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I've been having some problems on importing music to a music player. I have to import them manually every time I restart my computer. When I add music from Ubuntu's default music folder (/home/music), I don't have that problem. But when I try to add it from another partition (/dev/sda3), it keeps forgetting folder location. I have tried Rhythmbox and Lollypop so far; same issue in both of them.

Orkhan Rutherford
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  • Is sda3 mounted before you open Rhythmbox? –  Nov 18 '17 at 19:08
  • Hi, @MichaelBay. Unfortunately, I'm new to Ubuntu and don't understand the concept of mounting/unmounting (yet). I'm dual-booting Windows 7 and Ubuntu 17.10 and used to have my music folder in D: drive in Windows. – Orkhan Rutherford Nov 18 '17 at 19:23
  • Mounting in this context means making the partition available, readable. Your sda3 (probably D: in Windows), being a non-system NTFS partition is typically not mounted until you click on it for instance in Files (equivalent to Windows Explorer), hence may question. If not mounted when you open the players they will "forget" that location because it no longer exists. –  Nov 18 '17 at 19:28
  • When I open Files and click "+ Other Locations", it shows me other partitions I have. When I right-click, for instance, /dev/sda3/, it gives me choice to unmount. Does that mean they're mounted ? – Orkhan Rutherford Nov 18 '17 at 19:36
  • Yes, as soon as you open it and can see your folder/files it is mounted. –  Nov 18 '17 at 19:38
  • So, if they are mounted, what's causing the problem? Any ideas to fix? – Orkhan Rutherford Nov 18 '17 at 19:44
  • Well, they are now but probaly not when you noticed the problem. Try adding the additional folder(s) (sources) now, confirm it's working as intended, then reboot and before opening the players, browse to the same location as you did now. Then open the players. Does the problem still occur? –  Nov 18 '17 at 19:49
  • You were right. I restarted Ubuntu, and went to Files -> Other Locations and they were unmounted (I right-clicked and it gave me option to mount). I opened Lollypop and it recognized the files! So, this partially solves my problem. Now, the question is : How do I make them mount automatically every time I start Ubuntu? – Orkhan Rutherford Nov 18 '17 at 20:07
  • Many options... Perhaps the easiest one (because GUI) is with Disks. Follow this answer https://askubuntu.com/a/271527/692175 but I suggest also enabling "Show in user interface" and in "Identify as" select the option label in order to have a more "user friendly" name. Reboot. You may need to add the sources again because now it will have a different mount point and the programs may not recognize it as the same location. But once done is "set and forget". Should I make a full fledged answer with all the info in comments? –  Nov 18 '17 at 20:20
  • Thank you very much! This definitely solves my problems. You can turn this to an answer, if you want. Thanks again for your time! – Orkhan Rutherford Nov 18 '17 at 20:27
  • Done, you can click accept anytime. –  Nov 18 '17 at 20:52

1 Answers1

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Players such as Rhythmbox often "forget" additional media sources when they are no longer detected. Your additional media sources are in sda3 ("D:" in Windows. This partition is not automatically mounted.

In order to work around this behavior it is recommended to mount the partition on boot.

There are many ways to achieve that and - typically - advanced users would edit the fstab. But you can also do it entirely in a GUI by using the included Disks tool:

  • Follow the instructions in this answer Is there a program to mount all of my drives automatically? but I suggest also enabling "Show in user interface" and in "Identify as" select the option Label in order to have a more "user friendly" name. Reboot. You may need to add the sources again because now it will have a different mount point and the programs may not recognize it as the same location. But once done is "set and forget".