Why is the minidlna database not being refreshed?

Question

$ minidlnad -h
    …
    -r forces a rescan
    -R forces a rebuild

In summary, the most reliable way to have MiniDLNA rescan all media files is by issuing the following set of commands:

$ sudo minidlnad -R
$ sudo service minidlna restart

However, every so often MiniDLNA will be running on a server. Here is a client-side script to request a rescan on such a server:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
ssh -t server.on.lan 'sudo minidlnad -R && sudo service minidlna restart'