Moving iTunes library to a network drive

Question

Level 1

45 points

Moving iTunes library to a network drive

I am in the process of combining all of my family's music from different computers in the house to one music folder on a networked drive. Some of the computers run Windows and some Mac. The way I have done it is just copy the contents of one computer's iTunes folder onto the driv and then just putting in the music from the other computers into the iTunes music sub-folder of the iTunes folder. I have all the music in there now. Now I just need to tell iTunes the location of the new iTunes music folder. I know how to do that, I'm just wondering if the playlists that have been created with the various computers will keep all the songs in them after the music folder move. If not, is there an alternate way I could do the folder move to preserve the playlists on all computers? Also, when I change the location of the music folder within iTunes am I going to have to re-ad the music by hand or will it automatically do it?

Thanks in advance!

Macintosh G4, Mac OS X (10.3.x)

Posted on Oct 25, 2009 12:45 AM

Reply

Answer 1

gdizzle

Level 1

10 points

Jan 9, 2010 12:10 PM in response to Amara Ernst

I want to do this too. Were you able to do it? How?
thanx

Reply

Answer 2

Jan 9, 2010 2:37 PM in response to gdizzle

You should only move the contents of the various iTunes Music folders in a new folder on your network drive i.e. leave the library files behind. You will have to change the location of the iTunes media folder location in the advanced tab under edit, preferences in one (the main) copy of iTunes, delete all the current contents AND then add the new folder to that iTunes using File, Add New Folder to library. This will rebuild the library file and will take some time.

You can share items in the library with up to five computers on the same network but the main computer must be on and iTunes must be running to do this.

You can import all or some items from the main iTunes library onto other computers in your home, providing you can turn on Home Sharing. You can use Home Sharing with up to five computers. To use Home Sharing, you must have an iTunes Store account. If you import all, delete everything that is already there first to avoid duplication.

The problem with moving files to a new drive is that playlists will no longer work because part of their tagging is the location of the file (which has now changed).

Also, be aware that I found that if you store the main iTunes library on a network drive, it can adversely affect the time it takes to sync devices (iPods, iPhones, Apple TVs) and iTunes store download speeds, especially on Windows machines, as network data transfer speeds are often capped at 10Mb sec (and often run much much slower than that).

Reply