Sync my iPhone on Itunes with NAS library

Question

Sync my iPhone on Itunes with NAS library

Hi,

I used to sync my iphone through itunes with the iTunes library I stored on my NAS.

I have a new computer and want to do this again.

I have made iTunes able to access my iTunes library stored on the NAS, I can play the music on my computer but when I want to sync my iphone, the obly library on which I am allowed to do it by Itunes is the local library, not the one on the NAS.

How can I make the NAS library the one to use for my Iphone sync?

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Sep 4, 2016 8:01 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 5, 2016 12:50 AM in response to raviolifromlille

The phone is looking for the exact same library file used with iTunes the last time you synced the phone.

Hold down the option key while starting iTunes. When prompted to select a library select the iTunes Library.itl file on the NAS. If it isn't there then you did not keep the entire library on the NAS and left critical parts of your library behind on the old computer. The only recourse is to recover those files from that computer or a backup. It is usually better to use a portable library though with a NAS you can run into all kinds of trouble with any iTunes library. In this case I suspect I know what is wrong but there are many NAS posts here where we have no idea why a library suddenly got messed up. iTunes and NAS do not play well together.

turingtest2 article: Make a split library portable - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392

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Answer 2

Sep 5, 2016 12:54 AM in response to Limnos

Hi Limnos, Thank you for your quick answer, that actually solved my problem. 🙂

I consider your point about problems with a NAS hosted iTunes library. I need a library stored on only one drive so that all the family can share it (and sync their iPhones with their own playlists). Otherwise, how could we do that (share the same library and add the new music in the shared library) ?

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Answer 3

Sep 5, 2016 5:10 AM in response to raviolifromlille

Otherwise, how could we do that (share the same library and add the new music in the shared library) ?

Add a hard drive to a computer that is visible on the network vs. a NAS. I know it isn't as convenient but this NAS v. iTunes thing has been happening for many years now so I would not expect it to be cured overnight. It is probably as much an issue of how NAS are designed as it is about iTunes being very particular as to file paths.

Apple would also have you look into Family Sharing and/or something like Apple Music family plan. Again not the same as what you have now but that's how they would answer this question.

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