Hi everyone,
I know there was another topic about this subject but as it a bit old I supposed to open a new one.
Long story short: MediaBay doesn’t show audio files on an external hd even if I try to refresh; my hypothesis are:
I tried it in Cubase 12 - same hard disk same settings - and everything works fine so could it be a C13pro bug?
Hi again,
while still hoping someone will help I did my tries:
Does anyone have the same problem?
Thank you,
Art
It looks like this thread has to be a sort of monologue but I still someone can read and have an idea (while waiting for Steinberg support to answer…).
Today I plugged an external usb key (FAT-32…) and MediaBay immediately read it; I don’t know what else could I try with my problematic disk (apart from changing it… 
)
Have you tried to delete the Mediabay Database file.
It catalogs the history of all your scanned files.
Delete it and experiment again.
HI @oldskoolproductions, sorry for my delay, I was away a few days… I’ll try it as soon as I can, thank you for answering!
Art
HI @oldskoolproductions,
do you mean to do what suggested in this post?
It seemed to work but MediaBay scans only a folder (with subfolder) then stops… Better than before but not even really good…
Here are some thoughts…
I deleted my Mediabay database file last weekend.
I had Individually scanned each Sub-folder using the “Deep Scan” Option.
Mediabay slightly had a better response time each instance I randomly chose a folder to open… About 5 Seconds. Not Horrible for several 1000 files in a folder.
I also determinized that If your Mediabay Database file is larger then 2.5 gigabytes. Then your performance will completely hit a wall.
I did run a test to see if the GPU had any effect on Mediabay.
I removed my dual monitor setup (1 HDMI & 1 DisplayPort).
I replaced them with one 4K TV using HDMI only
Mediabay response time has been better…
I wont know for sure until I switch it back.
I hope this helps
I don’t know if Cubase Mediabay was set up to properly handle files that nested in several subfolders. You would expect the Mediabay to keep a snapshot of all the files based off the initial scan of the folder. Which then should just populate the list instantaneously. Considering that the file is Mediabay database file is local to your computer.
I have this uncomfortable feeling that when the Mediabay accesses the database file, it is looking through the whole file to find that information… instead pointing to a specific location on the file.
Do you know what I mean…
Like walking through all the entire shopping mall looking for the food court instead of looking at map of all store locations at the kiosk…
In my case when scanning starts it’s really very fast so I can’t complain about it; but I remember the older version started scanning and did it with all the folders, now it stops after a while. I’ve scanned quite everything anyway, external hd included.
Let me know about your tests, if you don’t mind, it’s a question I didn’t considered…
Thank you for sharing your experience and helping!
I understand! I tried to create a database after scanning but I received this message…
Let’s hope Steinberg will fix all these issues!
From what I understand… a database can only be created with an external hard drive.
Hi @oldskoolproductions,
I understand that in a different way, but I may be wrong, of course…
At this page of online help it’s stated that: You can create volume databases for your computer drives or for external storage media. They contain the same information about the media files as the regular MediaBay database.
Some audio files with a .wav extension are actually not .wav files, .wav may be used as a container for some other audio file type.
Try this: if a file is not appearing in MediaBay it may also not play in VLC Media Player.
I took one of these VLC unplayable .wav files that was also not appearing in MediaBay and tried to re-encode it to .wav using ffmpeg. FFmpeg reported that it could not find the input audio stream in the file. I then tried renaming it to .ogg, unfortunately with the same result. A VLC playable file converted without any problem and was also visible in MediaBay. So… at this point the actual file type remains unknown, and it remains an unrecognisable file type for MediaBay even though it has the .wav extension. Will research further.
Also of interest is that some .mp4 files will not import into Cubase as a video file, often when it’s been downloaded from online. Again .mp4 is a container type. However this can be fixed by using ffmpeg to re-encode, just use
ffmpeg -i “yourvideo.mp4” -qscale 0 output.mp4
and then it’s likely possible to import it into Cubase.
Thank you @userofcubase, I have no VLC installed and no FFmpeg but I could try; ar you on a Mac or Windows?
I’m on Windows 11. These MediaBay ‘missing’ files may play in a more recent version of VLC, or some other media players.
However it may not be possible to convert them to a .wav type compatible with MediaBay, until their internal file type is known, if they are in fact some other type in .wav container. More research required.
Update: I’ve had some success
Download and install VU Player from the vuplayer website
Run it and browse to the .wav files that do not appear in MediaBay.
Right click on one of the files and choose the option Convert Files, click the All Files tick box if necessary.
Choose an output folder
Choose an output file type: Waveform Audio File (PCM)
Click OK
A new folder is created in the output folder: Unknown Artist|Unknown Album
These converted files should show up in Media Bay, and also be playable in VLC, worked for me
Thank you @userofcubase,
I’m on a Mac instead and I’m not using VLC as I didn’t find I needed it, so far…
What is VU player?