In addition to the CD ripping mechanism, the BluOS devices such as VAULT, NAD M50.2, or NAD M50 with an attached M52 have a hard drive and act as a Network Attached Storage (NAS).
Accessing the BluOS device's hard drive allows you to add/delete files, edit metadata tags, and perform backups of your ripped CDs from your Windows or macOS computer.
Following are the steps to access your BluOS device's hard drive.
Windows
- Open File Explorer.
- Expand Network and double-click the BluOS device's drive.
Perform the following steps if you could not find the BluOS device's drive under Network:
- In the BluOS App, select Help > Diagnostics.
- From the Diagnostics page, obtain the IP Address of the BluOS device. This IP Address will be used in Step 4.
- Open File Explorer.
- In the address bar, enter the BluOS device's drive URL in the following format:
\\<<BluOSdevice-IP>>
Replace <<BluOSdevice-IP>> with the IP Address obtained in Step 2.
Note: if you are prompted for credentials, connect as a Guest. - After the drive opens, open the Shared folder.
- [Optional] If you would like to save the Shared folder to your Network locations perform the following:
-
- Right-click the Shared folder and select Map Network Drive...
- On the Map Network Drive dialog box, select Finish.
The shortcut will be displayed under your Network locations, as shown below.
macOS
- Open Finder.
- Under SHARED, click the BluOS device's drive.
Perform the following steps if you could not find the BluOS device's drive:
- In the BluOS App, select Help > Diagnostics.
- From the Diagnostics page, obtain the IP Address of the BluOS device. This IP Address will be used in Step 4.
- From the Finder menu, select Go > Connect to Server.
- In the Server Address field, enter the BluOS device's drive URL in the following format:
cifs://<<BluOSdevice-IP>>
Replace <<BluOSdevice-IP>> with the IP Address obtained in Step 2.
[Optional] To save the BluOS device's drive as a shortcut, select theicon.
- Click Connect.
- When prompted for a username and password, connect as Guest with no password.
The BluOS device's drive consists of 2 folders:
- rips: This is a working directory where CDs are ripped as WAV files, converted to FLAC or MP3, and then deleted.
- Music: Files in this folder are indexed and played from the BluOS app.
Note: When you rip CDs using BluOS and you encode your files as both FLAC and MP3, a third directory – MP3 – is created for the MP3 files in the BluOS device's drive to avoid duplication in your Music Library index.
Add or Delete Files
- Add new files or delete undesired files from the Music folder.
- In the BluOS app, navigate to Settings > Music library > Reindex music collection, for the playback list to be updated.
Note: The duration for indexing depends on the size of the music library. Once complete, the player’s LED turns solid blue.
You may also navigate to Settings > Music Library to monitor the progress of the update.
If the library has not updated, you may try to close and re-open the app to refresh, If the problem persists, navigate to Help > Diagnostics > Rebuild Index to rebuild the index. This may take longer to complete, as the old index will be deleted and a new one will be built from the start.
Backup files
It is strongly recommended to create regular backups of the contents of your BluOS device. You can do this by manually copying the files from the Music folder to an external storage device / local folder on your PC. Back up time varies and can be longer depending on the size of the Music folder.
If your network changes the IP address of your BluOS device, this will disconnect the mapped drive, as the network location of the player changed.