QNAP NAS with iTunes

[graham131]

UPDATE:

Restarted NAS - have now set the following (after reading some other posts)

Time Machine - switched OFF
itunes Server switched ON but with Chinese Simplified Language

Folder structure unter qMultimedia as follows

\qmultimedia\music\artist\album etc etc

IT WORKS for me!

Imported all of my music to qmultimedia as above.
630Gb total - 124,00 tracks

Slow(ish) to load library - 6 minutes!! - however once loaded almost instananeous.

After NAS reboot (auto shut down overnight) still works - but with 6 min reload.

FINGERS CROSSED!

1 further question though - no visibility of cover art (or the ability to user cover flow etc) when using a shared library (this also applies though for my share from mac to pc) - therefore I ask if anyone knows if this is possible to enable of not?

Thanks

gRaham

[chiatar]

RE:

Note:
a. If you enable the recycle bin, delete the music’s in iTunes will cause whole music folder disappear. There is special handling for the iTunes program must be implemented on the NAS. We will solve this soon but currently please be aware..

I found this information AFTER using the delete function in Itunes.

Now iTunes can't locate a bunch of my music files (though they still seem to exist).

Does any one have an advice on how I can bring my music Library back in order?

thx

[pelpinda]

I created a folder in the MultiMedia folder named iTunes. It is working with my iTunes, but...

the files do not get the correct names in iTunes when uploading directly to MultiMedia/iTunes. I mean name, album and artist are all mentioned in the name file. What is the best way to change this? Now i upload the files in my itunes and put them on the NAS.

Why can't I use coverflow when connected to the NAS folder?

[KieranJW]

I am unable to open iTunes. My music is stored in the Qmultimedia folder of my QNAP and the properties tell me that they have special permissions for everyone etc. when i try to change the permissions to allow full access they change back when i click on "apply". Can you help please?

[jeroen1978]

In my Itunes I also can't see the Qnap machine by the shared locations in Itunes.

On my Qnap TS-119, I enabled the 'Itunes Service' option. In I-Tunes the option ' Detect Shared libraries' is also enabled.

My Itunes version is 9.2.1(5), the firmware version of my Qnap TS-119 is 3.3.1 Build 0720T.

I also having trouble, selecting the Qnap by my Time Machine program on my macbook pro.

[pbvdgaag]

Hi Folks,

The discussions above tells me that the iTunes functionality of a QNAP server does't work quite well with iTunes on a Mac. If you want tot store all your music in one location you can do the following.

What all the people above propose is using a shared disk as a location from where the iTunes program on your Mac will find (with some help) it's music.

That is to say the music is physically stored on your NAS. iTunes uses a library which is pointing at this storage location; this library itself is normally located in your iTunes map on your Mac. Some people in the discussion tell that you can make up another library by alt-clicking on the iTunes icon in the Finder, that will give you the opportunity of a brandnew library. If you choose for a new library: iTunes will make up an brandnew ITunes map e.g. iTunes1.. Leaving the old one aside. Normally this isn't a problem, but if you have an iPhone, every information from your iPhone is not pointed at anymore. Your iPhone stuff is located there! (I don't know for sure if drag and drop in the Finder wille relocate all the iPhone stuff properly: so I didn't dare to do it.) . So, how to make your old library think that your music is stored on your NAS, and that leaves your iPhone information in tact?

Here is how to get there properly?

In Finder: copy the iTunes Music map to the MultiMedia Map on your NAS
in iTunes: select all the music you have and 'delete' it's informaton: thats is to say delete the library that points to the music that is still located in your Mac. At this point you may select that you'll throw away the original music; but for your own sake it is better to do this manually at the stage that you're certain the NAS-thing works.
in the Finder, with iTunes open: drag and drop all the maps in the Map iTunes on your NAS onto the Library-part of the iTunes window; it will confirm your choice by becoming a bit grey and once you drop these maps iTunes will rebuild its library. Once done: by control-clicking on a music file: select Reveal in Finder: and you will see that all your music files (as you earlier did) a located on your NAS
To make this situation more permanent:

in iTunes: open the Preferences and select the tab 'Advanced'. There you must changes the location of the iTunes map: make it point to the iTunes map on your NAS.

If it all works, in the Finder you can manually delete the iTunes Music map in de iTunes folder.

Have a lot of fun!

[Munwin]

Hi,
I have a similar problem to some other posts.
I have a brand new TS-210, and connecting via one of two PCs (one Vista, one Windows 7).
I have put a modest library of tunes in Qmultimedia, and managed to redirect my main PC login iTunes (v10.1.1.4) to use it as its library. So far so good.
However, I cannot get iTunes in other logins and the other computer to recognise it as a Home Share directory

1) I have confirmed that the other computer can see the NAS drive, via mapping.
2) I have tried without Firewall - no different
3) I have looked for m3U files on NAS - none present.
4) I have updated firmware in NAS => 3.3.9 Build 0105T
5) I did SSH and checked - I believe mt-daapd server is running - doesn't seem to be hung up on file names.
6) I tried adding a Smart Playlist in QNAP iTunes Server. Also tried Simplified Chinese instead of English. No help.

- Looking through other posts, I have not tried
o removing all files and bringing them back one by one.
o installing ipkg mt-daapd, and setting up as default - should I really have to do this?
Any other ideas?

It seems to me to be that my iTunes currently has a Home Not-Share feature.
Martin.

[Neotype33]

I looked through the 3 pages of post and did not see anyone else with the same issue or any solution to my issue. My goal is to use the Itunes "service" on all systems on my network. Please respond after you read my whole post please. With that said I am open to any suggestions but would appreciate responses to my post actually on my issue. Thanks for the read.

My issue/ Findings:
QNap TS-419P+ 4 drives installed Version 3.4.1 Build0315
Itunes service is on

Mac Desktop see's QNAPSERVER(itunes) and works perfect.
Mac Laptop see's QNAPSERVER(itunes) and works perfect.
Windows 7 x64 ultimate Laptop see's QNAPSERVER(itunes) shared service but once I click the share, the itunes client starts acting like it is scanning and then drops back to the default music folder.
Windows 7 x64 ultimate Desktop see's QNAPSERVER(itunes) shared service but once I click the share, the itunes client starts acting like it is scanning and then drops back to the default music folder.

Mac systems work fine, PC/s does not. I have reinstalled my desktop becasue of a recent raid issue and with nothing loaded but the OS/patches and Itunes I have the same issue. Things seem to point to some kind of incompatibility with the itunes service on the Qnap server and PC itunes client.

Can anyone validate that the Itunes service works on with the qnap server and their Windows 7 PC? I'd also be interested what model QNAP server you have as it could also be a model version issue.

Thanks again,

-Greg

I'd also like to add, I am using Round Robin for the network configuration on the Qnap Server with a Linksys 52 port switch. Nothing special is configured inside the switch. I don't feel its an issue there as the Mac systems work. But thought the Round robin configuration could have some bearing on the situation. Thanks again.

*Update*
Looks like I'm not the one one with this issue Link to the German QNAP site (Its a cached version and translated to English): http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwebcache.googleusercontent.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3Am6rySzJa9X4J%3Aforum.qnapclub.de%2Fviewtopic.php%253Ff%253D328%2526t%253D14456%2BQNAP%2B%2522Reading%2Bin%2Bnew%2Bblock%2522%2B%2522Block%2Bexhausted%2522%26cd%3D1%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26source%3Dwww.google.com&sl=de&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwebcache.googleusercontent.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3Am6rySzJa9X4J%3Aforum.qnapclub.de%2Fviewtopic.php%253Ff%253D328%2526t%253D14456%2BQNAP%2B%2522Reading%2Bin%2Bnew%2Bblock%2522%2B%2522Block%2Bexhausted%2522%26cd%3D1%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26source%3Dwww.google.com&sl=de&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

*2nd Update*
Well I was able to work though some of the issues, but Itunes service still does not work. FYI I resolved the itunes service not liking certain music files by just moving the files off the server and then back to the server again (I know nice right)... As described in the links above I was getting errors like the ones in both links above when executing the commands in the second link. Since deleting my music is not an option as he chose to do. I moved what ever it did not like off and ran it again until it completed. I deiced to put the music back and see what would happen if I ran it again. Worked fine... however the Itunes service still would not work with the PC...


*3rd Update* - Resolved
I had to format every drive and reinstall the firmware. Itunes is working from everything now. I am doing the file transfer from the ssh console in the hopes that this will correct whatever is making the system not happy... I have an external dual dock eSATA bay. I have a 250GB with my music on it formatted in NTFS from when I made a backup. I'm performing a copy command:

Copy Recursively(sub folders/files) /Source path/ /Destination path/
cp -r /share/eSATADisk1/Music /share/Multimedia/Music

Don't forget to change the owner and group if needed:
chown -R Username /share/Multimedia/Music

I reset the system, removed all the drives, formatted them in the NAS reapplied the firmware. Reapplied the old firmware. All same issue. During my quest I loaded a QPKG ( and my apache folder was made into a file base on what I saw in the SSH client, being new to Linux I could not figure out the command to make it a folder again. I worked a 'fix" that did not get everything back the way it was originally) to see if that would be a good alternative and it corrupted my web service and Itunes stopped working all together. I found a comment that someone formated the drives from another PC rather than the NAS. I figured that's the only thing I have not done yet and like new again. So far... everything is working on PC and Mac with Itunes.

I Hope this helps someone else... Apparently if you have an issue there is no real solution based on all the forums I have sifted though for the last week. Backup and format the f-er seems to be the path of least headache/ heartburn. I'd love to see some type of good logging so I could look at it to tell me what the ** is really wrong...

[jtucker]

Thanks for this guide. Cleared up a lot for me.

[skoos]

Dear ALL,

I'm strongly thinking about purchasing a 212 QNAP NAS.
I'd use the iTunes server to store my music, sync my music to my ipod/ipad/iphone and to stream this files to my media player....because I don't want to keep a computer turned on just to ** or listen to music. For fist sight WD TV or Apple TV....

My question is: Will the media player play files/playlists from the NAS and play it on the home theather?

I don't want to spend so much money on this NAS in case this method is not possible....Could anyone help me?

Best regards.

[DamoUK]

If you enable the recycle bin, delete the music’s in iTunes will cause whole music folder disappear. There is special handling for the iTunes program must be implemented on the NAS. We will solve this soon but currently please be aware..

I'm just wondering if after 4 years, this has been fixed yet (original post was October 2007)?

I need to delete some music, but don't want to risk it, in case it all goes horribly wrong!

[Neotype33]

I found that it indexes the mp3 files and will hangs on any other files. I did not test exactly which files. But with all files removed but mp3 files it works just fine.

Hope that helps.

[rrychter]

Thanks for all the information above. I have had a read of various posts. The one on iLounge (http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articl ... ard-drive/) is probably the most detailed.
Followed this and some other posts to copy my music from my media server to the NAS. Did all the organization & consolidation steps and finally copied the files to my QNAS.
Next I started iTunes on my MACBook. I don't want to add the directory of the NAS to my iTunes as I will not always be connected to the network, so the NAS appeared in the Shared libraries and I can see all the music there.

The problem is that the album artwork is missing and some songs no longer appear under their albums.

Has anyone got a move from PC to NAS to work 100%? That is all music is in the folders they were in before with album, artist, track info and also album artwork.

Please don't post that you have the same issue because that is just wasting everyone's time.

[rspike12]

What about the daily use of iTunes.
I mean when you click a song to listen it and the HD in the qnap is in standby you see the colored wheel spins, right?
How many seconds to get access to the song?

I'm telling this cause I' m using a Time Capsule to keep my iTunes Library but every time It goes into standby I have to wait 7-8 seconds to have access to my files.
This thing is annoying me.

Is the same with qnap?

[schumaku]

I'm telling this cause I' m using a Time Capsule to keep my iTunes Library but every time It goes into standby I have to wait 7-8 seconds to have access to my files.

That's about the time the spin-up of the HDD needs until data is becoming accessible again - industry standard.