Linking iTunes to a network drive.

[jekyl]

I'm sure this is really simple and I'm just missing something. I have iTunes on a win7 desktop that I had for my iPod Classic. I've since bought an iPod Touch and an iPad2. I've moved the iTunes Media Folder Location from the D: drive on the desktop to the Music folder on that networked drive and that works fine. I restored the iPod Classic using the Mac to be Mac formatted, the Touch and iPad have never been soiled by connection to a PC. Here is where I get the snag, I cannot get iTunes on my Macbook Pro to see the music when I set it's media folder to that networked drive. What am I missing?

 

[GGJstudios]

I'm sure this is really simple and I'm just missing something. I have iTunes on a win7 desktop that I had for my iPod Classic. I've since bought an iPod Touch and an iPad2. I've moved the iTunes Media Folder Location from the D: drive on the desktop to the Music folder on that networked drive and that works fine. I restored the iPod Classic using the Mac to be Mac formatted, the Touch and iPad have never been soiled by connection to a PC. Here is where I get the snag, I cannot get iTunes on my Macbook Pro to see the music when I set it's media folder to that networked drive. What am I missing?

There are two pieces to your music working on iTunes. One is your media folder, which contains your music files. The other is your library itself, which is typically stored in a location like ~/Music/iTunes Libraries, in a folder containing your library.xml file, as well as folders for your playlists, album art, etc. For your Mac to see the same thing as your PC, you need to copy the iTunes library folder to the Mac.

Otherwise, you can create a new library on the Mac and simply add the music files that reside on the network drive. However, this method will not keep your ratings, play counts, etc.

Even if you copy the existing library, keeping the two libraries in sync is another issue.

 

[jekyl]

There are two pieces to your music working on iTunes. One is your media folder, which contains your music files. The other is your library itself, which is typically stored in a location like ~/Music/iTunes Libraries, in a folder containing your library.xml file, as well as folders for your playlists, album art, etc. For your Mac to see the same thing as your PC, you need to copy the iTunes library folder to the Mac.

Otherwise, you can create a new library on the Mac and simply add the music files that reside on the network drive. However, this method will not keep your ratings, play counts, etc.

Even if you copy the existing library, keeping the two libraries in sync is another issue.

So if I get this, I need to IMPORT all the music from that networked drive and iTunes on my Mac will just create its own library for it?

 

[GGJstudios]

So if I get this, I need to IMPORT all the music from that networked drive and iTunes on my Mac will just create its own library for it?

Yes, but it won't have the same playlists, ratings, etc. as on the PC, unless you copy those over. Also, if you manually added album artwork to your music files, that will show up on the Mac, as well, since manually added artwork is stored in the music file itself. If you let iTunes download your artwork, it doesn't embed the artwork in the files, but stores it in a separate folder in your iTunes library folder, so if you don't copy the existing folder from the PC, iTunes will have to download all that artwork again.

 

[jekyl]

Yes, but it won't have the same playlists, ratings, etc. as on the PC, unless you copy those over. Also, if you manually added album artwork to your music files, that will show up on the Mac, as well, since manually added artwork is stored in the music file itself. If you let iTunes download your artwork, that's stored in a separate folder in your iTunes library folder, so if you don't copy the existing folder from the PC, iTunes will have to download all that artwork again.

Thanks, giving it a try. My iPods thank you as well.

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Another question, if/when I add more music using one will it show on the other or will it need to be imported on both separately?