Can someone clarify the different ways to back up your HT4.0 library?

So as you know there are 2 ways to back up your library.

1. Perform a "backup" to a USB stick or HDD

2. Have HT4.0 write the backup via NFO files to your HDD

My question revolves around the first way (the "backup"). In the Markswift's recommended settings guide, he mentions that this backs up the library via SQL links or something, and that those links can change, rendering your backup useless. Can someone clarify this? If I don't care about getting the SAME posters (or said another way, I don't care if the posters change up as long as the matching is saved) then is "backup" okay to do? I was just confused as to what was meant by this method being "useless."

Thanks!

 

@Markswift2003 just tagging you since I quoted your guide on this. Feel free to respond, or not .

EDIT: realizing now that you may have re-written your guide. So is it okay to use the "backup" function as long as I don't mind some artwork changing?

 

In a word yes - a couple of years ago TMDB had a habit of changing image URLs for posters etc. Because those URLs are in the SQLite database, if they go dark they also did that in the backup.

I don't think this is an issue anymore, but as with everything on the internet, never take it as read that it won't change at some point. The belt and braces approach is to do both and export NFO/Artwork and make a backup. That way, if it all goes Pete Tong you can restore your library exactly back where it was with resume points etc intact.

@OlivierQC did an excellent video on this recently.

 

Thank you Mark, and let's mention that it is also thanks to your help that I was able to make this video

 

Just so I understand, what would happen if the SQL URL changed for TMDB and then you did a restore? It would just pull new artwork instead of the one you preferred? Or would the entire match fail? Just trying to understand.

Also, I found myself using "belt and braces approach" in my own dialogue and realized I got that expression from here lmfao.

 

If TMDB changed the URL so that the one in the backup became invalid (a 404 not found) then when you restore you'd just get no artwork, the rest of the data was fine (although obviously you could use the "change image" function in HT) - this is what used to happen, but as I say I haven't seen them do that for a long time.

But I like the images I have so that's why I always export them locally once I'm happy with the match.

 

Thanks. So if I export to NFOs for TV shows for example, it will create an NFO file for every single episode in the folder of which I have the files, as well as the artwork? I may just try that. I currently have the zidoo set to NOT have write access, just in case something glitched. I have backups though so worst case I can restore. But I'll give it a try.

One thing I noticed about SMB on the Zidoo is that sometimes it says that the SMB folder is invalid for some reason and I have to delete and re-connect the SMB drive in the Zidoo, then do a library restore, and it works. It's happend several times and I can't seem to figure out what triggers it. Any ideas?

 

Possibly DHCP?

You should never use DHCP unless the router assigns a specific IP address by MAC address. Much easier and safer to use proper static IP addresses. Making sure you don't duplicate or assign them in the DHCP range of course.

 

Both my PC (where the server is) and the zidoo are assigned static IP addresses. So I'm not sure it's that. Could just be Windows 11 weirdness or something. Maybe shutting the PC off and trying to access the server from the zidoo would glitch it? I'd have to test.

 

Definitely not that then - it's odd you have to do a library restore though.

If the share becomes inaccessible it just means the Zidoo can't see it any more - could be any number of reasons, usually network related and can be caused by DHCP assigning a different IP address.

However, if the share comes back again at the same IP address, the HT library comes back too - you can demonstrate this by unplugging the ethernet cable and HT will lose everything, but plug it back in again and it all comes back more or less instantly.

But you're right, it could (but shouldn't) be Windows weirdness.

 

Yea I'm really not sure what's going on. If I can somehow reproduce the issue I'll let you know. i think the last beta firmware I downloaded was from late last year or something? Has there been any new beta firmware? I know there are many threads asking why Zidoo hasn't had any updates in a while. Have you heard anything recently? For me personally it's good enough right now, even despite the bugs, but it would be great to get some of the HT4.0 issues worked out .

 

That's always the issue - if we can replicate an issue, we can fix it. If not, it's tricky.

I'm with you - I have several Zidoo boxes and I use them pretty much every day. Yeah, DTS 7.1 might report as 5.1 and BD Menus (which I NEVER use) are a bit funky, but I have an extensive networked library of 2K and 4K content which just works.

But yeah, there's some stuff coming...

 

Awesome! For future boxes, what kind of hardware would you want to see? More RAM? Faster cpu?

Also do 7.1 files play correctly as 7.1? It's just a UI bug? If so, that's fairly minor. Definitely not a HUGE deal although I can understand the annoyance.

Do you use trailers? I've actually never tried messing with that. Does the zidoo find trailers automatically or do you eed to have them local?

 

7.1 files do play as 7.1, it's just a UI bug.

I use local trailers and they work perfectly. Online trailers haven't worked for a while since Youtube buggered about with their API.

Just use MovieName.trailer.ext for the filename.