phantom NAS drive

Question

phantom NAS drive

I have a lingering problem after attempting to move my iTunes library to a NAS.

To move the library, I

1. I used iTunes>Preferences>Advanced to select a library location on the NAS.

2. I used File>Library>Consolidate Files to move the music files to the NAS.

Two days later (my library exceeds 2 TB) all the files had been moved. However, when I attempted to play a song, iTunes could not find the file. While I could see the all files and subdirectories in Finder, iTunes failed to even see the subdirectories when I attempted to navigate within iTunes.

I found no way to correct the problem so I returned the NAS and purchased a direct connect USB RAID array.

I used Preferences> Advanced to reselect the original library location. At this point i could no longer could no longer access any music file - upon attempting, iTunes reported it could not connect to the network drive. I attempted to restore the library file from before the failed move, I tried "Consolidate files", I tried adding the folder. Always the same error message. I examined the library XML file, and the file locations were the correct locations, not the NAS.

It am guessing that somewhere there is state stored somewherwe that remembers the NAS and iTunes does not even attempt to follow the proper file location in its database if it is not present.

At this point I moved the library to the new direct connect RAID array, hoping iTunes would clear up the problem in the process. I followed the same steps as listed above, and 24 hours later iTunes had correctly copied every music file. Oddly, the library and xml files were not moved; as I am retiring the USB drive on which the library resided, I moved them by hand.

The phantom NAS problem persisted through the library move.

I have implemented a workaround by adding a symbolic link in the Volumes directory point the NAS name to the new direct connect drive. This is an ugly hack and I am looking for a way to remove it.

How do I get iTunes to forget the NAS and to only use the direct connect location?

Posted on Jul 11, 2014 12:16 PM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

411,187 points

Jul 11, 2014 3:16 PM in response to Bradley Justice

Learn how iTunes works. You do not tell it where to put a library through preferences. You only do that to relocate media files which is only part of a library.

What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660 More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391 iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847

Moving library if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder.

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Answer 2

Jul 11, 2014 5:44 PM in response to Limnos

There are many online postings that warn of data loss or meta-data loss when copying the files outside of iTunes. They recommend the method I used:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/12/how-to-offload-your-itunes-library-to-a-nas /

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/

to cite a few.

As my post indicates, I did move the iTunes library files after iTunes relocated the media files. Following that, I had retained the expected directory structure. Yet with all of the audio files in a "music" subdirectory as expected, iTunes is still attempting to access the NAS. It seems that there must be a fully qualified file reference embedded somewhere.

For the record, my workaround with the symbolic link worked for some music files but not all.

At this point I believe the most conservative approach to moving the data to a new USB drive is:

1. copy the iTunes data from the old drive to an intermediate location

2. unmount the old drive

3. create a partition on the new drive with the same volume name as the old

4. copy the data to the new partition

When iTunes is invoked, it will be as if nothing happened. There can be no issues with fully qualified file names.

Luckily I have a backup from before the failed attempt to move to the NAS that can serve as step 1.

Thanks for your help.

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

411,187 points

Jul 11, 2014 8:57 PM in response to Bradley Justice

If you move the whole library as instructed you do not need to do anything to iTunes preferences or move media with a separate step.

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