[SOLVED] Missing shared media files when USB Sharing with TP-Link VR600 router

[Hedgie12345]

First some background information. I am using a Cyrus Lyric hi-fi with a music library stored on a 1TB WD My Passport hard drive directly attached via USB. This works fine but the library can only be navigated by folder structure. I would like to have the much better extra functionality (album artwork, browse genre, browse album, search) I get when connecting to the media library streamed from my Win 10 PC, but unfortunately this is painfully slow over the wireless network.
My hi-fi manual says the optimal set up is a NAS connected to the router (and preferably wired by ethernet to the hi-fi). Since I don't have a NAS I thought I might achieve the same thing by connecting a hard drive to the USB port on my TP-Link VR600v2 router. This is only partially successful because when I access the music library from the hi-fi app, annoyingly about half of the audio files are missing (200GB total size). I have repeated the exercise using a different WD My Passport (2TB) and a 256GB MicroSD card + USB adaptor, with similar results of around half the audio media not showing when accessed from the hi-fi. The files are definitely there and are visible from a PC browser window using ftp://... I have followed the necessary USB Sharing instructions for the router and made sure Media Sharing is enabled, enabled Share All folders, and even tried sharing only the mp3 folder, without success. The hard drives are formatted to an approved format. Interestingly a 14GB USB stick works and shows all media, so it looks like the router has trouble around the 100GB mark.
The router appears to be using MiniDLNA. I've seen one or two other reports of similar problems elsewhere but no solutions posted.
I am unsure if spending money on a good NAS would be worth it if the router is unreliable, so I would be grateful for any ideas, given I am kind of technically competent but new to networking. Could I chain an old router to the VR600 and use its USB port? Is there such a thing as a USB to Ethernet adaptor?
Thanks for reading!

 

[kanewolf]

First some background information. I am using a Cyrus Lyric hi-fi with a music library stored on a 1TB WD My Passport hard drive directly attached via USB. This works fine but the library can only be navigated by folder structure. I would like to have the much better extra functionality (album artwork, browse genre, browse album, search) I get when connecting to the media library streamed from my Win 10 PC, but unfortunately this is painfully slow over the wireless network.
My hi-fi manual says the optimal set up is a NAS connected to the router (and preferably wired by ethernet to the hi-fi). Since I don't have a NAS I thought I might achieve the same thing by connecting a hard drive to the USB port on my TP-Link VR600v2 router. This is only partially successful because when I access the music library from the hi-fi app, annoyingly about half of the audio files are missing (200GB total size). I have repeated the exercise using a different WD My Passport (2TB) and a 256GB MicroSD card + USB adaptor, with similar results of around half the audio media not showing when accessed from the hi-fi. The files are definitely there and are visible from a PC browser window using ftp://... I have followed the necessary USB Sharing instructions for the router and made sure Media Sharing is enabled, enabled Share All folders, and even tried sharing only the mp3 folder, without success. The hard drives are formatted to an approved format. Interestingly a 14GB USB stick works and shows all media, so it looks like the router has trouble around the 100GB mark.
The router appears to be using MiniDLNA. I've seen one or two other reports of similar problems elsewhere but no solutions posted.
I am unsure if spending money on a good NAS would be worth it if the router is unreliable, so I would be grateful for any ideas, given I am kind of technically competent but new to networking. Could I chain an old router to the VR600 and use its USB port? Is there such a thing as a USB to Ethernet adaptor?
Thanks for reading!

It is probably memory/CPU limitations on the router. You might be able to do what you want with a raspberry PI. They are available with 4GB RAM for decent price.