Optimal arrangement for maintaining a very large iTunes Library
My wife buys tons of television shows on iTunes, watches them on business trips on her iPhone and then moves on. So far our system has been this.
- Mac computer stationary at the office desk with iTunes for syncing phones and downloading apps, etc.
- Periodically rsync library to a Linux box and backup the Mac with Time Machine
Recently my wife decided she wanted to swap the Mac Mini that was there for a MacBook Pro that she could take to the couch. This way she could surf for TV shows and movies, make playlists, dock it, sync it up and go on.
There's one problem to this, though. If she buys a ton of TV shows and goes on long business trips (as she has recently), she can fill the entire MacBook Pro hard drive, thus rendering syncing impossible. We thought about each maintaining our own libraries, syncing these with each other using Home Sharing and backing them both up to the Linux box. This could work except we'd like to share playlists and those don't sync over Home Sharing.
Long story short we're trying to come up with a setup where she can still easily manipulate the machine that we'll sync with while also somehow giving that machine some breathing room. I haven't yet come up with an arrangement I'm happy with. Am I missing something?
Also, I have definitely considered taking the aforementioned Linux box and putting Windows on it, adding some RAM and using that as the main iTunes box. My experience with iTunes on Windows, however, is that it's very slow.
- Mac computer stationary at the office desk with iTunes for syncing phones and downloading apps, etc.
- Periodically rsync library to a Linux box and backup the Mac with Time Machine
Recently my wife decided she wanted to swap the Mac Mini that was there for a MacBook Pro that she could take to the couch. This way she could surf for TV shows and movies, make playlists, dock it, sync it up and go on.
There's one problem to this, though. If she buys a ton of TV shows and goes on long business trips (as she has recently), she can fill the entire MacBook Pro hard drive, thus rendering syncing impossible. We thought about each maintaining our own libraries, syncing these with each other using Home Sharing and backing them both up to the Linux box. This could work except we'd like to share playlists and those don't sync over Home Sharing.
Long story short we're trying to come up with a setup where she can still easily manipulate the machine that we'll sync with while also somehow giving that machine some breathing room. I haven't yet come up with an arrangement I'm happy with. Am I missing something?
Also, I have definitely considered taking the aforementioned Linux box and putting Windows on it, adding some RAM and using that as the main iTunes box. My experience with iTunes on Windows, however, is that it's very slow.