Last week we reported an issue Windows Home Server 2011 users were experiencing with their album art and music metadata being automatically synchronised with, and in some cases overwritten by an automated scheduled task Microsoft have built into the platform, called Media Streaming Metadata Synchronizer. That task compares the metadata stored in your shard Music folder with data stored centrally at Microsoft, and has the ability to write new or refreshed metadata to your server – this all done automatically without any user consent, or indeed control (in the WHS 2011 dashboard).
Whilst I’m sure the feature was built with good intent, the lack of user consent and control is a significant issue. A workaround, published by Microsoft last week on their Connect bug reporting site, allows the feature to be switched off by digging into the Windows Server Task Scheduler via Remote Desktop – hardly the most user friendly option for “My First Server”. Worse still was the fact that the bug was closed as “Resolved” with the statement “Unfortunately due to multiple reasons we will not be able to make code fix in this release. But it’s a great future design suggestion.”
Looks like Microsoft may have had a change of heart, though, as this week the bug has been re-opened with a new comment from the company:
Hi, All,
Thank you for your feedbacks.[sic]
We resolved the connect bug so customer on this thread can try a quick workaround. A detailed online document and broader communication is in progress, Thanks to everyone’s efforts.
For customer who does not TS to the box to manually update the tags, their music album art on the RWA share are left as Unknown. This was particularly an issue for headless boxes, and a major default scenario. The automatic sync feature was intended to solve this problem. However, there are tradeoffs between simplifying the configuration experience vs. keeping all optional[sic] visible.
We are collecting more data to prioritize different customer needs, and are open to alternative solutions based on further investigation.
Thank you.
Windows Home and Small Business Server Team
Does it mean the feature will be fixed? Not necessarily. Does it mean that Microsoft are aware and are listening? Yes. Does it mean that Microsoft will communicate better on this issue? Let’s hope so. Thanks to all who commented and voted on the Connect bug. Feel free to discuss the solutions you’d like to see over here, or indeed, over there.
