Syncing iTunes xml files

[DrFinkle]

My music collection is currently on an external hard drive attached to a WinXP machine. I am planning on getting a MBP and would like to be able to access my music files. I know how to set the library for each computer to look in the same place, but when I upload music to the drive from one computer or the other, I am not sure if iTunes on the other computer will automatically register that new music has been loaded (and to what playlists it has been added). Any ideas? Is there a way to sync iTunes xml files between computers [if so, do they both need to be Mac's]?

Thanks.

DrFinkle

 

[Sesshi]

The XML files are interoperable between PC and Mac, but since the storage locations are parsed differently the information has to be rebuilt each time. With any decent sized library the conversion time is impractically long.

As for whether it's possible to move the location of the XML file in iTunes Mac, I've been trying to find this information for quite a while now without success.

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, copying the data files to the equivalent location should be enough for iTunes to find the music, assuming the drive is connected.

As for whether it's possible to move the location of the XML file in iTunes Mac, I've been trying to find this information for quite a while now without success.

I'm not sure that's possible at this stage although I can see Apple implementing this in a future release of iTunes. It would be nice to keep it wherever we like. I haven't tried it, but aliases may work for now... Might be worth a shot.

 

[jMc]

I created a little personal App using Automator to sync the library files on my media server (an old B&W G3) and my PowerBook, as I couldn't find any easy way to sync two machines sharing the same music files. It simply grabs the library data files from one machine and copies it to the relevant place on the other machine.

You should be able to do the same thing pretty easily once you have a Mac. There may also be ready made solutions to this out there - check out Version Tracker.

jx