What is the fast way of importing the MP3 library on my Seagate Central NAS into iTunes on my MacBook Pro?

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What is the fast way of importing the MP3 library on my Seagate Central NAS into iTunes on my MacBook Pro?

Hi all,

I’m hoping someone may be able to help me as I haven’t been able to find a definitive answer so far.

My question is: what is the fast way of importing the MP3 library on my Seagate Central NAS into iTunes on my MacBook Pro?

Here are some more details:

The Seagate Central is connected to my BT HomeHub 5 router via Ethernet cable.
I have a fibre broadband connection (although I don’t know if this is relevant in this instance).
There is no physical connection between the MacBook and the router. I’m doing it all over WiFi.
My MP3 library is is too large for the MacBook so I would like to keep these on the NAS. I don't know the actual size as it just says "calculating size" when i select "get info".
I am new to the MacBook having just made the switch from a Windows based PC.
I am not sure whether the iTunes Media Folder should be located on the MacBook or on the NAS (and what options in ‘Preferences’ I should tick)
I have tried just dragging various albums from the NAS into iTunes but I just get the ‘spinning wheel of death’ and it appears to freeze up (or just take a ridiculously long time).

If anyone can provide any help or advice I would really appreciate it.

Many thanks,

Streety82

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015)

Posted on Feb 10, 2016 12:04 PM

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Answer 1

Pmintz25

Level 4

2,058 points

Feb 10, 2016 12:25 PM in response to Streety82

You can change where iTunes "looks" for the iTunes Media folder. Similarly, you can have two different Libraries, but iTunes can only see one at a time.

You can open a different Library by holding Shift while you launch iTunes

The best thing to do (in my opinion) is put all of your music and content that you wish to view in iTunes into a single iTunes Media folder on your Seagate drive. Then tell iTunes to looks for the Media Folder there. iTunes will then always look for your Seagate drive when accessing files. Also, any music you add to iTunes should then also be copied to your Seagate drive, assuming you have iTunes set to "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library" in iTunes > Preferences > Advanced

My only worry is that your computer may have trouble accessing the files if it is already having trouble communicating with the device.

This may help.

Locate and organize your iTunes media files - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Feb 10, 2016 12:35 PM in response to Streety82

Wifi can be a slow connection, it can perform badly if you have interference or other traffic on the network. To reliably copy lots of data to a NAS you need a good connection. Performance also depends on how fast your wifi base station is & what type of wifi connection it is (802.11.b/g/n etc). Ethernet is best in my opinion. You may want to check the the manual to see how to connect directly to the NAS if you want a temporary solution to get the data over.

You should see how large the library is before you begin, reboot & see if it ever finishes calculating after that.

The iTunes library is a complex beast. I would not recommend a novice hosting it on a NAS, there are many threads here on the topic if you need background on the issues involved.

There are guides around that explain the process, however it can be flaky if your connection comes & goes…

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

I don't think Apple recommend this method at all but as ever *your milage may vary*.

If you do want it on the NAS I would consider using a third party app to do the copying, Finder can fail with a large copy tasks & the error/ help it provides is practically useless. You cannot easily resume the process - you have to begin copying & hope it isn't starting over from scratch.

Chronosync is a good 'file sync' app…

http://www.econtechnologies.com/

It does allow you to resume progress if a failure occurs & it also has many options, some of which can verify that the copy is the same as the original. There are other apps that will do the same job.

Sorry this is all a bit 'doom & gloom', I suspect your safest option is to purchase & fit a larger internal disk if possible.

See if anyone else has a brighter outlook.

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