iTunes - sharing?

[TheWedgie]

Hi, not sure if this is the right area for an iTunes question - but it relates to both iPhone and iPods so wasn't sure where else to put it...

Essentially we currently have a server PC (Win7x64) and 1 Win7 Laptop.
We now have an iPhone 4 each, as well as an iPod each.

What I'd like to be able to achieve:
- One iTunes library sync'd to both computers - that way if the laptop is off the network we can still get to all the music.
- Have any apps we purchase available to both iPhones

I assume a single iTunes account is the way to go for the apps, however what is the best way to setup the iTunes library - home sharing and automagic sync? Will Home Sharing only copy purchases, or will it also sync our existing song collection?

At the moment iTunes is only installed on the server (and the library is setup as well as I think it can be) - so how do I go about adding that library to the laptop?

 

[X2thaP]

Not trying to dig up old threads but as I was looking up some info on filenames after sharing I came across this unanswered thread, so:

What I would suggest is to have iTunes installed on both computers (duh), turn on the sharing option, as you suggested, so you can browse both libraries from both computers.
Now, if you say the server PC holds everything at this moment, basically you open up iTunes on the laptop, browse the shared library from the server PC and if you want them to be identical, you do a "select all" (ctrl+a) and drag the selection over to the laptops library in the column on the left.
It will now copy everything from the server PC onto the laptop. This way you should end up with two identical libraries.

If, for example, you have added stuff on your laptop that you hadn't done on the server PC, you just do the same thing, but the other way around AND in the bottom you select to view only items outside of your library (when browsing the shared one). This way you won't get doubles and you can see exactly what you need, nothing more.

And this is basically what you should do each time you add music, movies,... or purchase apps on one computer, in order to get them onto the other one as well. Browse the shared library, view items outside of your own library, drag them into your library.

You could indeed use one single account for iTunes as this permits the use of purchases on up to FIVE devices/machines. You however have a server PC, a laptop, 2 iPhones and 2 iPods... so that makes SIX. Not sure what to suggest here... You could add a second account to purchase your stuff for device number 6, but it could turn out to be expensive this way. So... I would suggest to get rid off one iPod and make more use of the iPod in your iPhone. You now have 5 devices so you can use one iTunes account.

Hope this helps, if you hadn't figured it out for yourself yet Anyway, it's good info for anyone else wanting to do the same I guess.

 

[TheWedgie]

Cheers - that's pretty much what I've done.
We've kept our own iTunes accounts on the iPhones and iTunes on the HTPC and one laptop (I haven't gotten my new one yet), and setup Home Sharing using my account. This seems to work well, and once we authorised each PC for both accounts, can happily copy purchased items across libraries.