Friday 28 February 2014

What is the point of using an iTunes Server on a NAS such as Synology DS214Play

Trying to set Up a Synology DS214Play NAS Server. I clicked on a few bundled appplications including iTunes server. My Network is about 4Pc's plus an iMac.
The iMac is my Master Station for Music. All CD's are imported on it and iTunes Store Purchases.
When I came to set up the Synology Cloud Station which syncs Music, Video, Photos between networked devices on the iMac I noticed lots of activity and the Music Sync Folder filling up.
Next day switching on the iMac and going to iTunes all the library of 26GB of music had gone together with playlists.
I was able to go into the Time Machine App and restore back to yesterday and the music started reloading but still did not appear in iTunes.
I then found that "Music" had moved from the normal position in Finder to User and the iTunes Folder structure was there.
Moving the "Music " folder back to the previous position in Finder reinstated my Library in iTunes

Alternative methods for sorting out the iTunes library were found.

In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.Alternatively, depending on exactly when and why the library went missing, there may be a more recent .tmp file in the main iTunes folder that can be renamed as iTunes Library.itl to restore the library to a recent state  See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.When you get it all working make a backup
 Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library, or a backup of it, then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device

 
I've noticed more of these missing library posts of late and a common factor to most since I started asking is AVG Anti-Virus. It seems in some cases it might be at least part of the reason why the library file disappears. Try excluding the iTunes folder from any AV scanning process.

I do query the point of having iTunes on the Server.
Response from a Forum
You experience is almost exactly the same as mine and you are asking the exact same question. And as you may have already gathered from this thread, there appears to be o point whatsoever in the iTunes server. The approach I have taken is to change the setting in iTunes on my laptop to point directly to the folder on my NAS drive where I store all my music. Note that this is different to just adding a folder to the library. By doing this it means that the iTunes folder where iTunes stores it's database, apps, music, videos, etc will be on the NAS instead of on my local PC.
However, to access your music and videos on apple devices through the native apps you still need to synchronise via iTunes so it will copy the files to your device. This of course means that you cannot access all your music/videos from your iPad/iPhone if you have a large volume of media as it will not all fit.
The only way to access all your media from your ipad/iPhone is to use non-Apple apps. For example my NAS drive comes with an app that plays music and will access it all directly from the NAS. And I'm sure here are a number of third party apps that will do the same.
So basically, my advice to you is to ignore the iTunes server, it is a complete waste and I feel sorry for the developers who built it, and third party companies such as those selling these NAS drives should stop using it as a marketing tool for their own products as it also reflects badly on them (in my opinion anyway).

 



 



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