collection of music.
I understand Bluesound is having a hard time but please can you let us know when we can use our Vaults again the way it should.
Max.
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Overwhelming excitement? More like overwhelming disappointment, shock and despair.
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No one else tried the new version I found this morning?
The controller shows it as Windows 4.o.2 BluOS 4.0.2.
I downloaded it (it's for the controller (desktop I think they call it) then completely rebooted the computer is is housed on.
Then rebooted the Vault2.
I played music from my library with no problems for maybe 45 minutes and had to go out.
I'll try again later.
This after noon (Lifestyles of the old and lazy) is catching up with some video and avoiding the 35C heat.
And hoping the bush fires don't head this way.2 -
I installed the new 4.0.5 in my Vault 2 and have been playing music from it for a couple of hours and it's working fine. I also did a re-index of my library and downloaded an album from HDTracks.com and it played fine too.
All looks goods - Thank you!!
On another note - on the 3.0 version you had the option to list the albums by decades and each album showed the year of release along with the album title. This was a very cool feature that I used often. 4.0.5 does NOT have these two features, why????? PLEASE BRING THEM BACK!!!
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My Vault is playing for a couple of hours now. So far so good. Great work guys.
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Upgraded Vault 2i with BluOS 4.0.5 yesterday. I have been playing lots of music directly from the Vault 2i library hard disk drive ever since. No problems seen yet. Happy to get this one in the rearview mirror!! Thanks to the various Bluesound teams.
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