Problem with 2 Mac Book sharing same iTune Music library on Aiport Disk

of course it won't this is because the itunes.xml file located on the machine that recently purchased the music was updated...

the only work around for this is to make on the master computer and then share out the entire library when your computers are home...

i have had the same problem, with my wife and I having seperate computers...

our solution was to make my computer the master computer which manages the itunes database which she hates doing and i share out the entire library for her to stream...this might not work for you as your computers aren't always home and mine are??

it seems that you need some shareware to manage multiple itune library's?

when you know of a change, you could simply tell itunes of the change, using (file - add to library and then select the song)

i'm not aware of any itunes sync software available to allow for this. when they designed itunes it was ment for one machine and not used on a lan.

i'll look around and see what comes up...

this might be exactly what you need:

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/itinfo/ituneslibrarymanager.php

give it a shot and let me know how you make out...

Hi

This problem is inherent to using a common iTunes library on an AirPort disk. There is a simple but somewhat clunky solution. The xml file is actually (or should be) stored in the iTunes folder on your AirPort disk (the xml files in the iTunes folder on each MacBook are no longer used once accessing the AirPort library). Each time you quit iTunes on each machine, the xml file is saved and updated. So if you add tunes or alter playlists on one machine, to get the other to see the changes you must quit iTunes to update the xml file, and reopen iTunes on the second machine. I've seen some other posts about corrupting the xml file sharing this way, but I have not experienced this.

I'm still working through some other little bugs with sharing iTunes and iPhoto libraries this way, and it turns out that Apple does not formally support this use of AirPort disk utility. I was told this while working with a tier 2 tech support for about an hour yesterday trying to solve an iTunes playback problem from the AirPort Disk with my network in WDS mode.

I'll be interested to find out if there are scripts or other fixes for this and will check out the suggested link.

good luck!

i never thought of that because i was under the impression that the .xml file needed to be local to the machine and not located on a network share, this mainly because when you move the data to a new work share (iTunes Library) the file stays local...

is this to say that the entire itunes file located under /Username/Music can be relocated to the remote drive? if so this would free up almost a gig of storage!!!

Yes, the entire iTunes folder can be relocated to the shared AirPort disk (same for iPhoto). For me that was the strongest reason to do it, to get my 30 GB each iTunes and iPhoto libraries off my MacBook.

This brings up another issue in response to the original question: If the two laptops are not always at home, and you want to use iTunes away from home, you will always have to relocate the iTunes library i.e. switch when home vs. away. If you need to use iTunes away from home, you still need the music files on the laptop. (I keep a fraction of my music library on the laptop, but have the whole thing on an iPod for travel). In practice this means that away from home you would hold down the option key while starting iTunes to locate the local library on the MacBook, and at home do the same and locate the remote library. Make sense?