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Your NAS music on a Raspberry Pi streamer: mount the share, or use a UPnP server

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Checked on 2026-10-21 on Debian 13, the base of today's Raspberry Pi OS (cifs-utils 7.4, nfs-common 2.8.3, systemd 257, MPD 0.24.5), against a Samba file server over SMB 3.1.1 and an NFS 4.2 server. DietPi and the UPnP servers: from their documentation and source code, read but not run, at the versions named below.

On this page7

Short answer: there are two ways, and many setups use both. Mount the NAS share on the streamer: its player reads the files directly and keeps its own index of them. Or run a UPnP media server on the NAS, such as MinimServer: the server keeps the index, and the streamer plays each track from it over the network. If you mount the share, have it mounted when the folder is first opened rather than at startup: a NAS that is off then delays nothing, and your player's index survives it.

What to note on the NAS

  • Its address. An IP address, such as 192.168.1.20, works on any network; a name works only if your network resolves it. Reserve the address in your router, so that it never changes.
  • For SMB, what Synology, QNAP, Windows and macOS shares speak: the share's name, and an account allowed to read it. Read-only access is enough. On a Synology, the SMB versions it accepts are under Control Panel → File Services → SMB → Advanced Settings.
  • For NFS: the folder's path on the NAS, and a rule on the NAS that lets the streamer's address read it. As usually set up, NFS asks for no password: the NAS goes by address. On a Synology, tick Enable NFS service under Control Panel → File Services → NFS, then, for the shared folder, Edit → NFS Permissions → Create, with the streamer's address under Hostname or IP.

Mount the share on Raspberry Pi OS or Debian

SMB

Raspberry Pi OS comes with SMB's mount tool, cifs-utils. Elsewhere, install it:

sudo apt install cifs-utils

Keep the NAS account in a file only root can read: create it empty, then write two lines in it.

sudo install -m 600 /dev/null /root/.smbcredentials
sudo nano /root/.smbcredentials

username=nasuser
password=naspassword

Then add one line to /etc/fstab (sudo nano /etc/fstab), with your NAS's address and share:

//192.168.1.20/music  /mnt/music  cifs  credentials=/root/.smbcredentials,ro,nofail,x-systemd.automount  0  0
  • x-systemd.automount mounts the share when the folder is first opened, and nofail lets the streamer start as usual when the NAS is off.
  • ro mounts it read-only: a player writes nothing there.
  • No version. The streamer and the NAS agree on the newest SMB version both speak, from 2.1 up: 3.1.1 with the server above. A NAS too old for SMB 2.1 needs its version written, vers=2.0 or vers=1.0; SMB1 is insecure, so update the NAS if you can.
  • A space in the share's name is written \040 in this file.

NFS

NFS's mount tool, nfs-common, is missing from Raspberry Pi OS Lite. Install it if need be:

sudo apt install nfs-common

The line for /etc/fstab:

192.168.1.20:/volume1/music  /mnt/music  nfs  ro,nofail,x-systemd.automount  0  0

To see which folders the NAS exports, and to which addresses:

showmount -e 192.168.1.20

Export list for 192.168.1.20:
/volume1/music 192.168.1.0/24

Start it, and check

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start mnt-music.automount
ls /mnt/music

The second command is named after the folder: /mnt/music gives mnt-music. After a restart, there is nothing to start by hand. Your music's folders should be listed; then check that the account your player runs as can read them — for MPD:

sudo -u mpd ls /mnt/music

With SMB and the options above, every file is readable by every account. With NFS, files keep the permissions they have on the NAS.

When it fails

If ls answers No such device, the share could not be mounted. The reason is in:

sudo systemctl status mnt-music.mount
Message What it means
mount error(13): Permission denied Wrong username or password, or a share that refuses guests.
mount error(2): No such file or directory No share by that name on the NAS.
mount error(95): Operation not supported No SMB version in common, such as vers=1.0 with a NAS that has SMB1 off.
mount error: could not resolve address for mynas: Unknown error Your network does not know that name: use the address.
mount error(113): could not connect to 192.168.1.20Unable to find suitable address. SMB: the NAS is off, or out of reach. It takes about six seconds.
mount: /mnt/music: cannot mount //192.168.1.20/music read-only. cifs-utils is not installed.
mount.nfs: access denied by server while mounting 192.168.1.20:/volume1/music The path is wrong, or the NAS does not let this address in.
mount.nfs: Failed to resolve server mynas: Name or service not known Your network does not know that name.
Mounting timed out. Terminating. NFS: the NAS is off, or out of reach. Opening the folder waits a minute and a half first.
mount: /mnt/music: fsconfig() failed: NFS: mount program didn't pass remote address. nfs-common is not installed.

For SMB, sudo dmesg adds the NAS's own answer: STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE for a wrong password, BAD_NETWORK_NAME for a wrong share.

On DietPi

dietpi-drive_manager, then Add network drive, then Samba or NFS, asks for the address, the share, the account and where to mount it, installs the tools, and writes the /etc/fstab line itself, with x-systemd.automount as above. For SMB, it tries the versions from 3.1.1 down, and keeps the first that mounts.

Have the player index it

MPD, on Raspberry Pi OS or Debian: set the folder in /etc/mpd.conf,

music_directory "/mnt/music"

then restart MPD and have it index the share (mpc comes with sudo apt install mpc):

sudo systemctl restart mpd
mpc update --wait
mpc stats

mpc stats counts the songs MPD found.

  • Music added later is not seen on its own. MPD's auto_update relies on the kernel's file notifications, inotify, and inotify "does not catch remote events that occur on network filesystems". Run mpc update after adding music.
  • Update with the share there. On my test box (2026-10-21), an update run while the share was not mounted found an empty folder, and removed every song from MPD's index without a word. With x-systemd.automount and the NAS off, MPD logged Failed to open /mnt/music: No such device instead, and kept them all.

Use a UPnP server instead

A media server on the NAS indexes the music there and publishes it on your network. A control app browses that index and has the streamer play each track, fetched from the server over HTTP: nothing is mounted on the streamer.

  • On the NAS. MinimServer has packages for Synology and QNAP, among others; MiniDLNA (also called ReadyMedia) and Asset UPnP are other servers. Point the server at your music folder: it reads the tags, and arranges the library its own way.
  • The original file, or not. MiniDLNA never converts. MinimServer converts only once you add its MinimStreamer package and fill in its stream.transcode setting, which takes a full licence. Asset UPnP lets you choose, format by format, between sending the file as it is and converting it.
  • On the streamer, a renderer. On Raspberry Pi OS or Debian, upmpdcli makes MPD one; it is not in Debian's archive, and its author distributes it from lesbonscomptes.com/upmpdcli. Control apps list it under a name that starts with UpMpd-.
  • To choose the music, a control app, such as BubbleUPnP (Android) or mconnect Player (iPhone, iPad, Android).
  • Same network. UPnP devices find each other through announcements sent to the whole local network. The NAS, the streamer and the phone must be on the same network: a guest Wi-Fi or another VLAN hides them from each other, unless your router passes those announcements on.

Which one

  • Mount the share if you want the streamer's own search and index, and no server to run.
  • Use a UPnP server if one already serves your other players, or if you like the way it arranges the library.
  • Both work side by side. A NAS can share a folder and serve it through its UPnP server at the same time; the two paths reach the same files.

With Audiogravity

Add network share (NAS), at the bottom of the Music library picker of the guided setup, mounts an SMB share as above — read-only, when first opened, the password in a file only the system reads — and tests it on the spot: you see the share appear, or the error. Once you confirm it as the library, MPD indexes it. An NFS share, or any share you mount yourself under /mnt, is offered in the same picker. With Pro, Library → Sources lists the UPnP servers of your network, and takes the address of one on another part of it; you browse and search them, and play on the box's DAC, on a UPnP renderer, or through HQPlayer.

The details are in the manual: First run → Music on a NAS, Troubleshooting → Manual NAS mount, and Library & streaming → UPnP / DLNA media servers.

Sources