iTunes Library Sharing ? How to go about doing this.

[rdunlap]

Hey guys. I thought I might pick everyone's brain here. I just purchased a MacBook Air with just 128GB SSD but that should be fine as far as local storage. I have an iTunes library that is over 350GB and it grows everyday so even the 256GB storage wouldn't have been enough for me. I have multiple computers and also have an iPod, iPad and iPhone. They all sync via my MacBook through an external hard drive right now and this is the only computer I currently sync to.

Since I have a Mac Mini as well as a iMac, I want to see if there is a way that I can wirelessly share the external hard drive with the itunes library in it and all the computers would be hooked up to it going off that one source and itunes library. I buy music from not only itunes so I import music all the time to itunes and also want to make sure that it will update to the computers that are connected to the library automatically as I wouldn't want any inconsistency's when I need to sync one of my devices to one of my computers.

I hope there is a way to do this, and if there is can you please help me out and explain or point me in the right direction at least to where I can find out about this?

It would be much appreciated. Thank you!

 

[techound1]

I think you're looking for home sharing: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2688

 

[rdunlap]

I think you're looking for home sharing: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2688

No, it's not home sharing that I am looking for. I want to keep the hard drive NOT plugged into any single one of my computers and have it networked to all of them hooked up to the iTunes library on the hard drive. I already have homesharing setup and that is not what I am looking to do.

 

[Weaselboy]

No, it's not home sharing that I am looking for. I want to keep the hard drive NOT plugged into any single one of my computers and have it networked to all of them hooked up to the iTunes library on the hard drive. I already have homesharing setup and that is not what I am looking to do.

It sounds like you want to share iTunes from network attached storage (NAS). There is a good article here that might help you.

Some NAS devices have software that will share iTunes with an iOS device. Or you could could use the process at the link above to network share a USB drive, and then have iTunes on one of the computers run Home Sharing.

Maybe iTunes Match would be a better fit for you?