Tip of the Day - System Migration

[Stephen Healy]

A scenario that often occurs is the need to migrate your music library from an existing Innuos server on to a new one – a common situation when upgrading from one Innuos server to another, such as a ZENmini Mk3 to a ZEN Mk3 for example.

The mistake that is commonly made is that the IMPORT tool is used for this process, importing from the old server directly (using Import from NAS), or from an existing USB/NAS backup.

However, the correct approach is to Restore your Backup, because not only does this upload all your stored music files again but also important Sense library data such as:

• Saved Favourites in the library
• Playlists
• Playback history (including Recent Tracks widget on home screen)
• New Music chronology
• Radio Presets
• Artist bios and information

To Restore your backup, on your new Innuos device simply go to the Backup Page, Configure Backup, choose whether you are using USB or NAS, then make sure to choose EXISTING BACKUP. Once selected and identified, the server will validate this and return you to the main Backup page where you can select Restore.

 

[SalsaCycle]

I made this mistake in June when migrating files from the back up drive that I used with my (now deceased) Zen MkII to its replacement Zen MkIII. The Music folder of the Zen MkIII looks like this:



The "Pleyel" and "Ravel" folders are albums that I imported into the Zen MkIII since it was purchased. The "Restore ripped files" folder follows the directory path "...backup-02832/music" before I see the expected directory structure. The Sense app seems to be able find all my local files and Qobuz albums, so I'm tempted to follow the engineer's maxim of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," but I'm wondering if this could lead to future problems. Can you advise on the best course of action?

 

[Stephen Healy]

I made this mistake in June when migrating files from the back up drive that I used with my (now deceased) Zen MkII to its replacement Zen MkIII. The Music folder of the Zen MkIII looks like this:

View attachment 72

The "Pleyel" and "Ravel" folders are albums that I imported into the Zen MkIII since it was purchased. The "Restore ripped files" folder follows the directory path "...backup-02832/music" before I see the expected directory structure. The Sense app seems to be able find all my local files and Qobuz albums, so I'm tempted to follow the engineer's maxim of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," but I'm wondering if this could lead to future problems. Can you advise on the best course of action?

No problems with that folder structure - any music files in any folder structure within the main MUSIC and UNSORTED folders will be displayed in Sense. Music is displayed based on their metadata tags, not their folder layout except, of course, if browsing by FOLDER view. If you are not browsing by FOLDER view, then the actual folder structure of your music is not of much consequence. If you do decide to reorganise things within the Music folder then that is still fine - Sense will update itself accordingly in real time and it should not disrupt your library at all.

 

[SalsaCycle]

I'm relieved to learn this. I have a two other queries to improve my understanding of how the system works.

1. I've done a backup since importing my library to the Zen MkIII. If I were to execute the restore procedure from this backup, would it replicate the folder structure that I have now (with the longer pathway to most of the music folders), or would it reorganize the folders to the default structure of an empty disk?
2. When I bought my Zen MkII (pre-Sense app), the MUSIC folder was in the root directory and contained separate subfolders for Redbook CD and Hi-res recordings. However, I've noticed that albums imported more recently no longer seem to be sorted by resolution or even placed into a MUSIC folder; the folders for each album are placed in the root directory. Is this the default for the Sense app?

 

[Stephen Healy]

I'm relieved to learn this. I have a two other queries to improve my understanding of how the system works.

1. I've done a backup since importing my library to the Zen MkIII. If I were to execute the restore procedure from this backup, would it replicate the folder structure that I have now (with the longer pathway to most of the music folders), or would it reorganize the folders to the default structure of an empty disk?
2. When I bought my Zen MkII (pre-Sense app), the MUSIC folder was in the root directory and contained separate subfolders for Redbook CD and Hi-res recordings. However, I've noticed that albums imported more recently no longer seem to be sorted by resolution or even placed into a MUSIC folder; the folders for each album are placed in the root directory. Is this the default for the Sense app?

1. To my understanding, yes the existing folder structure is basically maintained even during backup and restore transitions. The folder layout will persist.
2. Yes, within the Music folder you would have fixed folders; compressed, cd-quality, high-res. However, the import process does not organise music by resolution to these folders automatically anymore. To give a bit of historical context...

Going back a few years, our import process did used to quite intelligently 'tidy up' imports into a correct artist/album structure, truncate overly long files names, and then place the folder into their respective resolution folder (compressed, cd-quality, high-res). Personally, i always quite enjoyed this.
However, quite a few users found this quite invasive and did not want changes like this to be applied, especially if they had a pre-determined folder layout that they did NOT want to be altered - they just wanted the Innuos to bring the files and folders in precisely as they were left. The only workaround at the time was manually drag and drop the folders in via computer, then perform a library rescan.

To help with this, we introduced 'Quick Import' which functionally is what you experience today - we bring the folders straight in and perform no changes to them. The layout remains precisely the same as they were on the original drive, the imported folders just gets placed in its own named folder for easy identification (eg USB-12.08.2024) in the root Music folder.
The trouble here is that users would find two import options; 'full import' and 'quick import' and people did not really understand the difference or know the correct one to choose. A cautionary tale in more choice and options very often just equates to more confusion.
In reality, we also found that everyone was just using the Quick Import anyway because it is actually faster, and the majority of users did not actually care about having the folders restructured and tidied upon entry, since it made no difference of how things were displayed to you in Sense/Roon etc.

Therefore, when we transitioned to innuOS 2.0 over from 1.x, we removed the 'Full Import' and 'Quick Import' options, and instead treated all imports under a 'Quick Import' design.

This is why you still see folders based on resolution, and to this day CD rips do indeed still go in the CD-Quality folder. On a system root level, it's not really worth the disruption to remove the existing fixed folders, so they remain. I myself actually still use these folders to separate folders by resolution, i just have to move the folders around manually via PC which is pretty quick.

Hope that explains it!

 

[SalsaCycle]

Got it.

As I am a bit OCD about overly long file paths, I'll have a go at rearranging a few folders and then work through the rest of the library if it goes smoothly.

 

[SalsaCycle]

I've been moving folders around and things are going smoothly.

Another question that occurred to me is where the links to my Qobuz library are saved. Is it saved on the local drive or downloaded from Qobuz each time I look at the library? I ask because once I have finished reorganizing the folders of my ripped and imported recordings, I plan to delete the empty folders that remain. However, I wouldn't want to delete information that may be in hidden files.

 

[Stephen Healy]

I've been moving folders around and things are going smoothly.

Another question that occurred to me is where the links to my Qobuz library are saved. Is it saved on the local drive or downloaded from Qobuz each time I look at the library? I ask because once I have finished reorganizing the folders of my ripped and imported recordings, I plan to delete the empty folders that remain. However, I wouldn't want to delete information that may be in hidden files.

Library database information like that is not accessible by the user, so don't worry. You cannot delete anything in the Music folders that would have any impact on the streaming services.