MyCloud Does Not Work Well with iTunes

I’ve had my WD MyCloud drive for a couple of years. The main reason for buying it was to store my very large iTunes library (~1TB) and as a TimeMachine backup device. After I moved my iTunes library to the MyCloud device (using iTunes move library option in preferences). I noticed a couple of things:

  1. My songs show up with an explanation mark. This usually signifies that a file cannot be located. However, when I click on the file to play, it’s there and then the exclamation mark goes away. It’s as though it doesn’t know the file’s there until it’s played.

  2. The other thing I’ve noticed is that my device is not always discovered after I re-start and I log back in. I see the device in Finder but when I click it, I can’t always see the files. What I have to do when this happens is “relaunch” Finder by holding the Option key and pressing relaunch. Then I can see the files. I have set up the device as a network drive to be launched on startup (Go, Connect to Server). My external drive uses a static IP address.

If I don;t remember to connect to the drive this way, and I download songs form iTunes, they don’t get saved in library on the WD MyCloud…they get saved to the C drive instead in the iTunes Media library folder.

Any suggestions? Some people have suggested that for my intended use, I should have bought an Apple drive.

Generally the problem stems from not copying over the entire iTunes folder to the My Cloud. All too often people just copy over the single folder containing all their albums. Do an internet search to find directions for properly moving or copying an iTunes library to an NAS device and for changing the media library location within the iTunes program.

Also see the following threads or do a subforum search for iTunes to find several other discussions on various iTunes issues:

https://community.wd.com/t/adding-new-folders-to-music-on-mycloud-not-recognised-by-network-music-player/158806

https://community.wd.com/t/itunes-server-doesnt-work-anymore/95261

https://community.wd.com/t/album-artwork-isnt-visible/155518

https://community.wd.com/t/album-art-for-songs-using-dlna-or-itunes/154123

Thanks Bennor. As I mentioned, I did the move within iTunes. It created an entire structure and folders on the external drive (iTunes Media…) and moved all the files into the Music sub-folder. When I download music, they get saved in the Music folder unless it doesn’t see the drive. On my local disk, there’s another identical folder structure as the one on the external drive. It’s completely void of files unless of course, I download a file when the external drive is not recognized by iTunes.

This happens when the iTunes program does not know where the iTunes Media folder is stored. You need to get into the iTunes program settings and look up where the folder is being stored – if it does not show the correct path to your NAS, iTunes will always default to storing media on the C drive. So, now you have media in both places and will have to move media off of C drive over to the NAS once you get the problem fix.

BTW, this does not indicate My Cloud does not work well with iTunes. It DOES indicate you did not set up iTunes correctly when making the move. It could be a simple misspelling or something more complicated.

As indicated did you also change the iTunes media library setting to point to the My Cloud?

See the following post I made in the iTunes server doesn’t work anymore thread:
https://community.wd.com/t/itunes-server-doesnt-work-anymore/95261/59

One typically has to change the media library from pointing at their local computer like the following screen capture shows:

To the following screen capture where the media library is now on the My Cloud as the following screen capture indicates:

I found this article very useful:

I used the second method where you copy the entire iTunes folder to the NAS and them restart iTunes holding down the Option key. It worked perfectly and now I can play my iTunes Library from the NAS.