NAS and iTunes

dark_hag666 · 6 Oct 2007 at 21:03

I'm currently looking at setting up a home server.

One of the prime uses will be to host all my files etc...including my music. I've been looking at how iTunes deals with sharing, as the situation would be if i set it up as an iTunes Server (install iTunes on the server with sharing on)

But based on a test, and by test I mean I turned sharing on my sisters PC, I have deemed it unsuitable. I've spent a few months slowly tagging my 70 gig collection, and sharing doesn't let you use cover flow or group albums by artwork.

If I was to set up FreeNAS, or something similar, so that Windows saw it as a shared folder; would iTunes act like it was just another folder on my PC and show artwork outright?

lsg1r · 7 Oct 2007 at 01:24

ok I might be able to help

I'm using a synology ds106j nas and xp pro sp2.

I stuck all my music into a folder and configured my xp account to have access to the relevant folder in 'my network places'. Then in itunes it was a case of changing the location of the files to store and importing the folder. Run coverflow and all the files then load the images etc.

One word of warning, this is slower than a direct access drive in my experience (although a better server may be faster). Takes nearly 2 hours to import my 80+GB of music :mad:

There is a problem when you add files - they'll only update on the pc you add the files from.

LeperousDust · 7 Oct 2007 at 02:05

You need Itunes Library Updater or ITLU

Thrash · 7 Oct 2007 at 07:29

The DLINK DNS-323 is a NAS that has an iTunes, uPNP and print server. I got one 6 months ago and it's great.

dark_hag666 · 7 Oct 2007 at 14:10

@ lsg1r: So if I was to set it up so the folder iTunes scans for music was my NAS share folder instead of just setting iTunes/DAAP up on the server and using it to share.

badbob · 7 Oct 2007 at 14:35

Thrash said:
The DLINK DNS-323 is a NAS that has an iTunes, uPNP and print server. I got one 6 months ago and it's great.

Yeah I have the same one, although haven't used itunes server.
I can't see why you can't just map a network drive, then point itunes to the drive.

Kipper67 · 7 Oct 2007 at 15:51

dark_hag666 said:
@ lsg1r: So if I was to set it up so the folder iTunes scans for music was my NAS share folder instead of just setting iTunes/DAAP up on the server and using it to share.

Should work fine - my itunes library is set to a mapped drive linked to a shared folder on another machine.

A quick play with the location setting in itunes seems to show it will accept a UNC path as well i.e. \\MACHINENAME\SHARE as well but you'll forgive me if I don't risk trying it out - having to rebuild one itunes library with 6K songs once was enough - never again