Can I get a good guide on how to use my synology 716+ NAS, to store all my music files, and when I open itunes on my iMac, MacBook air, or windows laptop, or even when I use AppleTV, I can access this music (so its not stored locally on my computers)?Also, I've attempted this in the past, but with itunes on my iMac, on reboot, it would never mount my share, so it always defaulted to default itunes library location (locally) and messes stuff up.I also see synology has an Itunes Server package, would that be a solution?Thanks. Im not using Synology but WD DL2100 8TB in RAID 1.
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I have a growing collection of photos from my DSLR that will soon be too large for my local disk. Fortunately do I have access to a Synology DS216play that I would like to use as the primary storage of my pictures. I would set up some back up to the cloud. As for transfer from my laptop to the NAS I am thinking the following.
I have been researching this for a long time and was hesitant because of the cloudy results people seem to have. I eventually went for it and it's been running well for me without any issues.How I did it:First have a solid Backup if anything goes wrong.So wherever you currently have your iTunes stored.
In the iTunes folder move ONLY the 'iTunes Media Folder' to the NAS. After that make sure the NAS in mounted and open iTunes. Then Under PrefrencesAdvancedChange. You want to change the location of the media and point it to the 'iTunes Media' folder on the NAS. Before clicking OK. Make sure the two boxes are checked 1.
Keep iTunes organized and 2.copy to library when adding to content. After confirming and clicking OK. It will relink the content to the new location.
Once that's complete. Under Finder go to System PrefencesUsers & GroupsLogin Items and add the 'iTunes Media' folder from the NAS. This will insure that the folds mounts from the NAS every time your computer starts up. If putting your computer to sleep no need to unmount the folder.Now with this setup, I can add media(music, movies, apps, iBooks etc) and sync my iOS devices from the server. I'm VERY happy with the setup as well as the other usage I get out of the server when traveling.Now if you use the 'iTunes server' that comes with your NAS that will only allow you to play music ONLY. Also you won't have any admin access to the music.
Streaming only. Which is cool if you have other people connected in you household.Hope this helps. To start with be aware that there are not infrequent posts here about NAS problems with iTunes. NAS is great conceptually but in execution issues can arise with iTunes and have been doing so for more than a decade. Everybody points fingers at everybody else but the bottom line is you are always running a risk of a mangled library.
Better is to use a plain external drive and use the NAS for backup.I believe the server package pretends to be a shared iTunes library without actually having an active version of iTunes open at the time. Have you read the manual or online documentation for the NAS? I don't own one and what I know is from issues people post here.The reason you were having problems before is your NAS is going to sleep and not waking up before you start iTunes. The same thing would happen even if you were using a plain external hard drive. If it only happens at startup you can try placing an alias to the iTunes application on the server, then an alias to that alias in your computer and start iTunes that way, not directly from the computer. To start with be aware that there are not infrequent posts here about NAS problems with iTunes. NAS is great conceptually but in execution issues can arise with iTunes and have been doing so for more than a decade.
Everybody points fingers at everybody else but the bottom line is you are always running a risk of a mangled library. Better is to use a plain external drive and use the NAS for backup.I believe the server package pretends to be a shared iTunes library without actually having an active version of iTunes open at the time.
Have you read the manual or online documentation for the NAS? I don't own one and what I know is from issues people post here.The reason you were having problems before is your NAS is going to sleep and not waking up before you start iTunes. The same thing would happen even if you were using a plain external hard drive. If it only happens at startup you can try placing an alias to the iTunes application on the server, then an alias to that alias in your computer and start iTunes that way, not directly from the computer. Im not using Synology but WD DL2100 8TB in RAID 1.
I have been researching this for a long time and was hesitant because of the cloudy results people seem to have. I eventually went for it and it's been running well for me without any issues.How I did it:First have a solid Backup if anything goes wrong.So wherever you currently have your iTunes stored. In the iTunes folder move ONLY the 'iTunes Media Folder' to the NAS.
After that make sure the NAS in mounted and open iTunes. Then Under PrefrencesAdvancedChange. You want to change the location of the media and point it to the 'iTunes Media' folder on the NAS. Before clicking OK.
Make sure the two boxes are checked 1. Keep iTunes organized and 2.copy to library when adding to content. After confirming and clicking OK. It will relink the content to the new location. Once that's complete. Under Finder go to System PrefencesUsers & GroupsLogin Items and add the 'iTunes Media' folder from the NAS.
This will insure that the folds mounts from the NAS every time your computer starts up. If putting your computer to sleep no need to unmount the folder.Now with this setup, I can add media(music, movies, apps, iBooks etc) and sync my iOS devices from the server. I'm VERY happy with the setup as well as the other usage I get out of the server when traveling.Now if you use the 'iTunes server' that comes with your NAS that will only allow you to play music ONLY.
Also you won't have any admin access to the music. Streaming only. Which is cool if you have other people connected in you household.Hope this helps. It will relink the content to the new location.No it won't, not unless they radically changed something in iTunes 12.5.1 that's been that way since iTunes 1.0.1 'Pointing' to the media folder in preferences has never gotten iTunes to re-link to media.
It will tell iTunes to put any new media there but iTunes will still look for old media in the old location. The only two way to get iTunes to follow relocation of media is either using the method I outlined where the entire iTunes folder is moved, or if you let all the links break, then find one and hope iTunes can construct the location of the others on that basis.Login Items and add the 'iTunes Media' folder from the NASAdding to login items will help if you log in to the computer but not if the NAS is set to sleep and you keep the computer running and then start iTunes. Something that may help in some cases is putting an alias to the iTunes application on the NAS, then pur an alias to that alias in your Dock and use that to start iTunes. It will force the NAS to wake in order to start iTunes.that will only allow you to play music ONLYYes, it acts as a shared library. Limnos wrote:it will relink the content to the new location.No it won't, not unless they radically changed something in iTunes 12.5.1 that's been that way since iTunes 1.0.1 'Pointing' to the media folder in preferences has never gotten iTunes to re-link to media.
It will tell iTunes to put any new media there but iTunes will still look for old media in the old location. The only two way to get iTunes to follow relocation of media is either using the method I outlined where the entire iTunes folder is moved, or if you let all the links break, then find one and hope iTunes can construct the location of the others on that basis.Login Items and add the 'iTunes Media' folder from the NASAdding to login items will help if you log in to the computer but not if the NAS is set to sleep and you keep the computer running and then start iTunes. Something that may help in some cases is putting an alias to the iTunes application on the NAS, then pur an alias to that alias in your Dock and use that to start iTunes.
It will force the NAS to wake in order to start iTunes.that will only allow you to play music ONLYYes, it acts as a shared library. Gitzbug: You're also better off putting the entire library on a single drive rather than having a split library with some items on one drive and others on another.
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When using a split library iTunes has to work with file paths to a different drive and when using a NAS this seems to be an area where things get a bit dodgy with NAS and iTunes not fully agreeing upon conventions.If you do want to split your library you need to relocate your media by consolidating it to the other drive. This is the only way to relocate media files only to another drive and have iTunes keep track of where they have been moved.iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored -This should say 'Change where your media files but not where your other library items are stored' - more information at: - and steps 5-8 inMay 2016 post by Kenichi Watanabe summarizing consolidate process. Correct this is how i have it.
My MBPr + NAS is my main iTunes where I sync to my iOS devices.Then on my Mac Mini I'm i running the iTunes Server and Plex. Again these are my exact steps and I've been up and running for a few months now. When I travel i can access the media(Movies and Music) via my server app on my phone. AppleTV should be able to connect via iTunes Server but keep in mine you can only you one iTunes Server at a time but you can run your main iTuens while using the iTunes Server on another computer. Apple Footer.This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided; every potential issue may involve several factors not detailed in the conversations captured in an electronic forum and Apple can therefore provide no guarantee as to the efficacy of any proposed solutions on the community forums. Apple disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions and conduct of any third parties in connection with or related to your use of the site.
All postings and use of the content on this site are subject to the.
The most common reason to purchase a NAS device for your home is to keep control of your data, rather than handing it over to a third party like Google or Amazon to store and process for you. In addition to simply storing data, modern NAS devices (like the ) offer many other compelling features, like Plex, databases, web servers, logging stations, and more.Earlier this week, Synology announced three new applications that install on DSM, the operating system that powers their NAS devices. The first, Drive, is a rewrite of Synology's Cloud Station Suite.
It streamlines the process of syncing data across multiple devices so that your files are always available on the NAS. The second, Moments, is used to help organize your photos automatically (think: Google Photos running in your house). The last new application, Office, is a browser-based productivity suite (think: Google Docs). Both Moments and Office build upon Drive, utilizing its functionality for the backend storage.Let's take a look at all three of these new features. DriveAt the core of all of the updates is Synology Drive, which acts like a combination of Dropbox and File Explorer. It's installed automatically as a dependency when you install the Moments or Office apps that I'll talk about below.When you install it on your Synology NAS device, you won't really see much other than a file manager. You can see the folders you have access to, and then standards like recent files, and the ever popular Recycle Bin.
Unlike the traditional File Station, Drive streamlines the view and removes a layer of complexity for most users by not showing every file on the NAS but rather just your own Drive.There are also mobile and desktop apps that help provide easy access and extra functionality to your Synology Drive, and the desktop version is available on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. While the mobile app seems like little more than a file explorer, the desktop app adds the ability to sync files between a folder on your desktop and the Synology NAS, which acts like a personal Dropbox account for those who. This is also a great way to make sure specific folders on your system to the central repository.Overall, once you install and configure Drive, it's the type of tool that you generally won't directly interact with, but it provides the bits and pieces behind the scenes to allow Synology to provide more cool functionality with other tools like Moments and Office. MomentsWe're taking more photos than every before, and oftentimes they end up sitting on your phone and never seeing the light of day again, aside from an occasional share on social media.
The biggest problem is organizing thousands of pictures is a difficult task, and manually updating them based on content is a hassle. Many people, since it provides automatic backups, has facial recognition to automatically tag your, and allows people to share their pictures with friends and family.
The downside, as with all cloud providers, is that you are no longer in control of your data. Enter Synology Moments.Moments is basically a Google Photos clone, and while not quite as full featured yet, does a surprisingly good job of organizing your photos. Synology's press release touts that Moments uses 'deep learning technology to automatically identify people, places, and objects in photos and sorts them into albums accordingly,' and while they don't explain what 'deep learning technology' means, the tool does work very well.Installing Moments will automatically install other components, including the aforementioned Drive, but the process is just as easy as installing anything else on a Synology NAS device. Once installed, uploading photos into Moments is as easy as clicking the plus sign in the upper right hand corner. Moments works well on a variety of file formats, including RAW files, which is great to see. The application also accepts videos, but doesn't seem to analyze the video, instead only putting it in a Video category for you.Once uploaded, your NAS device will get to work analyzing the files and automatically tagging them based on the content. After uploading a few hundred photos, the CPU on the DS1517+ was pegged at 100% for awhile, and performance utilizing other features of the device were a little sluggish, but still usable.While the device is chugging through the images, you can go into the Albums section and see in real time as it categorizes what it finds.
It automatically puts people's faces into a group and when it doesn't recognize someone, it simply says, 'Who's this?' Underneath a picture of the person. Click on the question and you're prompted to type in the person's name. The whole process is very simple and convenient.Moments is very good at facial recognition. For example, it examined pictures of me both with and without facial hair and was able to put them together in the same group and it did the same with my wife, regardless of her hair style or color.In addition to facial recognition, Moments also tags images based on the subject.
For example, if it sees flowers, it will label the image as a garden; if there are clouds, it will tag it as such; and if there's snow (which we have a lot of here in Minnesota), it will categorize that for you as well. While the categorization works extremely well, there does not seem to be a way to correct it when it makes a mistake.Based on the default albums, it looks like Moments is supposed to use geolocation to tag where photos were taken, but that section was always empty and there didn't appear to be a way to manually add photos into this section. I suspect this is either a bug, or a future feature, although I wasn't able to get clarification on this from Synology.While you can manually upload files from your desktop, Synology also has a mobile app you can use as well. The real advantage here is that it can be set to automatically upload photos to your NAS device. You have the ability to determine if you want to limit uploading to Wi-Fi only in order to save your data plan, whether you only want to upload photos (skipping videos), and what to do with duplicate files.
In addition, you can have the uploads only occur while your mobile device is charging, a.Although this is a great first version of the application, there are still some quirks that will need to be ironed out and some other features that Synology will have to release if they want to stay competitive with Google. For example, while Moments can correctly identify a dog or a cat, it can't recognize that it's YOUR dog or cat, and given how much people love their pets, this is something Synology will need to add.
Searches appear to use an 'OR' instead of an 'AND,' meaning if I search for 'cat and dog,' it shows images with either a cat or a dog in them. In addition, there does not appear to be an easy way to remove an incorrectly applied label, nor to remove tags from people.
These are all software features that I suspect Synology will be adding in the near future. OfficeWhere Moments is primarily a consumer-based tool, Office will be mainly of interest to those in an SMB environment. Acting as a replacement for Microsoft Office (or Office365), the not-so-subtly named Office gives users on the network the ability to edit documents, spreadsheets, and slides (still in beta) via the Synology NAS device, both alone as well as collaboratively. If you've ever used Google Docs, you'll find that Synology Office works the same way.The tool works within a web browser and allows users to type up documents, create spreadsheets, and make presentations. The real power is with the ability to collaborate with others.
Simply share the document with friends and coworkers, and everyone can read and edit it in real-time.While Synology Office doesn't have all of the features of Microsoft Word, it has everything that most people would use on a day-to-day basis, and over time I'm sure more features will be added to meet the needs of niche groups. ConclusionIt's clear that Synology realizes they must compete not only on a hardware front, but also on the software front as well. With tools like Google Docs, Dropbox, and Google Photos being offered to users for free, Synology is trying to bring that functionality inside your own walls to give you full control over all of your data.If you currently own a Synology NAS device and have a need to manage your photos and documents, I'd highly recommend looking into installing Moments and Office. While both of these tools are missing some functionality, for a version 1.0 product, both tools hit the ball out of the park and provide yet another compelling reason to have a NAS device in your home or office. At the price point (free!), it's a no brainer to try out.If you don't currently own a NAS device but have been on the fence about purchasing one, this might be the extra motivation you need to finally pull the trigger.
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