UMS not working from external ssd on Ubuntu pi5 8gb
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UMS not working from external ssd on Ubuntu pi5 8gb
Hi everyone, I’m running into a frustrating issue with my media setup and could use some advice. Here’s the situation:
Hardware & setup: • Raspberry Pi 5, running Ubuntu 22.04 • External SSD connected over USB (used to be NTFS/exFAT from Windows) • Universal Media Server (UMS) installed via Linux • Network: same Wi-Fi that worked perfectly with Windows • iPhone running VLC to access UPnP/UMS
What I’m trying to do: Stream my video files from the SSD over UPnP so I can watch them on my iPhone.
What works: 1. Files copied to the Pi’s internal storage stream instantly via UMS → VLC on iPhone. 2. Files played directly from the SSD on the Pi using VLC also play instantly. 3. UMS itself can scan the library on internal storage, and UPnP discovery works.
What doesn’t work: 1. Files on the SSD are extremely slow or never load via UMS/UPnP on VLC. • At first, VLC would just show a spinner when opening a folder. • Now, folders appear, but files show --:-- duration and play button is unresponsive. 2. Mounting the SSD manually (exFAT) with correct uid/gid lets me see the files in /mnt/ssd, but UMS still fails to stream them.
Steps I’ve tried to debug: • Tested SSD read speed on Ubuntu: ~365 MB/s, plenty fast for streaming • Copied a file from SSD to internal storage → streams fine • Disabled automatic UMS transcoding • Mounted SSD manually with uid=$USER,gid=$USER to /mnt/ssd • Verified permissions so UMS can read the files • Checked firewall / UPnP ports — network is fine • Checked dmesg for mount errors — no major errors, filesystem is clean
Observations & hypotheses: • Direct playback on the Pi works → SSD itself is fine • Internal storage streaming works → UMS + network works • SSD streaming via UMS fails → likely UMS + exFAT + random reads on ARM bottleneck • Transcoding could be contributing, but even with it disabled streaming fails
Goal: I want to stream my media directly from the SSD via UMS or some UPnP/DLNA server without moving everything to internal storage.
Questions for the community: 1. Has anyone seen UMS behave like this on a Pi 5 with exFAT or NTFS drives? 2. Are there known workarounds or libraries that make UMS stream from exFAT efficiently on ARM/Linux? 3. Would switching to MiniDLNA, Jellyfin, or another DLNA server likely fix this without moving files? 4. Any advice on mounting options or filesystem tweaks that make SSD streaming reliable?
Thanks in advance — I’ve spent a lot of time on this, and it’s driving me crazy because everything “should work” but just won’t from the SSD.
AI summarised message of a conversation lasting days, sorry I’m just very tired of trying and debugging I felt like it can summarise the issue better than me.
Also I’m using an official 5.1A power supply, I was using a MacBook power adapter previously and it didn’t really like it, but it doesn’t seem to solve the issue even with the official one.
Also the external ssd is a crucial x8 1tb exfat formatted. The advice was to switch to ext4 but I suspect because the files play instantly when running directly on pi5 vlc it shouldn’t be the issue
Hardware & setup: • Raspberry Pi 5, running Ubuntu 22.04 • External SSD connected over USB (used to be NTFS/exFAT from Windows) • Universal Media Server (UMS) installed via Linux • Network: same Wi-Fi that worked perfectly with Windows • iPhone running VLC to access UPnP/UMS
What I’m trying to do: Stream my video files from the SSD over UPnP so I can watch them on my iPhone.
What works: 1. Files copied to the Pi’s internal storage stream instantly via UMS → VLC on iPhone. 2. Files played directly from the SSD on the Pi using VLC also play instantly. 3. UMS itself can scan the library on internal storage, and UPnP discovery works.
What doesn’t work: 1. Files on the SSD are extremely slow or never load via UMS/UPnP on VLC. • At first, VLC would just show a spinner when opening a folder. • Now, folders appear, but files show --:-- duration and play button is unresponsive. 2. Mounting the SSD manually (exFAT) with correct uid/gid lets me see the files in /mnt/ssd, but UMS still fails to stream them.
Steps I’ve tried to debug: • Tested SSD read speed on Ubuntu: ~365 MB/s, plenty fast for streaming • Copied a file from SSD to internal storage → streams fine • Disabled automatic UMS transcoding • Mounted SSD manually with uid=$USER,gid=$USER to /mnt/ssd • Verified permissions so UMS can read the files • Checked firewall / UPnP ports — network is fine • Checked dmesg for mount errors — no major errors, filesystem is clean
Observations & hypotheses: • Direct playback on the Pi works → SSD itself is fine • Internal storage streaming works → UMS + network works • SSD streaming via UMS fails → likely UMS + exFAT + random reads on ARM bottleneck • Transcoding could be contributing, but even with it disabled streaming fails
Goal: I want to stream my media directly from the SSD via UMS or some UPnP/DLNA server without moving everything to internal storage.
Questions for the community: 1. Has anyone seen UMS behave like this on a Pi 5 with exFAT or NTFS drives? 2. Are there known workarounds or libraries that make UMS stream from exFAT efficiently on ARM/Linux? 3. Would switching to MiniDLNA, Jellyfin, or another DLNA server likely fix this without moving files? 4. Any advice on mounting options or filesystem tweaks that make SSD streaming reliable?
Thanks in advance — I’ve spent a lot of time on this, and it’s driving me crazy because everything “should work” but just won’t from the SSD.
AI summarised message of a conversation lasting days, sorry I’m just very tired of trying and debugging I felt like it can summarise the issue better than me.
Also I’m using an official 5.1A power supply, I was using a MacBook power adapter previously and it didn’t really like it, but it doesn’t seem to solve the issue even with the official one.
Also the external ssd is a crucial x8 1tb exfat formatted. The advice was to switch to ext4 but I suspect because the files play instantly when running directly on pi5 vlc it shouldn’t be the issue
Re: UMS not working from external ssd on Ubuntu pi5 8gb
If you are just using the external USB SSD on the Raspberry, I would format that drive to EXT4 and see how that performs.
If it were me, I would change to EXT4 even if that was not the issue (providing the USB SSD is only used on the Raspberry).
Perhaps the files are being transcoded when they don't need to be due to the *.conf file being used.
Also better if you post your UMS log files in TRACE mode.
If it were me, I would change to EXT4 even if that was not the issue (providing the USB SSD is only used on the Raspberry).
Perhaps the files are being transcoded when they don't need to be due to the *.conf file being used.
Also better if you post your UMS log files in TRACE mode.
Re: UMS not working from external ssd on Ubuntu pi5 8gb
It would be helpful to see your logs to know what UMS is doing here. See the section in red above.
It might be trying to transcode instead of streaming and I don't think the Pi has enough processing power to do this unless it has hardware encoding.
If this is what is happening then it might just need a tweak to the renderer's conf.
I remember in some cases where if UMS starts on a system before some network drives have become available then UMS will be unable to find them and may be the same for external drives. I think @boss has mentioned a delayed startup for UMS can help.
It might be trying to transcode instead of streaming and I don't think the Pi has enough processing power to do this unless it has hardware encoding.
If this is what is happening then it might just need a tweak to the renderer's conf.
I remember in some cases where if UMS starts on a system before some network drives have become available then UMS will be unable to find them and may be the same for external drives. I think @boss has mentioned a delayed startup for UMS can help.
Logs are important for us to help, Please follow This Link before asking for support. Just a forum cleaner, Will help if I can but no expert.
Re: UMS not working from external ssd on Ubuntu pi5 8gb
@mik_s
I do remember someone having a problem before with a USB drive which took longer to load.
That could be the cause of UMS running fine from the internal drive and not the USB.
A simple test would be to stop UMS auto starting at boot and starting it manually after 30 seconds or so.
I do remember someone having a problem before with a USB drive which took longer to load.
That could be the cause of UMS running fine from the internal drive and not the USB.
A simple test would be to stop UMS auto starting at boot and starting it manually after 30 seconds or so.