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?