Home Sharing - Hard Drive

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Home Sharing - Hard Drive

I currently have itunes installed on my laptop - which i no longer use as my primary device. I tend to use my ipad as the laptop is bulky & not really fit for purpose. I also have an external hard drive which has a back up of my itunes library. I know that i can access my library by home sharing from the laptop via my ipad but this means that the laptop needs to be on, which isn't the perfect solution.

What i want to know is, if i connect my external hard drive to the network & have this on permanently can i "switch on" home sharing & access my library stored on my hard drive via my ipad?

I also have Apple TV if this is an option to help with the connections.

iPad Air, iOS 9.3.1

Posted on Apr 27, 2016 6:43 AM

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Answer 1

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Phil0124

Community+ 2024

Level 10

198,909 points

Apr 27, 2016 6:48 AM in response to gemmyjam

Unfortunately No. Without the laptop that is running iTunes, where would you switch on Home Sharing?

The iPad cannot directly access a networked drive, and it cannot be the source of Home Sharing.

Use Home Sharing to share iTunes content with other devices - Apple Support

Home Sharing lets you share and stream content from your computer’s iTunes library to other computers, iOS devices, and Apple TVs.

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Answer 2

gemmyjam Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 27, 2016 6:54 AM in response to Phil0124

Thanks

So basically i have no option other than to leave the laptop on all the time to be able to access the library?

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Answer 3

Apr 27, 2016 8:14 AM in response to gemmyjam

Well, there's always the online option.

You can subscribe to iTunes Match or Apple Music, and have iTunes upload your music to Apple's cloud servers, from which you can play it on any device as long as you have an internet connection and are paying for the subscription.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/itunes-match/

http://www.apple.com/music/

iCloud Music Library: Understanding differences between Apple Music and iTunes Match - Apple Support

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Answer 4

May 1, 2016 1:33 PM in response to gemmyjam

Well it would matter what type of router you have. All apple router are able to do it. Also ciciso routers can do because they are base off apple system. But if you were to run it off your network you would have to run it with out a password because iPhone and iPad can not access lock shared files. I hope this help some what.

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