managing music from itunes server

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managing music from itunes server

strangely Apple wants to have a digital family system and a multimedia system for families but really doesn't do anything to rectify that desire. I have a 16 year old and multiple machines and keeping different itunes libraries with different music on all of them is a hassle. Like today, i wanted to listen to something that was only on my notebook and not on my server. All my machines point to my MacMini which is my main itunes repository. But if I add music over the network to the itunes folder connected to my server, it doesn't actually update the server, just the notebook. If my kid buys something and rips it on her laptop which is pointed to the main server, the music stays only in her macbook air. Apple TV, can't have storage connected to it to make a single digital server. An itunes server. You can't connect an itunes library to a time capsule either. so I bought a mac mini at the recommendation of an apple tech. And i'm still in the same boat as before I even got the server. music is spread all throughout my different devices which all point to my server's itunes library.

why does apple tout digital and family but does zero to actually tie all of it together? it seems patently ridiculous to have such a good system and different offerings for families but does zero to tie it all together.

one single multimedia server for a house with one library where stuff can be added via devices connected to it. that is the way it should be and seems they've fallen horrifically short. I've spent about $1500 for nothing and gained nothing but more hassle. Apple should focus on actually having a digital household and server based system. or even just a drive connected to either the appletv or a time capsule. But at the very least a server system where you can add stuff without having to go home to my office and add it so my kid can share it. or she buys a cd and has to physically go into the office to add it.

I might be missing something but even with itunes folder on the server and home sharing, that's another can of worms. music and tv shows don't show up properly with that either. If apple wants to continue touting music and movies, tv shows, etc.. they should actually come up with a plan that handles that on the local level instead of the cloud system which if your internet is down you're hosed. plus, another $10-$20 a month for yet another service isn't all that enticing. Plus, my itunes librarry is almost 1tb right now and i dont even have everything added because it will slow it down to a crawl. having 1tb of stuff in the cloud isn't something i'm too keen on paying for. Especially when i've spent $1500 on a server that basically doesn't do what the apple said it can do. nice eh?

any input would be helpful as i'm at the end of my rope with this whole thing. Updated my iphone to the new system and cloud somethign or another kept me from syncing my music. cloud this, cloud that. maybe if they had some of their other stuff working properly first i might be persuaded to push my stuff to the cloud. but if they can't do stuff right on the local level? Not happening.

Posted on Jul 3, 2015 9:30 AM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

411,265 points

Jul 3, 2015 9:57 AM in response to sciroccojunk

The problem is too many people want too many different things. By the time you add it up there's about 20 or 30 different possibilities of things people want in terms of who gets to share what, where, under what restrictions. There is a fair amount available already with Library Sharing, Home Sharing, Family Sharing, now with Match and Apple Music. Some of this also depends upon exactly how you have iTunes configured with its library file which acts separately from the media files. I am guessing you have multiple library files but one set of media files (very trusting of you since anybody deleting an item could mess it up for all).

I don't have a Time Capsule but when I asked at the local Apple Store I was told having one would act as a local file server. It was also possible to attach a extra drive to one and have it appear on a wireless network. As for your mini server remember, (and my experience asking questions in an Apple Store tells me) not all the assistants there know everything about all configurations. I have (shock!) been told some patently wrong things in the local Apple Store here about what configurations were possible or required to do something.

It sound to me that some of the limitations you are encountering is the way iTunes behaves. If everybody wants their own personal list of media and playlists there is no automated way to have that automatically added to the library of one user if it is placed in the library of another user when using this local server. I don't know if Family Sharing includes something along those lines. That's obviously using a Cloud interface but things are heading that way. People want to be on vacation in Europe and spontaneously demand access to a track that isn't on their limited capacity (because they want small gadgets) iPhone.

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Answer 2

sciroccojunk Author

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Jul 3, 2015 1:20 PM in response to Limnos

it's not features i'm talking about outside of just adding content in general. playlists, genius stuff etc... i could care less about. having a solid system to house all of your media in one spot and have your family members and different devices having access to them and add to the "collective". I don't think that is too much to ask but seems that simple idea seems to be lost on apple. How many family oriented products have them come out with in the last 4 years? Quite a few, but family and collective media are something apple does zero about. accessing and collecting music, tv shows, and movies and even photo's seem to be a forign idea. they want them all spread out and duplicates be rampant. How hard would it be to really have a single spot for a household to have for media? apple tv seems like their answer to it but it only reads shared off of one machine at a time and you can't flag that as the center and have all devices interact with it and manage the library from any one device on the fly.

this is not rocket science and not a bunch of media specific features. its simply having a single spot for media and having an entire home network be able to add and modify a single volume of media. simple, easy. But seems even that simple thing is not even on their radar. if apple wants to continue to say they play in this space they should actually take it seriously and make serious products to actually do what they say it should do and what common sense shows that it should have. apple tv is a perfect product to expand on it. allow media like a thunderbolt drive or a NAS device connect to it and have it be the driver to manage the media. You could even do a home cloud system that allows for apple devices to access their own content from anywhere. Add, make changes, etc... playlists can be a separate issue and something that can be handled on the device itself. But controlling content and having one single spot where content can be kept to avoid duplicates, certain things you thought was on one device but was actually on another, simple stuff.

if apple actually cares about media and whatnot, this is one thing that it is shocking that one of their people hadn't even thought of before. on the PC there are a bunch of things that do this very thing. but mac, not so much. and for apple to go half way on most all of their media playing devices, it is a crime they haven't rectified this glaring issue already.

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

411,265 points

Jul 3, 2015 1:53 PM in response to sciroccojunk

They are/have implemented this but it is at the Internet cloud level, not the home based network, though a lot of it is there at the home level with Home Sharing. I think if you asked somebody they would ask why do you need a home cloud if you can have a worldwide cloud?

As I said before, I believe a Time Capsule is Apple's NAS but I recall being told you could also attach a hard drive to an Airport Extreme. I don't have a home network but when I asked along these lines at a Store they recommended a Time Capsule or Airport Extreme. Other people here go with third party NAS but there are issues between those and iTunes.

Duplicates? You must have things set up wrong. If you have multiple library files each pointing to a central media repository there's only one set of files. You do need duplicates under any scenario though if you are wanting to go offline. After all a computer or device has to have access to a file somehow to play it!

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Answer 4

sciroccojunk Author

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Jul 3, 2015 9:04 PM in response to Limnos

you can hook a drive up to the time capsule but it only offers storage for time machine or network storage. itunes library on it won't work.

with regards to dupes, i have mine set to always keep organized and connected to the server and I imported music last night and some tv shows and they don't show up on the itunes library when i open itunes on the server. each itunes catalog file stays resident on each machine and changes made on one don't update to the others. I wanted to get a copy of the file off of the server volume and the one I added yesterday wasn't there.

making changes from one device doesn't update the others. it's a pretty broken system. the only real way to make it work is only use home sharing and only add files via the server and only have read access to the other devices. it's kind of a ******** way of doing things and not really intuitive. Apple could do a much better job. Like I said, they always play that they get that families and multiple people at one location but they actually don't really do anything but the bare minimum. There are windows systems that work like i'd mentioned that apples should but that's on windows and i'm not too keen on switching. If apple really understands multiple people and media, they should actually come out with a product that does just that. a personal cloud system would be a pretty easy system. drobo makes one and apple could incorporate a personal cloud system and make all the iphones, ipads and laptops/desktops work with it. But seems that apple only plays that they want to cater to that space but in reality it's only pretend.

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