What is the point of an iTunes server?

Roger, I was planning to create a shared iTunes library (or iTunes server) on my Synology DS412+, to support our household with 3 teenage music lovers. Could you share the issues that you referred to?

Jimmy,

I think I have had every problem you can experience with this setup over the last several months. But until Apple decides to let us have a compatible NAS solution, this works fairly well.

The problems I have mostly stem from the differences between Mac OS and ext4 which is the native file system on Synology Disk Stations (and most other NAS products) and the way iTunes handle Files.

I tried several ways of migrating my iTunes library to my DS212j(some of the ways available on the net do not work properly).

The main problem is that if I restart my Mac, iTunes will sometimes will place the library files back on the Internal drive of my Mini. If I quit iTunes before restarting or shutting down this doesn't happen. But if it crashes, about half of the time it will revert. Even though my NAS library loads at startup, it must be too late to direct iTunes to my NAS library. This necessitates going into iTunes preferences and pointing iTunes back the the proper library. ITunes then has to process the entire library. It doesn't have to copy the files again but it takes a few minutes depending on the size of the Library. Recently after a crash, iTunes would not let me choose my NAS library at all. I finally just copied the itl and other library docs back to the NAS. I think they got somehow corrupted.

If you are not stuck on iTunes, Synology audio app does work but you have to make new playlists. With their app, you don't need iTunes running to play music and i'm pretty sure it would handle several users at once.

(The issues Below pertain to movies. If you are just doing music I don't think you will experience them).

I also have to be careful about how I add files to the library. I always use the "add to library" command and always after the files have been tagged.

There is one ether odd thing that happens. If I add "bonus features" files, iTunes adds them as "home videos". If I change this to "Movie", the files show up on the NAS in both folders. But if I delete one they both disappear and I have to retrieve the file from the Recycle Bin.

Hope this helps. if you have any more questions, we should probably start a new discussion. We are getting a little off topic.

Roger30 wrote:

The main problem is that if I restart my Mac, iTunes will sometimes will place the library files back on the Internal drive of my Mini. If I quit iTunes before restarting or shutting down this doesn't happen. But if it crashes, about half of the time it will revert. Even though my NAS library loads at startup, it must be too late to direct iTunes to my NAS library. This necessitates going into iTunes preferences and pointing iTunes back the the proper library. ITunes then has to process the entire library. It doesn't have to copy the files again but it takes a few minutes depending on the size of the Library. Recently after a crash, iTunes would not let me choose my NAS library at all. I finally just copied the itl and other library docs back to the NAS. I think they got somehow corrupted.

Sounds very similar to my issues several years ago before I stumbled into the right way to do it

I use the iTunes server on my NAS so my partner and I can share a central music collection at home.

We both run iTunes on our laptops, and connect to the iTunes shared library. We don't need to use iTunes to import music, or worry about iTunes media mapping to the correct directories, etc. And we don't have to worry about inconsistant libraries which can happen if you both have seperate libraries stored locally with iTunes Media location mapped to the NAS.

Adding new music (including FLAC!) is simply a case of dragging and dropping to the Music folder on the NAS. The NAS will automatically re-index the Music directly and thus enable access to the new music via the server.

The only downside I can think of is (currently) lack of album art and haven't tried transferring music to partner's iPhone yet, not sure how/if that will work.

jhclare wrote:

I use the iTunes server on my NAS so my partner and I can share a central music collection at home.

We both run iTunes on our laptops, and connect to the iTunes shared library. We don't need to use iTunes to import music, or worry about iTunes media mapping to the correct directories, etc. And we don't have to worry about inconsistant libraries which can happen if you both have seperate libraries stored locally with iTunes Media location

Hi all,

I've got a Synology ds213j with iTunes Sever enabled and I use it just as jhclare has wrote (probably that is the point of an iTunes server).

Problem is sometime iTunes shows it in the shared libraries but most of the time doesn't.

I've spotted no rule in this behavior.

I'm running iTunes 11.2.2 (3) on Mavericks. Does someone knows how to "force" iTunes to get it back in the list?

Thank you

Hello,

Nice discussion. Lots of good ideas thrown around. Mostly about specifying the needs. For my needs, the best suggestion is to run iTunes all the time on a networked machine. This provides the best apple integration as opposed to running a non-native nas solution along the lines of DAAP.

I have not read the entire 5 pages of comments so I am not sure this has been mentioned. I am going to run a iTunes on a WIN7 VM with sharing turned on. I would run an apple VM but it requires having the apple hardware among other complications. I am hoping running it on windows gets me the home sharing feature. From there it is trivial to connect to the NAS storage.

I use esxi to run numerous servers for hobby and home networking. Running iTunes on the WIN7 VM keeps my machine count down and gets me all the benefits of running a mac mini without having to buy one. I will report back on how this works out.

Thinking of picking up a Synology and running the exact setup you've got: iTunes library on the NAS, accessing with ATV3 via home sharing. Wonder if you could comment on any performance related issues you may have come across. We're an all-Apple household and I'll probably end up with my wife's library on the NAS as well. We don't mingle libraries because she has some terrible iTunes habits that make me crazy. No album art as far as the eye can see! Anyway, just curious to see if you're happy with it.

Best,

Ron

To answer your question properly, you have to understand that the AppleTV is not a player, It's a streamer and requires a player to work (iTunes). The iTunes server is not a player, just a collected library that can be accessed across a network. The iPods, iPads and iPhones have downgraded versions of iTunes because the necessity of keeping the application smaller on portables is a great deal. The purpose of having an iTunes server running on an NAS is strictly for the need of other computers being able to access it without the need for taking up additional resources. For example inside an office that has 20 people listening to the same shared song you would be pretty ****** that the reason why your computer or your network was running slow was because 19 of your co-workers were listening to your music, though you might not notice the difference, as far as computer speeds, if you were using a Mac Pro or a Server grade PC (Xeon processors, not the i5 or i7), you would notice it on a desktop workstation like an iMac or most PCs and laptops. As a solution to what you are trying to do the best bet is bring the NAS back to where you bought it, get a Mac Mini, pay the extra $50 for the server license on the OS and buy a RAID tower to connect to the Mac MINI and run it strictly as a server, both for media and file storage.

If you run one of the newer Synology NAS units you don't actually require a PC/Mac running iTunes to stream media: Synology have written some apps for their NAS that allow you (via a browser or via iPhone/iPad DS Audio and DS Video apps) to stream media DIRECTLY from the NAS to an AppleTV unit, there is no intermediary copy of iTunes software needed on a Mac/PC. It's pretty handy.

First of all, the OP should be named Scuba Snarky...(or worse); why people feel it's ok to be d!#k heads on the Internet has always baffled me.

Second, Plex is a very good alternative media server for iOS, Android, PC, Roku, Windows and Xbox devices....way better than anything iTunes Server does...especially for owners of a Synology NAS.

Third, I agree that iTunes Server is worthless...which is why I use Plex Media Server!

Fourth, I know...I'm posting on a thread from 2013....

Here are my recent experiences...

I wanted to be able to maintain a single iTunes library and use a mixture of Windows and Apple devices in the household for access and playing content. I already had a NAS (Synology DS214SE). Little did I know how much it was capable of until more recently.

Initially I tried setting iTunes to use the NAS drive as the library location on all computers, as suggested by many blog posts around the internet. This meant adding those files to each iTunes library. However, I got many of the same problems as people have reported here (duplications, corruptions, etc.) So, I tried the iTunes Server approach, and it seems to be working perfectly, despite only trying to get this to work half an hour ago.

For administering the files on the NAS, I am using a standard local iTunes library on a machine I have designated as a Master. Here, I add the music files, as before specifying the NAS drive as the library location. Now I can open the NAS Server library on each copy of iTunes in the household and play the music that is stored there. It took a little while for the server application on the NAS to find all the files and make them visible on connected machines, but now I see everything I want (except album artwork on slave machines).

So, in my opinion the iTunes server is not worthless. It is easier to administer than having multiple libraries all looking at the same network location. I would personally recommend taking this approach, if your requirements are the same as or similar to mine.

I am using iTunes version 12, and my Synology is 100% up-to-date (currently 5.1).

I do almost the same thing, but I do not have a master iTunes, I use only Audio Station. When I want to add new music i just go into the network drive and drop the music in /music/dir. I make the playlist in Audio Station and the iTunes server is automatically updated with the latest info. I even use the Download Station to fetch all my podcasts. With setting up a few smart playlists in Audio Station all my podcasts show up with the latest episodes as soon at they're downloaded.

The iTunes server is definitely not worthless anymore, especially with some of the recent updates to the apps and OS.

I too have looked at iTunes server thinking that it may have some practical advantages but not realising that it was old hat.

I have 2PC's (one runs iTunes), 2 iPhones, 2 iPads, Apple TV and a ReadyNas Duo NAS drive. I also have several Sonos speakers around the place.

I use the NAS drive and one other external as a backup for all my data.

Like others, I find it it a pain to run a PC just to have iTunes running and performing it's sharing tasks. I also hate powering up a PC just to allow iTunes to update a podcast each day. Yes I can do it on a pad or phone, but I forget and they drop off after a week! I hoped that an iTunes server may automate the task (Duuh). It was also a pain to need a PC powered up for the Sonos Kit.

I solved most of the problem. Synctoy 2.1 backs up all the music files to the NAS by default, so I simply added the ITunes .itl & .xml files as part of the backup and which Sonos now uses on the NAS quite happily. NAS drive switches itself on and off daily and music is available all day.

I have a Panasonic smart TV now, which reads the media content from the NAS, It also shares from the iPads & phones so Apple TV is a pretty much redundant.

I have a large bungalow so wireless signal was a problem. I now have 3 wireless AP's with the same SSID's etc, I also have a spare Sonos bridge if I need it. Everything works like a charm.

If only I could automate podcasts without a PC...

You can use download station to download/update your podcasts. You also dont have to worry about the downloads stopping because you didnt open iTunes to download the eps. Just setup Download Station and forget about them.

Thanks DD

Are you talking Synology Download Station?

I'm not sure if that's ReadyNas compatible but there are other torrent downloaders that are.

I have tried a couple of alternative downloads in the past but I always end up on a PC getting things in the right place!

It's just something I have to live with.