Multiple libraries, multiple instances, multiple preference sets

Hi everyone!
I know how to create multiple libraries, but does anyone know if it is possble to access through ONE instance of iTunes the multiple libraries created? If not, is it possible to run multiple instables of iTunes?
In any case, if it possible to have different preference sets for each library?
The reason I'm asking is that I find it really great to have multiple libraries so that one can have media on different drives/locations and better manage one's media. However, it's a real pain in the *** to have to quit iTunes, hold the Option key while starting iTunes, choose a library, and play whatever one wants to play.
Syncing with an iPod, too, is a pain, because I have to manually manage the iPod.
So until, iTunes does all this by itself, does anyone know of a solution?
Thanks.
PowerBook G4 17" Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Good thoughts, and maybe we'll get there someday. Already, Apple has made a complex business (managing a media library) impressively easy through iTunes, and it's steadily improved iTunes, too. Of course, the success that Apple has had in software ergonomics always leaves it in the position of having consumers say, "Well, if you can give us this, then why can't you give us that?"
At the same time, many--probably a large majority--of iTunes users do not discern the difference between the iTunes Library and the collection of music files the Library refers to. I'm sure Apple is concerned about confusing such users by adding the kind of complexity and power to iTunes that some of us could take advantage of. It's a tough balancing act.
(BTW, I think Apple should have chosen its iTunes terminology a little differently in order to help users more easily understand iTunes organization. Maybe the iTunes folder could have been called the iTunes Library folder, the iTunes Music Library file the iTunes Music Catalog, and the iTunes Music folder the iTunes Music Holdings folder, or something along those lines that makes for a closer analogy with a regular, physical library.)
I still think Apple could give you the feature you seem to be looking for by creating a new kind of preset...maybe call it Collections, or something like that... that would allow you to store different sets of preferences affecting Importing of new tunes--location, file format, etc. Then you could do what you want within one library.
Who knows? ...Hope you get what you want sometime soon!
iMac G4 17; iBook G4 1.33 Mhz 14; iPod 3G 20GB Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Similar Messages

Multiple Libraries and Music Folder Preference

I have a 140GB library on an external HD and a subset of that on my MacBook Pro. When I switch between libraries the Music folder (in advanced Preferences) does not change. If I change it temporarily to add songs to my larger library I lose the links for all of my songs when I switch back to the MBP library. Any suggestions on how to handle this?

"How do you re-link your songs to the library?"
I'm not sure what you mean. I don't have to re-link songs to a particular library. Each library is distinct. I change where iTunes looks for each library by going into the preferences, then selecting Advanced. The first tab, General, has the library location setting. Click, "Change" and you can change where iTunes is looking. iTunes will then say "Updating Library" with a progress bar, and once that's done (it can take a loooooooooooooong time, depending on how large your library is) it'll ask you if you want to move new files to this library. That's if you've added files to the library before changing the library location. It's like "Consolidate Library" from the Advanced menu. Click yes or no as appropriate, and you're set.
Bit of a PITA, as I said. If Apple were to make just one change in the next version of iTunes, it'd be to have the Library location saved in the iTunes Library file rather than in the app's preferences.
Well, that and give it a serious and robust tag editor, but that's a rant for another post.

Multiple iPods, multiple libraries, once instance of iTunes.

I have 3 iPods, a 30g, 60g,and 18g iTouch. I have one pc with one instance of itunes. I have an external drive which holds the libraries for the larger ipods, but I keep the itouch library on my local drive. I want to be able to have iTunes show the correct library for the iPod I connect. How do I get to create playlists and group my music if I only see the music in greyed out form?
When I add songs to the iTouch, it copies the song to the local drive and syncs it with the iTouch, but I can not manipulate the music through iTunes.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

To do this you need to transfer the files using CDs, DVDs, hard drive, or network from one machine to the other. Put the files into a temporary folder on the drive. After moving the files to the new machine, use the add folder option to add the files in the temporary folder the the library on that machine.

How do I create multiple libraries & use with multiple ipods?

Hi All,
My wife and I have different tastes in music. Currently we use different user log ons to seperate our libraries. It's a complete pain because there's no other reason to use seperate log ons.
We'll soon be upgrading to a new iMac and I'm wondering if it's possible to have two libraries operating in the one itunes sesssion?
So here are my questions:
1) Can I have two libraries sourcing the same music files?
2) We each have an iPod, can it be set to only update one of those libraries, but still automatically update when connected?
3) If we create playlists, will they be associated with only one library, or both (my preference is one, of course)?
4) I'm pretty sure iPods can be set so my iPod only updates my playlists, and my wife's iPod only updates her playlists - is that correct?
5) If we have seperate libraries, can we have seperate ratings? (Our opinion of what a five star song is is different)!
Of course, for the above questions, if the answer is 'yes' please let me know how to do this. I've had a look through the itunes manuals online, but they don't seem to have any information.
Cheers, Chris

Chris,
I have the exact same situation, and I have tried Doug's iTunes Library Manager, but it doesn't work for me. The first workaround I tried was to set up two smart playlists to group together any music that only one of us liked, which could then be checked or un-checked (control-click) depending on which iPod is being synced. This is clumsy, and if you aren't careful the Recently Added playlist will still "contaminate" your iPod.
Last night I just made a new library for my wife (hold down Option when starting iTunes), copied everything over using the Add to Library command, exported all the playlists using the Export Library command, deleted all the music and playlists she doesn't want, and synced her iPod. It took a while to erase and re-sync, but it is now synced to HER library, and she doesn't see any music she doesn't like.
Tonight I will do the same for myself. I will have, then, three libraries which can be selected by holding down the option key when starting iTunes: Mine, My wife's, and the main one with everything (called Library) All the music files stay on an external Firewire Drive. There is no way to toggle libraries from within iTunes, you have to quit and start it again holding down the option key.
Podcasts are another story, and I haven't quite figured them out yet.
Marty

Educator managing 120 iPod Touches with multiple libraries

By using multiple libraries I am able to set each library up for a grade level and content area with their particular needs in mind. I am syncing the iPods sometimes as often as two times per week and changing the library each time. Will this affect the life of the iPod? My school has made quite an investment and I want to be sure we get them to last as long as possible.

No, synching the iPods multiple times per week should not affect their life at all. It's not only presumed but recommended that an iPod be synched regularly for backup purposes. This of course assumes that you take care regarding avoiding static electricity shocks, one of the most common causes of failure in electronic devices.
Regards.

Multiple Libraries: 2 sets of preferences?

When using multiple libraries, is it possible to have a set of preferences for each one? For example: I have an Apple Lossless library which contains all of my music and I’d like to create an AAC library for use with my Nano. When I create a new library and change the importing preferences to 256 AAC, those settings remain when I open my Apple Lossless library.

i got it. duh.

Multiple Preferences for Multiple Libraries?

Now that I'm able to create multiple libraries with iTunes 7, I'd like to be able to have a different set of preferences for each library. That is, I'd like to have my local hard drive's library to copy files to the iTunes Music folder when I use it while refraining from copying while I use my external hard drive's library. As I understand it, preferences are user-based, so I can't figure out how to do this.
When I used Libra previous to iTunes 7, it was able to handle this. Any ideas about how to do this using iTunes 7 solely?
Thanks
Powerbook G4 17 1 ghz Mac OS X (10.3.7)

wow Addison that link you posted saved my life (and sanity!) it actually stopped the crashing of iTunes thanks so much!!

Multiple Libraries - One Preferences File

Hi all,
I would like to set up Multiple Libraries in iTunes to Sync one with ATV and stream the other to ATV when it is active.
The problem I have is that iTunes has ONE preferences file independent to the library and in particular the "Shared Name" - if you change it in one library it changes it in all libraries to be the same.
Is there a way to have multiple iTunes Libraries each with it's own preferences file to assist with this?
Cheers,
Dean

body#page1 { background-color:green; }
body#page2 { background-color:orange; }
<body id="page1">
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
http://www.dreamweavermx-templates.com
- Template Triage!
http://www.projectseven.com/go
- DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.dwfaq.com - DW FAQs,
Tutorials & Resources
http://www.macromedia.com/support/search/
- Macromedia (MM) Technotes
==================
"Michael Hager" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:e9m6h2$r07$[email protected]..
> How would you go about creating two background colors in
one CSS file?
> Say a black background for one page, but a white
background for another
> page.

How to set up multiple libraries on one computer

How do you set up multiple libraries on one computer for itunes?

Launch iTunes with the Shift key(Windows) or Option key(Mac OS X) held down.
(90004)

Firefox is not warning when closing multiple tabs, even though it is set to warn me in preferences!

Firefox is not warning when closing multiple tabs, even though it is set to warn me in preferences! Unchecking and rechecking the box does not help, it's as if Firefox is ignoring the option to warn when closing multiple tabs.

You can set the warn prefs on the about:config page to true via the right-click context menu or toggle with a double left-click.
* browser.showQuitWarning, see http://blog.zpao.com/post/3174360617/about-that-quit-dialog
* browser.tabs.warnOnClose, see http://kb.mozillazine.org/About%3Aconfig_entries
* browser.warnOnQuit , see http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.warnOnQuit
* browser.warnOnRestart , see http://kb.mozillazine.org/browser.warnOnRestart
To open the about:config page, type about:config in the location (address) bar and press the "Enter" key, just like you type the url of a website to open a website. 
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access that page. 
You can use History > Restore Previous Session to get back the previous session. 
There is also a "Restore Previous Session" button on the default about:home Home page.
Another possibility is to use:
*[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Menu_differences Firefox > Preferences] > General > Startup: "When Firefox Starts": "Show my windows and tabs from last time"

I want to set up an iPod for my dad... (Multiple Libraries Question)

My dad has a early Shuffle (back when HP made 'em), and has grown tired of no screen and all. Being technologically deficient as he is, I was going to give him my old iPod Video for Father's Day (since I'm getting the iPhone, hopefully), and have it loaded full of stuff.
If I use that Multiple Libraries deal, I can make a library for him, with his taste in music (that I want to stay far away from my library), and it won't affect my library at all, right? Max, I'd go into this library once a month, while I use my library every other day.

It is possible to have multiple libraries in a single account and use each one for a different iPod without affecting the other. To create or access a second (or more) library, hold down the Option key when launching iTunes 7. In the resulting dialogue you will get the option to create a new library or navigate to the other Library.
Note: You can only have one Library open at a time and iTunes will default to the last library opened if you don't use the keyboard command to choose one. This can prove tricky when using multiple iPods, if you don't use the keyboard command you can risk syncing to the wrong library but if you are only going to update your Dad's iPod periodically this shouldn't be an issue:
Using multiple iTunes libraries -Mac

Mediasource Organizer Multiple Librari

I have a large MP3 collection in my "PC Music Library" and would like to set up sub-libraries so that my wife's and my favourites can be browsed more easily. Obviously I can set up playlists ad infinitum but these don't then enable me to narrow the playlist down further by genre (for instance), change the display order (which stays in the order added) and all the usual bells and whisltes available from the full PC Music Library view.
As I suspect that this cannot be done with this program, can anyone recommend a music organiser that can have multiple libraries/sub-libraries?

mdowers wrote:
As you will see a couple of posts below I had already considered this approach, however, I just had a thought about YOUR stated preference for a single library for all users, regardless of their logon. Wouldn't this simply be a case of pointing each users options/settings library selection to the same database file (naturally stored in a shared directory)?
You can't do this in MediaSource. Believe me I've tried - even hacked the Registry to point to a shared folder but CMS keeps rewriting it back to what it was. It then creates an empty library in the standard location.
Each user's PC Music Library is stored within the User's profile - specifically in the C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Creative\Media Database folder.
That's why I liked PlayCenter - you could have one library in a shared area and point all users at it. But in PC I couldn't get it to detect my MuVo N200.
mdowers wrote:
In terms of the first, without physically having two root music directories, one for each user, which the individual music libraries would monitor (together with their respecti've sub-directories), I think the act of manually including only the folders of interest applicable to each user's library would be time prohibiti've. Also I must say I would not be too enamoured by allowing my PC novice wife to get into settings/options menus as there be dragons there!.
If you and your wife logon using different usernames then you can have different libraries but they can both be full of music that is stored in a shared area of your hard dri've. This is how I have mine set up now with the Media Sniffer set up to sniff the shared area. That way if one person rips a new CD then the other person gets the option of importing the tracks next time they log in.
Will that not meet your needs?
micromouse wrote:
After that, switch to your wife's PC music Library via Tools->Settings->PC Music Library. then import only those tracks that your wife wants.
MM - mdowers doesn't want to let his wife loose in Settings.
PB
Message Edited by PeeBee on 09-5-2005 07:53 PM

How do I go from using a single Apple ID with multiple libraries to using home sharing?

Until now my wife and I have opted to share our iTunes/Apple ID and use multiple libraries to manage our iPhones. This has become increasingly difficult...with issues such as having apps I've downloaded that she doesn't want automatically downloading to her library and even her phone. Now, add in the fact that I want to continue to manage my iTunes library from our PC and allow her to manage hers from her new MacBook Pro and we have good reason to move to home sharing with separate Apple IDs for each of us.
My question is the logistics of doing so. Not only do we need to replicate her existing library on a new Apple ID, but then we need to migrate all the necessary files over to her MacBook Pro. Quite honestly, I don't even know where to begin. Is it possible to associate her existing library with her new Apple ID without having to create her library from scratch? Then is there anyway to migrate only the items in her library over to her MacBook Pro as opposed having to move all of our music & apps? Where do I begin?
Thanks!

Okay...I misunderstood and thought we needed separate ID's...but I see we actually need to use the same ID which simplifies things in my mind a bit. But still some followups...
1) What do you mean by restore the library on her computer? Simply open her library file in iTunes?
2) On our current machine...media is actually split between a couple folders but all under the My Music folder. But there are multiple subfolders (iTunes, Her iPhone, and Amazon MP3). I presume as long as I copy over the entire My Music folder there shouldn't be any access issues when the library is opened on her machine?
3) Is there any easy way to get rid of all the extra files that she doesn't have in her library? For instance, all my music and apps that she doesn't actually want, is there any easy way of separating those out from the files that are actually linked to in her library? Vice versa for me...once we've go her library set up on her machine, any easy way to purge all the extra files from my PC that aren't actually in my library?
Thanks!

Multiple Libraries & duplicates

I am sure that my problem is common so hopefully this post will help other people solve similar problems. It may have been answered in other posts although nothing has popped out as a clear and concise way to solve how to deal with multiple libraries and duplicate pictures.
I have over the years created, edited and merged various iPhoto libraries. I now have such a mess of pictures and libraries I don't know what to do to organize them all. The smallest library is about 10GB, the largest about 45GB. I purchased iPhoto Library Manager and Duplicate Annihilator. I have attempted to merge some of the libraries but that didn't work that well. It created yet another library and more duplicates. I then (foolishly) attempted to drag and drop a library file and that created extra pics like thumbnails of the all the faces.
So is there an easier way that sifting thru about 30,000 images?
Do I deal with the duplicates in each separate library first, then merge and do it again. Or attempt a total merge, then scan for duplicates?
Another approach I thought about is to work directly with the originals in the library contents.
I am lucky that I haven't spent too much time with albums, books etc. There is some metadata (comments, maps and faces), but nothing to serious.

Try using a free tool, ExifRenamer (http://www.qdev.de/?location=mac/exifrenamer)
Do not use this tool on files inside of iPhoto Library. You can use the tool only with originals, in simple file format. So you probably need to export the files from iPhoto first before using the tool.
It renames photo/video file names to date/time they were taken. You'd drop a folder containing the files onto ExifRenamer icon, and the files will be renamed. Pretty simple. You can specify the format of file name and other settings to your preference first. Once the files are renamed, you'd drop them into folders based on year/quarter/month.
Basically you'd reorganize the files in this folder structure
2009_01
2009_02
2010_03
Or you could work with
2009-q1 (for Jan - March)
2009-q2 (for Apr - June)
As you are dropping the renamed files into their directories, you may be asked to overwrite files, which you should do.
Once you've renamed the files, you can reimport them into iPhoto Library. I recommend one iPhoto Library for 1 year. Maybe you could keep more years in 1 iPhoto Library. My personal preference is 1 iPhoto Library for 1 year.
Lastly, please make a good backup and test before proceeding. I recommend this.
-Let Time Machine run with iPhoto closed.
-Export all photos from iPhoto into a separate folder. This is for backup and not to be touched.
-Export all photos from iPhoto or duplicate the folder you created in previous step. Work with this folder when using ExifRenamer. Start working with small sets of files initially until you are comfortable.

Managing multiple libraries with different file types (AAC v. Lossless)

I have set up two libraries, one for my AAC music and the other for my lossless music. The files themselves are located in two separate places on my hard drive. When I switch libraries (option-clicking iTunes), and go to Preferences/Advanced tab, the directory for the files and the import method doesn't change -- I have to change it manually. This is annoying.
Does anyone know of a way to automate this change, so that if I open a new library, the default location of the files and the import format changes automatically? I tried ituneslibrarymanager from Dougscripts, but for some reason can't get this program to install on my machine.

No, it's the same Windows XP user account, but I have two separate music libraries - the music files in library are in a lossless format, while those in the other are in AAC. For convenience, I wish to keep the two libraries separate.
In iTunes 7 it is possible to have separate libraries - start iTunes and hold down the SHIFT key (Windows) while the program starts. A dialogue box then appears where the required library can be selected. However, as far as I can tell, it's not possible to have a different set of preferences for each library.
Say the preferences are set up for my lossless library, which is located on a separate network drive. If I then make the AAC library active and open iTunes, iTunes reindexes the library according to the settings for the lossless library and I end up with the AAC library full of lossless files. I've tried unchecking various things in the preferences box, but I've had no luck fixing the problem. Thanks for your suggestion - I have already reported the problem.
The whole thing is a rather inelegant way of managing multiple libraries in iTunes. Surely the Apple developers can come up with a way of doing it from within iTunes??

Multiple libraries, multiple instances, multiple preference sets

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for