iTunes + Synology

[Paul Chown]

I'm very very new to iMac..... just so you know!

Okay, I'm wanting to move my iTunes media to my new Synology NAS drive. I understand that i can just change in iTunes the Preferences_iTunes media location. Then consolidate files, which will move the media files to the new location and leaving the iTunes databases in the orignal location locally.

but... i am wondering if i should move the whole iTunes folder (databases + Media) to the NAS and then point iTunes to upon launch?
This is what i've done before when i had multiple drives in my previous Windows machine (it allowed me to reinstall OS without having to worry about iTunes databases etc + these databases were included in my backup strategy)

What do i have to consider?

Also my NAS drive currently showing under 'Shared' in finder with the 'eject' symbol next to it! Is there a way to have it in favourites?

Thanks in advance
Paul

 

[carr1on]

Paul,

I didn't move the database file for iTunes. I simply created a music directory structure on my DS411j, enabled the iTunes app, enabled Music Indexing Service (pointed it to the right location), and it worked.

As for your second question: I'm not sure how to do that either. I looked at several articles online, and some people recommended holding down the CMD key when dragging the item onto the Sidebar. But it didn't work for me...

Good luck!

 

[Paul Chown]

i dont intend to use the iTunes server App within the NAS... i just dont need it as my 3 x ATV and airplay speakers just work perfectly from my iMac.

Just need some advise on the best method to store iTunes + database and to make sure i have the NAS and iMac connected properly.

Thanks

 

[Paul Chown]

I have read that there maybe some performance issues having the all of the iTunes database files on the NAS with the iTunes media.

My iMac is connected to a gigabit ethernet network and my NAS is connected to my switch with 2x gigabit ethernet.

I think i would rather have it setup this way as if you need too you can just move the whole folder and point a new iTunes OSX or Windows installation to it without having to have the same files paths etc.

Has anybody here set there's up this way?
Do you have any performance issues?

Help and advice appreciated

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I have read that there maybe some performance issues having the all of the iTunes database files on the NAS with the iTunes media.

My iMac is connected to a gigabit ethernet network and my NAS is connected to my switch with 2x gigabit ethernet.

I think i would rather have it setup this way as if you need too you can just move the whole folder and point a new iTunes OSX or Windows installation to it without having to have the same files paths etc.

Has anybody here set there's up this way?
Do you have any performance issues?

Help and advice appreciated

I used to run my whole library (database and media) on a NAS, on my old Mac Mini (my new one has enough HDD space so it's all local now).

What I did, from memory so you'll want to play with this a bit :-}, was to copy the entire ~/Music folder structure over to the NAS and create a share. So for example the share name on my NAS was smb://MYNAS/iTunes

Then I renamed ~/Music to ~/Music.old

Then I created a link - something like "ln -s smb://MYNAS/iTunes ~/Music"

The upshot of all this, was that iTunes didn't know the difference. If I navigated to ~/Music on my old Mac, it looked exactly the same as it had before - all the files were there, but they physically resided on the NAS.

I may not have all the syntax exactly right above, it's been a while and not set up like this any more so I can't verify easily.

That worked fine for me for a couple of years. With Gigabit Ethernet I never had performance issues. The only problem I had occasionally was the NAS disconnecting and iTunes crashing in the middle of the night; I'd have to navigate to the folder - let it re-establish the link - then fire iTunes back up. Probably could have put in a cron job to touch something beyond the link every half-hour or so to prevent that but never got around to doing so.