iTunes library on Time Capsule

i followed the steps as explained on http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449 but somehow after a while the default itunes music folder path goes back to my original HD. whenever i buy a movie or song it goes to my original location on the local HD and i have to change again the location to TM, consolidate and delete the songs/video on my HD. does anybody know why? thanks

Message was edited by: armadillo08

slekan wrote:
I bought the Time capsule and Apple TV and I want to make the Time Capsule the only location to store my music as I have over 36,000 songs and dont want to use up storage space on my new IMAC laptop. I have never owned a Mac before and I am really struggling. I have managed to copy all my music onto the Time Capsule and I have set my Itunes preferences to store on the Time Capsule, but I cannot figure out how to get my itunes to play the songs or to get the apple TV to play from the Time Capsule location. There does not appear to be a way. Can anyone help?

Hi, Apple TV can only play songs from itunes or songs that have been synced to the apple tv via itunes. itunes needs to be open for you to stream songs to the apple tv. You need to connect your Apple TV to the iTunes on your computer and set it up to "sync" or "stream" the content.

If your itunes won't play your songs you may wish to review this article to ensure that you moved the folder correctly.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

Yes. Just finished setting that up.

Copy your existing "iTunes Music" folder, not the iTunes folder, to the TC. Under advanced settings point to the "iTunes Music" folder on the TC. Unselect copy option under it.

There is one quirk on this though. Mac 1 buys music and it goes to shared location, Mac 2 buys music and it goes to shared location. They will not automatically show up in each others music list, you will either need to run a 3rd party folder watch program, or occassionally do a "Add to Library" and select the folders that have been updated since the last time( sort by date in the "Add to Library" dialog).

If however, you have no desire to see your kid's disney music in your iTunes content list, then you're golden and can skip that part.

Its really no different than sharing the library between two accounts on the same machine. You share the content location, but keep your own preferences files and all the other stuff in the main iTunes folder.

Joe

Files copied directly to the TC (ie. iTunes or iPhoto library) are not backed up.

Backup can be accomplished through the Airport Utility Archive function which copies ALL TC data to an HDD connected to the TC's USB port. This provides full backup of any network shared files plus a potential offsite backup of your TC (can disconnect and store somewhere else in case of fire, etc).

OK can someone tell me how to solve the following problem?

I have a Macbook with a 120 GB hard drive, a 1 TB Time Capsule, and an Apple TV.

I want to keep my iTunes music library on my Macbook, but just play the movies from Apple TV without keeping them on my Macbook - or if that's not possible, just store them on the Time Capsule.

What i have : MBP & TC & IPHONE.
what i want : PUT MBP hard drive onto TC.
then use my MBP & IPHONE as pure mobile devices.
for example : folder,Document, music etc SYNCing to MBP before i head off local network.

my hypothesis:
By using SMART FOLDERS, PLAYLISTS i create a 'last opened file/folder/media' playlist/smart folder which i save as 'last opened this week/day/hour' for folders/files/media. these playlists/smart folders can be synced by automation by hot keys to the MBP & IPHONE a little time before heading out the door.

So on the road i can listen to a predefined music playlist for my mood, and work on predefined projects for my wallet. leaving my MBP to be used as a kind of drop box/shared folder/IPHONE-like device.

Does this make sense? And can you explain to me EXACTLY letter by letter - HOW The **** i am to make that happen...... PEACE

I bought the Time capsule and Apple TV and I want to make the Time Capsule the only location to store my music as I have over 36,000 songs and dont want to use up storage space on my new IMAC laptop. I have never owned a Mac before and I am really struggling. I have managed to copy all my music onto the Time Capsule and I have set my Itunes preferences to store on the Time Capsule, but I cannot figure out how to get my itunes to play the songs or to get the apple TV to play from the Time Capsule location. There does not appear to be a way. Can anyone help?

simonramsey wrote:
What i have : MBP & TC & IPHONE.
what i want : PUT MBP hard drive onto TC.
then use my MBP & IPHONE as pure mobile devices.
for example : folder,Document, music etc SYNCing to MBP before i head off local network.

my hypothesis:
By using SMART FOLDERS, PLAYLISTS i create a 'last opened file/folder/media' playlist/smart folder which i save as 'last opened this week/day/hour' for folders/files/media. these playlists/smart folders can be synced by automation by hot keys to the MBP & IPHONE a little time before heading out the door.

So on the road i can listen to a predefined music playlist for my mood, and work on predefined projects for my wallet. leaving my MBP to be used as a kind of drop box/shared folder/IPHONE-like device.

Does this make sense? And can you explain to me EXACTLY letter by letter - HOW The **** i am to make that happen...... PEACE

First of all, what you described was your MacBook Pro and iPhone acting as nodes, with Time Capsule being the hub and unfortunately, Time Capsule cannot act as a hub in this way; only Macs can (portable & desktops). However, apart from semantics, you can achieve exactly the result you are looking for.

Given that the smallest TC is 500GB and the average MBP has around 200GB, I'm going to assume that your entire MBP capacity will fit on the Time Capsule.

So, what you want to do for your *MacBook Pro* is:

• set up your MBP with everything on it. That is, a complete set of Apps, Documents, Music, Videos, etc. as you like them.

• set your MBP's Time Machine settings (in System Preferences > Time Machine) to use your Time CAPSULE as the backup disk.

• run a backup. This will copy your entire MBP onto your Time Capsule.

• once Time Machine is set up on your MBP, every time a change is made on the laptop it will be updated on the Time Capsule drive. If you make changes on your MBP while not connected to your Time Capsule, the next time you connect, all changes will be synched.


With regards to synching iPhone, you will only be able to sync Contacts, Calendars, Podcasts and Mail wirelessly if you have an Exchange or MobileMe account. Music and videos can only be synched via USB.

For media content, you can either set up smart folders in iTunes, or manage your content manually for iPhone.


The advantage of this method over what you described is that you will carry a full set of data on your MacBook Pro with you wherever you go, so will never be left without an important file that might otherwise be forgotten, and you will never have to manually (or otherwise) sync "a little time before heading out the door" (which may get tedious). Synching will be done transparently and automatically whenever you are connected to Time Capsule.

Further, it makes your MBP behave almost like a node, in the way you described, since if it is ever removed (lost, stolen, sold, replaced etc.) a new Mac can take its place by simply restoring from the Time Capsule backup.

That is, you could literally get a brand new Mac (iMac, MacBook, etc.), restore it from your Time Capsule backup, and it will have all your apps, documents, dashboard widgets, and even desktop wallpaper, identical to the MacBook Pro. Your iPhone will even automatically sync to the new machine when connected, as if the new Mac were your MacBook Pro.

Hope this helps?

I have the same problem.
I moved my iTunes library to a folder on my Time Capsule, and after the computer restarts or wakes up from sleep, my iTunes library folder is automatically reset to my Macintosh HD.
It seems to be a bug... Does anyone else experience the same problem?

sometimes this happens to me when i use an external drive on my AEBSn. its probably something to do with thefact the actual drive is still in sleep mode or is just powering up and itunes was launched before making the connection...thats my opinion anyways as its happened a few times to me.

a questions regarding t his topic though -
if i place my itunes library on my timecapsule i can still back up to it without overwriting the library...itll just act as another folder and wont be touched at all by the timemachine backups?


thanks 🙂

Ok here is my situation, hopefully someone can help....
I have a MB pro, Mac mini#1 (general family computer) and Mac Mini#2 (kids computer), I also have an Apple TV (use XBMC and Boxee on this) now the MB Pro is mine, has My music and I sync my iPhone on this system. Mac Mini#1 is really my wife and sons computer, has her and his music (my wife has her iPhone and son has his iPod Touch, each has there own playlist and apps and settings). The Mac Mini#2 is the younger kids (kids music and games), and it syncs with a video iPod for the kids to watch.

Now I also have a Time Capsule which I want to use only as a VIDEO server. I want each system to have its own settings, apps, playlists, podcast, and most importantly MUSIC. I dont want that stuff on the time capsule. But I want each system to be able to see the videos stored on the Time Capsule in iTunes, and be able to sync those videos to each device on each system.

I tried to change the "iTunes Music Folder Location" but I still don't see the video files stored on the Time Capsule... is there an easier way?

I have the same problem as Armadill08 and Miendo... every time I reboot or my MacBook Pro goes to sleep, my itunes library resets to my hard drive instead of continuing to point to my Time Capsule...

I figured it was probably an issue of reconnecting to the network and the Time Capsule, but is there a way to prevent this from happening? Or to initiate the connection when Itunes is launching so that I don't end up with music split between my hard drive and my Time Capsule when I inevitably forget to change the settings?

Changing the settings daily is tedious and kinda problematic... there has got to be a better way... Help me please Mac Geniuses... I beseech thee... lol

Found this on Macrumors: ( http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=425146)

"What I've done is create an alias of iTunes and place it on the network drive. Then drag that alias to the dock so when iTunes launches the drive has to mount if it is not already."

Maybe it helps?

I don't think you can do what you want. The closest idea I have is:

- place all videos on the TC

- in itunes preferences, uncheck the "copy files to itunes" (or "keep itunes files organized", whatever it is called).
- add the videos to each library.

This should give each library the idea that the videos are part of their library without having to store them on each computer.

Of course unchecking the option to copy files to the itunes library applies to all files not just the videos so your music would no longer always be stored in the itunes music folder.
Also you would have to add each new video file to each computer, every time.

andyweiss1982 wrote:
OK can someone tell me how to solve the following problem?

I have a Macbook with a 120 GB hard drive, a 1 TB Time Capsule, and an Apple TV.

I want to keep my iTunes music library on my Macbook, but just play the movies from Apple TV without keeping them on my Macbook - or if that's not possible, just store them on the Time Capsule.

Set your apple tv to sync with your MacBook itunes. Choose only the movies to be synced. They will be transferred to the Apple TV, up to the limit of it's capacity.

Search under apple tv help for sync versus stream. It shows the differnet ways to connect a copy of itunes to an Apple TV.