Trouble with iTunes shared servers on NAS drives

All of the music for our house is stored on a LaCie NAS device with an embedded iTunes server. Open iTunes, click the server in the SHARED section of the sources list, wait for the library to load, and play. This system worked very well with iTunes 9.2.1 (and earlier).

There's an issue, though, when trying to do this with iTunes 10.

Now, the server's name doesn't appear in the SHARED section of the sources list. Instead, it reads "untitled playlist." When we click this, it appears to load the library from the server, and does display the server's name with the progress in the top window. But when it's finished the list of songs is blank.

I've tried restarting the computer and rebuilding it's permissions. Relaunching iTunes and rebuilding its preferences. Restarting the iTunes server on the NAS device and rebuilding its library. I've even tried with the embedded iTunes server on a second (and much newer) LaCie NAS device. All to no avail.

iTunes 10 does, however, recognize and load iTunes shared libraries from other MacBooks in the house. But not the embedded iTunes servers in the NAS devices.

I suppose I could rollback to iTunes 9.2.1. But a solution that also involves iTunes 10 would be great. Anyone have any ideas?

(I will, of course, also mention this to the people at LaCie to see if they have any suggestions.)

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Sep 1, 2010 10:03 PM

193 replies

buglis

Level 1

0 points

Nov 12, 2010 5:30 PM in response to checkIt

I have a 3GS but I'll sell it if this problem persist for another one month, incredible that on win iTunes 10 works well!!

Nov 13, 2010 10:35 AM in response to Michael Dymund

Why Can't Apple get these networking issues sorted? The OSX 10.6.3 update introduced a glitch that prevented me even copying large files to my NAS which I had to put up with for months. It was easier to install windows as a virtual machine, copy the files to Windows and then from Windows to my NAS. It's sad when you have to rely on Microsoft OS to perform basic tasks like moving files because Apple release an 'update' that breaks core functionality!

And now iTunes 10, 10.0.1 and 10.1 all have networking problems under OSX. I find it extremely annoying that Apple don't fully test their software before releasing it onto the world.... or perhaps they simply don't care!

lightxx

Level 1

14 points

Nov 14, 2010 3:35 AM in response to PURPLEjason

because they simply don't care.
there are hundreds if not thousands of threads on the internet describing exactly this issue and Apple simply refuses to acknowledge the existence of this problem. it doesn't happen on NAS systems only, also on full blown file servers.

i emailed Apple, I opened support tickets online, i phoned them, its just useless. talk to any Apple representative, they'll tell you they've never heard of this problem, and it sure gotta has something to do with your Mac or your network because the SMB stack of OS X is working just fine and iTunes fully supports SMB shares and bla bla bla.

timeslip

Level 1

9 points

Nov 16, 2010 8:47 AM in response to lightxx

I store my mp3s on a Windows 2008 server over CIFS. Confirmed that this does not work on a "file server" either.

Would be interesting to see if you stored this on a NFS share or AFP if it still has problems.

What is preventing me from buying the new Apple TV? The fact that I can't even use it, cause I am stuck on iTunes 9.x.

Juise123

Level 1

0 points

Nov 21, 2010 5:24 AM in response to timeslip

I was having same problem. I tried NFS share from my windows 2008 server r2 and seems that with NFS share, iTunes works normally and fast.

timeslip

Level 1

9 points

Nov 23, 2010 6:48 PM in response to Juise123

Ok, sweet.. It works with NFS.. I guess I can live with that.. Don't care much for samba / cifs..

valerija

Level 1

9 points

Nov 27, 2010 9:24 PM in response to timeslip

I am (probably now was) looking to get into the whole apple experience as i liked the whole "just works" line that apple users always go on about. However after reading this topic.......

What i've been trying to find out (but can't) is this :

I want to get an airport extreme and attach a hard drive to it. I want to put itunes on it and stream using airplay and airport express units and apple tv. I also want to be able to do this without the computer switched on using the iphone as remote. Does anyone know if this is in theory possible. (clearly reading this topic it not possible at the moment!)
I'd really appreciate any help here as at the moment apple won't be getting my custom (would be buying into the whole thing in one go - thousands of pound worth of kit) but it would appear apple don't give a s *

checkIt

Level 1

1 points

Nov 28, 2010 1:05 AM in response to valerija

Dude, you're so off topic. We are talking about a problem using iTunes 10.x if the library is stored on a so called Network Attached Storage (NAS).

* Apple-TV (without Jailbreak) is not able to stream from LAN without iTunes anyway (rtfm)
* Airport extreme isn't capable to run apps itself (rtfm as well)

dknightd

Level 3

705 points

Nov 28, 2010 7:06 AM in response to timeslip

timeslip wrote:

Would be interesting to see if you stored this on a NFS share or AFP if it still has problems.

I use a spare old mac as an AFP file server for my backups. Just tested my music backup. It worked fine.

Might just be an SMB thing. Strange that it works OK in the finder, but not iTunes. Likely apple does not test itunes with smb file server.

LuisSala

Level 1

0 points

Nov 30, 2010 10:56 AM in response to Michael Dymund

My iTunes music library is on a Drobo NAS mounted via SMB/CIFS and I'm experiencing the same performance issues with iTunes hanging for 15-30 minutes while it does whatever it's trying to do.

I had previously downgraded back to the last iTunes 9.2 version and got acceptable performance but have now been forced to upgrade to 10.1 as I want to be able to install iOS 4.2 on my iPad.

I enabled NFS on my Drobo just a few hours ago, mounted the volume via NFS on my Mac and switched iTunes to use the NFS mount but, unfortunately, the problem remains.

I may try AFP a little later, but am rather disappointed by this issue.

Dec 1, 2010 10:12 PM in response to Michael Dymund

Not sure, but it seems most of the people are trying to use an iTunes server on their NAS for streaming to iTunes. I don't use the iTunes server on my Buffalo Linkstation Pro and itunes 10.1 works pretty much flawlessly on all 3 of my computers.

I think the iTunes server is for streaming to devices other than a PC running iTunes.

checkIt

Level 1

1 points

Feb 12, 2011 10:02 AM in response to checkIt

version 10.1.2 solved the problem at least. It took just 6 Months to solve this. Apparently this is the same range of Microsofts usual behaviour.

Col Kav

Level 1

35 points

Feb 21, 2011 4:37 AM in response to Michael Dymund

Hi,

chiming in late here with a few questions (i dont own a NAS, looking for answers)

Can you create Playlists on a NAS hosted iTunes Library (through iTunes?)?

Can you copy NAS hosted Playlists /tracks over to the computer they're being accessed from (to a laptop, for example)?

Many thanks,

nw9

May 15, 2011 1:18 AM in response to Michael Dymund

I've recently brought a macbook air and have been for 2 days now trying to get iTunes to import my music of my NAS drive. How the **** does Apple expect me to store 120GB of music on my air? It cannot. There seems no way at all I can imort my music, so thanks for waisting a sh*t load of money and my time Apple. 😠

As a developer myself, you guys should be ashamed for not support NAS. And why kill the perfectly usable iTunes server that was working on my dlink DNS 320 as well? Grrr. I cannot fall back to 9 as my iphone is on the latest iOS. The NAS already running on AFP and makes no difference.

Get you act together and spend some of the billions you're making on the team and let them build a decent program you can be proud of - iTunes is terrible - by far the weakest link in the Apple lineup.

Gumnaam

Level 1

5 points

May 25, 2011 8:47 PM in response to dontbelelievethehype

Same issue with NAS. Tried all itunes from 9.2 Onwards. No dice. Macs usually work fine. This is like a MS issue. However MS usually has a solution. I have never been stumped on MS.

This is pathetic NAS on itunes....

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Trouble with iTunes shared servers on NAS drives