tlea

I did search and I didn't find out.

Thanks for joining the conversation. These are good ideas but neither of them solves the problem. @ccclapp: The "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder only functions if it is in the default location, typically /music/iTunes/iTunesMedia/. If you move it to the NAS (or anywhere else) it doesn't work. Good idea, though, and the programmers probably could solve this. @tokapaho: Your suggestion would involve mapping a share from the "Automatically Add" folder on the "server" computer to each peer on the LAN and pointing the iTunes media location of each peer to that shared folder. In that case the peers would not see the NAS in iTunes. This might work if the peers used something other than iTunes to do the ripping (probably not a bad idea anyway). The security permissions for the share will be tricky in Mac OS and likely will reset with every iTunes update. But this is a promising direction. I will experiment with this when I get home from work tonight. @ccclapp: I am not sure I can state the problem any more clearly or precisely than I have. Describing the various other failed attempts is too wordy and time consuming for a poor typist like me. The puzzling thing to me is that no one else out there is concerned with the same issue. My guess is that most of the people interested in computer audio are adept enough that they don't require the "idiot-proof" solution I am trying to achieve. Therefore they see it as a no-problem/non-issue. That seems to be the deceptive part. Thanks again for your responses.

I have asked this on several forums, but not this one. I have received many well-intentioned responses that are either off-point or simply incorrect. I continue to look for a better solution than the inelegant (but functional) one I have now. Here is the situation: My family is composed of music lovers and Mac users of varying levels of sophistication with and patience for technology. We have a LAN with several computers and store our shared music on a NAS (Thecus n5200Pro). iTunes with Home Sharing generally works for us and we don't want to change the user interface. Currently, one computer on the LAN, belonging to the user with the lowest patience threshold, is the designated "server" with its iTunes media folder location pointed to the NAS. The others access the music through iTunes via the shared library from the designated server. This means that whenever anyone wants to rip a CD or otherwise add music to the collective NAS it has to be ripped from or manually added to the iTunes library on the designated server. There has to be a better way. What we would like to be able to do is rip music from any computer on the LAN to the NAS and have it be accessible to all through iTunes. To satisfy the impatient faction, this needs to be a seamless, one step process as it is with iTunes; i.e. put a CD in the drive and walk away - everything else is automatic. I have tried various media servers such as Twonky and others whose names I can't remember but they didn't integrate with iTunes. My hope is that the technology has matured such that there is a third party program that maintains the iTunes user interface but adds file management functionality similar to what Pure Music, Bit Perfect, and others do with playback quality. I would appreciate any informed suggestions or advice that does not involve abandoning the iTunes platform. Thanks in advance.

As you have discovered, if you store your music on an external drive, you do need to make sure that external drive is mounted before you start iTunes. Otherwise iTunes will look for your library elsewhere or create a new one in an active location. Kinda makes sense doesn't it? You didn't say if your external is connected by USB, Firewire, Thunderbolt, wireless or ethernet, and you didn't say what version of MacOS you are running. Assuming it is USB and OS X, you should not have to do more than make sure the power to the drive is turned on when you boot up and it will mount automatically. If you have set the iTunes Media Folder location in iTunes Advanced Preferences to a shared folder on the external drive it will find that location every time it can. If you forget to turn the external drive on, just shut iTunes down, mount the drive, and turn iTunes on again and it will sync up. If you happen to rip some media to the "wrong" place accidentally, use either the "Add to Library" or "Organize Library" commands from iTunes to get it straightened out. One suggestion (although you really shouldn't have to do this unless your HD is a NAS) is to add your external drive volume to your login items. Go to System Preferences>Users and Groups>Login Items and drag the drive from your desktop into the window. At the very least, this will give you an annoying error message reminding you to turn on your drive if MacOS can't find it on bootup. Like many things with Macintosh, writing this out makes it seem much more difficult than it is. It's really quite intuitive. I hope this helps.

Question: Is it possible to use a USB to S/PDIF converter like Halide Bridge to link a DAC to my computer in the reverse direction? Rather than output music from my computer to my stereo, I want to do the opposite: input the digital output from a DAC to a laptop USB port so I can capture it as a FLAC using Audacity. I don't have a bridge or I would try it. Any advice based on experience is appreciated.