beetbox/beets

subsonicupdate fails cryptically when server is not available

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#5,635 opened on Feb 15, 2025

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good first issuesubsonicupdate

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Description

Problem

Running this command:

$ beet -vv mbsync

Led to this problem:

subsonicupdate: URL is https://[redacted].com/rest/startScan
subsonicupdate: auth type is password
subsonicupdate: Error: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

This happened because my Subsonic server was down, so the issue is just that beets should print a better error message when this happens.

Setup

  • OS:
  • Python version: 3.13.1
  • beets version: 2.2.0
  • Turning off plugins made problem go away (yes/no): n/a

My configuration (output of beet config) is:

(paste here)

I'll retry in a few days with a minimal config, I'm assuming mbsync needs a change to happen to actually run subsonicupdate.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Inspect the subsonicupdate plugin source code and locate where the scan request is made. Handle HTTP errors (e.g., timeout, connection refused) and provide a user friendly error message instead of the JSON parsing error.
Tech stack
python
Domain
backendapicli
Issue type
Bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
GitPython
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
80