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Help putting it all together

C

CCampb1346

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 25, 2010
2
0
See signature line below for apple products we have. I am wanting to use time capsule as a home wireless server. My wife and I would like to be able to access all our songs, photos, movies and other media through the TC.

We would also like to just have one iTunes and iPhoto program/account that is accessible on all computers. Hopefully when you add a new song from the iMac it will appear on the iTunes at the MacBook. Is this possible?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
 
Unfortunately, this isn't what the TC is designed to do, and iTunes/iPhoto are not really designed to share content this way.

You can move a single iTunes library to the TC, but you would have to be careful not to open it from both machines are the same time, and if for any reason you were not on your wireless network you would not be able to open your iTunes library.

Note too that if all of your content is from the iTunes Store, you can keep your libraries automatically in sync just with the built in Home Sharing features.

Many other NAS have a built in "iTunes server" which would allow for a third centralized iTunes library, but this is not a feature of the TC.

Maybe someone else can tackle iPhoto, but it is actually less network/sharing happy.

B
 
balamw said:
Unfortunately, this isn't what the TC is designed to do, and iTunes/iPhoto are not really designed to share content this way.

You can move a single iTunes library to the TC, but you would have to be careful not to open it from both machines are the same time, and if for any reason you were not on your wireless network you would not be able to open your iTunes library.

Note too that if all of your content is from the iTunes Store, you can keep your libraries automatically in sync just with the built in Home Sharing features.

Many other NAS have a built in "iTunes server" which would allow for a third centralized iTunes library, but this is not a feature of the TC.

Maybe someone else can tackle iPhoto, but it is actually less network/sharing happy.

B
Click to expand...

I have heard that the TC drive shows up as a virtual drive on your desktop and I thought that it could contain one master iTunes and iPhoto library. Then, you could tell each respective program from each respective computer to access that folder on the TC. I thought that documents could work the same way.

We are not wanting multiple user accounts, just one but that can access the same data through the TC or a sync function on multiple computers.

Connecting to the server from outside the wireless network is not a primary concern.
 
CCampb1346 said:
I have heard that the TC drive shows up as a virtual drive on your desktop and I thought that it could contain one master iTunes and iPhoto library. Then, you could tell each respective program from each respective computer to access that folder on the TC. I thought that documents could work the same way.
Click to expand...

Documents are generally fine handled that way. And as I mentioned in my reply:

You can move a single iTunes library to the TC, but you would have to be careful not to open it from both machines are the same time, and if for any reason you were not on your wireless network you would not be able to open your iTunes library.
Click to expand...

The problem is how iTunes and iPhoto handle their content.

The actual MP3/AAC files are perfectly fine to store on the TC, but iTunes actually works with the "iTunes Library" file which is a database. The iTunes database is designed for exclusive use by a single user. So it you open in simultaneously on two machines you will screw things up. This would work fine if you and your wife never open iTunes at the same time.

This article at iLounge http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive/ describes how iTunes stores its stuff in more detail than you want to know. You could easily keep the library (database) on the local HDD while the content (songs) are on the TC, but on the other machine the added songs will not appear in the database and will have to be manually added.

B
 
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