ITunes on NAS issues

[Sam Hayes]

Hi - I've recently moved my large iTunes media folder (25,000+ songs) from my MacBook to a QNAP 251+ NAS, following Kirk's excellent 2015 article in MacWorld. I'm also a heavy iOS user with iTunes Match. The NAS setup works fantastic, except when it has hiccups, which happens weekly. The issues seem to occur when for unknown reasons, iTunes reverts the Media file location to that of the MacBook SSD, rather than the appropriate folder on the NAS, despite my care to ensure that NAS remains mounted on the MacBook. This would not be so bad, because it can easily changed back to the NAS in iTunes preferences. Except that when I do that, it takes an annoying 2 hours to reorganize my iTunes library, during which period iTunes is unusable. Is there any way to make iTunes more stable on the NAS, while preserving all the Match functionality? Thanks.

[kirkmc]

Unfortunately, this is a common problem. It occurs when the network volume isn't mounted, even for a brief time. Do you find this happening only when you start up your Mac, or does it happen even when you've had the Mac running for a while? One option - which I don't find ideal - is to move your entire iTunes folder to the NAS, not just the media folder. In that case, iTunes can only launch with your library when the .itl file is available.

 

If, however, you only have this problem on startup, then just don't launch iTunes until you're sure that the volume is mounted. You could easily make an AppleScript or Automator action to launch iTunes. Put it on the network volume, and add it to your login items, and it will only launch iTunes when the network volume is available.

[Sam Hayes]

Kirk - I would like to try these options. The main problem occurs when the NAS becomes "unmounted" for unknown reasons while I'm using iTunes. I guess a network glitch interrupts the connection? But it then reverts to the MacBook location. Especially problematic in the middle of a CD rip. If I do move the whole iTunes folder to the NAS, will I lose any Match or cloud functionality? Also, how do I do those Apple scripts you mentioned? Many thanks

[kirkmc]

Everything should work correctly. The main problem is that most people don't back up their NAS devices regularly, so you won't have backups of the .itl file very often, which would be useful in case of problems.

 

Re the AppleScript, see this: http://cameronreilly.com/using-applescript-launch-bunch-startup-applications/