Syncing iTunes between Windows and OS X through external

Hi guys,

Been browsing the forum for a long time to help with my problems and have found tons of great solutions throughout the times, but this new one is stumping me quite a bit!

Basically, I want to be able to sync my itunes seamlessly between my Win7 machine and MBP. I have all my songs on an external HD and I just add songs to my library from that external (and I do NOT have the option "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" checked.) I hate how iTunes does it's naming convention with its own media folder. I very much prefer to just have the original files as is without any duplicated files.

So my question is, if my Win7 machine has its library all set up how I want it, what can I do to make that same library appear on my MBP? Ideally, I would like to unplug my external from my Win7 machine, plug into MPB, open iTunes, and have the same library available. This seems like it should be possible because all the files are on the same external.

I would love a solution that wouldn't require me to copy files to some iTunes Media folder. That would seem so redundant to have two of the same files on an external, and extra tedious work to delete the duplicates afterwards. This seems like such a simple thing, but I have no been able to find a solution.

Thanks to anyone who can help!!

GGJstudios said:

If you store both your music files and your iTunes library files on the external drive, you should be able to select that library when launching iTunes and have everything available. Of course, you would have to make sure the drive was mounted before you launch iTunes.

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I guess the problem was I had my iTunes library files on a local drive and it seemed buggy when trying to move those to the external and loading the file on my MBP. What are they key files here? And can I just copy that folder over to the external and be ok?

GGJstudios said:

Yes, just copy the entire folder.

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K so one last thing I'm not too clear about is which folder exactly. I know by default, my iTunes points to "C:\Users\[user]\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\" but the folder up one level has some important info as well ("C:\Users\Jeremy\Music\iTunes"). I also see things in the iTunes folder like and itl file, the library xml file, and two itdb files. I don't see any settings that makes itunes point to the non media file, so I'm a little confused as to how it's generated and how I would make it generate to my external.

Also, which of those files in there is the important one (or is it all of them)?

Thanks!

satcomer said:

Here are the steps I took:

1. By a good external that is compatible with the fastest port on the computer or the Gigabit Ethernet network.

2. Format that external for OS X.

3. On Windows 7 go to the shareware site and buy the application MacDrive. It will let your Windows 7 read & write to Mac OS X extended disk and even format Mac OS X disks.

4. Follow the steps to move the iTunes Library to the external take a look at the video HowTo move your iTunes Library.


One thing to remember connect the drive first into the computer to the fastest port on you computer to make the transfer goes faster.

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I would do this, but I just hate how iTunes organizes all my files into separate folders and what not. I much rather prefer them to be in my own default system. I'm also not looking to transfer my files to an external; they are already on the external. Just finding a way to make both a MBP and win7 machine open up the same library when I open itunes.

(haven't tried ggjstudios suggestion yet but will do so soon).