How to use external disc for music

[rchrdm]

Is it possible to use an internal or external music disc drive on a computer other than the server? How do I tell the server to go and look at this drive for the music? For example, if the music is on drive E: on a computer with the IP address of 192.168.254.180, how do I tell the Subsonic server to look at that drive for the music files?

[G8DHE]

Go into your Settings|Media Folders and add the relevant local drive name.

[rchrdm]

Thanks. This works for a hard disk connected to the server. What do I put as the drive name for a disk connected to a different computer on the network?

Richard

[J_T_W]

Are these Windows devices, and if yes, are you in a Domain or just running them as individual Workgroups?

[rchrdm]

Yes, both the Subsonic server and remote computer are running Windows 10 and are on the same wifi network. I have plugged an external disk drive with music on it into the remote PC and shared it. I can see this drive in the File Explorer on the server PC. I am not sure about the domain question, but I think I am running the PCs as individual work groups.

[J_T_W]

(I'll reference your Subsonic Server as SERVER, the remote computer as REMOTE, and the shared external drive as SHARE).

If on SERVER you can open the Windows Explorer and navigate to \\REMOTE\SHARE without needing to specify a user name and password, then when logged into Subsonic as the administrative account, you can navigate to Settings\Media Folders and use the \\REMOTE\SHARE as the folder target either in the default Name\Folder fields, or as a new Name\Folder using the Add Media Folder option (plus Save). Make sure 'Enabled" is checked (and Save if not already).

Note 1. If on SERVER you had to enter a username\password to access SHARE, then you can't use a UNC in the Subsonic Folder field, as Subsonic has no way to use any other credentials than what it is running under. What this means is that any time SERVER or REMOTE is restarted, disconnect/reconnected, feels like it, etc., REMOTE would request credentials again to access the UNC and SERVER couldn't provide them. So, your best option then is to ensure you're logged into SERVER using the credentials that Subsonic would run under, and then map a network drive to \\REMOTE\SHARE using the Reconnect and Different Credentials options. You can then configure Subsonic to use the mapped drive letter in the Subsonic Folder field.

Note 2. REMOTE isn't going to guarantee that your external drive gets the same drive letter each time it is connected. To that, is your SHARE is the administrative share for the drive (say REMOTE shows your external drive as E:\ then the administrative share is E$ and that UNC is \\REMOTE\E$) you will want to not use that, and instead share out the drive using a different share name (e.g., "MUSIC"). That helps resolve any resolution issues SERVER would have finding SHARE on REMOTE.

Note 3. Once you have specified a Subsonic Folder location, don't change it. If you use \\REMOTE\SHARE today, have Subsonic scan and use that location, then tomorrow change the Subsonic Folder to (say) E:\SHARE, everything is essentially lost and you're starting from scratch with play count, favorites, playlists, etc. Referencing back to Note 2, if say a month from now you buy a bigger external drive for your music files, move them all over to the new drive, but decide to also keep the original drive plugged in, you can simply delete the old share, then reshare the new location as the old share name and Subsonic won't break.

Final Note. As you can guess from Note 3, if for any reason you decide to not have your music collection on REMOTE and move the external drive back to SERVER, or move the contents to a different computer (we'll call it REMOTE2), etc. - updating Subsonic with the new Folder location will lose your data and you'll need to start over again. Therefore, you might consider using a computer name alias for REMOTE, maybe something like "MEDIA", which would then allow you to use a UNC (Note 1 caveat) of \\MEDIA\SHARE. When you replace or move your media files off of REMOTE, you could then remove the alias from REMOTE, configure it on the new device, recreate the share on the new device, and Subsonic doesn't break.

[rchrdm]

Thanks!
When I try to access the drive on REMOTE from SERVER, it asks for a my "Network Credentials." However, I don't see a place to set a password when I shared that drive on REMOTE and my REMOTE PC does not have a password. Where is this password controlled or set?

[rchrdm]

I checked the options in "Advanced sharing settings" on the REMOTE PC and turned off password protection for the REMOTE drive. However, the SERVER PC is still asking for a user name and password when I try to access the drive on the REMOTE PC.

Richard

[J_T_W]

From my last response, reference Note 1. Credentials are what you use to log into the Windows device. As they are only in a workgroup, you might log into SERVER as SERVER\USERA and on REMOTE as REMOTE\USERB. When mapping a drive from SERVER to REMOTE, the credentials you would supply to SERVER is REMOTE\USERB

[rchrdm]

Thanks. I am not that familiar with file sharing on a network.
I have already shared the C: drive on REMOTE using the right click and "Advanced Sharing" options. When I tried to open REMOTE C: on the SERVER File Explorer, it asked for user name and password.

So, went to the Credentials Manager and added a user name and password for the REMOTE C: drive. Now I can log into the REMOTE PC from the SERVER. I can see the REMOTE C: drive, but when I double click on it, it says that I don't have permission to access it. I have the REMOTE C: drive set up for sharing with all permissions turned on in the "Advanced Sharing" options and also Credentials manager.

I tried another approach. I can see and open the USERS folder on the REMOTE PC from the SERVER PC. I put all the music that was in the REMOTE PC in there. The path is REMOTE\USERS\PUBLIC\MUSIC\TUNEBOTO

Could I use this path somehow in the Subsonic music folder page? I tried \\REMOTE\USERS\PUBLIC\MUSIC\TUNEBOTO but it did not work.

Richard

[J_T_W]

Much beyond my prior post, It is difficult in this style of communication to better assist.

If you're going to continue with the route of sharing out an external drive, in conjunction with my prior post, these links might help better clarify the how-to:
https://www.geeksinphoenix.com/blog/post/2020/02/28/how-to-share-a-folder-on-a-private-network-in-windows-10
https://ccit.college.columbia.edu/knowledgebase/article/how-map-network-drives-windows-10

You might also just consider using a solution by which your external drive is connected to SERVER for a credential-less configuration and significantly faster performance.

[rchrdm]

Thanks. I had the external disc connected directly to the server but download music from Amazon Music on another computer. I was carrying the drive back and forth to load music onto it and thought it might be good just to leave the drive connect to the remote server. Might not be worth the trouble, but I am learning about networking!

[J_T_W]

As a last ditch solution (and I'm only kinda joking/kidding here) you could always leave the drive connected to SERVER, then when you want to add more music, connect from REMOTE to SERVER via Remote Desktop and then you could connect to AMZ from SERVER and download from there directly.

[rchrdm]

Thanks. Good idea!

Richard