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Kenneth Han Author

Level 1

0 points

iTunes library on Time Capsule

Hi. Is it possible to share one iTunes library among several Macs using TC's shared disk?

MacBook Pro 2.2GHz 15inch, Mac OS X (10.5.2), iMac G5 (w/ iSight)

Posted on Mar 6, 2008 7:54 AM

Best reply

FriscoAggie

Level 1

15 points

Posted on Mar 6, 2008 8:05 AM

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

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20 replies

May 3, 2009 10:28 AM in response to miendo

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

May 13, 2009 7:34 AM in response to Psunny_ny

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?

May 13, 2009 12:37 PM in response to chrluc

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.

May 13, 2009 12:59 PM in response to andyweiss1982

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.

May 13, 2009 1:07 PM in response to slekan

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

iTunes library on Time Capsule