Simple File Network troubleshooting

Last Updated: July 31, 2020

When the BrightSign player connects to your web server, it checks for a current-sync.xml file and downloads it. It then downloads all files listed in current-sync.xml file that are not already on local storage, including a schedule, playlists, and media files. It then plays presentations according to the downloaded schedule. If your display is blank or the unit hasn’t switched to the latest scheduled presentation, check the following:

NoteBefore troubleshooting the setup or network, publish a test presentation directly to the player via an SD card and verify that it plays properly on the unit and your display.

1. SD Storage: The SD card must remain in the player for storage, unless you are using an alternate storage device, such as a uSD card, USB thumb drive, or MSATA drive.

2. Publishing with Simple File Networking: When publishing your first presentation or any updated presentations, you must select Simple File Networking after clicking on the Publish tab. Verify that Simple File Networking is selected and that your web folder URL matches the URL you used when setting up the player.

3. Web server settings (Mime Types): Add the following MIME Types and test them using the examples in Step 4:

  •  “.brs” – Add this extension to your server as a MIME type. It should be set to plain/text
  • “.” –  Add a MIME type for files with no extensions as application/octet-stream
  • “.bsfw” –  Add a MIME type for BrightSign firmware files as application/octet-stream
  • ".json" –  If it doesn't already exist, add a MIME type for JSON files as application/json
  • ".xml" –  If it doesn't already exist, add a MIME type for XML files as text/xml

4. Web server accessibility: Test the web folder URL from your web browser. If your computer is also the web server, test the link from another computer. Assuming your server is http://www.mysite.com/downloads/, test the following:

  • http://www.mysite.com/downloads/current-sync.xml
  • http://www.mysite.com/downloads/autorun.brs
  • http://www.mysite.com/downloads//pool/sha1-6963EC2B20954C48716E9CEF96FC11F53DA3BBAA

The pool folder URL and the autorun.brs will confirm your mime types are setup correctly. You can get the pool folder URL from the current-sync.xml file.

5. BrightAuthor Setup and Settings: In BrightAuthor, go to Tools > Setup Unit, and confirm that Simple File Networking was enabled for the setup files you created. Also, make sure that the URL for the web folder is correct and that it includes the correct port number for the web server, if applicable. If you haven't already done so, publish the setup files to an SD card and insert the SD card into the player.

Including a trailing slash in your URL may cause downloads to fail because BrightAuthor automatically ads a slash to URLs. Some web servers don’t process URLs with a double slash. For example, if you originally entered http://www.myfiles.com/downloads/ as the URL for web folder, try http://www.myfiles.com/downloads instead.

6. FTP upload / client settings: Verify that your FTP software is set to transfer using binary mode, and not auto or ASCII mode. Files may fail to download from your server if they are transferred using ASCII mode.

7. Download Errors / Blank Screen: If the player encounters errors when downloading files, the errors prevent it from restarting and playing the new content, but the errors will not be displayed on the screen. You may encounter errors if you moved or renamed files in the web folder after you published the presentation, or if the files you uploaded were changed by the transfer process (see Step 6 for more details). To view an error log, you can connect the player to your computer using a serial cable or, if you checked Enable diagnostic logging during player setup, retrieve the log file from the SD card.

8. Scheduling, Connectivity and Time: If your project is scheduled to play all day every day, your project will play even if the player has no valid time set or if the time or time zone is incorrect. But, if you are using day parting (i.e. playing different presentations depending on the time or day), then nothing will play if the time isn’t valid.

  • Verify that the player has the correct time and that it can connect to the network. You can do this by creating a simple project that displays the time (via a Clock zone) and an RSS feed. If the player can connect to both the network and the Internet, you will see the RSS feed, and if you can reach the time server, you will see the time.
  • If UDP port 123 is blocked on the network, the player won't be able to set the time over the Internet.
  • View this FAQ for further details on troubleshooting player clock issues.

9. DNS / Server Name Resolution:  If the player fails to resolve the name of the web server, then it will fail to download the current-sync.xml file. If your server URL is something like http://myserver/brightsign/downloads, then you may need to add the domain to the server name for updates to function properly: http://myserver.universityshop.net/brightsign/downloads

 
 

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30 Comments

  • 0
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    Orlando Guzman

    Is all of this still current?  I'm trying to setup and conifgure an XD1230 to use simple file networking using a subfolder on our website for the content files. (specifically mime types) as well as the note about a trailing slash.  The example in the Bright Author interface actually uses a trailing slash so I'm confused about this note.

  • 0
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    BrightSign Support

    Yes, all items in this article are valid. Some web servers don’t process urls with the double slash, and some don't care.

  • 0
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    Trevor Giesbrecht

    Question about point 4.  What are we supposed to see exactly?  

  • 0
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    BrightSign Support

    Your web browser should be able to open/download the files from your web server using http or https urls.

  • 0
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    Subajee

    http://www.miraclelanka.com/brightsign/

    Pls tel me why this .. because i already uploaded content to current path 

     

  • 0
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    Eromager

    Does this look correct?

  • 0
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    Peter Omotosho

    i have a BrightSign 4K media player. I am trying to make it receive content from a web server deployed on my LAN in my office but it is not working. it just blank. Please i need help. Can someone help me as this is urgent?

     

  • 0
    Avatar
    Brandon

    Subajee: Hopefully you have already solved your problem, if not, your web server isn't serving the necessary files.  http://www.miraclelanka.com/brightsign/current-sync.xml returns a 404 not found page rather than the current-sync.xml file.

    Peter: If the player's diagnostic web server is enabled, use the tests in the Diagnostics tab to ensure the player can successfully resolve the web server's hostname (try a ping test) and the current-sync.xml file on the server as described in #4 above (try a Download Speed Test).

    If that doesn't solve it, please submit a support ticket.

    While we do check the discussion forum, it's not prioritized or tracked in the same manner as tickets.  Individual troubleshooting in the discussion comments is public and can get confusing when there are multiple posters.  The exception, of course, if you are looking for feedback from other users.

  • 0
    Avatar
    SEU Career

    My Bright Author XD2 for 232 won't download. It just spins.

  • 0
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    Lyndon

     

    I'm not sure what you mean by spins. Most simple networking issues are due to mime types. If you send a message to the support department at support@brightsign.biz, we'll need the current-sync.xml file from your sd card and from your webserver, as well as the log file from the root, if it's there, and the currentlog folder. 

  • 0
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    Christopher Lubbers

    I am having an issue with BrightAuthor and the "current-sync.xml". Every time I publish for a Simple File Network my published directory has a "new-sync.xml" instead of the "current-sync.xml" described here.

  • 0
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    Lyndon

    I've seen that in the past...usually, if your url doesn't have an http in front of it. That is the url for the simple networking to use must start http://

  • 0
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    Christopher Lubbers

    It was a simple typo issue. “http://” vs “http//:” oops. Thanks for the quick response.

  • 0
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    Nelson Parreira

    Hi 

    We have a shared hosting and we tryed to update the player using it. We made all the tests but nothing happen to the player.

    do we need to change some parameters of the folder in the webserver?

    Thanks in advance

    Nelson

     

  • 0
    Avatar
    Lyndon

     

    No, you shouldn't need to change any folder parameters. Can you send a copy of your current-sync.xml from the unit, and the same from the web folder?

     

    are you able to download pool files from your web server if you type the url into a browser?

     

    You can check the sd card for a log file, or a file in the currentlog folder to see if there are any errors with the download.

  • 0
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    Nelson Parreira

    Hi

    So this is what i did:

    1)

    setup the folder in the webserver(shared hosting) and when we type: 

    <domain>/digitalsign/

    we got:

    Forbidden

    You don't have permission to access /digitalsign/ on this server.

    2) if we type:

    <domain>/digitalsign/autorun.brs

    we can see the code inside the file.

    the same for : autorun.brs

    3)

    the screen keeps been black

    4)

    We changed the .htaccess file with :

    RewriteEngine on
    # allow public access to the following resources
    SetEnvIf Request_URI "^(/www/digitalsign/)$" allow
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from env=allow
    Satisfy any

     

    5)

    Now is working !!  Is this normal?

     

     

  • 0
    Avatar
    Lyndon

     

    Usually no access files modes are needed. But if you didn't setup simple networking with a username and password, then yes, you'd have to enable guess access to the directory for the player to connect.

  • 0
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    Nelson Parreira

    And to do it with user/pass we do it with the normal .htaccess way?

  • 0
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    Nelson Parreira

    Hi i setup a new folder with password access and check the box Enable basic authentication, but it's not downloading the files.

    Player still black after 10 minutes...

    Any ideia???

     

  • 0
    Avatar
    Lyndon

    If you enabled debugging when you setup the player, there should be a log in the currentlog folder on the sd card telling you what's not working.

     

    Is there a current-sync.xml file in the web folder you are using from your publish? 

    If there is, can you grab one of the urls from the sync file that points to a file in the pool folder, and can you download that file by putting the url into your browser?

  • 0
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    Gustavo Bravo

    I have a problem with the SL423 when I try to send my presentation via BrightAuthor he sends me the following message; 


    I've already set up several computers HD1023 and they all worked correctly but the LS423 mark this error as I can solve it and try everything, everything works correctly, the internet, the local network, I can even send connection ping, but I can not send my information... 

     Can someone please help me?

  • 0
    Avatar
    Xairos Bustos

    By Simple-File-Network method

    I can to update my XD232 from http://mydomain.com/ProyectBS, but i can not to update my XD232 from http://mydomain.com/ProyectBS/Ame/Sc_1... Why? Can someone assit me?

  • 0
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    Arik Trejos

    Is there a commercial FTP that would allow SFNetwork to work like Google Drive and DropBox used to?

  • 0
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    Yatin Baluja

    Our idea is to just do a simple looped playlist but also cache one separate piece media and trigger that file to play from our server (not on the LAN).  I can see how this might be accomplished by using the Media Properties > Advanced > Other commands > Show/Hide zone, but is there a tried and true way of doing this? also what is the method to send these commands?... custom plugin? UDP?

    We are just getting familiar with BrightAuthor but I would have to believe that the engineers at BS would have built a method for this already.

  • 0
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    Joshua Elson

    My LS423 setup is trying to pull current-sync.json *not* current-sync.xml.  BrightAuthor doesn't appear to generate a current-sync.json only the xml file?

  • 0
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    Delme Jones

    Hi

    I have had trouble getting my HD224 up and running.

    Came across your post whilst looking through the .pcap log generated from the player and it states: HTTP 411 GET /brightsign/current-sync.json HTTP/1.1 

    Did you figure out why it asks for this file?

    Thanks

  • 0
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    Joshua Elson

    It appears to depend on whether the player was setup with an SD card from BrightAuthor or just setup through its web page.

    If setup with a blank SD card and the web page setup on the LS423, choosing the Simple File Networking (SFN) setup sets the player up with BrightAuthor:Connected (beta) and requests JSON files.

    If setup with a setup SD card from BrightAuthor, choosing SFN setup sets the player up with BrightAuthor and requests XML files.

     

  • 0
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    Delme Jones

    Hi Joshua

    I did setup the player using just the web page.  I only noticed the other day that on the screen it mentioned using BrightSign:Connected to publish content.

    So I published and the only thing I can see that may be preventing it from playing the content is the following entry taken from the network packet capture feature from the player (displayed in Wireshark):

  • 0
    Avatar
    tracyberge

    Today's kids will never know the fun of this game Donkey Kong and the fun times overall. My the world has change

    Edited by tracyberge
  • 0
    Avatar
    Neha

    niccccr

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