Multiple Macs one library

I'm not a Aperture user, I'm just trying to figure out which program to use. I tried iPhoto, I've used iView for several years (but don't really like it), I looked at Adobes program, and now I'm playing with Aperture.
There is however one thing I haven't figured out yet. Can I use one Aperture library on two Macs? I can see how I would normally use a MacBook but once in a while I would like to be able to use a MacPro, is there some way this can be done (note: not at the same time)?

First off, whatever you do is just keep the vault on a separate external drive.
A vault is simply a non-directly usable backup of the Aperture library that would need to be used to rebuild a library. (actually there is a way to change a vault into a library, but that is a bit over the top here....)
A simple way for using two computers and one library would be to have the Aperture Library on a FW800 drive. Just plug it into whichever computer you want to use at the time.
A second way (if you insist on having the library on the slow MacBook Pro internal drive) would be to use Target Disk Mode to mount the MacBook Pro hard drive onto the MacPro and use the library from there.
A third way (if you insist on having the library on the slow MacBook Pro internal drive again) would be keep the library on the MacBook Pro, ethernet the two computers together and mount the MacBook Pro's hard drive on the MacPro, then open the Aperture Library with the MacPro. Just be sure to NEVER use the library on both computers at the same time. The problem with the final way is it is the slowest way, but still usable.
My choice would be #1.
Finally you could go with SATA drives and cards for the fastest speeds but this is an expensive option.

Similar Messages

Multiple ipods one library

I may have posted this elsewhere in the wrong forum. but let me try it here in the right spot.
I have a nano and itunes. everything works great.
I'm getting a new touch in a week or so. I want to keep my nano as both a back up and something to carry when I go running, camping, fishing, etc.
Can I synch both the touch and the nano to my same itunes library?
I really don't want to have 2 copies of all my music but think I should be albe to synch both devices to my music.
Can I do it and if so how?
Thanks,
Jeff

You can sync as many ipods/iphones as you like to one library.

One Mac, One Library, Multiple Accounts.

I recently introduced an iMac G4 into my family as their new primary machine (Mine is still my trusty PowerBook), and I have a bit of a problem.
The prior computer (a Windows XP PC) had a fairly large (14.5 GB) music collection. All the files are simple mp3 files, so there's no DRM to worry about in this equation. I copied them over onto an external drive and then imported them into iTunes (my user's Library). The thing is, this is a consortium of everyone's music, and each person in my family has their own user account. Is there any way to make one central iTunes library that can be accessed no matter what account they're using?
Or do I have to copy over these 14 gigs onto each person's individual accounts? I'd rather not, because then as music is added, it would be a pain to keep everyone's music synced across multiple libraries on the same machine. Plus, it would be a huge waste of space.

Click here and follow the instructions.
(40173)

Multiple iPods, One Library, Ratings challenge

Hi
I have an iPod, as does my daughter, and we both sync off my iTunes library with different playlists (at 200Gb it is too big to have multiple copies).
However, if my daughter rates a song as 5 star, it syncs to my library, so my 5 star smartlist suddenly fills up with her music.
Is there a way I can set her iPod to "upload only" - so that it only syncs one way?
TIA
Shaun

Just create her own account on the computer.
Move the music to a Shared directory so you both can access it.
Each of you will use the same music buit a differnt library file and her ratings will only be hers.
Use Method One here -> http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300432

Multiple Users, One Library

I have made myself a new user on our emac, with access to ITunes. I am taking our computer to another site and don't want anyone messing with it while I am not around. My logical thinking told me that when we have one ITunes on our harddrive that it would share it's information with all users on the machine. When I logged in and opened up ITunes the library had nothing in its list. Can I share the library with my husband (which is our normal login)? Or do I have to start all over again?

iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer tells you two methods.
If you want one central library, use the second method.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac 800 MHz, 768 MB RAM, 200 GB HD, DL burner Mac OS X (10.4.7) iTunes 7.0

Two Macs, one library, no file moving?

Hi,
I have two Macs and would like to be able to share the same set of songs between them, with additions and deletions kept in sync. If I put all the songs in a Firewire drive connected to one, and then point both iTunes to the same directory AND uncheck the "Copy files to iTunes..." in Preferences/Advanced will I get the results I hope for? And if I leave "Keep Foler organized..." checked will it still list songs by album and artist, etc, if I have them named correctly? Or does iTunes need its own directory structure to accomplish this? I don't want it to start moving or copying things around without my sayso. Reminds me too much of Windows!
Mike

Theoretically this is possible.
When you launch any a copy of iTunes which you'd like to use that library, hold down the option key while double clicking the iTunes icon. This should present a dialogue box that gives you the option to choose a library. You browse to the library file on the external drive and voila.
Each machine has to be "authorised" to work with that computer and I believe the maximum number is five. This is achieved by going into Store->Authorise inside iTunes.

Two Macs, One Library

I've been scouring the internets to try and figure out if it's possible for two macs to point to one iTunes Library and its content on one external HDD. The idea being as long as I have my external HDD plugged in I have my an entire library at hand.
I'm running a G5 Tower running 10.4.10 and a Powerbook G4 running 10.4.11, both have iTunes 8. Is there a way to get both computers to see the same library (not at the same time) and content? I'd also like to be able to sync my iPhone and iPod on either computer. Any ideas/suggestions/solutions are appreciated.

Theoretically this is possible.
When you launch any a copy of iTunes which you'd like to use that library, hold down the option key while double clicking the iTunes icon. This should present a dialogue box that gives you the option to choose a library. You browse to the library file on the external drive and voila.
Each machine has to be "authorised" to work with that computer and I believe the maximum number is five. This is achieved by going into Store->Authorise inside iTunes.

Multiple Computers, One Library

I have gone down this road, did my research, and here is where I am at:
1. Desktop was the one that had the files on it. I went ahead and put all files on an NAS and also srore my library files on the NAS. Bottom line, nothing on local client except iTunes software. This works fine, see no issues.
2. Laptop: I know it has to have a locally stored library file as each client has their own in my understanding. I pointed iTunes to the folder that I set up in step 1. It saw the files and created a library from it, etc. All worked fine except I did not find a lot of artwork, it did not seem to get those files, what gives?
3. On laptop, I went ahead and plugged in my sons iPod, it pulled off purchases he made and added them to the music folder that was set up in #1, however, when I start iTunes on desktop, it did not show them in my library. I even did a file>now I forgot what the command was, I am not on a PC with iTues at the moment. Anyway, the only way to see them was to use the add files function from the desktop. Now, I have them. So, what did I do wrong and is there a better way?
Did I do this right? My bottom line is the NAS has all the music and art files on it as well as my master library file. Local clients (laptop for instance) has their local library files, however all the art and music is on the NAS so I can keep that organized. What am I doing wrong or right? I appreciate the help. IOs there a function to keep this all organized?

Similar situation. I have a G5 running Itunes 6.03 and I use it with an M9245LL iPod and works great. For Christmas I have been given a new 60 Gb video iPod, Model No MA147LL; I set it up (also iTunes 6.01.3) on the Gateway 770 GR and it just work great. I have, over a series of months, loaded my entire CD collection, which is roughly 1500 CDs, into Itunes on the G5. That was a LOT of time and work. Now, I say to myself: "Self, wouldn't it be nice if you could get all this music from your G5 to your Windows computer so you can listen to it on your new ipod?"
There seems no clear path to accomplish this other than loading the discs into the Windows PC as well.:-( The Mac and the Gateway are perfectly networked. What are the possibilties of referencing the Mac iTunes folder from the Gateway? (best of all worlds but so far appears un-doable) Suggestions anybody?
Mac G5 Dual Proc 2.0 / Gateway 770 GR Mac OS X (10.4.3) Gateway is XP pro SP2
Mac G5 Dual Proc 2.0 / Gateway 770 GR Mac OS X (10.4.3) Gateway is XP pro SP2
Mac G5 Dual Proc 2.0 / Gateway 770 GR Mac OS X (10.4.3) Gateway is XP pro SP2

Multiple Macs, one iPhone 4

I have an iMac and a MacBook Pro. I want to sync iBook books between my iPhone 4 from my MacBook Pro's iTunes library. I want to sync my music and video content from my iMac's iTunes Library. All of my software and OS on my two Macs are current. The problem is that if I sync my music from my iMac, it will wipe out my iBooks on my iPhone. If I sync my iBooks from my MacBook Pro to my iPhone, it wipes out my music. How can I fix this? I legally own all the content I am syncing so I don't see why this should be a problem.

Hi there
Thanks for your response.
The 18000 contacts is a mistake! Not sure what happened here.
If i am in outlooks address book and i delete all the unwanted contacts (which takes me days) and reach my desired contact list which is a 1500 contacts. Then as soon as i plug my iphone in and If i'm on the address book screen in outlook i can see at the left bottom of outlook how it automatically adds the contacts in outlook. It duplicates some of my contact names 100 times over.
I tried checking the contact box under info in itunes to replace contacts on phone and this doesn't help either.
I have even tried restoring the phone to factory default and starting over. But no luck!!!! Not sure where outlook or the phone is getting its data from.
All i want is to have the 1500 contacts in outlook to sync with the phone and have the same info.
Any help will be highly appreciated!

2 MACs, one Library, syncing Apps automatically?

Hi,
Just bought a MBAir. Want to keep Mini (and big screen) for videos/music.
My setup is one iTunes library (&one account), Mini, MBA, iPad.
My issue is when updating apps. Perfect on MBA - which I connect to the iPad via USB to sync. Basically MBA has become main computer.
Prob is, the old Mini doesn't update the apps automatically (yes, I've selected "Install new app automatically'). I rarely use it anymore (but still need it), so I end up with too many apps to update (which have already been updated on the MBA/iPad) manually - and for the second time.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!

I don't think you can sync ipod and iphone to 2 different computers must use 1 computer for sync. you can share library and playlist between 2 computers. Just export selected playlist, save it to network folder on second import playlisy/library from network folder etc. Make sure main library folder is added to both computers. Because library export on computer 1 is not main library but the playlist library. I hope this help... Have a nice day

Best Practice: One Library, Multiple Macs ?

Despite searching, I've yet to find a definitive answer to this one - so any advice would be appreciated....
Having downloaded the trial, I very much like Aperture, but my decision to purchase and continue using it hinges very much on whether or not I can access the same library from multiple machines.
Here is the scenario:
My 'studio' currently has a Quad G5 (soon to be upgraded to a MacPro), with ample Firewire storage, including 2 new 500Gb Western Digital MyBook drives. I now also have a MacBook Pro to allow me to work away from the studio.
So far, I'm using one of the 500Gb drives to hold everything I need - 'work in progress' documents, images etc. etc. with this being SuperDuper! smart updated daily to the second drive. This allows me to take drive 1 away at night and work from home, our go out of the office with the MacBook Pro and have all my media to hand, and 'synchronise' upon return the next day or whenever.
I think what I'd like to be able to do, is set up Aperture on the G5 and get all my images sorted and stored into a new library (out of iPhoto and various Finder folders etc) stored on FW Drive 1 along with the rest of my stuff. This would semi-automatically be backed up to FW Drive 2 as mentioned above.
However, I want to be able to access this library with Aperture on the MacBook Pro when I'm not in the office - will this work? I appreciate that I'll need 2 licenses of Aperture (one for the desktop, and one for the laptop) but my concern is whether or not both copies of Aperture can use the same library....... I wonder if the Aperture prefs would prevent this from working or screw it up completely.
If this ain't gonna work - what other options do I have !?
MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Not sure this will help but this is what I have decided to do.
System: MacBook Pro and a G5. Storage: 2 Western Digital 160 GB USB 2.0 Passport Portable drives, 1 OWC 160 GB Firewire 800 (for back up of my internal drive on my MacBook Pro), and 5 500GB Western Digital MyBook Pro FW drives (attached to my G5). One Aperture library resides on my MacBook Pro internal and a yearly (like 2006) Aperture resides on 1 500 GB WD MyBook Pro
In studio, I shoot wirelessly and transfer by ftp to the MBP and using Aperture Hot Folder move the images into Aperture to show the client at the end and during the shoot. They are managed, but sadly the files are not named by studio convention. Once the client leaves, I delete the temporary project, and reimport the pictures, renaming the pictures using the studio format and they are managed. At this point the picture reside on my internal drive of my MBP.
I do the majority of the clean up of the images at this point (contrast, exposure, saturation, sharpening, leveling, blemish corrections, etc, keywording). Once done, I export the project to my primary WD Passport drive and then using the old fashion network strategy of walking, take the WD Passport drive to the G5 and import the project in G5 library converting them to referenced files so I have Finder based architecture for all my RAW files.
Once I know the the files are on the G5, I go back to my MBP and convert the managed pictures to referenced pictures in the process moving them off my internal drive and on to the WD 160 USB 2.0 drive in a Finder based architecture. This keeps my library on my MBP pretty small and allows me to carry 160 GB worth of pictures that I can work on at any time or place. [Actually, I will probably pick up a 3rd 160GB Passport soon, like this weekend, so I will be able to carry 320 GB of pictures with me.
Now it gets nasty because I have two sets of pictures, one on my MacBook Pro and one on my G5. Again using old fashion strategies, I decided that the work flow could only go one way... from MBP to G5 and never (or very rarely) the opposite direction. The other nasty is how to deal with changes made after the first transfer of the project to the G5. The vast majority of those changes go through Photoshop and by default they become managed files. So for a particular project when I start to do additional editing, I bring those images into an album (let's say "Selected pictures") for that project and edit away. Once I am really done, I generate a new project (Original project is 070314 and the new project would be 070314 Update) and I drag the album to the new project. The nice thing is the primary pictures remain in the original project when I move the album. I then export Project Update consolidating images and import that into the library on the G5. Lastly, I relocated masters of the managed files to the WD Passport drive. I pay the penalty of having a few replicates of a couple of pictures and the architecture of my G5 library is not identical to my MBP library, but I have all of my primary images plus CS2 changes available to my MBP and my G5.
OK..... my library on my MBP internal is backed up to the OWC drive using Superduper so I always have a current replicate of that library. The library and pictures on the 500 GB WD Mybook Pro are backed up 2-3 times per week to a second 500 GB WD MyBook Pro.
In case my GS fails, I can address the library by simply attaching my MBP to the firewire chain and double click on the library icon. This forces Aperture to open the library on the 500 GB WD Mybook Pro drive. In case my MBP fails, I can boot my MBP or G5 off the OWC drive.
Principles: A one library solution will never work, because eventually, even with referenced images it will become too large for a single drive. So start now with a strategy of smaller libraries structures. I use a yearly system, but others are possible. My yearly system consists of my library plus referenced images on one 500 GB drive plus a second drive to which I back up. If I run out of space, I will buy two more drives, perhaps moving TB drives.
Don't try to store very many images on your internal drive of any computer. Develop a methodology of keeping the images on external (FW or eSATA) drives where capacity can be readily expanded.
Keep your MBP library pristine by regularly moving managed files over to referenced files on a bus powered portable drive.
Make sure you regularly back up both systems.
Hope this helps.
steven

IDVD burning one project on multiple macs? where are project contents?

How do I burn one project on multiple macs? I have a idvd project I created in keynote, added music to it in Garageband, exported to quicktime, and now is in iDVD burning just fine. However I have tons of these dvd's to make, I would like to put all my mac's to work.
last night i tried to share the file, and it is just an alias when i drag it over from the macbook it was created on to my imac. the file says it is in use and locked, since the macbook that created it is burning it. If I wanted to brun on the imac, I had to wait until the macbook was done.
is there a way around this? What if I copied all files I used to make the idvd project to my imac or any computer i wanted to burn on? woudl it hen allow two macs to be burning the same project?
I figured I could do this just like on my PC, drag the file over and voila...no such luck, its like if i had dragged a shortcut over to another pc...if the first one is using the file, its locked. Basically how do i get to the actual contents of the project, so I can also bring them over and hopefully it will allow me to burn on multiple macs at the same time?
my next solution if that didn't work was to start copying dvd's using popcorn on the other macs while the macbook continues burning through idvd.
Any opinions on how i can duplicate a dvd fast...need alot of copies!

Also as to where the files are.
I-DVD project bundle: This is the file created when you save the project.
• [user]/Library/iDVD/Favorites: This folder is located in your home folder.
• [root]/Library/iDVD/Favorites: This folder is located at the root of your disk.
• /Network/Library/iDVD/Favorites: This folder is on a network system specifically
configured by your system administrator for this purpose. (This is not the same as
having a server networked into your computer.)

I would like to use one library but with multiple ipods, but because they are my kids Ipods, and they each have their own gift cards, I'd like to be able to add money to their "profiles" without them having their own account - what is the best way

So here is my delima - I want one Ipod account - because I only want one library - since we all like the same music - but my kids, who have their own IPODS, have gift cards, who want to be able to keep track of their balance without the other child affecting the balance - meaning - each gift card should be seperate and not totalled to the single account - Beacuse the library is fairly large, having three libraries of large amounts would be a waste. I would also like to restrict their purchased to the gift cards only and not my credit card on file. Does this make sense? Once this is resolved, I'm assuming they would use their own playlists to copy their favorites to each Ipod. Or would I set up an account for each child - which I dont want to do, because I dont want them having access to my Credit Card, and only gift card balances. With multiple accounts, I'm assuming that would also build seperate libraries? We also have multiple computers, but I share the library to those computers -
What is the best way? I'd like to be able to add credit to a specific child (birthdays, etc) without the other child being able to access that credit. For simplicity sake.
We are new to IPODS and lack any MAC skills.
Thoughts?

Not going to happen the way you want it to.
When you add a gift card balance to the Apple ID, it's available for the Apple ID.
Probably best to create unique Apple ID's for each... this will also make things easier in the future as purchases are eternally tied to the Apple ID they were purchased with.

Multiple user accounts, multiple Ipods, One computer, One Itunes library

Here's my problem, I have my main music library on my Mac Mini (Intel 1.5 solo) its too big to fit on the hard drive with everything else, so I added a Mini pal drive. This has my music, photos and all the other junk I cant fit on the mini's hard drive. I want to create multiple accounts so my kids can each have their own, but we all have Ipods that we want connected to our own accounts. I want to keep all the music in one library, and share it accross all the accounts. I dont want to have to log on when my kids want a song from my library. Itunes dosent seam to like the library being on the seperate drive. Mabe I am just dooing something wrong.
Ps: I'm running Itunes 7.3 on all my machines

Apple really doesn't quite do multi-user well yet, at least as far as the iPod goes (IMHO.)
We've taken your approach. 3 users with iTunes for each pointing to a single library on an external storage device. That way there's no problem with having to go to other libraries to import (and not question about 'copying files'... big waste of space.)
Our problem is having multiple iPods plugged into the same machine. I'm about to buy one of the new models for wife and daughter, but I'm not sure how we all can be plugged in (as I'm sure will happen.)
Right now, when I plug in just my own Nano, it appears in iTunes for each of the other users. In fact I sometimes can't even eject because iTunes for another user thinks the iPod its attached to it.
To expand this thread, anyone have pointers on use of multiple iPods on the same machine with multiple users? The existing links to Apple support articles are not relevant.

Accessing a single itunes library from multiple macs using a NAS???

hi, at the moment i have a imac g5 holding all my itunes library files on its hard drive. i'm about to buy another mac to locate downstairs, and also have itunes on my windows laptop.
i am thinking of moving the itunes library to a networked attached storage device, something like the buffalo terastation. does anyone have experience of this? does it work well over a wireless network? (802.11g)
how easy is this to set up, and make each mac point to the library on the NAS device? are there any problems with ripping cds to the NAS device, or multiple macs accessing different songs at the same time?
what would i need to do on each mac to make if see the library if i moved it to the NAS?
sorry for the questions, but i know what i want to do, just not quite sure how to do it!
thanks, andy

hi,
sorry i haven't tried this. i've now resorted to
buying a mac mini, attaching an external firewire
harddrive and using itunes sharing. still means i
have to have the mac mini on all the time, so not
ideal. i decided not to buy the nas for the time
being. i'm still interested in hearing if it works on
other peoples systems tho!
There are others who have done something similar in that they created a shared folder on one computer and opened access to that shared folder to all other computers. The result was that only one computer could listen to the library at a time. I would assume the same thing would be true if using a NAS due to the file locking iTunes imposes. Anybody want to take a ride to the Apple Store and see if one of their reps have done it??

Multiple Macs one library

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