Setting up a centralized iTunes Library, not sure to go about this

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Level 2

400 points

Setting up a centralized iTunes Library, not sure to go about this

So I'm finally getting the opportunity to set up a media server with a new mac mini hooked up to a dual 2TB drive setup. The network is mostly wired with a couple of AEXs in roaming mode, an aTV and maybe a Squeezebox radio. I've got the hardware mostly figured out, but the iTunes config is giving me fits.

Most of the music and virtually all of the movies are ripped from discs (relatively little purchased from iTunes). My husband and I have independent music libraries (mine on the Mac Pro, his on his laptop)-- we would like to keep these separate as these are the libraries that we use to sync to our individual mobile devices.

My goal is to consolidate our two music libraries (and all of the video) on the drive attached to the Mac mini to stream to the aTV, the Squeezebox and our incoming iPads <grin>. No syncing of devices with the Mini.

Any idea of the best way to go about this?

Appreciate the input!

JT

Mac Pro 2.8 Quad, 15"MBP and MBA, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Apr 27, 2010 6:57 PM

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Answer 1

fanboy20

Level 1

115 points

Apr 27, 2010 9:26 PM in response to JCT

Congrats, this is a pretty ambitious undertaking.
The only way you will really be able to manage this is to create a new iTunes Library on the Mini, dump all of the content from your iTunes Library to one on the Mini, then from your husbands laptop to the Mini. The biggest drawback is if you will be keeping your devices synced with their current respective computers, any content you want added to the devices will have to be copied to both libraries. You could write a basic script that would do this for you as long as the computer was always connected to the network when adding new content, but it will still be somewhat difficult. Ideally, I would be moving both the libraries to the server and syncing all devices with one iTunes Library. Any particular reason why this is not the direction you're headed?
I manage all of my iTunes Library wirelessly through a Time Capsule and it works pretty effectively, but I do all of my syncing through that one single library. I think this would be the easiest way to look at setting up the system.
If you need any more in-depth explanations about any particular step in this process, let me know.

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Answer 2

JCT Author

Level 2

400 points

Apr 28, 2010 8:06 AM in response to fanboy20

Probably more ambitious than I had originally planned, that's for sure! Actually this was originally going to be a Windows Home Server setup, but at the last minute I decided to go all Mac to (theoretically) make it less difficult. I had definitely planned on combining the libraries and dumping them all on the Mini.

Probably the only reason that I don't just default to syncing devices with the Mini is my better half -- he is pretty much adamantly opposed to anything that could potentially screw up his current setup. But I really want this to be a general use setup.

Maybe I should (cautiously) construct the combined library on the Mini, turn off the networking and then test sync each of the devices before taking it "live" on the network.

Do you have multiple people syncing devices with the server?

Thanks,

JT

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Answer 3

fanboy20

Level 1

115 points

May 10, 2010 6:45 AM in response to JCT

Sorry for the delayed response. I keep all of my iPods, my iPhone, and now my iPad syncing with the server, as well as my finance's iPods and iPhone. We haven't ever run into any real problem, but we do notice increased sync times. When we are adding large amounts of data to a device, we hard wire into the external drive in order to speed up the process. I think your idea for compiling the library before actually changing over is a good one. Hopefully that process has begun, interested to hear whether or not you've made any progress. Good luck.

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Answer 4

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,464 points

May 10, 2010 6:50 AM in response to JCT

take a look @ this read.

also, check out these apps:

TuneRanger

Syncopation

J GG

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