Qsirch and how to use it

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Qsirch is Qnap native google search for finding your files stored on the Qnap.

[youtube=]v12QN7EETZg[/youtube]

[youtube=]T5Vgn_HToqw[/youtube]

it's very useful because of the search filters, so if you forgot where you placed something, you can use this.

But the way i'm using it is to filter by file sizes. then i select the biggest file sizes on my QNAP. These are the prime candidates for "should i keep" or "delete" ?

The first ones to go for me are the biggest sized files. Usually these are outdated x264 files, which i have been replacing with smaller HEVC x265 video files with aac audio, rather than flac. I can get lots of space savings for an almost similar quality (i'm not saying aac = flac, but for me it's good enough and i save space). Downside to HEVC is it uses more cpu when viewing this media type, but for me that isn't an issue; but if it is for you, probably stick to x264 instead.


the next thing to check is oldest files. these are usually the likely candidates for being outdated and probably better of deleting or replacing.


also can search for xvid and avis, so you can delete to replace them with the newer formats like mp4s, mkvs etc....


But before you do all that, the very first thing you want to do with Qsirch is to change setting and exclude what gets indexed. I also unticked usage of google, i don't think is a good idea to let that snoopy around my files..... no matter how useful it can be


i'll add this mini guide to my faq later if i remember


PS: according to the youtube @45:35, in 4.3.5 there should be some added function for mac finder integration

[Hansaplastique]

Just installed Qsirch 4.0.0 ...

First issue: after trying to install it, you get the message that installation failed because JRE has to be installed first.

Second issue: there is nowhere any info on how to enable Finder (MacOS) integration, even though the QNAP Qsirch page suggests it's a "new feature" for 4.0.0. Would love to know if this is possible, otherwise Qsirch will be removed again. It's the main reason why I wanted something like QSirch since Spotlight does not index network shares.

The Google Chrome addon seems to work though, just not sure why I'd want to use it. Yet.

[Hansaplastique]

The mentioning of Finder integration is actually at 47:35 - thanks for catching that!
Should work as of QTS 4.3.5 and my QNAP is already running QTS 4.3.6 ...

(attached screenshot of the announcement of the claimed "Finder integration")

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

The Google Chrome addon seems to work though, just not sure why I'd want to use it. Yet.

yeah... personally i use qsirch through the logged in qts qsirch app as my preference.




i don't have mac but you'll have to test that

[mgums]

Just installed Qsirch 4.0.0 ...

First issue: after trying to install it, you get the message that installation failed because JRE has to be installed first.

Second issue: there is nowhere any info on how to enable Finder (MacOS) integration, even though the QNAP Qsirch page suggests it's a "new feature" for 4.0.0. Would love to know if this is possible, otherwise Qsirch will be removed again. It's the main reason why I wanted something like QSirch since Spotlight does not index network shares.

The Google Chrome addon seems to work though, just not sure why I'd want to use it. Yet.

I would love to use it in combination with Mac Finder. I searched on QNAP pages but couldn't find any clue how to set it up. If you find out, please let us know!
4.0 still requires Java, one of the reasons I never started using Qsirch. Even after indexing it consumes a lot of memory.
Also searching for file extensions (I have loads of e-books *.epub) would be welcome as a feature.

Kind regards, Marco

[glennmac]

I have it working on a 453Be. The trick is this. You have to open a new Finder window, do a command F (or select Find from File Menu), then click "Shared." Then you can select your search criteria. That said, I have it working on this 453Be but CANNOT get it working on a TS-473.

[glennmac]

Ticket in to QNAP. They say this is a problem with Spotlight and are working on it. I have 2 TS-473 units in different locations and it is not working on either one.

[glennmac]

Of course after I write this I got one of them to work! One thing I did was exclude a large share and also exclude all the recycle folders.

[angelbonet]

I have a TS-251+ for test purpouses and I want use Qnap NAS to substitute actual file sharing system in our Mac networks but Spotlight and finder searches are fundamental for us.
At this moment the TS-251+ with 4.3.6 and Qsirch 4.0.0 is not working.
If you try any search in Finder window you can wait any amount of time what you want without results.
I've reisntalled Qsirch and reindexed the shared folders (two folders in our test) but whitout results.
When you search from a Mac client through a Finder window (spotlight from finder) doesn't work.
I've tryed, also, if the shared volume (from Mac client point of view) is "Spotlight indexed active"

[*]~ mdutil -s /Volume/volumeName
[*]Server search enabled

And the search over this volume is on.
I don't know what can be a solution for this. Maybe the NAS model is not the correct one... I don't know.
Maybe somebody can help me.
Thank's in advance.

[Bob Zelin]

I complained about this before in this forum. Iam responded, and I see that recently people like Glennmac and others have been complaining about Qsirch.
I called QNAP support, without enough "evidence" to see what was going wrong. Now I have the evidence (good thing I build a lot of systems).

I have Qsirch working on my small home systems (TS-531x and TS-251+). There is hardly any data on them. I mostly build large enterprise systems with 16 bays, and expansion chassis, with
hundreds of terabytes. A client in March complained (with new QTS in March) that they could not get Spotlight, or Qsirch within the QTS to work. That is when I posted, saw Iam's comments, and other
comments. But it was working on my system. So I uninstalled Qsirch (on a 16 bay TVS-EC1680U-SAS-RP-2R with Seagate Ironwolf 12 TB SATA drives loaded with data), and got the assorted error messages that many of you are seeing. But this did not exist on my home system. And I had built other small QNAP systems, and did not see this error.

Well - within the last few weeks, I have been building a lot of new QNAP systems - mainly TS-1683XU-RP and TS-1677XU-RP. At one client with a TVS-871T (that I just updated to the latest firmware) -
I installed Qsirch - and it WORKED. As I was transferring data to the large TS-1683XU-RP from a Mac server, as the system was loading, I had pre installed Qsirch, and everything was indexing, and I was not getting any errors. Now, what I observe, is that I have finally reached the "breaking point" as I keep adding media to the big QNAP. All these systems (big and small) have 16 gig of RAM.
On the TS-1683XU-RP (with 16 Gig of RAM, that reported no errors in Qsirch before) - I now see "You don't have enough system memory to index files". On other systems, because I was not monitoring carefully, I would get errors like Error -500, and other mystery errors.

SO - it appears (this is my opinion) - that when QNAP (or even myself) does tests with a QNAP, they put a few files on there, and check Qsirch, and say "yes, it works". But they are not loading 200 Terabytes of data on it.

SO my question now (and of course, I will contact QNAP support on Monday) - is HOW MUCH RAM do I need ? The TVS-EC1680U-SAS-RP-R2 can only hold 32 Gig RAM maximum - so is that enough for
200 - 400 TB of data for Qsirch to work ?

The new TS-1683XU-RP can hold 64 Gig of RAM maximum - is that enough to be able to index 300 - 400 TB of data on a QNAP ?

That's the difference between testing in a lab, and testing in the real world.

Bob Zelin

[glennmac]

I thought the searching issues were behind us. After a firmware update I got a client that has 3TB+ to search from Macs but now its broken again.

[glennmac]

I have not hit that system memory error yet. Hopefully I won't and I am running TS-473 units with only 8GB

[glennmac]

I think I may have found a way to work around the problem (temporarily). As Bob says, it runs out of memory. No amount or reindexing or turning off/on Qsirch takes care of it. You need to reboot the QNAP. My guess is this starts some service that is otherwise dead, caused by memory leak/buildup in the cases I have seen. I am going to try this out on a second box that is having the problem. I'm also going to start specifying more RAM.

[glennmac]

Just verified on a second unit (different environment) I was able to reboot and Qsirch w/Mac worked again. I had also reindexed although I don't think that was what fixed it because it didn't work before the reboot.

[Bob Zelin]

My clients unfortunately don't have 3TB + of data. They all have over 100 TB of data, and typically 200 - 300 TB of data with larger QNAP systems. Qsirch simply does not work with these systems.
Qsirch works with my two tiny QNAP TS-251+ and TS-531x systems, but these are just test machines with a few hundred gigs. If you need to search thru hundreds of TB of data, Qsirch does not work - reboot or not, firmware update or not (as of 8/13/2019). I have been using "EasyFind" which is a Mac store App, which seems to work.

Bob Zelin