Is it possible to put the iTunes Media folder on the iCloud Drive?

[dvir971]

hey,
I might be buying the 2017 non Touch Bar MacBook Pro with the 128 GB storage due to budget, now everyone would agree 128GB is not enough for anything and my music library takes a huge chunk of the memory in my current PC, so when I move the iTunes Library from my old PC to the new Mac, is it possible to put the ITunes Media folder inside the iCloud Drive folder (not just a backup of it, the original folder itself) so that iTunes will read everything from there?

 

[Crash0veride]

Yes and no, but for your purposes no. Yes you could put it on the iCloud Drive and run it there, but there's no real way to force the local files into the cloud (as far as I am aware). It's more set up to slowly offload files you don't use very often, and download them again as needed. I suppose you could try uploading them via the internet drive interface. In practicality this would probably just be very frustrating to manage.

I would instead: try using iCloud Match (I know, subscription) and keep a copy of your library on an external drive and occasionally update it for backup purposes (if you let the subscription run out, you would loose what's in the cloud).

 

[joshjohnson]

hey,
I might be buying the 2017 non Touch Bar MacBook Pro with the 128 GB storage due to budget, now everyone would agree 128GB is not enough for anything and my music library takes a huge chunk of the memory in my current PC, so when I move the iTunes Library from my old PC to the new Mac, is it possible to put the ITunes Media folder inside the iCloud Drive folder (not just a backup of it, the original folder itself) so that iTunes will read everything from there?

what you want to do is turn on iCloud desktop and documents. let the files (if any) finish uploading to iCloud then, when you've installed iCloud for windows, enable iCloud drive. you will find subfolders within that have all your mac's documents folder contents. copy the iTunes folder over to the icloud drive's documants folder, wait for it to finish uploading, then double click the iTunes library.xml file within the now cloud based library to force a download of it on your mac. I don't know how well iTunes is wired to handle a cloudy music library and it may run in to file not found errors a lot. Another solution is to switch to Google Play music. you can upload up to 20,000 songs and listen to them anywhere all for free and you don't even need Chrome. use an app called google play music manager to automatically upload all your iTunes content. if you want local (offline) storage of your music i'd suggest you get an external hard disk.
Videos and movies are another matter. you can upload them to iCloud manually and as long as whatever device is authorized to watch them you can double click them in Explorer or Finder and they will play, as long as they open in iTunes, or quicktime on the mac.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

In practice it would work awfully for iTunes, as it would have to fetch the files first, before playing them. And then the played files would linger for some time before being deleted, still taking up space. And since you likely go through quite a few files in a short while, you'll still loose a lot of space.

I certainly wouldn't do it. Save up more money, buy a proper HD for the machine. Or, buy iTunes Match and stream instead. Or buy a used Mac instead.

 

[sumo.do]

I'd be more worried it would be constantly updating the files. There must be some reasonable data quota usage.
[doublepost=1535712230][/doublepost]I'd be more worried it would be constantly updating the files. There must be some reasonable data quota usage.

 

[PieVsCake]

I'd be more worried it would be constantly updating the files. There must be some reasonable data quota usage.
[doublepost=1535712230][/doublepost]I'd be more worried it would be constantly updating the files. There must be some reasonable data quota usage.

Having considered doing this myself I will share with you what I ended up doing and why.

Putting your iTunes share on any internet or network resource for that matter causes several issues with library integrity and performance. If your willing to give up a USB port on your macbook, I suggest using a low profile USB key such as https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-128GB-Ultra-Flash-Drive/dp/B07855LJ99/ref=dp_ob_title_ce This allows you to get near HD performance in a secure resource that isn't connection dependent. For under $25 you get way better performance then iTunes match and aren't tethered to an internet connection.

Yes your using a USB port but you gain performance, reliability and it can move from device to device if needed. I've used it in my Macbook for years and never regret giving up the port. It beats taking up half the storage on my macbook air.