Slow response editing iTunes media and library file on My Cloud

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Stubaan

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Hi folks

Setup: I keep my entire iTunes folder on a My Cloud, i.e. media folder and iTunes Library file (*.itl). When I open iTunes, I point it to the My Cloud location to load up the .itl library file.

Problem: I am finding the response time of iTunes when working with these remote media - especially when editing their metadata - to be excruciatingly slow.

For example, just accessing the metadata ("Show info" : CMD+i) for an album, or even a track, entails a 20-second spinning wheel. If I edit any metadata fields, then processing those changes takes an additional ~15 seconds per track (and sometimes minutes if I've embedded album artwork). For an audiobook with hundreds of small tracks this process takes ~15 seconds to apply to each and every track. If the tracks are larger then the time to process is proportionately longer too. Embedding audiobook art is the peak nightmare scenario.

Likely the issue lies with the way iTunes is doing its thing in concert with the My Cloud NAS, but I'm hoping someone in this community has the same setup as me and has found some success alleviating their frustrations.

Known issues due to relatively slower upload speeds:
I know that upload speeds are always far slower than download speeds, and uploading plays a much more prominent role when hosting iTunes on My Cloud. I can accept the wait-time to load up the large library each time I open iTunes (even though this seems like it should be a download process), and I can even live with the slow process of importing new music (constrained by wifi upload speeds). However, I am constantly organizing my music and audiobooks by editing metadata, and this process is excruciatingly slow.

I went with the My Cloud route for the benefit of wireless access. I assumed that the inevitable bottleneck due to upload speeds would only apply to the process of initially transferring the library, and subsequently adding any new media to the library located on My Cloud. This appears not to be the case.

Known issues due to separating the locations of the iTunes Media folder and iTunes Library (.itl):
When I initially elected to move my large music and audiobook collection to a My Cloud, my research suggested that it would be wiser not to keep my media and library file in separate locations. My personal experience supported this advice: previously I had kept the media on an EHD and the .itl library file on my local machine, and I consistently encountered broken links and repeatedly had to regenerate my iTunes library file. For a collection as large as mine this was an extraordinarily time-consuming process on each occasion. The current setup has proven much much more stable in this regard, but working with the media is an untenably frustrating process.

Has anyone encountered this issue and figured out a way to improve performance?
 

cjmnews

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You are running into the reasons why NAS based iTunes is not recommended.

The only performance improvement I can provide is to disable the XML version of your library.
Edit->Preferences, Advanced, remove the check mark next to Share iTunes XML with other applications

That could give you a little boost. Eliminating a secondary write of the library in XML along side the ITL file that is the library.
A wired connection could help as well. Assuming you have a 1 Gb network, that would double Wireless N speeds.

Outside of that you seem to have the whole NAS set up covered well. As you know iTunes was not meant to work with NAS.
 
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