Android + XBMC 13.1 = crash on Movies library scan using SMB

[Draconian 0]

Hi all,

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that my ATV582 is crashing when accessing videos... I have now found the problem and would like to keep everybody updated/informed.

This does not appear to be a MyGica related issue, but appears to be an XBMC issue when running Android with SMB drives on Gotham 13.1.

What I have noticed (and seen from the xbmc forum):

1. When scanning/updating the Movies library, then XBMC will often crash - you will suddenly go to the Android home screen.

2. When scanning/updating TV series, then there is no problem and it scans correctly.

3. I noticed many random XBMC crashes (during a movie or series playback) when I set "Update Library on startup" and also with "XBMC Library Update". This will cause a random appearing crash during the movie/series which is very frustrating. Starting XBMC again and playing the same video file or another will result in a crash again a few minutes later.... but this is not from the movie play back, but from the Movies library update.

4. I have re-installed the software, factory reset it and deleted the whole library - no success.

5. Some SMB paths work fine most of the time, and then one day it stops working, others do not work from the outset.

6. My NAS device (and other NAS devices) + SMB + XBMC + Android combination causes the crash according to several other people as well - only when the Movies scan/update is initiated.

7. My Windows laptop with the same XBMC version 13.1 Gotham works fine with my NAS on SMB - no problems seen.

8. I tried using NFS on the ATV582, but also had some problems there.

9. Other user on XBMC forum suggested to use SSH to map the drives/paths as a work around, and it is working now...

I have seen a topic "ATV852 freezes all time" on this forum, and wonder if @chort is using SMB?? Maybe this is why his system is crashing so often (like mine was).

I will monitor if using SSH rather than SMB is working on the long term and if this is an acceptable workaround for this problem. If anybody else experienced this same problem and have resolved it somehow, please let me know, but SSH is working well for me now.

The topic on the XBMC forum that I refer to is: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=193814

[kicsrules 0]

how are you accessing smb ? wired ? wireless ?? i had kind of the same problem but i was accessing my NAS wirelessly and that was the main problem, wired it was working correctly ...

[trarman 0]

The problem appears to be with directory size. I was also experiencing this exact issue, but by simply limiting the number of files in each directory to no more than about 100 items, the scan would succeed.

Note I have not changed any file names. Just how many appear in a directory together.

For example, if scanning the folder "Comedy" fails, I set its content type to none. Create some subdirectories for the contents, such that no more than 100 files go in each... say "a-k" and "l-z". Move the files into those directories as appropriate. Now just set the content type for the "a-k" and "l-z" subdirectories and rescan. Done!

[trarman 0]

BTW, this is accessing a NAS drive through SMB over wireless connection.