Roon Server and iTunes library both on Synology, can't import iTunes Library

Support
1

Setup
Roon Version 1.2 (build 147) stable (64bit) on 15" late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro, running OSX 10.11.5
Roon Version 1.2 (build 147) stable (64bit) on Synology 716+II, 8GB memory, Roon Server installed on volume1 1TB SSD drive
Music files stored in same SSD drive different shared folder named “Music” in volume1
Approximate 8,000 tracks

Problem
iTunes library and media files are all located in the NAS volume1 SSD, when I add iTunes Library in Roon, I can see it shows the files are scanned and shown “Watching for new files in real time” afterwards, however no songs from the iTunes library are imported.
I used to set up Watched Folders in Roon and can import the iTunes library without problem.

I can confirm my iTunes is sharing an XML file, and I can successfully add the location of the XML file into Roon Settings Storage page. And I can confirm the XML updates when I change something in iTunes.

2

I am having the same problem. Here’s my guess: the iTunes XML contains local file system paths, probably from the Mac or Windows system you are running iTunes on. However, those paths are different that the ones on the Synology. Thus, Roon cannot find the referenced titles.

3

Hi @Sheung_Chi_Kwan and @Boris_Pruessmann ----- Thank you both for your feedback and sorry for the issue here. I will be contacting you both via PM shortly to have you upload copies of your iTunes XMLs to our servers to be reviewed by our developers. Thanks!

-Eric

4

Hi guys,

I reviewed both XML files and they appear to have the same issue, which @Boris_Pruessmann seems to have suspected as well.

In both cases, Roon’s Core is running on one machine, and iTunes is running on a different one (like, say, @Sheung_Chi_Kwan’s Macbook Pro). The paths in the XML tell iTunes how to find the files on the Synology. For example:

///Volumes/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Music/Compilations/Greatest%20Hits%20Of%20The%2080's/1-02%20More%20Than%20I%20Can%20Say.mp3

This path works from the Macbook Pro, but when Roon is running on the NAS, unfortunately it’s not a path that Roon can resolve.

On a Synology device, the path to your music is going to be something like /volumeX/Music/iTunes/ITunesMedia, so this is not going to work as is. You might be able to make a copy of the XML and modify it to include updated paths that Roon can resolve, but this isn’t something we’ve tested or can make claims about.

We are investigating some possible changes to our iTunes functionality. I don’t have a firm timeline on that work, but it would be great to know more about your goals here – are you looking for a one shot import of your iTunes playlists? Ongoing syncing of your iTunes playlists to Roon? Is there other software that’s done this better in the past we can look at, or were you just using iTunes until now, and now want to migrate over to Roon?

If you can let me know more about what you’re looking for, we can work to get the right functionality built. This feature was originally built so that a Roon Core could actively monitor an iTunes library on the same machine, on an ongoing basis. Before we make any more changes to this functionality, I want to make sure I understand what you guys are looking for.

Sorry I don’t have something more immediate to offer here guys – unfortunately in many cases when running your Core on a NAS, you will not be able to utilize Roon’s iTunes Watching feature unless you edit the XML to reference paths Roon can resolve.

Thanks in advance for your feedback on the questions above, guys.

1 Like
5

To be honest, I don’t really know how I want to use iTunes going forward. In the past, I have had my iTunes library on my laptop, synchronising it to my NAS so that my Sonos system could pick it up. That way I could take my music with me (laptop), still having it easily available at home. And I would be able to maintain all my playlists of course.

Now if Roon offered me a good story regarding my music at home and my music on my laptop, there would be exactly no need for iTunes. In absence of that, I would love to be able to have a similar setup as described above, just with Roon replacing Sonos.

6

I’m still using iTunes to organise my music library (except DSD files) and playlists for several reasons:

  1. It’s simple to use and well organised.
  2. I can keep all my device music files organised at once.
  3. I can have my music library synced to my iPhone and iPad, so I can listen to my music anytime, anywhere.

I hope Roon can keep syncing with iTunes, ie. if I add new tracks and create new playlists, it imports automatically to Roon as well. I will stick will Roon for playback, and iTunes just for organising the actual music files, playlists and syncing with my iDevices.

1 Like
7

What I really want is to get rid of iTunes, but since I’ve got so much invested in iTunes playlists, it’s not really possible at the moment.

So what I’d like instead is some way to be able to run Roon on the Synology NAS and use iTunes. This is currently not possible, since DSM can’t run iTunes. What we need is some kind of translator in Roon to tell it to look for music in path X on the NAS instead of path Y listed in the XML.

The actual music folder structure is the same, so as long as I could tell Roon to substitute e.g.
/volumes/music/iTunes/iTunes Media
with
/volume1/music/iTunes/iTunes Media/
everything should be OK. It’s only the very first part that differs.

8

Hello all,
I just invested a reasonable amount of cash in a decent NAS so I could take advantage of being able to place Roon core on it but now it seems a bit of waste considering the iTunes library issue.
It would be helpful if Roon were more transparent about the pros and cons of NAS based core from the outset instead of users finding out about the issue once they’ve encountered the problem and delved into the forums to find workaround which apparently is non existent at present.
I really hope Roon are making this a priority to fix!

9

I don’t have iTunes running on anything so I can’t test this, but this would seem to be something that a symbolic link on the NAS could fix.

Say, for instance, the path to the iTunes folder on the NAS is /volume1/iTunes and the “iTunes Media” folder is at the root of that directory.

Create the directory tree: /Volumes/Music and change into that directory then create a link:

ln -s /volume1/iTunes

At that point /Volumes/Music/iTunes/ will get you into the same relative path structure as on the Mac. Basically you’re using the power of the symbolic link to replicate the Mac path on the NAS. Sadly this won’t work if you’re running iTunes on windows with all of that C:\ nonsense :slight_smile:

The only issue is whether Roon properly substitutes spaces for the %20 that it parses out of the XML file.

10

To correct iTunes paths in the xml file I ran a small bash script to create a new xml file that I use for Roon:

itunesxml="/share/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.xml"
itunesxml4roon="/share/Music/RooniTunesXML/iTunes Library.xml"
echo "Manipulating iTunes Library.xml for Roon..."
sed 's#/Volumes/Music/iTunes#/share/Music/iTunes#g' "$itunesxml" > "$itunesxml4roon"

"itunesxml" - Variable assigned to the current path of your iTunes XML.
"itunesxml4roon" - Variable where the new xml file should be saved.

In the last line you should replace the path that needs to be corrected. In my case I replaced “/Volumes/Music/iTunes” with /share/Music/iTunes".

11

Late to this discussion… @mike @support

I have roon running on a sonic transporter. music files in NAS, and on my partner’s and my computers (MacBookPros). I don’t use iTunes, but my partner does, and I was hoping to do the whole iTunes integration thing to be able to use established playlists etc. But, as with the discussion above, Roon won’t see the XML library file on my partners computer and integrate with iTunes - even though it is the same folder that has all the iTunes music etc, which it can see and does import to Roon.

Ideally, I would like the Roon Core on my sonic transporter to be able to talk to iTunes libraries on both my and my partner’s computers simultaneously, so that our seperate roon profiles could have access to our separate iTunes configurations… that may be asking too much.

Anyway, any advice you could give - even if it is just confirming that this bird won’t fly, would be helpful. In which case I guess I just have to manually make playlists from my partner’s iTunes and import them into Roon - I presume this should work just fine…

thanks (and Happy New Year. Good riddance '16)

12

Hey @Anthony_Langlois – our iTunes integration has been rewritten from the ground up for our upcoming 1.3 release, so while this won’t work right now, some of this should be possible once that release ships.

Would you mind clarifying the setup a little? You have music files in 3 places (NAS, and 2 laptops) and you want playlists imported from iTunes on one of the laptops? Or both?

Does the iTunes library contain files from the NAS, or are all the files for each iTunes library stored on their respective laptops?

So you’re aware, all playlists imported into Roon (whether they’re from TIDAL, m3u files, or iTunes) are Global, meaning they’re shared with all profiles.

You can always take imported playlists and make a local copy in Roon, which can be profile specific.

13

Thanks @mike

On the setup - the ideal scenario is for playlists to be importable from both laptops; ideal because it would probably help more people. The reality is that I hardly use iTunes and my partner uses it all the time (I’m trying really hard to push the switch to Roon, but it takes time with some folks…). At the moment, neither iTunes library contains files from the NAS, they are just local on the laptop.

On the importing of playlists - I have had no luck importing the playlist from my partner’s laptop. I have read some of the discussions about which folder the playlist needs to be in. Currently I have copies of it in two folders.

The file structure is:

(smb)/(laptop)/(home dir.)/music/itunes//itunes music

I have tried putting a playlist in iTunes (which also holds the library xml), and a playlist in iTunes music (which is folders of music files) - it still doesn’t get picked up by Roon.

many thanks.

14

Hi @mike - hope you had some time off over the summer break. (hehe, being down South…)
Any news on this problem?
The thing that is particularly bugging me at the moment is the aspect to do with the playlist files in my partners iTunes. I can’t get them to show up in Roon at all.

15

Hi @Anthony_Langlois ----- Thank you for the report, I wanted to touch base with you in regard to the above.

As @mike mentioned, our iTunes integration has been rewritten from the ground up, and with the release of 1.3 closing in, we are confident this reconfiguration will make using iTunes with Roon a more homogeneous experience for our users.

Currently, as it stands, there are factors that must be harmonized in order for Roon to recognize iTunes generated playlists.

  1. The M3u file MUST be nested in the same location as the media that comprises it.

  2. Roon must be able to resolve the path of the playlist.

For example, if a path in my playlist is…

Playlist C:\Users\Eric\Music\Stan Getz\Spring Is Here\Stan Getz - Spring Is Here.flac

But in Roon (under track info) the path is…

Track info F:\Stan Getz\Spring Is Here\Stan Getz - Spring Is Here.flac

This information will need to be adjusted on the M3u file.

-Eric