Troubleshooting¶

Problem: Catalog works locally but not from another computer.

Solution:

Check that the clients are connecting to the right server url and the right port.

Try connecting using ip instead of computer name. If on a local network check they are really connected to the same network.

Verify that there is no firewalls preventing connection on the server and on the client

Verify there is no other security program interfering

Can the port be used by some other software?

Check the server is really running (is it marked as running in windows services, is there an error message in the EventViewer)

Do you have more than one network adapters installed? Are the ones you are not using disabled? (for example local bluetooth network)

Problem: Catalog works but clients can not play videos.

Solution: Check the video share path in the serverconfig.xml file. Check that the video root is shared and that the client machine has access.

Problem: Catalog works but clients can not access companion photos

Solution: Check the photo and actorphoto share path in the serverconfig.xml file. Check that the photo root is shared on the server and that the client has access to the share.

Problem: The server runs and clients can browse the catalog, but videos stored on a NAS or another network share do not play.

Solution: The Fast Video Cataloger service is installed to run as the Local System account. That account uses the computer's own identity on the network, not yours, so a share that opens fine in Explorer under your user account can be unreachable to the service. Open services.msc, find "Fast Video Cataloger Service", and on the Log On tab set it to a user account that has access to the share. Restart the service afterwards.

Also make sure the catalog uses UNC paths, like \nas\videos\clip.mp4, and not mapped drive letters. Drive letters are mapped per user session and do not exist for a service, so a path like z:\videos\clip.mp4 will never resolve on the server.

Problem: Some videos are on drives or shares that are not always available, such as archive drives or a share that is offline.

Solution: This is not a problem for the server. The server does not check video paths when it starts. If a configured file root is missing it writes a warning to its log and keeps running, and it serves the catalog normally.

All metadata and thumbnails are stored inside the vcat file, so clients can browse, search, and scrub the thumbnails of videos whose files are offline. Only playing the video itself fails, and it works again as soon as the drive or share is back. Note that the repair tool reports paths on disconnected devices as broken, so do not run it to clean up while those devices are offline.

Problem: You want the server to host a different catalog.

Solution: A server hosts one catalog at a time. Open the catalog you want to share in the desktop application and run Start - Server - Setup again, or open Start - Server - Admin Server and browse to the new catalog file. Both write the new catalog into serverconfig.xml for you. See "Working with more than one catalog" in the how-to for sharing a catalog.

Problem: Changes made to serverconfig.xml have no effect.

Solution: The server only reads serverconfig.xml when it starts. Restart the Fast Video Cataloger service after editing the file by hand. Saving from the Admin Server tool does this for you, it stops the service, writes the file and starts the service again.