Preserve folder structure when browsing on client

Q&A
1

Greetings, first day user, got everything working just fine, but I would like to ask for help regarding a sorting function.
I have my music collection in the following folder structure:

  • music
    • artist
      • album1
      • album2
      • album3
    • artist2
      • album1

and so on. I’m generating a db with mopidyctl local scan. I would like to preserve the ability to browse the folders, as I have a lot of compilations that litter the view when browsing by artists, performers, albums. Is there a way to handle this usecase? The relevant part of my config file looks like this:

[file]
enabled = true
media_dirs = /home/zelmor/music |Music
show_dotfiles = false
follow_symlinks = false

[local]
enabled = true
media_dir = /home/zelmor/music

I am unsure if I need both local and file set in the config. I am also unsure if something can be added to enable the generation of a folder structure based view.

2

File and local are different backend extensions. If you want to expose your filesystem folder structure, use Mopidy-file. Mopidy local works using metadata only.

3

If you have the file extension enabled a lot of MPD clients allow you to browse your file system.

5

When I disable/remove local, File will not expose any folders to the Android client Mopidy Mobile for some reason. Is there anything wrong with my config that I posted above?

7

Did you test if it works only with the media_dirs path, without the pipe symbol and the name behind it? From your config it looks like you have a space in front of the pipe symbol, which is not there in the documentation.

8

Enabling/disabling Mopidy-Local has nothing to do with Mopidy-File as they are different extensions and entirely separate.

9

Hi Geert, mopidy is running as a service. Not sure where that xdg_music_dir would point to for that user, as it has no home directory nor xdg config.

10

Thank you, I understand this. I simply wonder where the music folder should be located to be exposed by the default behaviour or mopidy. currently it is under a non-priviliged user’s home (/home/zelmor/music), but mopidy is running as a service. The folder is set to 777, so accessible to everyone. That said, let me know if this is not good practice. I set the folder up so that root login is not necessary when pruning the collection via automated scripts (it mirrors periodically from a desktop PC to a NUC that is dedicated to only be running modipy).

11

No need to use xdg_music_dir. You can use any directory you want like you did, that’s also what I do. However, adding that pipe symbol (and the name behind it) at the of the directory name is optional.
Regarding file system security. I also allow read to everyone. Security best practice would be to allow access to the account the Mopidy service is running under, being ‘mopidy’, or a group this account is member of. But I don’t see the risk of a hacker reading my albums :wink:

1 Like
12

Thank you, I got around to testing it and it was in fact the pipe that messed things up. Wonderful. Groetjes!

13

I think we have a fix for that coming. It’s not very user-friendly as it is today.

1 Like
14

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