What's Decibel doing?

The gear in the lower right hand corner is spinning away. Last change to sync folder was hours ago and did finally sync a few hours ago. About an hour ago I noticed the gear spinning. It was not spinning when I noticed that last sync had happened. 12-17% CPU but no idea what Decibel thinks it’s doing.

Quitting, well this time force-quitting, then restarting and no gear. Hmmm, wondering if the other times it wouldn’t nicely quit the gear was spinning. I know I have written before about the gear spinning.

Went to quit. No gear. Quit fine.

Deleted an album from sync folder. Six hours later it disappears finally. Almost 2 hours later I see the gear spinning (no telling how long, I’d not been with computer). So gear is spinning and I go to quit Decibel. Nope. Needs force-quitting.

I deleted some information that is no longer accurate.

Regarding the quitting or lack thereof, the spinning progress indicator in the corner indicates an import is in progress. Right now Decibel blocks application exit when importing to prevent a partial import (or watch folder sync). It probably makes sense just to ask whether to quit in the middle of an import.

Yeah, I have 60K+ tracks. By the time I finish ripping the CDs I care about there will probably be another 30K.

Much thanks for the detailed info. Guess I need to rethink how I manage my library? Guess I do not really understand how the watch folder is to be used, even with your description.

OTOH, now that I understand the why, I think I could abide the process taking time, I can say that it is working nevermind the size. My real issue is that it takes so long to even start. And, there have been times that once the update has been made the gear spinning did not continue. That is, there have been times that while it has taken hours to begin updating once it has the process is relatively swift to be done.

In my reply to my original post, there was no gear spinning for so long. I’m not sure I totally understand. It seems to me that for hours after I made the change in the sync folder there was nothing going on with Decibel (no gear spinning). Then “all of a sudden” the deletion was recognized and the process of checking the sync folder continued (i.e. the gear spinning appears).

Two points of reference: Swinsian (tried many times over the years) and Audirvana (tried once a week ago). Both have watch folder sequence. Swinsian has a Rescan button on its watch folder preference pane. It doesn’t seem to work as there is nothing showing where it does when doing the initial scan. I have never thought to wait it out. Audirvana, too, has a Rescan button on its watch folder pref pane. Like Decibel it takes for ever to register changes to the watch folder but hitting the rescan button does result in quickly registering the changes.

I believe I’ve made large enough improvements in how watch folders work so they should be an option for any size library. Once the next beta is out if you could test them again I’d appreciate it.

Of course I’ll be happy to.

Hopefully beta 27 helps with watch folder performance.

Doing the initial scan is taking a good long while. Looking forward to testing it this evening.

I see no difference in watch folder functioning. Once the library was rebuilt, and the watch folder was used to do so. That is, I selected it in preferences and then Decibel did its thing immediately. As said before, it took a good long while - folder is almost 2 TB. I then added 8.3 GB (10 CDs). It’s been over 2 hours and there’s been no activity.

On another computer I tested the thing about Decibel keeping track of files after being added and then moved around. That works flawlessly. :bigthumbsup:

Thanks for testing out the new watch folder handling. There was a bug in how certain file system events were interpreted that should be fixed in the next version.

I was just coming here to report that there was nothing overnight.

As used to be a saying here in Austin, well, really a motto of the favored head shop: Onward through the fog.

Sheesh. It’s been decades since i thought of that.

I believe this is fixed in beta 28. You will probably need to remove the watch folder and then re-add it to ensure all of the updates are captured.

Well that was fast. Will start now.

SO damn close. My first reaction was, in a word, HOLYCRAP! So sweet.

With Decibel open, additions and subtractions to the watch folder see immediate reaction in the app, with completion super prompt.

But if I add or subtract items when Decibel is not open nothing happens when it is opened.

I’m having difficulty reproducing this- the scenario you describe works for me in testing. What are you adding to the watch folder- files, files in a folder, or files in folders within folder(s)?

They were folders in a folder. I just tried with a few other simple folders, each with files. Nope. Adding/subtracting these while Decibel is already running is still fine. Real head scratcher.

I tried another machine and adding/subtracting to watch folder while Decibel is not running then starting it. Worked fine. Tested just folders. Tested a folder of folders. All good.

Something about my first/main testing computer. Both run Monterey v12.6. Main (with this issue) is M2 MacBook Air. “Good” one is M1 iMac. The drive with the watch folder is an external USB drive connected to the M1 iMac. The M2 MacBook Air connects to that drive over SMB wirelessly. Might that be an issue? Doesn’t make sense.

Been testing off and on this evening. All remains fine on the M1 iMac directly connected to the drive containing the watch folder.

But things are now worse with the M2 MacBook Air. It’s as if it isn’t watching at all. Earlier it was at least catching the additions/subtractions when Decibel was already opened. Working with it this evening it is not.

Really has me bumfuzzled. Ultimately it doesn’t matter as when I make real use of Decibel it is from the iMac - remoting into it. But it should be OK on the MBA over Wi-Fi.

Thanks for continuing to test this. What file system is the drive on the M1 iMac? Is the watch folder on both computers pointed at the same drive? I agree that it sounds like it could be an issue with the SMB connection, although I’m not sure what.

I am very happy to keep up with this. I think you’re really onto something. Love the new looks. Search is killer compared to Music, Swinsian, and Audirvana.

Both computers are APFS and the external USB drive is Mac OS Extended (Journaled).