Moving from PC to Mac when Music on a Nas

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Moving from PC to Mac when Music on a Nas

Hi all,

I've just bought my first Mac: a Retina Pro and I want to move my existing iTunes Library to iTunes on my new Mac. However, my music isn't actually stored on my PC; it's stored on my Buffalo Linkstation Nas, and my old PC simply points iTunes to the media.

I've set up my mac so it can see my Nas (I have access to the music, videos, as well as other documents contained on it) but how to I get Itunes to populate itself with the music and podcasts and what not contained in there? Is it possible or am I going to have to copy all the media across on to my mac's local drive so it populates iTunes, then once I tunes recognises it, consolidate it back to the NAS. This seems like a heck of a chore.

Anyone any ideas? Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Feb 4, 2014 2:07 PM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

428,693 points

Feb 4, 2014 3:39 PM in response to losalnos

If only media are on the NAS that means there is an iTunes folder on the PC that contains a bunch of support files and folders, including the all-important library.itl. Copy the whole iTunes folder to your Mac. If there isn't anything in the one on you Mac just replace it. If the one on you Mac has stuff in it already then there's another issue and put the copied folder somewhere else. For the time being start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to the library.itl file in the moved folder.

Now comes the moment of truth. If you were doing this Mac to Mac there would probably be no problem. With switching platforms you might discover the real disadvantage to not having kept you whole library on the NAS vs only media. If you had done that I could have typed but a single line solution. The library.itl file has lines stating hte patheway to each of your files on the NAS. However, I recall helping somebody with a similar issue recently and hte problem is the path is described in PC pathways from the PC and I am not sure the Mac can interpret those. Try doing the above first. If it doesn't work and if you let iTunes keep your media organized you may find it can repair itself if you find a single broken link and then let it try to repair others based on the same structure criteria.

If you no longer have that library.itl file then all you have now are a bunch of media files and you will have to rebuild your library.

Okay, that's enough. Next time you post include more information about your iTunes settings and what files are where.

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Answer 2

losalnos Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 5, 2014 3:30 AM in response to Limnos

Thanks Limnos. I'll try this when I get home.

There's nothing on my Mac yet as I didn't want to add anything to iTunes until I'd got the NAS connected, so it sounds like I should just be able to replace my new one with my old one.

I can include more information about my iTunes settings next time if you let me know what you'd like to know and would help: I'm afraid I don't know what is relevant and useful, and what isn't. Always happy to give more information when people are taking the time to try and help. Just let me know.

Incidentally:

...you might discover the real disadvantage to not having kept you whole library on the NAS vs only media. If you had done that I could have typed but a single line solution.

I still have my PC. Is this an option : to move my itunes folder to the NAS first and then do the one line solution?

Thanks very much for your help so far.

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

428,693 points

Feb 5, 2014 5:23 AM in response to losalnos

Try this. Copy the iTunes folder to NAS. If using the PC, start iTunes with the shift key held down and guide it to the library.itl file on the external. Does iTunes start and work? If it does, try doing the same (option key this time) when the Mac is connected. If it works then that's 90% solved. Typically for ultimate portability everything should all be located in the iTunes Folder, but that can be left as a separate step.

One thing to note is using this single library method only one computer can use iTunes at any one time. If this is the case this is the best solution.

What are your copy to and manage library settings in iTunes preferences?

How many computers do you plan on using iTunes on at the same time?

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Answer 4

losalnos Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 5, 2014 5:38 AM in response to Limnos

Thas awesome. Thanks. I'll get those settings to you and try those tips when I get home.

Thanks again!

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Answer 5

losalnos Author

Level 1

10 points

Feb 11, 2014 7:16 AM in response to Limnos

Hi Limnos, sorry for delay. Your suggestions were incredibly helpful and I think I'm almost there.

I consolidated my music on to my NAS (99% was already on there but I thought it was worth making sure and, sure enough, a few rogue files needed to be moved) and then copied my iTunes folder on to the NAS. I then started iTunes on my PC holding shift and directed iTunes to the library file now on the NAS. iTunes found the media and worked perfectly.

I then shut down my PC, started iTunes on my new Mac holding down the option key and pointed it to the library file on the Nas. It populated itunes with all the info, however it doesn't seem to be able to locate the media i.e. every track has the little exclamation mark next to it and when you click play it says it can't locate the media. I can point iTunes to the track, but I don't particularly want to do that every time for all 5000-odd tracks!

Do you know if there's a way to re-direct iTunes to all my media?

Incidentally, although it's on a NAS, my computer/account/copy of itunes is the only one that uses it; I don't have multiple users.

Thanks again.

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Answer 6

Limnos

Level 10

428,693 points

Feb 11, 2014 7:39 AM in response to losalnos

Yes, point to a track. If you are lucky iTunes will offer to find others based on the same location structure and after a while all will be good. If not, read on.

Get info on a missing track. Does it say where the file should be located? Does it say something about "localhost" If it does, I have seen several posts in the past few days about this issue where people have otherwise done everything correctly. I do not recall having seen this problem with this frequency before and I wonder if there is something about the new iTunes that has problems resolving files kept on other drives, especially when used in conjunction with a PC (but there's another active topic I just read a few minutes ago where this was Mac to Mac). There is a way to resolve this but unless others helping people have come up with a better way it involves rebuilding the library file. This isn't super drastic but it will involve some slight data loss (one person's iTunes world apparently revolved around date-added and this would be lost so I think they are still waiting for another answer).

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Answer 7

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Feb 11, 2014 9:27 AM in response to losalnos

Just adding to Limnos's thoughts on this can you show us the path to a single broken track as revealed using Finder and the iTunes representation using Get Info, Summary tab?

For a file that isn't where iTunes is looking for it iTunes should normally display file://localhost/Volumes/<Volume1>/<Path1> whereas the file may actually be at Volumes/<Volume2>/<Path2>. If Volume1=Volume2 and Path1=Path2 then there really shouldn't be a problem (though there seems to be in another thread) but if there are differences then it should be possible to fix them one way or another, albeit a brute force move/copy if nothing else will work.

tt2

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