Olive customer service

Mofi, I have no particular familiarity with Olive products, but after looking at the documentation two thoughts occur to me regarding backups:

1)Do you have the latest software installed? Their software release notes indicate that several backup-related changes and fixes have been introduced in the various software updates. Also, early versions of the software required that the backup drive be pre-formatted to FAT32.

2)By any chance is your backup drive larger than 2 terabytes? Drives larger than 2.19 TB use a partition table structure, "GPT", that is different than what is used in the traditional "MBR". Some operating systems, especially those that aren't recent, can't deal with GPT partition tables.

Harley, the manual can be downloaded from the Olive site as a pdf, and printed out. That is a common practice these days, especially with computer-based products. The manual includes warranty information.

Regards,
-- Al

Al...thanks as usual for your response. Yes, I have the latest software (4.3.2) and the latest firmware (3.0).

I bought my 04HD about a year and a half ago and bought at the same time a brand new LaCie (Porsche Design) 2TB external drive to back it up. I formatted it in FAT32 and it worked perfect until the software was updated to version 4.2.0 (spring of 2012). The software has had two additional updates since then (4.3.0 and 4.3.2). I've had no luck since then with being able to backup my 04HD.

Olive support told me that after the 4.3 update they found an incompatibility with "some" brands of external hard drives. They sent me a list of (3) different drives that they claim had been tested and approved to work. I bought (2) of these 2TB drives. Needless to say, neither one of them work, along with my original LaCie drive. All of the drives are 2TB.

I tried formatting them in FAT32 using the DOS command protocol and with several different utility programs. I tried a full format (took over 26 hours) and the quick format, but still nothing works.

I really think my problem is in the operating system software, which can be reinstalled, but will wipe out all of my data on the 04HD's internal drive. So, I HAVE to be able to backup all of music before I can do this. I have almost 1TB worth and hundreds of hours of ripping CDs to the unit. I REALLY do not want to have to do that again.

Olive support has been told all of this, but has yet to offer any solution.

Plus my unit will freeze up when ripping CDs and must be turned off (in the back with the main power switch) to make it work again. It will also drop the connection with the Olive remote control APP on my tablet or iPod and you have to do the same power cycle routine. I've tried several different android tablets and iPod devices and all do the same thing.

I've done as much troubleshooting that I can on my end. Now Olive needs to step up and offer a solution.

Wow, that does indeed sound like their products and their support leave something to be desired, Mofi.

If they continue to be unresponsive, the one additional thought that occurs to me, assuming that you are past the one year warranty period, and assuming that it is physically practicable, would be to remove the internal hard drive from the unit, put it in an external enclosure that provides a USB or other suitable interface, and copy the music files from it via a computer. You can find lots of such enclosures at Newegg.com.

In addition, if you think it might be helpful now or in the future consider using an imaging program to create an image of the entire hard drive, including the operating system.

Let me know if you'd like further specifics on those possibilities.

Best regards,
-- Al

Al...thanks again sir! I have found much help on the AVS forum (they have an 84 page topic on the Olive units), but still don't have a solution that I feel comfortable doing.

Unfortunately, Olive uses the Linux operating system and I am inept on that particular protocol. I also feel that Olive should take care of this and should not ask their customers to be computer whizzes or spend a multitude of hours trying to get the product to work right.

I do greatly appreciate your offer to help and just might take you up on it, if I can't get Olive to respond here shortly.

I ordered an 03HD about two months ago and had to wait an
eternity to get the piece. Several emails to Olive regarding the status of my order were ignored; I felt like they took my money and then refused to communicate. After many emails to them, finally got a response that said everything was "under control"....which STILL did not mention why I had not received my 03HD, and WHEN they might ship. Very frustrating.
That said, I did receive exactly what I ordered, it works well, only issue I have is the lousy database used....even when connected to the internet via ethernet, sometimes it cannot find info on the most common, basic of CDs...can you believe it says "no information available" for Led Zeppelin I, II, III, Houses of the Holy....what the hell???
It will then find all the album info, track titles, for an obscure album, such as Jean Pierre Goude, 'Drones". Go figure. Classical CDs do NOT have clean info transfer at all. Ripping any CD does take 5+ minutes.
Mine came with a copied, 2 page manual, and remote.
All this aside, I DO ENJOY the Olive 03HD, excellent spacial imaging of all instruments in their own, individual space. 03HD is RCA-only cables, and was finicky on which cable used; it liked Wireworld Eclipse over Audience Au24.

Summary : recommended but not for those that are impatient.
Ripping takes time. Accessing a given album takes a bit of time. You really need to just get used to the way it works,
or you will be very unhappy.
Sound quality I think is very good for the $450 I paid for it. Can you do better sonically? Sure...but for $450??
Setup is critical to get good results, so experiment with RCA cables and power cord, as well as what the 03HD is
sitting on.
Questions? Let me know.