Does anyone run their iTunes library from a NAS?

What is speed like? mine seems ok, but get a few beach balls, any way to speed it up? (I'm on an oldish iMac Alu 2007, 2Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4Gb RAM)

i recently moved my library to a NAS, used to have it on a directly attached firewire 800 drive. i don't see any difference in speed at all, however, i have all my gear hardwired to my time capsule (i.e. gigabit speed as opposed to wireless, which will give you a max of 300 mbps).

your Mac should be up to the task - i'm using a 2009 Mac Mini base config (2.26 GHz/2 GB) as my media server.

what is a good option for backup? no way to get TM to?

TM won't back up from network drives. you might be able to use ChronoSync but i never tried myself.

my NAS came with excellent backup options built-in so i use a USB drive connected to the NAS's USB port to back up the RAID.

Is this the best way to run an iTunes library as I'm sure others have even bigger libraries than me, (mine currently 90Gb), or what other solutions?

it's as good as any. i would prefer a directly attached drive but i was desperate for space and found the NAS to be a good value for money. my NAS is expandable to 12 TB raw space (~ 9 TB in a RAID 5 configuration). since i'm constantly adding content (especially HD movies and tv shows), i needed a solution that will provide sufficient space for a few years to come.

I also use my Apple TV 1 with iTunes. Wil I see any performance hit over it now being on the NAS? my iMac is wired to the router, to NAS, whereas my Apple TV 1 is wireless N, all my house is wireless N, and thats what I've set my router to Wireless N only.

you will have to try. you can always use powerline adapters to connect the TV to your router if wifi doesn't work for you.

Any other hints

i recommend RAID 5 for the NAS. drives will fail, RAID controllers may fail. back up the RAID or have a good backup scheme for your precious media files in place.

Trying to add a new album, drag it into iTunes and just get the beach ball.

i have configured the "power settings" on my NAS to spin down the HD's after 20 minutes of inactivity. if the drives are hibernating, and i try to access a file, it takes a while for the drives to spin up again. that may be a reason for the beach ball.

another possible cause could be that you did not copy your iTunes folder into a public folder on the NAS. the NAS may be asking for the admin password to connect to it but not getting it.

i suggest you consult the user guide for your NAS.

I dont understand the difference on my NAS whereby it said, "iTunes compatible for sharing in iTunes" and the fact that it is now holding my whole iTunes library.

Beofre it was hosted on my NAS, whenever I had the NAS on, it showed up in the shared tab in iTunes, what was this for?

i have not enable the "iTunes server" part on my NAS. i'm using the NAS as an ordinary external HD.

the way i understand it is that, if enabled, the NAS appears in iTunes on all computers connected to your network under the shared header so that all computers could access media files stored on the NAS simultaneously. however, that would mean you'd have to re-do all your playlists and playcounts, ratings, etc. are lost.

The only user I have is the admin user on the NAS, in Finder I just connect a server, I havent set up any users, sould I? whats the benefit?

i'm connecting to my NAS as the admin as well. no need to set up additional users. if you're using the NAS as a file server in an office environment, you would set up users besides the admin but for use as the home for iTunes it's not necessary.

I tried adding again and I just got spinny beach ball 😟

not sure what to suggest. did you check Console for clues ?

Network Sharing Services

AFP and FTP

To use AFP or FTP, they must be enabled here. By default, they are disabled.

[] Ethernet Frame Size Properties

Ethernet Frame Size

Data transfer efficiency can sometimes be improved by changing the maximum value of data size that can be transmitted at once.
- 1,518 bytes (default) : This is the normal, recommended setting.
- 4,102 bytes (Jumbo Frame) Transfer with 4,102bytes
- 7,422 bytes (Jumbo Frame) Transfer with 7,422bytes
- 9,694 bytes (Jumbo Frame) Transfer with 9,604bytes Larger Jumbo Frame settings are not supported by all networks. If you run into problems with Jumbo Frame settings, revert to the standard 1,518 byte setting.

AFP and FTP are file sharing protocols. you can leave them disabled for your intended use of the NAS.

as for Jumbo frames (i have not experimented with it), here's what my NAS's manual said:

Jumbo Frames: Jumbo Frames are Ethernet frames with more than the standard 1500 bytes of Maximum

Transmission Unit (MTU), allowing Ethernet transmission of large files to be more efficient. It can only be

enabled under Gigabit network environment. To ensure Jumbo Frame works properly, all the computers and

devices across the network accessing your DiskStation must support it and use the same MTU value.

you don't need this.

the loc-man wrote:

Possible unresolved transaction race

okay, i might have found the solution for you. according to this discussion, you should ensure your NAS is mounted as AFP.

so, try enabling AFP on your NAS then try again adding content. suggest you quit iTunes, enable AFP on the AAS, and unmount the NAS. mount the NAS again, then launch iTunes.

please post back with results !

btw, user Tesserax has come up with this script to auto-mount the NAS on startup:

try

mount volume "afp://<NAS Name>.local/<Share Volume Name>"as user name "<Share Username>" with password "<Share password>"

end try

copy above and paste into Apple Script Editor (in applications > utilities). omit the <> and "" when entering your details, then save the script as an application. add the application to your login items via system preferences > accounts > login items.

the loc-man wrote:

So I take you didn't need to enable afp on yours for it to work fine?

yes, mine came with everything enabled (for Mac/Windows/Linux) out of the box.

one more thing - and i'm not sure it's significant - but i was looking @ the Buffalo web page and noticed there is a firmware update (Mac Updater Version 1.12) available. you might want to check which firmware version is running on your device and update as necessary.

It says to mount as afp, how do I do this?

try this:

from the finder's Go menu, select connect to server (or type ⌘-K). type afp://name of NAS.local and hit connect. next, you would be asked to provide the admin password you have set up for the NAS (make sure to checkmark remember in keychain). the share should mount on your desktop.

It says to rebuild the iTunes library potentially afterwards, how do I do this?

i wouldn't worry about this for now. if it's necessary, we'll cross that bridge when we get there 😉

Added an album but seem the same speed as before, ie very very very slow.

couple of things to check:

• if your Mac is connecting to the network wirelessly, run an ethernet cable from it to the router. turn off airport and add an album. what happens ?
• make sure the ethernet cable going from the NAS to the router is okay or use a different one for testing. it needs to be a CAT5 or CAT6 cable.
• do you have the software firewall enabled on your Mac ?

Also when I open iTunes it always asks the 1st time of opening iTunes after my NAS has been asleep to open/create library. I chose it from the NAS, next time I open its fine.

make sure the NAS is awake and the share mounted before you launch iTunes.