Adding music on iTunes on external storage

Dr Mabuse said:

Helo,

I moved my ITunes to external storage, WD NAS. All is wroking pretty ok so far apart from a duplication issue.

However now I tried to add new music into ITunes and the files ended up on my Mac and not on the NAS. I checked the path in ITunes preferences to add all new files to the external drive (NAS) and it is still correct.

Can someone shed some light on this for me confusing issue?

Many thanks in advance,

Richard

Click to expand...

Check if the 'Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library' is checked. this way, when a file is added to iTunes, it will automatically copy to folder in path.

In iTunes preferences / Advanced, how did you get the path to the external : by typing it, or buy using the "Change" button and browsing to the folder on the external ?

Does the path begin with : Volumes/name_of_the_externalHD/.….. ?

Looks ok…

In your iTunes Library, if you right click on a song to see the infos, what is the location of the file ?

Is it : /Volumes/Music/iTunes Media/Music/etc…..

For a movie : /Volumes/Music/iTunes Media/Movies/etc…..

I assume that "Music" is the name of your external HD, right ?

Dr Mabuse said:

Hello,

1. The name of the NAS, the external storage, is what in the path is called: Volumes.

Click to expand...

I don't think so : /Volumes/ is generic and shows up against the name of the external.

My iTunes Media folder is located on my external HD (not a NAS) named "DDE", thus the path is :

/Volumes/DDE/iTunes Media/Music/….

If the path is : /Volumes/Music/iTunes Media/Music/etc, then the first "Music" is the name of the partition you use to host your iTunes media folder, right ?

Looks like you have partitioned your external and named a partition "Music".

This does not explain your problem, though.

I have done this many times (moving the iTunes Media folder to an external drive) without any problem, so I wonder what your problem is.

iTunes is not the problem here.

You should have moved to the NAS the iTunes Media Folder only and nothing else.
It looks like you have moved the whole Music folder which includes the iTunes folder.

Therefore, the right path is not :

/Volumes/Music/iTunes Media/Music/...

But rather :

/Volumes/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/...

If I could have a look at your computer I would understand what happens exactly, however try amending the path as indicated in iTunes Preferences / Advanced, and see if it works now.

If it does not work, I suggest you post some screenshots : Music folder on the NAS, Music folder on the Mac, Infos window of a song.


Some more thoughts, tell us if I am wrong :

You said that when you add a new song to iTunes, the file goes onto the Mac, not onto the NAS.
I think you copied your whole Music folder to the NAS, without deleting the original in the Mac.
Therefore you currently have 2 iTunes folders….
When you launch iTunes from the Dock, by default it opens the Mac's iTunes Library, not the NAS's one.
Did you launch iTunes with the Alt key depressed to navigate to the NAS's iTunes folder ?
If not, you're still using the Mac's one…
What is your goal ? Why did you move the Music folder to the NAS ?
Do you need your iTunes to be reachable from others computers than your's ?

Thank you for your kind words.

However, I feel I can't help you more, as I do not know how things have to be set up when using a NAS and Bluesound (I don't know how it works).

I could certainly help if we were talking about moving the iTunes Media folder to an external HD, or moving the whole iTunes folder to the external.
I have done this many times for friends or for myself.

But this is not exactly what you are after.

I hope someone else come and give you the right answers.