Mac hangs - accessing files on network drive

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Level 1

4 points

Mac hangs - accessing files on network drive

Hello there,

Using OS X Mavericks on a Late 2009 iMac with a network drive for media (the iTunes library file and content sit there).

I've noticed that my Mac is hanging frequently in the middle of unrelated activity (opening a Chrome window, opening Outlook etc) - a brief freeze, the network drive spins up to speed, and then everything's OK. No idea why any of those apps / process should be attempting to access the NAS.

Any ideas? Is there some sort of cache or other settings file on the shared drive that the OS is accessing?

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), Late 2009

Posted on Jan 23, 2014 4:01 PM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,406 points

Jan 23, 2014 4:08 PM in response to richmacUK

Apple doesn't support a NAS with the exception of it's own Time Capsule. That being said you need to check with your NAS provider and see if they support Mavericks 10.9.1 and if so if they have an update to support it. This is a common weakness of third party NAS providers, they simply cannot keep up-to-date when a new version of an OS is released. That being said, if you want to continue using a NAS solution then you will have to work with their developers to coordinate their updates with OS X updates otherwise you will consistently run into these types of issues.

Wish I had better news but that's one of the difficulties to using a NAS.

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Answer 2

richmacUK Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 3, 2014 12:42 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Hi, and thanks for the answer.

Agree that OS X doesn't play well as a NAS. But that's not my issue here.

For some reason, the Mac wants to access files on the network drive - which then causes the Mac to hang whilst the drive spins up. There's no obvious reason, and it's not an iTunes issue (as it happens regardless of whether iTunes is running.

In my old windows days I would have suggested that it was caching files on the NAS for some reason. The only files saved on the NAS are media files indexed in the iTunes library.

Can't tell from Activity Monitor what's happening (not an expert). Is there a way to track disk access and see what's accessing the drive?

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,406 points

Feb 3, 2014 12:50 PM in response to richmacUK

This article may help you.

http://osxdaily.com/2012/01/20/monitor-disk-activity-in-mac-os-x/

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