Logs Not Accessible in 3.10.0
Answered
Log access is gone after upgrading to 3.10.0! This is very bad IMO because the only way to discover why local songs are missing -usually due to special characters in the file path- is by looking in the logs. It seems like you decided to make the devices closed black boxes now with no way to troubleshoot. Bad move. Bring them back please. Love Bluesound otherwise and have recommended to many people.
My equipment:
Node 2i
Soundbar 2i
Soon to purchase another Soundbar or Pulse 2i (maybe...)
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Official comment
Thanks for the feedback Dave
General access to the Advanced log file access has been removed for security and privacy reasons. You can troubleshoot the missing files at the source. If you are having problems with special characters, BluOS uses UTF8 and UTF16 character translations. To resolve your special character issues, please reach out to The Support Crew by selecting, Help, Send Support Request in the App and we will arrange for our QA Team to add your files to our collection of special character sets to make a better experience for all.
Enjoy your new SOUNDBAR and PULSE.
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"Troubleshooting at the source" is not really an answer. Let's say you are importing lots of music (which I have done over the past several years and continue to do). The only reasonable way to detect IF THERE EVEN WERE ANY PROBLEMS has been to look at the logs and see where the indexing process had an issue. From those logs I've been able to find and fix many hundreds of problems at the source, but the point is, I needed the log to know there was a problem in the first place, Bluesound provides no other diagnostics at all or any view into the indexing process besides a single number stating how many songs are in the index. On occasion I might notice that a song is missing here or there when listening to an album (if I am lucky), but to actually verify that the indexing process did what I expected without the logs would require one-by-one going through the files and comparing with songs reported by the BluOS user interface. That is a ridiculous proposition when you have 10s of thousands of songs or more. These problems don't happen all that often, but having indexed over 30,000 songs I can say for sure they do happen for a variety of reasons (and not only due to special characters). The only way I could have even known about the problems and had a chance to fix them was by reviewing the logs periodically. Now you took even that away...
Im sure your lawyers decided that Bluesound was somehow potentially liable for a lawsuit by providing the Linux logs you all have been exposing for many years. I get it, but if you are going to remove the logs in general, fine, but Bluesound then really needs to replace them with an actual diagnostics user interface thats allows customers like me that purchased your products specifically for local streaming (versus streaming Tidal for example) to examine the indexing process and see where it ran into difficulties so we can then find and fix the issues in our local source music files.
Thanks for listening.
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I fully agree with Dave regarding this.
Troubleshooting at the source is not an answer. I’ve spent the last 8 hours troubleshooting why my library wouldn’t index. I sent a support request before I started troubleshooting, and when I get a reply I know the answer…Shit in, shit out.
Out of 172’ files there are now 2 files that are probably causing indexing to halt. Both files have been “untouched” since 2018, both AAC, and there has been no problem before the 3.10.0 update. Both files index and play without problems in MediaMonkey and foobar, so I suspect a bug in the last update.With a log I would have saved a lot of work, but since I more or less use my Bluesound equipment using a local library, and being without a functional library I started troubleshooting myself.
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Since version 3.10 I am experiencing serious (re)index issues and not having access to the logs is doing my head in! I am now starting with a clean slate again (did this last week, was fine for a while but not updating artwork properly) adding folders by type to see if I can get all my 7000 songs back in again. I have a node 2i and a flex2i, both experience the same problem. The controllers are run from my mac or android phone.
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The log files will still not tell you that as quickly as Browsing the Library would. Please look at the 'GiGo' song or album (Garbage in, Garbage out) in your Index and open the context menu (3 dots). The Technical Info option will tell you exactly where the file is located where you can edit it. That information is not available in the log.
Files not indexing at all also do not appear in the log.-1 -
Thanks for the response Tony. I just added the final files and I can see that the nr of files in the index (diagnostics page) hasn't increased. I don't see any GiGo song or album in my library.
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If the files you are trying to index are "MPEG'S" and some of the files is "corrupted" there are a few tools that can scan and possibly fix those files;
Windows
http://mp3val.sourceforge.net/
Mac
http://triq.net/mac/mp3-scan-repair
Both are "drag and drop"1 -
I fully agree regarding this.
Troubleshooting at the source is not an answer.1 -
I have got Also indexing pbl with New version and without logs it ils impossible to debug. This system is now unusable as you cannot play your music (as system is not indexing it)
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I don't think this is an answer. I agree that full logs could lead to security issues, nonetheless it was very useful for troubleshooting. Other options (i.e. a password?) instead of just dropping the feature, would have been a much better approach
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I'm here because I'm trying to help your support staff (again) diagnose my issue. I've identified general issues in the logs in the past and I want to do that again. Yet it appears that access has been removed and this topic confirms that.
My interpretation is that you've disempowered more knowledgable consumers and you're black boxing the unit. The 'security and privacy' is bullshit. Address that before you release the code.
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I agree completely. Especially in the early times (about 7 years ago) I used the logs a lot for debugging, and now I use the logs occasionally. Frankly, I do not understand why they have been removed. Security reasons? Privacy? It is my own Vault, isn't it? So what is the problem?
I hope Bluesound can bring the logs back.
Cheers,
Mat
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I agree completely with those asking to bring back by any secure mean the access to the log. I used it a few time and it proved very useful to solve issues.
Cheers
Jack
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This is ridiculous that the logs are not available for access. All removing logs does is increase dependence on support for no good reason. Is bluesound afraid that their exposing the logs will expose their LGPL violations?
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HI Rachit
In your App, please select Help, About, Licenses for GPL information.
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The first 3 months after buying my bluesound I struggled to have a valid indexing of my collection (about 180.000 songs), and this because the perl indexing source is badly written and:
- stops processing the next songs when he encounters a problem (instead of logging the error and continuing with the next song)
- does NOT create an error report for the end user to explain why/where/what about is a problem
It was only thanks to the online indexing log that I found all possible errors (errors?? My Sonos did not have problems) and finally had the indexing work.
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I recently had an indexing issue that could only be resolved by the log being examined by a support rep (who was very helpful), and having him send me a list of the problematic files to try removing. In my 60k+ file library, I never would have found these on my own. Removing them fixed the problem, but here's the thing. That back-and-forth with a rep who is not in a position to work on your problem immediately takes a lot of time. In my case, I don't know--or care--what else is in my log file. I just needed that list of errors with my audio files. Can't *that* be generated in an end-user available format? It's pretty clear from this thread that the answer to the question "Can we access our log files?" is a hard NO. But there's nothing proprietary about filetype errors with my own files. Couldn't this--please--be made available to capable end users? I don't want to have to open a new support case every time I add a CD to my collection. :)
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To add to that, the only real reason I want the logs is to verify that the player is actually playing at a high resolution and the technical details behind it.
Simply looking for the "hr" logo on the Amazon music page doesn't tell me anything about the bit rate and frequency.
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It would be (is) so easy to add in the indexing source/task an extra output file where all abnormal cases would be "printed" (including a clear reason why they are in error) and continue the indexing function. (instead of stopping the indexing task!!!)
Add in the Help screen a new option to list that exception report and everybody would be happy.
Note: I am used to write in Perl, and I would be happy to help you writing this report :)
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IMPORT RELATED IMPROVEMENT SUGGESTIONS
Hi all,
I just bought an NAD M33 and after setting it up I tried to import my 200k+ music file library from my Synology NAS.
The import stopped at 13500 without any talking why ...
I learned after some hours of research and contact with support, that some file types are stopping the import!
I cleaned up manually (what a pain and waiste of time ...) a small directory until it ran through. This is absolutely not acceptable to me.
WHY are invalid filetypes not automatically ignored?
Now I read, that even character sets are causing files been skipped from import.
I am working in IT since > 30 years and I am totally aware about MVP SW development principles, but in 2021 I would expect at least minimal comfort like:
1. Precise status- and error messages in the UI (UserInterface) screen after starting a function
2. Filehandling: Settings option for import like "skip invalid file types" should be provided where the Import
would be able to run through to the end2.a Filehandling: A conversion of invalid characters to valid preset substitute characters should happen
through the software, either automatically or to be chosen as an option, before starting the import3. Report on import related data only (Number of imported files, list of skipped/rejected files), stored on the
device, where the UI is running. If started on the Hifi Hardware UI it should be store on a USB stick or send
to an e-mail adress, which can be configured. I do not see a licence or data privacy issue at all.
The Import report must NOT be a logfile which shows all the internal LINUX stuff4. There should be 2 import start options: Manually forced, like as of now and forced by a user defined
schedule5. In general the behavior, look & functionality of the iphone app, the Windoes app and the app on the NAD is
not consistant. This general issue of MULTI CHANNEL INPUTS has already been adressed in the
IT Industry thoughout the last 20 years and should be a principle for all further developments in BluOSThis is at the time being all I suggest and would wish to be impemented asap. This would reduce the waste of time for thousands of users and reduce the bad comments in the app stores about the quality of the app!
I am happy to spend some more time in conceptional input and act as a BETA user.
Hope to hear soon and please get my inputs as a positive feedback - the sound is fantastic!!!!
Cheers
Uwe
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Hi Tony,
General access to the Advanced log file access has been removed for security and privacy reasons.
Can you explain what security and privacy issues we are talking about, from my point of view it is only data from my own network I'm viewing, removing that option and making me having the send the same data over the internet to you guys seems like a much bigger risk!
Br
Rasmus
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IMPORT RELATED IMPROVEMENT SUGGESTIONS / LOG-File
Hi Tony,
I can only agree with Rasmus. If the SW would "TALK" more to the user, the LOG-File would not even be necessary!
On top I hate, that anybody else can see about MY environment, but I can't.
Perhaps this is the wrong thread, but initially it is as well related to the missing logfile: My library is still not imported due to whatever issues with specific files, that I can't see!
I fiully understand, that you want to keep the SW as lean as possible and concentrate on HiFi performance.
I would wish, that you provide at least to the users a TOOL - based on Windows Powershell, UNI, Ubuntu, IOS script that would do a screening of the NAS (or any other) music library before the IMPORT is started in the BLUOS app!
The script should1: Screen all folders for invalid filetypes and write the path and filename of those into a txt-file. So the user could easily correct those files - convert them into the right format or delete those from the library.
2: Screen for invalid characters in folders and filenames and use a little config-file, containing a list of
character mappings, for the automatic substitution.Unfortunately my programming skills are somehow a bit rusty over the years, but I believe for a programming crack, such a shell script would be done within a couple of hours.
Could you please discuss this wish with you team and let me know in which thread I should post my recommendations.
Thanks in advance
Uwe
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Thank you all for your feedback
After a lengthy evaluation to remove the log file access to the general public, we made the decision to do so in mid-2020. We have revisited the decision to remove log file access after 3 months, 6 months and 1 year since doing so. We are satisfied with the results and stand by this decision,
Since then we have expanded information in a more easy-to-read format in the exiting Diagnostics page, and consider the matter resolved.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
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