Shared Library vs. Mounting network computer where music resides

My music all resides on a networked desktop in an office in my house. I always use the "Shared Library" feature to choose & play music from a laptop in my living room (to my main stereo with AirTunes). But there are some downsides. You can't create a playlist. You don't have access to all info, lyrics (where I store notes), for example. Artwork doesn't show in the lower left graphic box.
Last night I mounted the other computer drive to my laptop and and chose that Library at startup. I had much more hands on access to the music. But after rewaking sleep, the Finder froze as it tried to reconnect.
Does anyone have thoughts about the better of two methods to control all the music from a networked computer?

See my post Make a split library portable for some background info.
Uness you have good reasons for doing otherwise the "libary" folder should be called iTunes and unless it is in the User's Music folder it might as well be at the root of the drive. The "media" folder should be called iTunes Media and should be inside iTunes. This layout keeps everything self-contained and portable, easy to move, easy to back up.
Only one instance of iTunes can open the main database file iTunes Library.itl at any one time. Other copies of iTunes share access to the library using the Shared Library or Home Sharing features. Alternatively you can put parallel .itl files in the library folder, but if you do that you need to make sure none of the libraries try to "Keep organized" or an edit in one library can break things for another. Each user needs to be disciplined about deleteing content too.
tt2

Similar Messages

When I try to open the shared library on the 2nd computer (the one I want to xfer music to), the only songs that come up are those that are already in that same library (the library on the 2nd computer). While I can see computer

When I try to open the shared library on the 2nd computer (the one I want to xfer music to), the only songs that come up are those that are already in that same library (the library on the 2nd computer). While I can see computer #1 listed under 'shared,' when I click on it the only songs I can see are those that I already have on the 2nd computer. Hopefully that makes sense. Basically, the library from computer #1 isn't loading up.

What level of OS X is installed on your Mac (your profile is incomplete)?
Barry

One library on a networked computer?

I want to completely move my iTunes from my main computer (iMac) to an older Mac Mini. I still use and listen to my computer while working at it, but it is on almost all the time and I would like to start shutting it off. I have an AppleTV that I want to stream from that currently uses the iMac library as its source. I also buy iTunes media from time to time (along with Amazon songs that then load into iTunes). The user concept I have is this. Move my entire library to the Mini and use that to stream to the iMac and AppleTV. When I am sitting at my computer and I purchase an song from iTunes, how will I do it from the iMac? I assume it would be the same way and the song goes and lives on the external HD attached to the Mini. However, when I turm the iMac off, then what happens? What account is the AppleTV tying into? Currently, it is associated with the Home Sharing of my Apple ID on the iMac. Will it work with Home Sharing on the Mini - I guess the bottom line is... Do I need to move my iTunes account to the Mini and then how does the iMac work with that?
What I would like to do is:
1) Migrate my iTunes library from my main computer (iMac) to a shared family computer (Mac Mini) that is on the network.
2) Use my iTunes account on the iMac as my main account and when I purchase new media, it goes to the library on the networked (Mini) computer
3) Allow the AppleTV to access the iMac account (as it does today) and manage the media on the shared Mini attached iTunes library drive.
4) Allow the AppleTV to still access my content even when the iMac is off.
Is it as easy as this (that Chris https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5104766?start=0&tstart=0) posted - but then what happens when the iMac is off?
Quit iTunes.
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder from internal to external.
Hold Option, launch iTunes, select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the external.
Or is this the more appropriate way to go (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4594518?start=0&tstart=0) from cehtmsatiscehtmsatis
You can follow these steps to move iTunes Library to external hard drive.
1. To move your collections to another location, open iTunes “Preferences”.
2. Go to the “Advanced” tab and click the “Change” button for “iTunes Media folder location“.
3. Browse to the new location where you want to put your collection. Create a new folder if you have to.
4. After you click “Create“, iTunes will update the library.
5. Now you have assigned a new location to store your collection, but the multimedia files are still in the old location. To move them to the new location, you have to consolidate them. Go to “File – Library – Organize Library” menu (similar under both Windows and Mac).
6. Check the “Consolidate files” box and click “OK“. If you’ve organized your files in the iTunes Music folder before, the second box will be greyed out.
7. Then the waiting game will begin – iTunes will copy all the files inside the iTunes Music folder to the new location. The process could take a while depending on how large your collection is.
8. Now that your collection is safely stored in the external hard drive (or another location that you chose), you can delete (some of) the files at the old location to free up some space in your hard drive. You can keep your favorite songs/movies so you still can play them even without the external drive.

fyi advanced>checked for purchases will not do what you say. All it is for is to continu the download of purchases that did not fully download the first time.
You can copy purchased music overe the saem as you do all other music.
Copying like that will lose ratings/last played/playcount data etc. This info is stored in the itunes library.itl file. If you want to keep this info you need to copy this file over as well. If you do this the music location must be the same on both computers otherwise itunes will not know where you music is located

How to have a shared library with 2 networked macs?

Like many people I have a laptop (leopard) and a desktop (tiger) in my home, and I'd like to have a shared iPhoto library so I can download/access/edit the pictures to be available on both macs. For the laptop this would have to be set up wirelessly, and I'm thinking a large external drive is the best solution (I'd like to do the same with my iTunes library too, but I guess that's a different discussion). I'm about to install iPhoto 09 on both machines, so can anyone give me instructions on how to do this? Thank you.

Mike
The key factor here is the version of iLife - they need to be the same on both machines. However iPhoto 09 requires 10.5.6 minimum, so you’ll need to upgrade the OS on the 10.4 machine.
What do you mean by ‘Share’?
If you want the other machine to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter your library, then enable Sharing in your iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and enable 'Look For Shared Libraries' on the other Machine. Your Library will appear in the other source pane.
You can drag pics from the Shared Library to the machine’s own Library in the iPhoto Window.
Remember iPhoto must be running in both machines for this to work.
If you want both machiens to have the same access to the library: to be able to add, edit, organise, keyword etc. then:
Quit iPhoto on both machines
Move the iPhoto Library Folder to an external HD set to ignore permissions. You could also use a Disk Image or even partition your Hard Disk.
Note This disk should be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Storing libraries on disks formatted any other way can lead to issues with importing, sharing and editing.
On each machine in turn: Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting dialogue, select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new library location. From that point on, this will be the default library location. Both machines will have full access to the library, in fact, both machines will 'own' it.
*Note 2* there is a catch with this system and it is a significant one. iPhoto is not a multi-user app., it does not have the code to negotiate two users simultaneously writing to the database, and trying will cause db corruption. So only one user at a time, and back up, back up back up.
*Note 3* A wireless connection is perfectly adequate for viewing photos in a Library. However, it is not suited for editing or organising photos in an iPhoto Library. Drop outs are part and parcel of wireless networking. Should one occur while the app is writing to the DB then the database will be corrupted.
Regards
TD

I want to import a song from a shared library. Don't know where the "bottom of the itunes window" is to start the process

I want to impoort a song from a shared library.
Looking at the itunes help menu,
it says at "the bottom of the itunes window" ----
don't know where that is

AND yea i afraid to sync my iphone and lose everything ;( i had everything perfect sync ing perfect ical,contacts,mail,apps and now sence new library I dont wana lose everything.....my hole life runs on my fone i need help bad

Home sharing library loads on one computer but not the other

I have turned on Home Sharing (using the same account for both) on two computers. One of them loads the other's library, but the other either continually says it is attempting to load, or immediately reverts back to the normal Music library screen.
I have spent several hours searching the Internet to find suggestions but nothing seems to be working:
I have downloaded the newest version of iTunes
I have tried setting up a new account, de-authorising the computer on all accounts except the new one
I have turned off the sharing located under the Preferences tab
I have made sure that iTunes is not blocked by a firewall
I have checked that the Bonjour service is running
I have tried turning everything off and starting all over again
I would welcome a new solution! Thank you!

It could be a firewall issue. Try disabling the firewall and see if that helps.

Sharing library on local network not showing on all computers

I am unable to see my shared music folder in iTunes for the music on the home server on a local network from my laptop. It shows fine on my wife's laptop but not on mine. I can't see the remote speakers either. All the settings in iTunes are correct for sharing and for look for shared music and I have access to the files on the network from my laptop when I browse network places. When I first installed it worked fine on my machine but then it stopped. I can't figure out why. I also tried with the firewall off but did not help either.
Any ideas why it would stop working, but still work on other PCs on the network. I have a total of 3 pcs on the network plus the server.

I have the same problem with a new laptop running Vista. All three of my XP computers that run ITunes can see the shared network drive on my server. ITunes on the Vista computer doesn't see any shared network folders, even though I can open them in Vista. Even tried a shortcut the network folder on the desktop. Zip. I've seen dozens of posts about this problem and no answers from Apple... and people complain about Microsoft software... sigh.

How do I add music to my iPod from a shared library?

This used to be simple. Now with the new iTunes it is driving me bonkers. My music library is on my old G4. I share that music with my Macpro laptop. I used to move a song to my laptop library. Then I could drag it to my ipod.
My new iPOd touch needed the new iTunes. I upgraded the laptop. Now I can view/play my shared library. I can't drag music to the library of my laptop though.
HELP. What is the workaround?

Thanks for the info...sounds like it might work. So just to clarify because I am NOT a computer whiz...by changing the setting it will keep my old downloads on my ipod and now I can download new music with my new computer and add them to my ipod. My old stuff will not be lost. When I was on my new computer there was a button that said, "On this ipod"...I could see all of my old music, but wasn't able to make new playlists or manage them in any way. Will I be able to manage them? Or will they be "frozen" so to speak?
Also, where do I look for this setting?
Thanks so much for your time!

Home Sharing Library doesn't include all music that's in main Music Library

Sorry if this has been answered previously. I haven't been able to fashion a search to find the answer.
I turned on Home Sharing in the Remote app on my iPhone 4. It readily found my Home Sharing Library from my iMac (that contains 1306 items). After entering in my Apple ID and password, I tried to search for a recently purchased song using the Remote app and it didn't find it. I went to the iMac and immediately found the song in the Library and in the Purchased playlist. I also noticed that the Library on the iMac contains 2781 items.
Question #1: Why wouldn't the Home Sharing Library on my iMac not contain the same songs that are in the Library on the same iMac?
To solve the problem, I just synced the iMac to the Remote app (not through Home Sharing) and was able to see my entire library.
Problem/Question #2: Since my Home Sharing library doesn't show all the music, when my wife's MacBook Home Shares, she too does not see all the music available for streaming. They are all on the same wi-fi network. The reason I use Home Sharing vs. Sharing of the library is that I automatically transfer iPhone apps across the network as she syncs her iPhone to her computer (she wants no music).
Hoping someone can help me troubleshoot.
Thanks.
Martin

i'm guessing you used more than one iTunes store account to purchase content.
if that's the case, try authorizing your Mac to play/use the content purchased from the other iTS account(s).
that's basically very easy. all you have to do is +log out+ of one account (click on the account name in the Store window and select +sign out+ from the pop-up dialog) and into the other, and then they will both be authorized. when done, sign back into your usual account. you'll have to do that one time only.
JGG

Opening Lightroom for first time from new computer where library is on external hard drive

There has to be an easy way to open my lightroom library from my new computer where the library is already on an external hard drive because that's where I was told to put it to make this whole process easy. Well, I can't find any information on how to do this and I'd rather not mess up my photos!

Could you be specific about the problem you are having? What happens when you try?
Also please be sure to state your operating system and what version of Lightroom.

Streaming iTunes (shared library) video over ethernet...

I'm hoping someone with combined iTunes and networking savvy might be willing to help me out here. Here's the setup,
I have an Intel iMac hooked up to Fantom 1TB drive via USB 2.0 (iTunes library on external). The iTunes library is shared to an iBook G4 over ethernet via a Linksys Wireless B router (but both comps are wired in for max speed). (To be clear, when I say 'shared' I mean that I open iTunes on the iBook with it's own library and select the shared iMac library from within the iTunes GUI). When I go to play videos over the shared library on the iBook they are quite choppy and slow and I'm wondering where the bottleneck is.
I'm using Cat5e cable (1000Mbs+ so far as I can gather), but the router ports are 10/100 as is the ethernet port on the iBook (max 100Mbs). Further, the iBook has only 32MB of VRAM (although I've upgraded the RAM to 1.12GB). The iMac is running Leopard 10.5.5, iBook running Tiger 10.4.11, both machines running iTunes 8.0.1. I'm presuming that the read and transfer rates of the external are not the issue here because there are no problems viewing on the iMac, but I could be wrong.
So is the bottleneck the 10/100 ethernet ports on the router/iBook, the iBook VRAM, or is there something inherent in iTunes library sharing itself that is causing the delays? I also have an Xbox 360 which reads the same shared library via Rivet/Connect360 over the same network and router and videos are fine on the Xbox which makes me think the problem is with the iBook or iTunes.
I ask because I'm considering upgrading the router, and even replacing the iBook, but if it's something to do with iTunes itself, then there's not much point.
Thanks to any and all who can offer advice.

This evening I tried to narrow down the problem further and I think it boils down to the iBook not being able to process the video data fast enough rather than the transfer rate over the network or something inherent in iTunes.
To do this I shared my library folder on the network and copied a file from it to the iBook's HDD, adding it also to iTunes locally on the iBook. The quality is the same whether I view it:
1) Through the iTunes GUI 'SHARED' library over the network
2) By opening it directly (using Quicktime) over the network through the mounted shared folder in finder
3) Viewing it in Quicktime directly from the iBook's internal HDD
4) Viewing it locally in iTunes from the iBook's HDD
Now the question is whether the iBook should be able to view this video smoothly given its hardware, or do I have the logic board VRAM problem that I've been reading about...I guess an issue for another post/topic.
Thanks for trying to help Tom.

My itunes wont copy and paste from a shared library

I am trying to move my itunes library from one computer to a new one. I can see my shared library, and copy the list of music, but then it won't paste into my new library. My daughters computer with itunes will paste her shared library, and when viewing the shared library she can see a menu at the bottom of the screen allowing her to choose 'all content' or 'content not in library' (or something like that). My itunes doesn't have this option. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling itunes.
How can I move the library to a new computer?

You can drag and drop it into Pages from the Finder but it sounds like you want to either edit it or add something to it.
The pdf will just be an uneditable image in Pages.
If you want text from it you can open it in Preview.app and drag over the text to select and copy it.
Peter

HT3819 i see my shared library but i can't transfer any songs

I can see my shared library on the secondary computer but i can't figure out how to move the music to the computer or my iphone5

Hi Randy94,
If you are looking to move your music using Home Sharing, you may find the following article helpful:
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4527
Cheers,
- Brenden

Linking problems compiling Lua shared library (nixio)

I am trying to create a PKGBUILD for nixio (see http://dev.luci.freifunk-halle.net/nixio/doc/). I am using this PKGBUILD:
pkgname=nixio
pkgver=0.3
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="System, networking and I/O library for Lua"
arch=('i686' 'x86_64')
url="http://luci.subsignal.org/"
license=('APACHE')
depends=('lua>=5.1' 'openssl')
makedepends=()
optdepends=()
provides=()
options=('docs')
source=(http://dev.luci.freifunk-halle.net/nixio/nixio-0.3.tar.bz2)
md5sums=('7fa6a989cd2644347d969cb6e3a5c186')
build() {
cd "$srcdir/$pkgname-$pkgver"
make LUA_MODULEDIR=/usr/share/lua/5.1 LUA_LIBRARYDIR=/usr/lib/lua/5.1
package() {
cd "$srcdir/$pkgname-$pkgver"
cp -R dist/* $pkgdir
(The package contents are rather irregular.) When building, it produces this output:
==> Starting build()...
mkdir -p dist/usr/share/lua/5.1
cp -pR lua/* dist/usr/share/lua/5.1 2>/dev/null || true
for i in $(find dist -name .svn); do rm -rf $i || true; done
gcc -O2 --std=gnu99 -Wall -Werror -pedantic -fPIC -c -o src/nixio.o src/nixio.c
gcc -O2 --std=gnu99 -Wall -Werror -pedantic -fPIC -c -o src/socket.o src/socket.c
gcc -O2 --std=gnu99 -Wall -Werror -pedantic -fPIC -c -o src/sockopt.o src/sockopt.c
# 15 more pretty much identical object code files...
gcc -Wl,--hash-style=gnu -Wl,--as-needed -shared -lcrypt -lssl -o src/nixio.so src/nixio.o src/socket.o src/sockopt.o src/bind.o src/address.o src/poll.o src/io.o src/file.o src/splice.o src/process.o src/syslog.o src/bit.o src/binary.o src/fs.o src/user.o src/tls-crypto.o src/tls-context.o src/tls-socket.o
mkdir -p dist/usr/lib/lua/5.1
cp src/nixio.so dist/usr/lib/lua/5.1/nixio.so
The package seems to build fine, although namcap produces these warnings:
nixio W: Dependency included and not needed ('lua')
nixio W: Dependency included and not needed ('openssl')
But when I install it and launch Lua:
Lua 5.1.4 Copyright (C) 1994-2008 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
> require 'nixio'
error loading module 'nixio' from file '/usr/lib/lua/5.1/nixio.so':
/usr/lib/lua/5.1/nixio.so: undefined symbol: MD5_Init
stack traceback:
[C]: ?
[C]: in function 'require'
stdin:1: in main chunk
[C]: ?
Doing some research, I found that MD5_Init is part of the OpenSSL library (which nixio uses for its cryptographic functions), and that "undefined symbol" errors are indicative of a program compiling and linking properly, but not being able to load a shared library at runtime. However, OpenSSL is installed properly and libssl.so is in my /usr/lib.
What should I do to fix this error? It builds properly when installed using LuaRocks. I tried adding various flags from the rockspec (run "luarocks download nixio" and "luarocks unpack nixio-0.3-1.src.rock" to look at it) but still can't get it to work.

You probably did not install the required C++ shared library patches on the system where you are running the compiler. On Solaris 9 for SPARC, Studio 11 requires patches 111711-12 and 111712-12. Studio 11 also requires other patches, which are in the installation image.
You can find out what shared library version you have by running these commands:
version /usr/lib/libCstd.so.1
version /usr/lib/sparcv9/libCstd.so.1
If the patch versions are not -12 or later, run the Studio 11 installer again, and this time have it install the Solaris patches (but nothing else).

Front row (with itunes 10) does not show moves from shared library

I have two computers. My office computer contains all of my iTunes content, running iTunes 10. I have a mac mini connected to my television, and my intent is to use Front Row to access the shared library from the office computer. The problem is, when using front Row only a small number of my TV shows and none of my movies appear. I have checked the sharing settings on the source computer.

Exact same problem here.
It has been working fine doing this for years, then around a month ago after no changes to either machine that I know of, about half the content vanished when viewing a shared library.
I seem to have also worsened the issue by trashing and rebuilding the iTunes library from scratch. Since at least before doing this I had some of my Movies and TV shows show, but not all, now I seem to have a tiny amount of movies and none of the TV shows listed.
Checking on the source computer in front row shows all of them present as expected. Completely baffled by this. None of them are showing under odd sections (Say in Music rather than TV Shows) either so I know the meta-data isn't at fault.

Shared Library vs. Mounting network computer where music resides

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for