I’m about to buy a Uniti Core to use it to stream music to my MuSo2, Qb and hopefully soon a Uniti Nova. At present all my music is in iTunes on my MacPro and I want to know how I can copy this over to the Uniti Core. Can I just copy over the entire ‘Music’ folder from my Mac to the Core’s ‘downloads’ folder?
Thanks for any advice.
I believe that’s all you need to do. Copy the contents of the Music Folder (don’t just copy the folder itself) using Finder on your Mac.
You may need to in Finder, “Go - Connect to server” and enter the IP address of the Uniti Core for the Mac to find and connect to the Core.
Or it might simply appear under “Locations” or “Network” under “Locations”.
I should add, that depending on what quality of files you have stored (lossless for example) may take quite some time to copy if you have a lot of music.
Mp3 and such like will be much quicker.
Thank you for the useful replies. A lot of my music was ripped from CD - most of which I still have. Given the option I would just rip them all again over a few weeks, but with the COVID situation all my CDs and vinyl records are stuck in Singapore while I’m stuck in the US 
. However I also have a lot of music bought in the iTunes Store. So it’s a mix of formats. As long as it works, I can live with the time.
I seem to have about 128+ GB in my Music/Media folder. All sitting in my iPhone as well so having it on the Unity Core is more a matter of convenience and back-up than a really pressing need.
Hopefully you may soon be reunited with your music.
In general terms, if you can rip all of your CD’s at full CD quality, in a lossless format such as FLAC Lossless, it’s worth doing, if nothing else to preserve the original quality of the CD’s rather than anything compressed. The UnitiCore by default rips as WAV files but I have found better compatibility with other players (such as Sonos in a guest bedroom) when ripped to FLAC.
iTunes purchases by their nature tend to be Mp3 or equivalent.
128GB shouldn’t take too long to copy - my own library of around 1200 FLAC ripped albums files took quite a number of hours and that’s around 360GB
Thanks again. Now to pull the trigger on that purchase 
If the Core will be on the same network as your Mac, you don’t actually need to move the files at all. Like any UPnP server, is can access and play files that are stored in any location on your network, and that includes an iTunes library. Just add it to the Core’s list of Network Shares and you’re done.
Yes, I thought that might be the case but I don’t have my MacBook on all the time. So I need it on a device which is always available. In our Singapore home I have a NAS on which the music also sits, but here I thought I’d use a Unity Core instead.
Incidentally, can I buy ANY 3.5” hard disk for the Core? The Seagate Pipeline model referred to in the Naim on line information is not easily available now (looks like an older model) and I thought I’d get a 4TB Seagate Barracuda drive or something like that, even though it is well beyond what I currently need.
You can use any HDD and it will probably work. Naim recommend only what they have tested, but you can try anything else.
Remember though that the HDD runs 24/7 unless you put the Core into deep sleep, so the drive will get hot and run continuously. When the Core was first released the advice from Naim was to use a HDD intended for video surveillance purposes rather than for use in a NAS. This was because a NAS drive is designed to provide a good service to multiple users rather than the best service to one user and this might affect playback if the HDD encountered an error.
Best
David
Aaah, yes, a MacBook Pro wouldn’t be so convenient. It should be easy enough to copy the files over, although I would probably do it in batches if it’s a large library, and use a wired Ethernet connection.
I believe it’s also possible to transfer files on a USB drive if that’s easier.
CrisU,
Quick question if I may.
I just listen to my music through the Core’s internal HD to a dac, no nas.
I do have a Windows 10 laptop and and tablets and phone. It’s been a while so, as a refresher how do I add these to the Core‘s list of network shares - for flexibility’s sake.
Regards
You can’t add tablets or phones as network shares, you can just run the Naim app on them to control the Core. It will scan your network for drives, and it should find the drive on your laptop. Go to the settings menu in the Naim app and then to Manage Music to set this up.
I can’t remember the exact details as it’s been a while since I’ve used a Core. On the product web page, go to the Support section near the botton and search for Music Shares and the instructions should sort you out.
Thank you!
You can but be aware of the fact that the Naim Core runs a very simplistic UPnP server that will possibly ignore some of your metadata. If your music collection contains classical music, the Core is not a viable option. If you only listen to pop music and jazz, it is (sort of) ok.
That’s interesting an disturbing. My collection has some (Western) classical music but a lot of jazz and blues and a lot of Indian classical music in a few ‘sub-genres’. What is it in the Core UPnP that causes problems for classical music. Should I instead consider running a NAS with support for something like Plex?
Thank you. Useful to know.
The problem is that the Core’s UPnP server only supports a limited set of tags. I seem to remember that these entail Artist, Genre, perhaps Composer but nothing much more. I seem to remember that the values for Composer (or perhaps for Conductor) are not even editable using the Naim app.
Regrettably, this limited set of tags is fixed and cannot be extended by users.
This means that if you have tagged your music collection with information about Conductor, Ensemble, Work, Epoch, etc. the Core’s UPnP server will simply ignore your data.
You do not need to run Plex for music files. A good UPnP server like MinimServer or Asset is probably all you need. You do not need a NAS either, MinimServer 2 runs very stably on a Raspberry Pi.
