Music library, I'm stumped.

[inteller]

Ok, so the way I WAS doing it on Vista/7:

WMP and Zune were pointed at a network share \\NAS\MyMusic.

They would enumerate the albums in there and they would populate WMP/Zune.

I CANNOT get this to work with the Music App. I get vague references to add the library through File Explorer, but when I do that I get warnings about not being indexed and crap.

If I want to index it, it tells me that essentially everything is copied locally. That defeats the whole purpose of a NAS. It then tells me to make a symbolic link. I did that but the music still isn't populating in the music app.

Music libraries shouldn't be this hard. I have a highly curated and matched music library that I don't want screwed up and I just want to point the Music app at it and populate.

 

[gsquared]

I had a bit of trouble at first. Go to the "Library" button on the traditional desktop. Right-click on the "Music" icon --> Properties. Remove the existing entries if they are not correct. Click "Add". Input the correct entry.

Not in front of a Win 8 machine atm but I think thats how I got it to work. Do the same with the rest of the entries (Documents, etc).

 

[inteller]

no, it complains at me and says it cannot add non-indexed locations and then asks if I want to index it. If I index it essentially copies all the music to my local machine (NO WAY!).

 

[gsquared]

Humm.

Well there's more than one way to skin a kitty. Have you tried assigning that share a drive-letter on the local machine? I'm intersted in this topic as well. My hybrid Netbook / Tablet doesn't have the drive space to house my music collection either.

Until then you can always reinstall Zune client until you figure something out.

G/L ...

 

[VagrantWade]

no, it complains at me and says it cannot add non-indexed locations and then asks if I want to index it. If I index it essentially copies all the music to my local machine (NO WAY!).

Create a folder. Go into Disk Management. Right click on the NAS drive and choose to mount it. Locate the folder you create and mount your NAS to it.

Add that folder to the Library.

Windows 7 didn't let you add non-indexed drives to the Library either so I am not sure how you did this prior.

 

[inteller]

Humm.

Well there's more than one way to skin a kitty. Have you tried assigning that share a drive-letter on the local machine? I'm intersted in this topic as well. My hybrid Netbook / Tablet doesn't have the drive space to house my music collection either.

Until then you can always reinstall Zune client until you figure something out.

G/L ...

ok yeah I'll get right on installing the Zune client on my Surface RT...

 

[inteller]

Create a folder. Go into Disk Management. Right click on the NAS drive and choose to mount it. Locate the folder you create and mount your NAS to it.

Add that folder to the Library.

Windows 7 didn't let you add non-indexed drives to the Library either so I am not sure how you did this prior.

I added the path as my rip folder in WMP, then WMP added it to the library. When I would click on libraries it would give me all sorts of stupid warnings but I didn't care cause WMP and Zune saw my library and managed it just fine.

The real issue here is Windows just needs to STFU and use it because the NAS (Netgear Stora) indexes the library and manages it just fine, so there is no issues with speed or whatever it is Windows is worried about. Searches and such work just fine in Zune and playback is fine. The no index warning is bogus in my opinion.

 

[power5]

Create a folder. Go into Disk Management. Right click on the NAS drive and choose to mount it. Locate the folder you create and mount your NAS to it.

Add that folder to the Library.

Windows 7 didn't let you add non-indexed drives to the Library either so I am not sure how you did this prior.

Same with me. In Zune I just directed it to my music folder on my network server. Did not need to add anything to a library. Just in zune told it where my music was and that was that.

I mapped a network drive location and still not getting anything in the my music. I can get to my music, but not in the big image way that it shows. I right click after selecting my music at the music app home screen. Brings up the option at the bottom to "open file". When I select that I get a screen of big black tiles with artist names.


Whats weird is that my videos are just fine. Still not great but they all showed up with 0 help from me.

 

[CJ Thunder]

I did this in Windows 7 with a NAS by giving it a drive letter, never did it ask me to index it. I have indexing turned off on everything though. Very interesting. I got Zune on my Desktop, these little things are why I am holding off of an RT device for a while.

 

[inteller]

it doesnt work on my Windows 8 Desktop either so its not just RT. Basically if I didn't purchase it from Zune at one time or another, it is not showing up in my albums. If that's the way its gonna be then I have to give the music app a big FU.

 

[inteller]

Same with me. In Zune I just directed it to my music folder on my network server. Did not need to add anything to a library. Just in zune told it where my music was and that was that.

I mapped a network drive location and still not getting anything in the my music. I can get to my music, but not in the big image way that it shows. I right click after selecting my music at the music app home screen. Brings up the option at the bottom to "open file". When I select that I get a screen of big black tiles with artist names.


Whats weird is that my videos are just fine. Still not great but they all showed up with 0 help from me.

I'll go try the same method I'm using for music for pictures and videos. If that works it means the music app is just borked.

 

[power5]

Here are my 2 home screens from music and videos.

The only songs in "my music" is adele which I just clicked from the featured artists tile one time and now its always there. Not sure how to get rid of her.

 

[power5]

I did this in Windows 7 with a NAS by giving it a drive letter, never did it ask me to index it. I have indexing turned off on everything though. Very interesting. I got Zune on my Desktop, these little things are why I am holding off of an RT device for a while.

How do you assign a drive letter to a network folder?

 

[inteller]

did work for pictures or videos either. wouldn't let me add the network path to my library and I refuse to index it.

 

[CJ Thunder]

How do you assign a drive letter to a network folder?

Open up my computer, look at ribbon under file. "Map Network Drive". Follow steps.


Windows gives it a letter and can now be seen under My Computer, any program can also see it under my computer. So programs that only look at My Computer and not network can now use your network drive.

 

[inteller]

A mapped drive still gives the same error when trying to add to library. I'd love to hear the official Microsoft solution to this.

 

[power5]

Open up my computer, look at ribbon under file. "Map Network Drive". Follow steps.


Windows gives it a letter and can now be seen under My Computer, any program can also see it under my computer. So programs that only look at My Computer and not network can now use your network drive.

Yes I mapped my music folder as Z:. I was unclear how you were just assigning a letter to a folder. makes sense now.

A mapped drive still gives the same error when trying to add to library. I'd love to hear the official Microsoft solution to this.

I have not gotten the indexing error, but I still do not get my music in the my music area. I am doing this on a windows 8 desktop, so we may have some different quirks to our similar issues. I did not even have to map my movie folder on my network. It cant be indexed either because I have TBs of movies and only a 160gb OS drive.

 

[inteller]

not sure. Over on the Microsoft Answers forums I'm finding stupid suggestions like copy all your media to the device. They also reference WinSupersite's solution to assign a letter to a folder and point an SD card at that, effectively the symbolic link trick I've been trying, but I will try that method as well.

This is just clunky as **** and it worked just fine with Win7/Zune.

 

[power5]

I tried the symbolic link and it did not work on my desktop. I am going to try a fresh clean install to take out any old programs and settings that may be interfering. Though you are having the same issues and are on a very fresh Surface. Not sure why your videos and pictures don't work though. Mine are just fine. Will have to check if I have any other pictures folders in that library from the server though. I think most are just from my phone it looks like. I know my videos are all on the server though and I did not do anything to make them appear. Just opened the videos app and after a few minutes they all showed up. It did take some time, but they are all there.

Now I have to figure out how to make them show up under movies and TV and videos instead of all just lumped together under "other". Very annoying.


I do like the "open file" display of files better than the "home" display of files. Just need the name of the movies like the name appears for the folders I have on my tv shows. The left side has TV shows all grouped into folders. So the folder name is the text and I guess it grabs a image clip from the first video in that folder???

 

[power5]

ok, just reinstalled win8 on my desktop. I was able to add my movies with no problem from my network location. Did not have to map a network drive or anything. Just followed the instructions from win8 and added a location to my libraries. No problem whatsoever. immediately all my videos showed up.

So the music app is being ******** or MS is trying to combat piracy in some way. Either way, MY MUSIC is my music. I want it to be recognized with the OS. Being a PITA like iTunes will not help MS in any way. All my music is legit. Some of my videos are not, but they don't seem to care about that as much. Though, they do not have a video pass right now. Maybe when they enact that, it will be harder to add ones own video collection to windows.