Is there an answer for: 2 ppl, 2 macs, 2 iPods, and 1 iTunes Collection
My wife has started using a Mini and I recently gave her my old 20 GB 4th Gen iPod.
Me:
iMac, vPod, and the iTunes collection
Her:
Mini, iPod
Us:
Network
She wants to sync her iPod with her calender and address book and with my iTunes collection (3 GB of purchased music) by hooking her iPod up through her computer.
Is this even possible? I have tried to get this to work but so far my attempts have been all for nothing.
Me:
iMac, vPod, and the iTunes collection
Her:
Mini, iPod
Us:
Network
She wants to sync her iPod with her calender and address book and with my iTunes collection (3 GB of purchased music) by hooking her iPod up through her computer.
Is this even possible? I have tried to get this to work but so far my attempts have been all for nothing.
Comments
Originally posted by Telomar
Just put the music folder on a shared area. Her address book and calendar will be kept locally and you'll share the music folder via the network.
You could put all your music files in the "Shared" folder inside the "Users" folder.
Be sure to, in iTunes prefs, tell it NOT to re-arrange the actual song files (organize it's library?), you want iTunes to leave the mp3/aac files where they are....
iTunes > Preferences > Advanced pane.... UNcheck the "Keep iTunes Music Folder organized" and UNcheck "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library".
Also... for purchased music (from iTMS), it may see the two acounts as two different machines towards your 5-device limit. I'm not too sure about that though.
Originally posted by KingOfSomewhereHot
You could put all your music files in the "Shared" folder inside the "Users" folder.
Be sure to, in iTunes prefs, tell it NOT to re-arrange the actual song files (organize it's library?), you want iTunes to leave the mp3/aac files where they are....
iTunes > Preferences > Advanced pane.... UNcheck the "Keep iTunes Music Folder organized" and UNcheck "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library".
Also... for purchased music (from iTMS), it may see the two acounts as two different machines towards your 5-device limit. I'm not too sure about that though.
In the above statement, you said not to let iTunes organize the songs. Did you mean to make it that way on my wife's computer, so her computer tries not to reorganize the music, correct?
I can deal with it counting toward my limit, I just need to make her happy.
I do have a question about Sharing files across the network. Since I am still new to the Mac platform (1 year now), if I put the music in the Shared folder in the Users folder would that be secure if someone else got on my network and started messing around with the files?
Also, if I put those files in that Shared folder, would my wife's Mac automatically recognize it every time she was to boot up or would she have to mount it?
Thanks guys, I never thought about doing it this way.
Originally posted by KingOfSomewhereHot
Be sure to, in iTunes prefs, tell it NOT to re-arrange the actual song files (organize it's library?), you want iTunes to leave the mp3/aac files where they are....
iTunes > Preferences > Advanced pane.... UNcheck the "Keep iTunes Music Folder organized" and UNcheck "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library".
Why is this necessary?
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
Why is this necessary?
A few acronyms to write your congress cridder about:
RIAA
DRM
DMCA
Originally posted by a_greer
A few acronyms to write your congress cridder about:
RIAA
DRM
DMCA
I don't see how that particular option setting has anything to do with those things.
And the acronyms are the reason for the protected AAC, which is what makes sharing a library somewhat difficult, so they are kinda related to the thread
Originally posted by aplnub
In the above statement, you said not to let iTunes organize the songs. Did you mean to make it that way on my wife's computer, so her computer tries not to reorganize the music, correct?
I can deal with it counting toward my limit, I just need to make her happy.
I do have a question about Sharing files across the network. Since I am still new to the Mac platform (1 year now), if I put the music in the Shared folder in the Users folder would that be secure if someone else got on my network and started messing around with the files?
Also, if I put those files in that Shared folder, would my wife's Mac automatically recognize it every time she was to boot up or would she have to mount it?
Thanks guys, I never thought about doing it this way.
Maybe you guys can answer the questions above I posted the other day.
Originally posted by KingOfSomewhereHot
Those settings prevent iTunes from duplicating the song files from the shared location to your personal home folder ... waste of hard disk space since they need to keep the files in a shared location.
It seems that if you set the "iTunes Music folder location" (for both instances of iTunes) to the same (shared) directory it shouldn't ever copy/duplicate a song elsewhere. It seems that you are telling iTunes where music can be found (and should be put). Therefore, assuming both instances of iTunes are set the same way, it should not matter.
Is this just in theory but different in practice?
Originally posted by Chris Cuilla
It seems that if you set the "iTunes Music folder location" (for both instances of iTunes) to the same (shared) directory it shouldn't ever copy/duplicate a song elsewhere. It seems that you are telling iTunes where music can be found (and should be put). Therefore, assuming both instances of iTunes are set the same way, it should not matter.
Is this just in theory but different in practice?
I only use a single account, so I can't say for sure, but.... having two instances of iTunes, they will each probably create thier own data/xml files (not sure of this though) .... and any music added to one instance of iTunes would not automatically show up on the second instance.... you'd have to go find the mp3 file and add it to the other accounts iTunes.
Again, this is just my understanding of it... I've not tested the theory
Originally posted by KingOfSomewhereHot
I only use a single account, so I can't say for sure, but.... having two instances of iTunes, they will each probably create thier own data/xml files (not sure of this though) .... and any music added to one instance of iTunes would not automatically show up on the second instance.... you'd have to go find the mp3 file and add it to the other accounts iTunes.
Again, this is just my understanding of it... I've not tested the theory
I may find myself trying this (to get past an annoying Front Row deficiency). I'll report back.
if only.
So now my wife and daughter have their own libraries with duplicates of the musci which is a big waste of space, but is the only way the can use the music on their ipods.
Syncing libraries in iPhoto is another issue that I'm dealing with that also has its problems. Apple are you listening?
Move the iTunes folder to /Users/Shared and make sure that both users have permissions to read and write.
Make two aliases of the iTunes folder and move them to /Users/user1/Music/ and /Users/user2/Music
That way the music, playlist and everything else is shared. Moving and sharing the iTunes Music folder isn't enough since iTunes Library and iTunes Music Library.xml won't be shared then.
Originally posted by JLL
This is what I have on one Mac with two accounts:
Move the iTunes folder to /Users/Shared and make sure that both users have permissions to read and write.
Make two aliases of the iTunes folder and move them to /Users/user1/Music/ and /Users/user2/Music
That way the music, playlist and everything else is shared. Moving and sharing the iTunes Music folder isn't enough since iTunes Library and iTunes Music Library.xml won't be shared then.
Moving and Sharing just the iTunes Music folder seems to be the better solution.
This way, each user will have their own library containing playlists, ratings, comments and such, while all of the music source files reside in one place.
If one user rips a new CD, the files go to the shared storage but the songs are only added to that users library. If other users then want those songs, they simply "Add File to Library" or "Add Folder to Library". Under this scheme, Mom and Dad don't have to deal with their childs music, and vise versa. And, Mom won't see Dad's "Twisted Sister" while Dad won't see Mom's "Celine Dion".
The only downside is that the computer hosting the shared storage must remain powered up and awake at all times.
Originally posted by TednDi
sigh!
if only.
Thanks for being sympathetic.
Originally posted by Carson O'Genic
You know i tried to put my iTunes library in the shared folder following somebody's instructions at Apple.com. The story ended with me loosing all my 'free' itunes songs (the one/week giveaways) and losing all my library organization/ratings etc. In the end it didn't work and the only way i could reconstitute the library was to start a new library and copy back the files. The old library got somehow completely screwed up regarding permissions and couldn't be opened when put back were it was in my home folder. I didn't lose any purchased songs (although they no longer get flagged as purchased) and I didn't lose any music copied from CD's, i just lost a lot of freebies and 3-4 hours of work.
So now my wife and daughter have their own libraries with duplicates of the musci which is a big waste of space, but is the only way the can use the music on their ipods.
Syncing libraries in iPhoto is another issue that I'm dealing with that also has its problems. Apple are you listening?
How do you keep the other libraries up to date with the latest additions to the collection? Do you have a once a week automated copy of your library to theirs? Do the play list get zapped?
Hopefully, Apple is listening and taking us seriously.
Originally posted by aplnub
How do you keep the other libraries up to date with the latest additions to the collection? Do you have a once a week automated copy of your library to theirs? Do the play list get zapped?
Hopefully, Apple is listening and taking us seriously.
You dont keep your libraries syncronized. Each user has their own library, sublibrary if you will, which may or may not contain all of the tunes in the main (shared) music directory.
The iTunes folder generally contains three items, iTunes Music folder, iTunes Library and iTunes Music Library.
iTunes Library is a database and iTunes Music Library is an XML document. These two files contain all the information that iTunes (the application) uses to populate the U/I.
The original poster's major concern was that maintaining multiple copies of music files was wasting space.