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Heart Break Kid

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 13, 2003
574
8
Toronto
so i just setup my network so my mac can access files that are on my dell. the thing is, when i double click an mp3 file, i tunes downloads it into the folder "itunes music". i really dont want the mac downloading any music on the harddrive. i know winamp lets me stream the audio over the network, so i dont actually have to dl the file inorder to listen to it. can itunes do the same thing?
 

rainman::|:|

macrumors 603
Feb 2, 2002
5,438
2
iowa
well i'm not sure if iTunes will let you see music on another computer like this (to prevent piracy), but as far as music copying to the iTunes folder: Under the iTunes menu, go to Preferences, under Advanced, and deselect "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library"...

then put the songs in your library from the Dell over the network, and see if it plays or not :)

pnw
 

unc32

macrumors regular
Jul 17, 2002
178
0
all you need to do is set you iTunes directory to be the directory in which the files are stored on the network. Then just add the files to your library as normal and it will add and process them but not copy them. As a result, you can then play them all off on machine. We do this in our lab with 5 macs. It works well.

This is under preferences and importing.
 

rainman::|:|

macrumors 603
Feb 2, 2002
5,438
2
iowa
yeah you can do it that way too, the Library Location is under Advanced as well, but it has the potential to confuse iTunes if the Library file itself is on another computer if it's not on, and you try to open iTunes-- i would leave the Library file itself on the Mac, then if the Dell was shut down or unavailable, only the songs wouldn't work, the library file would still be there... iTunes wouldn't blank out :)

pnw
 

Heart Break Kid

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 13, 2003
574
8
Toronto
so what i did was i deleted all the mp3s off my mac. i then went to the mp3 folder via network on my dell and double clicked a song - it streamed it acrross and played it on my mac. now - when i tried to set up the library so it just imports the songs from the mp3 folder thats on my dell - it wont recognize it. what i mean is - i went to itunes - file and then import. it does not show my DELL on my desktop so i cant double click on it and import it. i hope this is clear - cuz i know im wording the problem poorly. any idea on how to go about fixing this?
 

maradong

macrumors 65816
Mar 7, 2003
1,058
0
Luxembourg
All i did was mounting the shared drive, and just drag and droped the folders with the mp3 s in the i tunes library...
 

Heart Break Kid

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 13, 2003
574
8
Toronto
got it to work

the only crappy thing is - im a stickler for organization - i just imported 2100 mp3s and now i got to fix all the damn ID3 tags :|


well - god bless itunes - i know im gonna luv this when alls finally said and done


thanks u guys!
 
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