Share iTunes Library between on same Mac between OSX & Parallels WinXP

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Share iTunes Library between on same Mac between OSX & Parallels WinXP

Does anyone know if its possible to somehow share my iTunes library on my MacPro (10.5.4) between both my Mac OS, and also with my Parallels Windows XP OS, which is installed on the same computer?

I'd like to be able to take advantage of some of the various software utilities (tagging, etc...) that are available for the Window version of iTunes, but not for the Mac...and seeing as how altering the tags of my iTunes music would be one of the things on my agenda if I can share my iTunes Library between my Mac-OS and my Virtual-XP-OS, I just want to be absolutely certain that to avoid potentially screwing things up by changing meta tags and other information (album art, etc...) via iTunes on my XP virtual machine, such that the changes made wouldn't be recognized when I next open iTunes on my Mac...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.4), 2 x 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon -- 16GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

Posted on Aug 5, 2008 10:26 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 5, 2008 9:39 PM in response to m021478

I have a Macbook Pro with Vista and OSX via bootcamp and my iTunes runs from the same set of files. I haven't bothered to test this out in a virtual pc environment, but I would assume it would work.

Now, I am not entirely familiar with Parallels, but I imagine that all you have to do is select your Mac library data as the a new library for your Windows iTunes.
To do this:

Boot windows XP in Parallels
Hold down the shift key, then open iTunes with that key still held.
This will prompt you to select an iTunes library.
Simply browse for your Library data file for Mac OSX (By default this is under user\music\iTunes\iTunes Library) It may appear as a .itl file.

Select this and your iTunes libraries should remain in sync with each other despite edits in different OS's. After any edits are made on a different OS, iTunes will simply run a quick update bar when booting to resync.

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