ITunes Library on a NAS

Hi -

New to all of this...I have a Sonos sytem also (two Play 5s connected as a stereo pair.)

I have my iTunes music folder on an external hard drive connected to my iMac via FireWire.

Alas, that external drive is starting to fail.

I would like to put my iTunes library on an NAS. The Sonos folks say a hard drive with ethernet connected directly to my Airport Extreme would do the job.

My question is: if the drive is only connected to the Airport Exteme, are there likely to be problems accessing the drive for adding music, etc.

If so, what might my options be?

Many thanks!

here you goooo

Tutorial: How to Sync music to iPod/iPhone/iPad trough iTunes

Basically, a lot of users got iDevices. By standard you can’t create a playlist on your NAS trough iTunes. I found a way so you have the next abilities;

You can create iTunes playlist on your nas
You can drag your local music files into iTunes, and they will automatically added to your nas
You can sync the playlist with your iDevice
You can use this trick and several devices and just keep that one library

This by following the next steps (anyone can do it)

So first create a share on your NAS (you properly have one already called music). Then make it readable for guest. (I think it can with a password but then maybe iTunes will get out of sync when you have to reenter the nas every reboot).

Secondly create a folder on that share called ”Library” and put all your music in it.

Now open iTunes and go to File -> Settings -> Advanced and choose the location of your iTunes media folder. (example: \\192.168.0.101\music\Library)
Also check the option Copy files to NAS when added to library (or something) I got Dutch version, I will rewrite this tutorial later…

Now Close iTunes and DON’T reopen again until I say
After this go to your old original media folder

• Mac OS X:
• Windows XP:
• Windows Vista:
• Windows 7:
• Windows 8:

Now copy/cut al remaining files in that iTunes folder to the home folder of your NAS its Share
(example: \\192.168.0.101\music)

Now Hold down the SHIFT while your opening iTunes. (it will prompt you a window so you have to tell were the library files are).
Select the file in your home folder of the music share (example \\192.168.0.101\music)

Now enjoy the features I talked about. I am not Shure if I am the only one that couldn’t find any tutorials. But I liked to share it.

Thanks!

I spent some time with the Seagate tech support folks who were most helpful. Things are working out just fine, with one exception.

The only issue with my set-up is that I use the Apple Lossless format for my files, and that is not supported by either the Seagate or WD "apps" for use with iOS devices. That is, using their apps to access the NAS will not allow for playing ma4 files...

iTunes and the Sonos system work ok...

Thanks again...

I manage this all with an applescript. I have my Time Machine and iTunes library sitting on an unraid NAS. My iTunes library is shared via NFS and Time Machine is AFP.

I mount this on boot and then tell iTunes to wait until it's mounted. Easy Peasy. I like doing it this way versus the using the login items so that I don't get a bunch of windows pop up on login. I run this script via launchd.

My script.

mount volume "nfs://yourSharedfolder"

mount volume "afp://username:password@yourSharedfolder"

delay 5

launch application "iTunes"

tell application "System Events"

set visible of every process whose visible is true and name is "iTunes" to false

end tell

copy and pase this into the Apple Script editor, save it. Then make a plst for it and reference your new script. Reboot and launchd will run it.

I had my Itunes library on my NAS and it was all working wonderfully until... Mavericks. Does anyone else with this setup have a problem? Or a solution? My mini, where the itunes program is, freezes after about 12 hours after watching a movie. Only solution (other than time machine) seems to be a hard reboot - it wont even shut down. Any suggestions? Already checked for Glims and Logitech plug ins - there aren't any. I dont really WANT to return to the previous OS, but I will if I cant find a solution.

Hi NJ, did you ever arrive at a solution. I have the same setup so am v interested! 😀

Cheers

I just did what I think you want to do. I dragged all my music from my external drive to the MY Cloud NAS drive. I then held down option while starting itunes and selected "create new library" (or whatever it says specifically. I Chose my music folder on my computer and named the new library "MyCloud Music".

I went to Preferences-Advance and unchecked Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized and Copy Files to itunes Media Folder when adding to library. The first is my preference but the second is important because if you leave it checked, it will try to copy every file into your new music location.

I then went File-Add to Library and chose the music location on my NAS and it started importing the data. Now, this part was frustrating for me because I have a very large music library and although it was not actually copying music files, it apparently is very slow over the wireless connection to go through all the files. The first night I did this, I left the computer running overnight and it was still not finished when I had to leave for work and take my computer. That afternoon, I began the process over much earlier and this morning it was complete.

I have not been able to fully test everything but it appears it all worked. I now have a full library with all normal functions.

This last part is important because you can access your NAS drive very simply through the sidebar without doing anything. But what you end up with is a list view that cannot be altered. It's very limited and not functional at all beyond just playing something, anything.

After all of this, go to File-Home sharing and turn it on. You need to do the same with your other devices. After doing that you should have access to all your music on the NAS with full functionality on each device.

My next challenge is to figure out how to set up FTP so that I can access my library over the internet with better functionality.

If all the music is stored in a Library on a NAS, how is the music accessed through iTunes on my MacBook when I'm not connected to my home network? Is there a way to keep all the music on the MacBook and it automatically copy across to the NAS without having to drag and drop?

How do you do that? which path do you specify to locate the music files?

Hi All,

it seems my issue is related to a set-up you guys are talking about, so let me ask for your help here.

I have a Synology NAS with nearly 26000 music files on it. I have a MacBook Pro with iTunes and the iTunes Library file on it. The Macbook Pro is connecting via wireless network to the NAS.

The issue I'm facing is that my iTunes library is starting to be "messed up": the file links point to totally different files vs what's in the library, e.g. by clicking on Supertramp song in iTunes I start to hear a Talking Heads song. 🙂

While I normally do not listen to my Music via the Macbook Pro, I do load my music to my iPhone via that and the "messed up" library results "messed up" collection on my iPhone as well.

I prefer to solve this while keep my ratings that are in the current library file. I also tried to create a new library on my Macbook but it just takes ages even on a wired connection, let alone a wireless one.

Any clue how can I fix this?

I have moved my iTunes library and files from my iMac to my Synology RS814. Now I can:

Rip a CD to my my iTunes library on my NAS.

Play music from my iTunes library on my NAS to my iMac

Play music from my iTunes library on my NAS to my Sonos devices

It works so well, and was so simple to do, that I have to wonder if I am missing something after reading all the confusing posts about this. Please comment and let me know if that is so.

First, I configured my iMac so that the iTunes folder automatically mounts whenever I start or log in to my iMac. That way the iTunes folder on the NAS will always be always be available. Here is how I did that:

1. I manually mounted the folder I created for iTunes using Finder > Go > Connect to Server

2. System Preferences > Users and Groups > Login Items

3. Click + and select your NAS server in the sidebar, then double click the folder in which you have your media files and press add. If the folder is several folders deep, just keep clicking through until you get the one you want to be automatically mounted.

Next, I just copied everything from the iTunes library on my local hard drive to the music directory on my NAS. Once it finished, I renamed the iTunes folder iTunes_old just to avoid the possiblity that iTunes would try to find it.

Then, I held the option key while starting iTunes and chose the iTunes folder on my NAS.

I selected some music and checked "get info" (right click on a song to get the "Get Info" option) to be sure it was on my NAS. It was.

I wanted to be sure nothing would go wrong with my iPhone backups since they use iTunes for the back up procedure, and did some research, and found that the iPhone backup is not in the iTunes folder...it is kept in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup (hold option key and select GO in Finder to see the library folder). I performed a manual backup, and the date and time of the file in this folder updated showing it was still going to this location.

But strangely the apps themselves are backed up in the iTunes library, I wanted to be sure they would continue to be backed up, and found that they were not.

After running a manual backup, there were no files on my NAS at /Volumes/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications.

Even though the app icons were displayed in iTunes (click on Apps on the iTunes sidebar), when I tried a "get info" on the app, it could not find it. For some reason, the backup procedure thought all the apps were already backed up (and they had been). To force it to make a new backup to my NAS, I deleted all the app icons in iTunes, then manually backed up my iPhone, and all the apps are now on my NAS at /Volumes/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications.

Of course, I still have the backups that were in my original iTunes folder at ~/Music/iTunes/old/Mobile Applications.

One note about the Sonos--any time I add a new CD to iTunes, it is necessary in the Sonos Mac app to click Manage>Update Music Library. This loads the contents of the current library into the Sonos device's memory. It does this in the background and not disturb any songs that are currently playing.

My NAS is set up with a Raid 1, and also does hourly backups to a 4 TB USB drive using the Synology Time Backup app. Raid is not a substitute for backups. I would not move iTunes to a NAS from a Mac that was getting regluar backips using Time Machine unless the NAS itself has a way for it to be backed up.

FYI, running 10.9.2.....

Beste Thomas,

Ik heb thuis een iMac waar mijn totale muziekbibliotheek in staat. Ik heb recentelijk Sonos laten installeren in mijn huis. Ze hebben hier ook een Nas cloud bijgezet van Western Digital. Deze communiceert met Sonossysteem. Ze hebben eenmalig de NAS gevuld met al mijn nummers uit Itunes maar de bibliotheek is dermate gegroeid dat ik hem wil laten syncen met mijn itunes bibliotheek. Weet jij hoe ik dat moet doen?

Groeten Bart

Nee sorry ik durf niet te zeggen hoe dat werkt, onbekend terrein

Ik denk wel dat ik je kan helpen met Remote Support met Teamviewer dan kan ik er een beeld bij krijgen.

Groet

I use a differnt solution. I have a NAS drive, 2 PC's,2 tablets, 2iPhones and a Sonos setup.

iTunes is resident on one PC only and it's not always on.

To get over the trouble of running a PC just to use Sonos. I backup the music library to the NAS drive daily using Synctoy 2.1 and update Sonos library afterwards (all pre set to run automatically).

The Sonos works flawlessly from the NAS and I have a backup of my music files as a bonus