I think maybe that earlier Copy I did wasn’t quite right so I’ll start over.
Well, to check this, I would look using a file browser, NOT iTunes. iTunes expects to see a library structure, and a database, and playlists may not ‘look right’ to iTunes, even though the physical file has been copied perfectly. That’s assuming you did the copy using a file manager, rather than iTunes. From my recent reading on the problems with iTunes, I think there’s a way to get iTunes to move or copy its library to another location; this might sort out the playlist issues, assuming iTunes does a good job . Here, for instance:
http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201543
Or any of these links:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=moving+an+itunes+library+to+another+drive
All this fuss started because I was concerned about the day when my 160Gb iPod Classic would turn up it’s toes
I have used MediaMonkey to extract all the music from a friend’s iPod. It undoes all the stupid filename obfuscation that The Ghost Of Steve Jobs insists on applying to iThing file systems, and places all the music in a nice, hierarchical file system, ordered as per your wishes. Having done that, it will then allow you to select which music you want from your collection to be loaded on to the iThing, and will sync it up for you. That then gives you a secure, clean & logical music library, independent of the iPod. My music collection is much too big for any iPod, and ripped from CDs to FLAC, so no iPod would play it without transcoding to AAC.
I could have used the same ‘Auto-Organise’ function in MM to move my library from USB HDD to the MC, but I chose to move everything manually, and then run a MM script to correct the old database file to reflect the new location.
that when I added new tracks to my iTunes on the PC it would automatically sync with the MC data
I don’t download music, and certainly not from iTunes, so I can’t comment on using Apple as your music shop. But I have transferred my MM library to the MC NAS, so I only have one music library, on the MC (backed up to USB disks). This means that any changes I make using MM (as a music library manager) are also made to the DLNA-served Twonky media library, and can be streamed around the house.
iTunes is inscrutable. Some people seem to have no problem with it at all, but many, many others suffer endlessly with deleted files, duplicated files, convoluted library stores, etc. It’s the same piece of software, so I don’t understand why this difference exists. I know that, in the brief period I tried to use it, it completely mangled my music library, moving files around like a mad thing.
As for the Cyrus playing from the iPod but not the MC, well, it depends how it accesses the music on the iPod. If it simply looks at the iPod as a file system, and reads the files off the iPod and uses its own AAC to audio DAC, then you might expect to be able to point it at another storage location (the MC), and expect it to read the files. But I suspect that’s not what’s happening, and it may be that the iPod is providing some sort of interface to its database, and allowing the Cyrus to do remote control, with the iPod acting as digital media renderer (i.e. converting the files to audio, which is then routed to your Cyrus). Without knowing what model of Cyrus it is, or whether it’s simply an amp, or an AV amp, or a DAC amp, it’s hard to say what it’s doing.
I have a cheap Sony compact system in the bedroom, that I can connect a USB storage device to, and the Sony will read the file system, and I can select files from the USB drive, and play them via the Sony’s internal DAC (I imagine it must be converting MP3 files to a raw data stream, and then sending that to the DAC used for the CD player; quite an efficient use of resources).
I don’t know if the copy of iTunes on the MC is valid or not
I don’t think there’s a copy of iTunes on the MC. I only think that the MC supports an iTunes library; two very different things. See pp100-102 of the MyCloud User Manual, although that’s a bit unclear, since it says ‘iTunes scans any shares that have the Media Serving setting enabled, including the Public share by default.’, but then goes on to say ‘The iTunes Media Server supports the following file extensions: FLAC, M4A, MP3, MP4A and WAV.’, which confuses what it is that’s doing the scanning; it is any copy of iTunes, running on a machine that access the MyCloud, or is it an iTunes Server, running on the MyCloud…?
It’s possible that iTunes supports the concept of a media server, working like DLNA, but using Apple’s own proprietary standard. This server could be implemented even in iPods, as the four-element architectural split of media library/media server/media controller/media renderer is applicable to both integrated players, and separate element playing systems. If Apple had the design foresight, this architecture could have been implemented from the outset, and allowed versatility in product development.
