Those of you using a NAS drive to store your music collection know that mounting the drive is very important. Launching iTunes before the NAS drive is mounted will reset your music folder location to the default local folder. Then the dreaded exclamation marks appear next to every track. It's not the end of the world to recover from this, but it's far easier to prevent it from happening.
As some of you know I created an Automator script to mount my NAS drive when I login to my music server. I wrote an article explaining how to do this and made the script available for download. While this was a good method of mounting the drive, I still kept looking for something a little easier to setup for all the readers. This afternoon I spent some serious time on the subject and settled on the AutomountMaker application. This application has a simple GUI allowing even the most unskilled users to setup their NAS drive to mount automatically every time they login.
In simple terms here is what needs to happen.
1. Install the application.
2. Open the app and enter the name or address of your NAS and the folder to mount.
3. Enter the username and password if required.
4. Save the infomation as a AutomountMaker file.
5. Open System Preferences >> Accounts >> Login Items and drag the file into this window and your done.
The application's website has plenty of screenshots and even these two videos.
How To Make Your First Script
Quickly Find and Use Your Scripts
This application really is easy and solves a somewhat annoying problem that Apple crated by removing the auto connect check box when connecting to a network drive. Here is a link to the site where you can download the application. The app is free but the developer accepts donations for all his work. This app is worth quite a bit in my book. Let's support this guy for making our lives easier :-)
Chris Connaker
Founder
Computer Audiophile
Comments
Posts: 59
Automountmaker what an app!
Chris
Thanks again for your efforts in tracking this little gem of an app down!
I've just tested it...what a time and hastle saver...it's deceptively simple, yet SOOO useful...
The cumbersome steps required to mount my NAS drive was THE hitch I was having in moving my music library.
As you say, now with this little app the NAS mounts automatically before itunes everytime!
No more explanation marks, no more rebuilding libraries etc etc..what an app Chris!
Thoroughly recommended!
AB
Posts: 2809
Hey AB - I agree this is
Hey AB - I agree this is such a useful app that Apple should include it in the OS.
One more item that can be very helpful is the delay function. I set my drive to mount five seconds after the app starts running at login. This allows plenty of time for my network card to obtain an IP address from the DHCP server. Its not always necessary, but it comes in handy sometimes.
Chris Connaker
Founder
Computer Audiophile
Posts: 106
apt extreme
Chris,
It looks like this would be typically most helpful with "canned" NAS units like the Drobo, etc., but would this also be something that would be useful for someone (like me) whose hard drive is attached to an Airport Extreme? Or, in your experience, does the Airport Extreme not have these connection issues? I'm setting up my gear and wondered if this is something I should install from the get go. Thanks
TheOtherTim
Posts: 2809
Hi Tim - This is definitely
Hi Tim - This is definitely something you'll want to use in conjunction with the Airport Extreme.
Chris Connaker
Founder
Computer Audiophile
Posts: 17
NAS Drive?
Sorry to have to ask and again reveal my almost complete ignorance regarding computer lingo ,but what exactly is a NAS drive?
I have been thinking of getting a firewire 800 La Cie Rugged 250 G portable disk for my music storage when I travel next time.
Could I store and play files directly into i-Tunes from something like that?
Will I need to install iTunes on it and if so how?
Chrille
Posts: 2809
Hi Chrille - In my review of
Hi Chrille - In my review of the QNAP NAS unit I wrote a little primer on NAS drives for audiophiles in a very easy to understand way. Here is a link http://www.computeraudiophile.com/qnap_ts-409_turbo_nas_review
Please let me know if this only raises more questions!
If you get the FW800 portable drive you can certainly store and play files directly from the unit. You'll just need to tell iTunes that your music resides in a different location than the default. It's prety simple and we can walk you through it if needed. No need to install anything different. It's just another hard drive.
Chris Connaker
Founder
Computer Audiophile
Posts: 17
NAS drive
Thanks Chris all clear now,
thanks to your quick responses ,I´m learning new things almost everyday, and have actually managed to get ok sound from my mac simply by setting 24/96 in audio midi and connecting a headphone amp and my Sennheisers .
The sound I get on the testfiles from 2L and the Czech Radio free Downloads isn´t as good as my SACDs.
But good enough to make me listen to some music over headphones while working on my images in Photoshop.
But I have occasionally noticed dropouts.
What is the reason for those?
The internal soundcard in the mac or something else?
As a first step on my next long phototrip I will probably get the Proton if it is released soon .
Otherwise I´ll get the Apogee Duet and store my music on a La Cie Rugged.
All the best Chrille
Posts: 2809
Dropouts can be caused by
Dropouts can be caused by many different things. One common cause is the USB bus. If you have a USB DAC and it's plugged into a USB port that shares a USB bus with other items such as a keyboard, bluetooth, external hard drive etc... there can be dropouts.
Checkout this article I wrote a while ago on dropouts I experienced. http://www.computeraudiophile.com/node/417
Also, Photoshop is a very beefy application. I suspect this could cause some dropouts as it taxes system resources.
Chris Connaker
Founder
Computer Audiophile
Posts: 2
Same, yet different
Thanks for the hints. I tried fooling around with Automator, but no joy. My system is a bit different: iMac Intel Core Duo, 10.4.11, LaCie NAS connected through a Linksys wireless router to the Airport wireless on the Mac, and the iTunes library is on a share on the NAS server with keychain-stored authentication. I can connect on startup fine with the share in the user account startup list, but the connection will vanish after awhile, and I typically won't notice until I start iTunes. Quitting iTunes, connecting manually, and restarting iTunes works fine, but is of course an annoyance. I was looking to test your idea as a way to create a "stickier" connection. So, what is different about connecting via Go/Connect to server vs. through the Finder window? Any other ideas about where to go with this?
All for now,
Doug
Posts: 2809
Hi Doug - Did you try this
Hi Doug - Did you try this method I wrote about a little while ago?
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/node/289
Let me know if this gets you any further. There is a way to accomplish this with your system. We just have to find it :-)
Chris Connaker
Founder
Computer Audiophile