Questions about WD Book Essentials (simple home NAS)

[talhasyed]

I'm looking to get a WD MyBook Live, a simple home NAS, that is offered at a discount right now:

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...e43333a907en02

I've read a bunch of reviews and forums discussions, but there is nothing recent which answers two concerns I have:

1. Can I move my iTunes library to the NAS? If so, do I need to reformat the drive to HFS+, or does the disk format not matter for a network drive?
2. If I do move my iTunes library to the NAS (using the File -> Organize -> Consolidate Library menu item in iTunes), will this move the iOS apps stored in my library as well? Can I continue to sync my iOS devices with an iTunes who media/apps are stored on a network drive?

If anyone has recent experience with this product, I would love to know of your thoughts. Thanks!

[phrehdd]

Originally Posted by talhasyed

I'm looking to get a WD MyBook Live, a simple home NAS, that is offered at a discount right now:

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...e43333a907en02

I've read a bunch of reviews and forums discussions, but there is nothing recent which answers two concerns I have:

1. Can I move my iTunes library to the NAS? If so, do I need to reformat the drive to HFS+, or does the disk format not matter for a network drive?
2. If I do move my iTunes library to the NAS (using the File -> Organize -> Consolidate Library menu item in iTunes), will this move the iOS apps stored in my library as well? Can I continue to sync my iOS devices with an iTunes who media/apps are stored on a network drive?

If anyone has recent experience with this product, I would love to know of your thoughts. Thanks!

IF it is a real NAS, no you do not need to reformat.
IF you set up your NAS correctly, it should be accessible from your computer and all iOS devices to your computer would access your computer which accesses the NAS. In some NAS set ups, there is an iTunes set up and ideally devices can access them directly but the former mentioned scenario should work consistently as long as your NAS is recognized by your computer and set up with the proper permissions (if required).

I use a NAS for my iTunes library and other media files.

My choice was to copy the entire library over, go into "MUSIC" and rename "iTunes" so that the application iTunes has to start fresh. I went into preferences for iTunes and made sure that it is set up to NOT move files added to library.

Assuming you opened your iTunes and it recreated an iTunes folder properly under MUSIC directory/folder, you can now simply "ADD TO LIBRARY" and point to your NAS and the directories of iTunes within. While this may take some time, it will give you a clean set up.

Last - when you go to iTunes Store and download, the files are often sent to your computer and not to your NAS. This is the "overhead" that can easily be handled. Copy the folder/files over to your NAS where you want them, delete the reference in iTunes and the files locally and again "ADD TO LIBRARY" from your NAS.

In short, put all media on the NAS. Start up a fresh iTunes set up. Make sure iTunes preference includes not moving files when adding to library. Add the NAS files to iTunes. As for iOS devices, they talk to your local system usually which then fetches or adds files from the NAS.

Btw, I don't use the typical iTunes directory structure on my NAS. I do something like this -

Media /
iTunes Purchased Music/...
iTunes Purchased Movies/...
iTunes Purchased Audio Books/ ...
iTunes Purchased ebooks/ ...
iTunes CD lossless/...
iTunes CD 256 AAC/ ...
iTunes Movie Archive
etc.

The above allows me to quickly find items that may be problematic and also, quickly add or delete files. I keep the word "iTunes" in the first listing of each group as I know then that those directories are correlated with iTunes.


I hope this helps.
iTunes

[talhasyed]

Originally Posted by phrehdd

IF it is a real NAS, no you do not need to reformat.
IF you set up your NAS correctly, it should be accessible from your computer and all iOS devices to your computer would access your computer which accesses the NAS. In some NAS set ups, there is an iTunes set up and ideally devices can access them directly but the former mentioned scenario should work consistently as long as your NAS is recognized by your computer and set up with the proper permissions (if required).

...

I hope this helps.
iTunes

Thanks for the feedback!