My NAS-stored iTunes library remains locked after waking up from sleep

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Level 1

4 points

My NAS-stored iTunes library remains locked after waking up from sleep

My entire iTunes library and music collection are stored on a shared drive on a Synology NAS. I access them using AFP using an account with RW permissions on the share. The network connection is 1GB wired Ethernet. The library is in the portable format as recommended by TuringTest2 in another thred on this group. I run Mac OSX Mavericks with latest iTunes version.

PROBLEM: If I put my MacBook to sleep while iTunes is open and then I wake the computer up from sleep, after the NAS share is reconnected I get an error message saying "The iTunes Library Extras.itdb file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have write permissions for this file".

Strange part is that if I look at the iTunes folder in Finder, the Library Extras.itdb file keeps popping up for a split secend, then it disappears, just to re-appear again a few seconds later. And this game goes on until I reboot my Mac.

This issue happens with both my iMac and my MacBook opening the same iTunes library (in turns!) from the same share.

WORKAROUND: I can only solve the problem by rebooting the Mac.

MacBook, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Apr 22, 2014 9:17 AM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

411,223 points

Apr 22, 2014 12:30 PM in response to MihneaM

Observation from many posts here: iTunes and NAS have problems, especially where power saving and sleep are involved. I'm guesssing when you wake up your Mac, iTunes immediately tries to do something but your NAS is still asleep, even if by a few seconds, and it can't find the file it wants and thinks it is locked or something. Probably it has no idea what is going on since I am not sure iTunes was even designed with NAS in mind. Using NAS with iTunes is, I suspect, a bonus feature which may or may not work, not a given. If you're going to do it you're going to have to keep it simple.

Solutions? Stop using the NAS, or at least never let it go to sleep? Quit iTunes before putting the computer to sleep so when it next wants to do things the NAS is already fully awake? You could move the library files back to a local drive (make them non-portable) so they are there when the computer wakes but then I have also seen a bunch of posts here where split libraries on NAS resulted in links getting broken un an unrepairable manner which required the whole library be rebuilt from scratch.

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Answer 2

MihneaM Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 22, 2014 10:40 PM in response to Limnos

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question!

The NAS is setup never to go to sleep or hibernation or to stop the hard drives, so this part is out of the question. Regarding the locked file, it's really locked, it's just Finder who's hiding some types of files.

You are right, quitting iTunes before putting the Mac to sleep solves the problem, but having to enter my password to unlock the screen to shut down iTunes at night is rather inconvenient, that's why I am trying to find an easy way to get by putting the mac to sleep wihout having to close iTunes first.

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