[StHapns247]

I have all my content on a media server and I access it via XBMC on my HTPC. I attach the media (tv shows and movies) via smb shares to XMBC and it all works perfectly.

However, if my HTPC goes to sleep with XBMC running XBMC will lose connection to the shared media. Every time this happens I need to manually add the shared again under Videos and have it scan... It is extremely annoying. This happens EVERY time it goes to sleep with XBMC running and sometimes when it sleep even when XBMC it is not running.

I know my folders are shared correctly and I have all the settings I can think of on my HTPC's network card to stop this from happening, but it continues to be the biggest issue I have with XBMC.

Is this a known issue with the program? Is there a better way to add sources than SMB shares?

I use Windows 7 Pro and my network card is an Intel CT Desktop adapter. I know the card does not turn off because I see the lights blinking when the computer is asleep.

Server never goes to sleep.

[jhsrennie]

I have found the best way to add a network source in XBMC is:

- open the Add source dialog and click Browse
- in the Browse dialog scroll down to the bottom of the list and select "Add network location"
- in the "Add network location" dialog set the protocol to SMB, fill in the server and share name and the username and password if you need them and click OK
- this takes you back to the Browse dialog, and the location you've just added will appear in the list as "smb://server/share". Select this and click OK.

Sources added this way seem very tolerant of disconnects and reconnects.

JR

[isamu.dragon]

Another solution that I use is to map the share to a drive letter.
This is very tolerate

[StHapns247]

Thanks for the advice. I will try those two options and see which one works better.

I think I have tried the mapped drive option, but Windows and mapped drives are the most flaky things out there. I wish they worked better because they're such a great idea.

Thanks again.

[StHapns247]

This doesn't seem to work very well. Set up the shares like jhsrennie suggested and I still have problems where I'll launch XBMC and the links to the Movies and TV Shows paths are gone. When I go to Videos it shows that they exist, but I need to set their content again. This then resets all the Watched tags I have put on everything I have watched... This is extremely annoying.

Is there a setting in XBMC that could effect this? I have it to scan for new content when it starts up, should I disable that?

I'm really looking for some advise lest I find another media center solution.

[jhsrennie]

It's possible that the network connection is taking a while to connect, and in the mean time the library update decides the share has gone and cleans the library. Disabling the "update on startup" setting would be a good way to test this.

A debug log should tell you if this is happening. See http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Log_File for how to get at the debug log.

JR

[StHapns247]

Looks like when my HTPC wakes from a prolonged sleep it takes a couple of seconds for the network to re-initialize and because I had it auto-update when XBMC turns one the shares were not available. Good call jhsrennie. I guess Win7 has this issue even though I have my NIC set to NEVER power off. Idk, kinda lame if you ask me, but it is what it is.

Thanks for all your help.

[DejaVu]

I had all sorts of issues when I started out mounting my shares. The easiest and best way is to read this thread and your problems will all go away.