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iTunes can't find Network Storage

I am stumped by this problem.

Had iTunes on my old HP PC with music library of about 40 GB stored on Network Associated Storage (Netgear Ready NV+). Usually controlled this using SONOS...worked great. New ripped CD's were deposited in right files in NAS iTunes volume. Everything great.

Then my PC got stolen. Now have new HP PC with iTunes 8.0 and want to access the NAS hard drive iTunes music files. But nothing seems to work.

In iTunes Edit/Preferences/Advanced/iTunes Music Folder Location I use browse to insert the network location \\102.168.1.8\iTunes. iTunes hangs up. Always hangs up when I try this.

When I press on the left sidebar Shared iTunes Server...nothing happens.

For whatever reasons, the new empty iTunes software does not see and will not access the NAS iTunes folder.

BTW, Apple tech support tells me they do not support iTunes. Lovely.

Any suggestions...what am I doing wrong?

Glenn
gsherwood53
mlsstl
1,436 posts
 
In addition to the other suggestions, also check to see that you have a common "workgroup" name for the computers and that the computers are in the same IP address group. (You don't want one computer with 192.168.1.8 and another with a 192.168.0.* address, for example.)
blindjim
3,092 posts
 
got a firewall?

ya might have to physically go into it and select an IP range, or the specified device so the firewall will allow it to be seen by the pc.

after that you can try these:
open explorer and look for the NAS drive... find the folder within it which has the music files.

open one of the folders and right click onto it and choose 'open with' and select iTunes... if itunes is the only media player it should be listed and no need to pick open with, and simply pick play in itunes instead.

that should direct itunes to the drive.

if that isn't working... refer to my first note.

you can also connect the folder to your pc as a network folder. Then direct itunes to that now connected folder.

with my xp pro that's what I have to do to get things better... with xp home, I didn't have to. Vista didn't need such added measures as did xp pro... Pro has more security protocols in place. Vista just nags at you all the time until you disable the UAC... and setup defender better.

Also Vista has some out of the box issues at times with wireless connectivity... see my other Vista posts on the fix for that.

it's easy... even I can do it. it's just not terribly intuitive.
gsherwood53 OP
23 posts
 
Thanks for these suggestions. I will certainly try all these.

Yes, the NAS path was a typo...it is 192.168.1.8.

Thanks again
Glenn
gsherwood53 OP
23 posts
 
BTW, should have mentioned...Windows (XP Pro) does see the NAS. The NAS and its folders can be seen on My Network Places (which includes the iTunes and other files).

Also in Itunes Preferences Advanced iTunes Music Folder location, the NAS iTunes path is also shown, but as I said, iTunes would not accept the network path, and hangs up.

So it seems, Windows sees the NAS iTunes location, but iTunes does not.

Thanks again.
herman
2,253 posts
 
I would try browsing to the network location rather than inserting it. If it shows up in "my computer" then you should be able to browse to it. If it doesn't show up in "my computer" you need to figure out how to get it there. Perhaps you need to give it an alias which makes it look like any other drive?

Once iTunes sees it it still won't play the files until you add them. Naming a music folder in iTunes advanced preferences only tells it where to put files it adds in the future, not where they are now. To add them you can either use the iTunes menus or just drag and drop the file folders into the iTunes library.
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