Tip: sharing an iTunes library

[MajorFubar]

Sorry if I'm repeating common knowledge, but certainly this was new to me, so maybe it just might be useful to someone else?

Since I migrated all of my ripped CDs to a new Mac Mini which doesn't have a Super Drive, and seeing that Remote Disc doesn't work with audio CDs or DVDs, I wanted to find a way to share its iTunes Library so that CDs ripped on my iMac would automatically appear on my Mini without the chore of having to add them manually.

I had already shared the Mac Mini's 'Music' folder, by going into its System Preferences > Sharing. That had enabled me to point the default iTunes Media folder on my iMac to the iTunes Media folder on my Mini by using iTunes > Preferences... > Advanced.

The next step is an imporant one, and you don't read about it very often: on the client machine (in my case, my iMac) you need to hold down the Alt/Option key before starting iTunes. If you do that, as iTunes begins to load it will prompt you for the location of the library files you want it to use. In my case it was Network > Mac Mini 2011 > Music > iTunes. Click 'Open', and in seconds, all your music and folder art will appear as if by magic. Presto!!

Just for a test, I have since ripped a CD om my iMac and sure enough, it appeared instantly on my Mac Mini as soon as I started iTunes. So it worked.

For anyone who wants to do this, the only problem I can forsee is if more than one computer is updating the library at the same time. The results would probably be a bit unpredicable and possibly you would corrupt the library entirely.

Anyhow...that's my Tip of the Day. Presumably it will also work if you store your Music>iTunes folder on a NAS, though I haven't tried that yet as I don't have a NAS (least not one which my Macs recognise).

 

[Dan Turner]

Yes it does work on a NAS, that's where my iTunes library (i.e. not just the music, but the library file too) is.

 

[professorhat]

Yup, good tip.

If you do decide to store your iTunes library on a Synology NAS, I've created another good tip which uses Cloud Station - with this, you can keep your main media contents on the NAS (i.e. freeing up storage on the local hard drive of the Mac), but keep the main metadata / artwork local, so everything is still super speedy when you're browsing the library.

Using Cloud Station, you can sync the metadata / artwork across multiple Macs - this means you only have one copy of your main data on the NAS (i.e. all the big files - the music and movie files, all your podcasts, iPhone apps etc.), but you keep a local copy of the metadata and your artwork on the local Mac hard drive, so browsing the iTunes Library from any device on your network is super quick. And because Cloud Station syncs with all your devices, any changes made when logged in from one Mac will be seen when you log into any of the other devices.

Very neat

 

[MajorFubar]

Thanks Prof I'll re-read that a few times to try to get my head round what you're saying...all this is really new to me and I'm learning new stuff all the time. Thirty years ago I thought I knew it all because I knew how to set up a turntable and service my open-reel tape deck...now those skills are obsolete.

 

[Anonymous]

Professor, awesome idea! It looks like your tip covers the setup that I have in mind using my new Synology NAS for sharing my iTunes content across three Macs at home.

A couple of quick questions on the specifics: Are you keeping the files setup like this? Have you run into any Cloud Station issues with versioning of the files that I've seen mentioned elsewhere?

~/Music/iTunes (Local folder on Macs)
drwxr-xr-x ./iTunes Music ------>>>> shared on Synology DiskStation /music folder?
drwxr-xr-x ./Album Artwork ------>>>> updated locally and synced on Cloud Station folder?
drwxr-xr-x ./Mobile Applications ------>>>> shared on Synology DiskStation /music folder?
drwxr-xr-x ./Previous iTunes Libraries ------>>>> updated locally and synced on Cloud Station folder?
-rw-r--r-- ./iTunes Library Extras.itdb ------>>>> updated locally and synced on Cloud Station folder?
-rw-r--r-- ./iTunes Library Genius.itdb ------>>>> updated locally and synced on Cloud Station folder?
-rw-r--r--@ ./iTunes Library.itl ------>>>> updated locally and synced on Cloud Station folder?
-rw-r--r--@ ./iTunes Library.xml ------>>>> updated locally and synced on Cloud Station folder?
-rw-r--r--@ ./sentinel ------>>>> updated locally and synced on Cloud Station folder?

 

[professorhat]

What I did was to go into iTunes and move the iTunes Library to a shared folder called "music" on the NAS (by going into iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, click the Change button, then browse to the folder on the NAS). Once this has moved, you should find everything under the <user folder>/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media folder now sits on your NAS.

Once this is done, shut down iTunes and then move the <user folder>/Music/iTunes folder to your CloudStation folder. Now, open iTunes whilst holding down the Option key. This should then give you the option to Choose Library

Browse to your CloudStation folder and choose the iTunes folder and that's it! Repeat the last step for your other Macs and they should all open their own copy of iTunes library and artwork (synced with CloudStation), but use the same media in terms of the music, movies, iPhone apps etc.

Couple of points - I wouldn't open the iTunes library on two or more Macs at the same time. I've not tried it, but my guess would be this is where corruption can occur, since CloudStation would be trying to sync both to each computer - not a good idea. Secondly, don't open iTunes whilst your Synology NAS isn't available (e.g. powered off, or if you don't have network connection). This is because iTunes will default to adding new music etc. to your CloudStation iTunes folder rather than the one on your NAS. This has caught me out a couple of times and, though it can be fixed by going through the first step of moving your iTunes library back to your NAS using the Change button again, it's a faff and you might not notice it for a while! Easiest way to ensure this doesn't happen is to add the "music" shared folder as a login item under your profile in the Users & Groups section. That way, as long as you've got the "music" icon on your desktop, you know it's okay.

Hope this helps!