Apple forcing me to update & causing problems? Or not...

edited April 2014 in Digital
I gave been a happy iTunes 10:7 user for ages. I got my fingers burned
upgrading a while back, so I like to keep to slightly older programs
which "Just work" (remember those?).

My mac mini runs headlessly, I control it via an old iPod touch and the old apple remote app, and mocha VNC when needed.

This
week I was dischuffed when iTunes stopped responding to commands. Turns
out it was struggling to 'refresh radio tuning service', and dialogue
boxes popped up informing me of this every time I asked iTunes to do
anything at all. This is in spite of having radio disabled in
preferences.

I had this before, ages ago. I wondered if it's
Apple's way of 'suggesting' I upgrade to a newer version of iTunes, as
that was the only answer before (version 9). So, carefully this time, I
copied iTunes before updating to the latest version. I also updated a
few other things (I don't connect to the internet with this machine,
software updates are turned off), and behold - slick iTunes
functionality again with no radio service problems! Funny that...

Only,
I was now getting a new dialogue box: "Something wrong with the
volume's CNID DB, using temporary CNID DB instead.Check server messages
for details." Apparently this is a message generated by OSX concerning
corruption on the mounted NAS volume (QNAP). Alarmingly, two thirds of
my files were missing according to both iTunes and Finder.

So
after much googling, I found appropriate temporary files in my AFP
volume to delete and reinstalled the NAS firmware for good measure.
Success! I have snappy slick control again with everything in it's rightful place.

I
am a total amateur with computers & networking, but as the whole
system worked fine on Saturday but was complete chud by Tuesday (without
being powered up or updating in between), I am wondering if the iTunes
radio service 'glitch' is a means to push an update? That somehow (as it
wants to connect over the web) it interfered with the connection to my
QNAP NAS, corrupting the connection to the mounted volume?

Any thoughts on my not-quite-conspiracy-theory?

Anyway,
it was all vastly irritating and I wait with bated breath to be told I
could easily have sorted this with 5 minutes and a few well judged
keystrokes!

Comments

  • Postscript: This isn't an anti - Apple rant, I hold all computers in equal and fair contempt. The whole system has performed flawlessly for about a year now and hasn't needed touching at all. That's quite impressive I think, I would expect more faffing about with just about any other playback system.
  • Umm...
    Don't like iTunes, no scrap that, hate it!

    I don't like the way it disperses compilations from time to time to the far corners of the artists individual directories, I don't think it sounds any good either.

    Do u run it direct Al or mounted with a program such as Audirvana?

    JRiver has a matching remote App which would more or likely provide a more flawless operation and better sound quality for playback for a one off $50 although iTunes is free of course.

    I am most likely going to give it a whirl when I get the new Mac back feom feom some pretty intensive mods in a week or so. Although if Audivana comes up trumps with a matching app then I'd prefer that I think, always liked the sound of it. At the moment I'm using Amarra but no App so for me it automatically loses a few stars, I'm not a fan of having to anticipate what my next track may be and having to pre-create the playlist is annoying but I'm hoping the build will surpass the Audiocom Squeezebox Classics performance, it just then boils down to the functionality :)
  • FWIW, I thought JRiver for Mac fell far short of Audirvana+/iTunes sonically when I tried it.
  • edited April 2014
    Yeh, I don't rate JRiver for mac - yet.

    Dan - I mount iTunes with Audirvana+. The thing is, A+ sounds better without iTunes running at all - in playlist mode (like Amarra) you load your files in advance from Finder and off it goes.

    I don't like that, it's too computer-ey for me. Computers in audio are bad enough as far as I'm concerned, I only tolerate them because they seem to have even decent CD spinners beat.

    The new integrated Audirvana+ is supposed to do all the library stuff like iTunes and sound as good as the stand-alone Audirvana+ in playlist mode. That will be some achievement.
  • Cheers chaps, that's JRiver out for me then!
    My Mac build is absolutely bonkers, taken to the max bar having it all run on batteries, I do need to pursue a playback software which will allow easy remote use age.

    I always enjoyed A+ so will anxiously await the new arrival :)
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