Problem with Lite and "Undefined" fields - Pilot error

[kod]

My friend downloaded Hoster Lite 5.05 last Monday and ever since then, he can't pull up the majority of his song list (when doing a database search).

Maybe a couple of dozen songs show up in the database search. The songs show up as unknown (can't remember what it actually says). They are there and can be played, but you have no idea what they are (no song name or artist name) until played.

We did a rebuild database (twice) with no change whatsoever...

He is running from an external hard drive, no songs on the laptop C: drive. (Win7)

He downloaded it straight into Hoster and so he can't back up and his free upgrades expire soon! (I gave it to him Hoster Lite for Christmas last December)

Can anyone shed any light on this problem?

I will have to relay any responses because he does not have posting privleges.

Needless to say, he is very frustrated with Hoster at this point.

[Roy Dennis]

Were his song files on this same external drive before he upgraded or were they on his C/drive or some other drive In other words has he copied them from somewhere else before upgrading ?

Did he have the external hard drive plugged in while it was upgrading ?

Were they originally imported from CD as kma files or were they hard drive imports if so were they kma or kmh types ?

Has he not got a backup copy of these song files ?

Regarding his free upgrade, he can upgrade to this particular version anytime after the 12 months, he just won't be able to upgrade to any future upgrades that are released more than 12 months from his purchased version.

He can still go back to his old version if it is in the list on this page. http://www.mtu.com/upgrades/hoster.htm
Still select the upgrade option even though he is installing an older version.

But if he does he will have to delete his songs.mdb before starting the old version or it will not start, then rebuild that versions database.

[kod]

Roy,

I relayed your questions by e-mail to my friend and will let you know his answers.

He lives 40 miles from me so it's not practical to go see him each time a question is asked.

However, if he can't solve it through some of these actions, at some point I will go and see if I can fix it for him...

BTW, the songs come up as "undefined." I couldn't think of that word last night. I was tired...

One question that I can answer is, he originally had another program to run Karaoke (there again, can't remember the name) and the songs were already on the hard drive from that.

After he got Hoster, he pointed Hoster to the external Hard Drive and has been running that way ever since with no problems that I am aware of...

[Roy Dennis]

They are obviously hard drive imports, it may help us solve this if we know if they are kma or kmh types.

When you say they show as undefined, is that in both the Title fields and Artist fields ?
Tell him to open the Tools/Edit dialog, enter a * in the match field press find, this will list the whole database, does he think it is showing all the database files or just a few.
If it is showing all are they all showing "Undefined" and is there any info in the other fields ?

Try clicking on the header bar at the top of the field and see if widening the field shows anything else.

If it is only showing a few songs then the rest of the database isn't imported.

[kod]

Roy,

The only thing that shows is "undefined" in the title column only!

From his other program, all of the songs are listed only in one column.

Ex: Patsy Cline - Crazy (Artist - Song Name)

[kod]

Roy,

Just got this e-mail response from my friend:

All my songs are on my external hard drive No I did not have my hard drive plugged in About 50/50 are from disc and downloads No I don't have another back-up but I do have them on my external HD

Hope this helps...

[kod]

Roy,

Just got a phone call from my friend and he told me the in doing the " * " search, all the songs came up but were only showing in the Title column.

The Artist column showed "Undefined"

Based on the way his songs are entered, I suspect that is why!

How do we get Hoster to recognize them when he opens Search Database?

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by kod

Roy,

Just got this e-mail response from my friend:



Hope this helps...

First key factor is the hard drive needs to be plugged in if it is going to Rebuild the database from that drive.
Also can we find out why he cannot post in here? Did he register to join the forums and did he get a confirmation from MTU?

[kod]

Dale,

He has never registered for the forum. Up to now I have been able to resolve any problems he had and he didn't see any need to register.

I was there last night and the hard drive was plugged in when we did a Rebuild...

[Roy Dennis]

Originally Posted by kod

Roy,

Just got a phone call from my friend and he told me the in doing the " * " search, all the songs came up but were only showing in the Title column.

The Artist column showed "Undefined"

Based on the way his songs are entered, I suspect that is why!

How do we get Hoster to recognize them when he opens Search Database?

As you say it's the way he entered them originally.
You can no longer do a wild card * search in this version search dialog so if he wants to do his searches with the * he will have to go back to an earlier version witch he can do from the download link I gave you before probably version 5.03 and select the upgrade option even though he is actually downgrading.

What I would suggest though is he clicks on the header bar above Title field and drags it wider, on the Artist field that only shows undefined drag it narrower.
Now it may be he enters too longer string in the search box and causes it not to find what he is searching for. Example: Cracklin' Rose (as listed in my database), if you enter crackling Rose in the search field it finds nothing but enter either cracklin or rose and it will find it.
You have to understand how the search works. same with artist If you search for Neil Diamond it may not find it if the file is named as Diamond, neil. but enter diamond or neil and it will find it whichever way it is listed in the database.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by kod

Roy,

Just got a phone call from my friend and he told me the in doing the " * " search, all the songs came up but were only showing in the Title column.

The Artist column showed "Undefined"

Based on the way his songs are entered, I suspect that is why!

How do we get Hoster to recognize them when he opens Search Database?

It sounds like he used the easy import for his files on the hard drive which would mean all of the information went into the title block and leaves the rest of them undefined.

[kod]

Dale,

He did an uninstall and then downloaded Hoster Lite again and now he cannot get Hoster to work at all.

He has the desktop icon but that is all. It appears as if he didn't get it downloaded right.

I turned in a ticket to MTU this afternoon and got an acknowledge response on the ticket.

Now it's wait and see...

[Roy Dennis]

Originally Posted by kod

Dale,

He did an uninstall and then downloaded Hoster Lite again and now he cannot get Hoster to work at all.

He has the desktop icon but that is all. It appears as if he didn't get it downloaded right.

I turned in a ticket to MTU this afternoon and got an acknowledge response on the ticket.

Now it's wait and see...

If he went back to an older version he would have to delete his songs.mdb or Hoster wont open then rebuild the database after, I did mention this in a private message to you.

[kod]

Roy,

Thanks to your help, my friend has got his Hoster Lite back up and running.

He had about 500 (out of 9,100) songs still show up as "undefined" but he is in the process of manually correcting this.

He knows now to "always" have his external Hard Drive hooked up for any future downloads. That, was the root of his problem...

Thanks again for your help!

[admin]

I split this out of the Hoster 5.05 Thread as this really is not a problem with the software, but rather the "pilot". You can continue posting here if needed, but it seems this has run its course.

We use the "Post 5.05 Errors" thread for each release for concise feedback on true problems. We then scan the thread to insure we have fixed any reported bugs in the next release.