I’m a relatively new user so this is a pretty basic question. I’ll give some background and then ask my question.
A couple of years ago, I ripped my entire collection of CD’s using dbpoweramp on Windows and imported these into iTunes. I was using my Windows machine as a server until I bought a Synology NAS and discovered Plex. I copied my iTunes music files over to a shared folder on the NAS (/volume1/Music) and added the folder to Plex. Plex is now my music server, and everything is working just fine.
But since then I have gotten a few dozen more CD’s. What’s the best way to get these into Plex? I figured I would start the same way as before: rip using dbPoweramp, import into iTunes on Windows (iTunes creates the folder structure that Plex likes). But now I need to get the new music from Windows over to the Plex library on NAS. I can’t think of a direct way to do this, other than by doing a bulk replacement of /volume1/Music. How do people do this? I will greatly appreciate any suggestions!
I don’t use iTunes myself so I don’t know how its folder structure looks like. But I assume it is quite similar. So it would be relatively easy to create a new subfolder for a new artist (or extend the folder structure to acommodate a new album of an existing artist).
You could go a different route though:
leave /volume1/Music as it is
create a second folder for music on your NAS, maybe /volume1/Music2
then edit your music library and include the path to this new folder additionally.
Then fill the new folder with a folder structure according to the guide I linked to above. That way you don’t need to deal with the historical iTunes folder.
Thanks very much for your help. I like the “different route” you suggested, rather than trying to extend the existing folder structure piecemeal.
Interestingly, the folder structure I originally added to Plex did not conform to the Plex documentation. It had an extra folder level: /Music/Artist/Album/track… (rather than /Music/Artist - Album/track…). But it worked just fine (all the metadata was retrieved properly). Furthermore, I had Plex scan using the Plex Scanner, since the iTunes Scanner seemed to be broken.
Ah yes, I see it now. It is the same folder structure that iTunes uses. I see no advantage in merging the two levels if I can get away with it. Thanks!
How about this: use DSM File Station to Upload (skipping duplicates) into the existing /volume1/Music shared folder from the corresponding folder on Windows. This would just add new content to the existing folder structure.
I can’t remember if Upload will do a “deep copy” of a source folder, but if it can, this would be by far the easiest way to proceed since it updates /volume1/Music in situ.
Another problem with Upload which caused me to stop using it: Browsing files from local computer requires JRE, and I’m using Chrome which does not support java. I guess I can use Firefox for this.
At this date Aug 2018 I’ve added Plex to my DS 418play and have discovered a quick way to use iTunes for your media folder structure and attach Plex as the player. The question about updating is immediate and easy.
I ripped 21 CDs using iTunes with Apple Lossless codec. To update Plex I simply went to the Home screen. In the left sidebar is a gray heading “LIBRARIES” with a listing of your various media folders. When you click the Libraries heading a “+” and three dots “…” appears to the right. Clicking the three dots brings up a little menu with a selection to “Scan Library Files”. Clicking that only took about a minute and half on my system to scan 8,000 songs and about 100 videos. All the artwork and metadata from iTunes was flawlessly added to my Plex system. Very nice work Plex. I absolutely love this combination of iTunes and Plex. Hope this helps.
