Sharing itunes on airport disk... walkthrough???

Can someone help me set up this network?
I am not sure I have enough technical know how to actually do this, so I guess I need bozo instructions.
I have an airport extreme set up with a hard drive. I pointed my own itunes to the library on the disk attached to it.
I have two (eventually a third) more computers with libraries to add to the network (we are a 4 laptop family!) so all of us can share the library.
I am nervous about doing this - and I would like someone to help me with some step-by-step instructions. We have three macbooks and one powerbook - and an airport extreme block with the hard drive attached (which is the airport main), a 'dome' airport extreme (as a relay) and an unattached airport express (which used to attach to speakers.. but have yet to reconnect since getting the block APEx)
help/instructions would be appreciated!
Message was edited by: Barnetto

If you want to backup the content, you can copy the Music/iTunes folder to a backup location. (Actually, if you use the technique above, you can keep the copy in Music/iTunes as the backup; the new content will be on your Airport disk.)
If you want to backup the playlists and such, use the File->Export menu selection in iTunes.
Forgot to mention, that whenever you add new music to the Airport disk, all of the computers will have to do the File->Add to Library bit in iTunes. It's kind of a pain, and I'm sure there's an applescript just waiting to automate the process, but I haven't been motivated enough to write it. (The good news is that iTunes remembers the previous location each time you add to iTunes, so it's just three mouse clicks.)
BTW, there is another approach you might consider. If you have one computer that's up and running all the time, you could make it a sort of master iTunes and then just share it's library.
And in case it helps anyone out, I can describe how our household is set up. I'm the main iTunes user (and purchaser), so my iBook is the primary computer which we use to purchase and store main copies of all the content. We also have a family iMac that everyone uses; it's got an external disk that's used for iTunes (one partition) and Time Machine (another partition). ChronoSync is set up to automatically sync my iBook's iTunes library to the iMac every night at 3:00am. That still means that all the family members have to File->Add to Library on the iMac every now and then to keep their iTunes library up-to-date with the latest content. My wife keeps her iMac account open all the time (via Fast User Switching) with iTunes running and her library shared. If she wants to access the content from her iBook, she just uses the shared library feature in iTunes to access the iMac.

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Workaround for Sharing iTunes Libraries

I've experimented with a solution for sharing my iTunes Library between my iMac and MBP. It isn't perfect, but it has the benefit of not requiring any smoke and mirrors, and you can take it with you. It does require an Airport Drive.
BACK EVERYTHING UP USING A COMBINATION OF TIME MACHINE AND CARBON COPY CLONER BEFORE PROCEEDING...
I'll just use "iMac" and "MBP" in this description but of course they can be anything...
Let's assume you are starting with your iTunes library on your iMac and your iTunes Media folder is in the default position within /Users/[x]/Music/iTunes.
(1) I have an Airport Extreme, and so I connected a drive to it. It is worth nothing that I have a USB hub connected to my AE with a printer and two drives connected to it; the other drive is for TM.
(2) On drive you just connected, create a folder called iTunes Media.
(3) In iTunes on the iMac, go the Preferences>Advanced and set your iTunes Media folder location to the one on the Airport Drive. You also likely want Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder When Added checked on the iMac.
(4) Now go to File>Library/Organize Library... and consolidate your files. If you have not already updated your file organization, you probably want to as well. This can take quite some time depending on the size of your media library.
At this point, everything should still work fine. You ought to be able to play your music and see all artwork. If you Get Info on a song, you ought to see that it is on the Airport drive. No magic yet.
Now...
(5) On your iMac, the iTunes Media folder is still within the iTunes folder (when iTunes consolidated, it didn't delete it). Move that folder to a safe place outside of the iTunes folder; in my case, I moved it to a folder that TM does not back up.
(6) Delete the /user/[x]/Music/iTunes folder on your MBP, and replace it with the iTunes folder on your iMac; I did this wirelessly with File Sharing. It can take some time if you have artwork, but likely just a few minutes.
(7) Bring up iTunes on your MBP (no problem keeping iTunes up on your iMac). iTunes will check the library (pretty quick) and then bring up your library, complete with artwork.
(8) To be on the safe side, go to Preferences>Advanced and uncheck Copy Files to iTunes Media folder (that's a restriction with this scheme; you can only add files on your iMac).
Still, no magic. iTunes on your iMac is set up completely normally with everything in its media folder, whereas iTunes on your MBP is set up with nothing in its media folder.
(9) When you add files on your iMac, you will have to repeat step 6. In my case, I am not constantly adding media, so it in not a problem.
(10) Want to take it with you? Not a problem. Quit iTunes, dismount your Airport disk, connect it directly to your MBP, fire up iTunes, it it will just work.
(11) In my case, I am also using Home Sharing, and I can still see the shared media folder the old way, and it still works. Selecting it highlights how sharing is implemented; when you select it, you see drive activity on the Airport disk. In other words, all iTunes is looking at is the iTunes Media folder and ignoring everything else.
(12) Also in my case, the username on my MBP is the same as on my iMac, but I don't think that matters. I also think it would work for any number MBP "satellites", with the restriction that you can only add files from the iMac "mother ship."
BE SURE TO USE CCC TO BACKUP YOUR NEW ITUNES MEDIA AIRPORT DISK
Hope this helps.
SC
Message was edited by: NewYorkYogi
Message was edited by: NewYorkYogi

This is the most simple way to share between your snow leapord and bootcamp windows 7. i deem this method the 'safest & correct method' of adding ' literally sharing' your library between different OSs.
part 1
1. on itunes software under bootcamp windows 7, go to edit > perferences.
2. go to under advance tab, look at itunes media folder location.
3. change it to: e:\users\username\music\itunes\itunes media.
4. uncheck keep itunes media folder organized.
5. uncheck copy files to itunes media folder when adding to library.
6. hit ok.
part 1 easily completed!
final part =D
7. on itunes software under bootcamp windows 7, go to file > library > import playlist
8. point your default itunes software under snowleapord playlist: e:\users\username\music\itunes\itunes music library.xml
9. now just sit back and wait while it imports the library!
final part easily completed!
enjoy!

ITunes Library on an Airport Disk? Read and write from multiple Macs?

OK, I've scoured the forums for an answer to this, but haven't found anything definitive. Apologies if I've missed the answer, but here's what I want to know:
I have an iMac as a primary computer, plus a Mac Mini hooked up to my entertainment system, and my girlfriend's powerbook in the house too. There seem to be two main iTunes options: either constantly try to keep all three iTunes libraries synchronised by running around importing files, etc.; or just keep one library, and share it over the network.
Right now, I am keeping my iTunes library on my iMac and sharing it with the Mac Mini and the powerbook. If anyone wants to add music (or other content) to the library, it has to be through the iMac. Obviously the iMac has to be on for any other computer to access the shared library.
I want to try to make things simpler by having a single "network" iTunes library that all computers to be able to share (read AND write). I envisage having this "iTunes Server" on an external HD connected to my Airport Extreme as an Airport Disk. If I move the entire contents of ~/music/iTunes (including artwork, library files, etc) to this central location, will the three Macs be able to deal with this, ie can multiple computers share an iTunes library database on an airdisk? Will I be able to stream content from this library to all three computers? Will I be able to import new music into the library from any one of the three computers?

I am having a very similar problem. I have all of my music saved on a large external disk connected to my airport. I would like to be able to just play what i want from this disk, but i don't like having to download every track i want to listen to. I still want to be able to bring my laptop with me and have some music so i don't want to make this external disk my library folder. Is there a way to play it on my computer similar to a shared library on another computer? Am i asking to much out of apple?

Data corruption with Airport Disk file sharing

There is another long thread on the Airport Disk, and I am not sure if this is the same problem. My situation is that my file server died recently, and I am looking for its replacement. Airport Disk with my new base station appears ideal because I have a 300GB disk from my dead file server and a USB disk enclosure. I connected the disk to my iMac and formatted it to HFS. While still connected to my iMac, I copied over my iTunes library. This was the second time trying out the airport disk, so I created /Shared and /Users/username to work with file sharing with accounts. I then ejected the disk and connected to my airport base station (gigE, 7.2.1 firmware). My first test was to run a recursive diff between the two iTunes libraries. There were some files that differed, so I ran the diff again and a different set of files were identified as differing! I disconnected all users and moved the disk back to my iMac. I ran the diff again, and there were no differing files!
I haven't yet had time to investigate more, and I am wondering if others have seen similar symptoms.
Dan

I have the same issue.
Plus, in my case, two disks appear on my desktop, even though I have no partition. One is named the same as my disk, the other is named the same as the user account for the disk on the Airport Extreme.

Backing up with Time Machine via "Personal File Sharing" and Airport Disk

I've been using Time Machine on my own Mac at home and want to use it to backup other Macs in my house as well. Right now I'm just backing up over FireWire, but plugging my disk into each of the other Macs one at a time doesn't seem to make much sense.
Besides going out and buying a Time Capsule, Leopard Server, or Xsan, what are my options for backing up multiple Macs to one disk? I've read that using an Airport disk is somewhat risky because of some "premature file transfer confirmation." Has anyone ever used Time Machine w/ Airport Disk and had problems?
I've also noticed that you can back up to shared drives, like if I share my current FireWire disk so people can back up to it, but wouldn't that require for people to connect to the host Mac manually via Finder? And wouldn't that in turn defeat the purpose of automatic scheduled backups?
Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

the only supported option besides Time Capsule is to back up to a hard drive directly connected to a mac running leopard on the same local network. as you mention it would indeed require that this drive be mounted first. you can automate mounting this drive on login and simply keep it mounted at all times. to do that mount the drive of the host Mac on a remote mac and while it's mounted there add it to the login items in system preferences->accounts.
You can also use drives directly attached to an airport extreme base station. that works in the same way as backups to a Time capsule.
Message was edited by: V.K.

Sharing Music in iTunes w/ Airport Express

Hello,
After installing my Airport Express, all the shared libraries from other university students in my building are now gone within iTunes. Everyone else with Airport works great: printing, speakers, internet.... Anyone have any clue how I can fix this?
Thanks
Nick

This problem is unique to users of the Airport Express on a university network. Connecting to a university network doesn't have the same requirements as connecting to a cable or DSL modem, because on a univesity network you don't necessarily want the Airport Express to act as a router between your computer and the network the Airport Express is connected to.
You can fix this by disabling the router built into the Airport Express. To do this, run the Airport Admin Utility, select your Express, click the Configure button, click the Network tab, and then uncheck the setting to "Distribute IP addresses". Update settings to the Airport Express. Then restart your computer.
There is a possible downside to doing this - which is that while you will be able to access everyone else's shared iTunes library and the internet, there is a possibility (depending on how IP addresses are distributed on your university's network) that you may no longer be able to print or stream iTunes to your Airport Express. If these functions of your Airport Express do contineu to work (this is good!) they will also be accessible to everyone else on the university's network (this is not so good!).

If I have my iMac internet sharing turned on, the Airport Utility won't recognize the Airport Express I want to use to stream iTunes to my stereo. When I turn the iMac internet sharing off, the Airport Express appears but calls itself a base station.

If I have my iMac internet sharing turned on, the Airport Utility won't recognize the Airport Express I want to use to stream iTunes to my stereo. When I turn the iMac internet sharing off, the Airport Express appears but calls itself a base station. I just bought the Airport Express and it's not clear how I should set up my System Preferences for Sharing. Thx

Yes. Unfortunately the stereo is too far from the wired ethernet connection My iMac is connected to the internet using an ethernet cable from the DSL modem (plugged into the wall, not wireless). The Airport Express is plugged into an outlet 25' away from the iMac and connected to my speakers. I've turned on the iMac Airport wireless Internet Sharing, hoping to stream iTunes to the Express connected to the stereo. The iMac Airport picks up several neighborhood networks so I know it's working (and I connected my iPhone wifi to it just to check as well).
When I use Airport Utility to set up the Express, the only time Utility recognizes the Express is when the iMac Airport is off. When I turn on the iMac Airport, the Airport Utility immediately loses the Express and asks to rescan.
Maybe that explains my problem better.

Mounting Airport Disk - It's Only Showing Up as Shared Folder??

I have a USB drive attached to the Airport Extreme Base Station. Right now it's only listed as a shared folder, and I'm at a loss.
In order to see it in Finder, I have to select the AEBS under the Shared tab. Once I do this I see my hard drive, but it's listed as a shared folder.
I really want to see the hard drive as a mounted network drive, but can't figure out how to do it.
Please let me know if anyone has some thoughts. Thank you.

I think your airport disk is working perfectly. The problem here is that you are used to Tiger and expect that once anything is mounted it appears on your desktop. This behavior has been changed in Leopard - the network drive no longer appears on the desktop - this is intentional. As I tried to explain before the airport disk IS automatically mounted by OSX. It's mount point is actually /Volumes (just like it was in Tiger). The only difference is that instead of creating an alias on the desktop - the alias is placed under the shared folders tab in finder.
I already showed you how to create a link on the desktop if that is what you really want.
I don't understand exactly what the problem you are having is??? You can browse all of the files on your airport disk right???

How to stream music from an Airport Disk to iTunes?

I have a new Airport Express (802.11n) and have a Maxtor hard drive hooked up as an Airport Disk. It's all networked and working fine, except I can't figure out how to stream songs from the hard drive (rather than import them into iTunes). Went to the Genius Bar, but they didn't know what I was talking about. Any ideas how to do this?

I'm currently doing this in the following way.
1. Copy your "Music" folder over to one of the external drives (I'd recommend connecting directly to the drive through USB if you can, since its faster).
2. Hold down the option key when you open iTunes. It will ask you whether you want to make a new library or select one.
3. Select the iTunes folder on the drive after you have that mounted again through the network.
Voila, your music is stored remotely, adding music will go to the new drive.

Using Airport Disk sharing as ftp server

Hi There,
Is it possible to use the disk connected to my airport as an ftp / files erver to share files with people on mac and pc?
If not, could be an good new feature ... ?
Thanks in advance,
Niel
Message was edited by: niel heesakkers

I do it all the time using my TC and USB attached LaCie d2. Launch Airport Utility and go to DISKS then File Sharing. Check enable file sharing. Secure your disk(s). Check share disks over wan port. Go to Internet tab and make note of the IP address.
Then in the Finder use GO and type afp://ip dress you have in Airport Utility under Internet user must then enter password and you are connected.
I've done this from Detroit to Pittsburgh and back.

Sharing a media server with MobileMe over Airport Disk

Is there anyway to set up a NAS drive or Linux Media Server to share over MobileMe using the Airport Extreme's Airport Disk Feature? I haven't been able to find a solution. Thanks.
Message was edited by: MichaelBradyNet

The drive would need to be connected to the 802.11n AirPort Extreme Base Station's (AEBSn) USB port in order for it to be shared out as an AirPort Disk. That would rule-out a Linux Media Server (or any other Media Server) or Ethernet-only NAS drives.
On the other hand, there are potential solutions outside of Back to my Mac/MobileMe to access either of these remotely. However, if your goal is to stream, especially HD video, over the Internet you may not get the desired performance that you are looking for.

Sharing an Airport disk over any network?

How can I access my Airport disk over any network and not just my local network? Like if I'm in Starbucks and I want access to my Airport disk at home.

Not a simple matter:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=372603

How do I set up Airport Extreme Airport Disk as Central Media Storage when I have Directv, Windows and Mac needing access?

I have an always on PC in my living room, but I want the macbook pro to have the same media without taking up the space. iTunes Shared lacks the sorting features of having the library directly associated. What I want to do is setup a hard drive on my AEBS to house all my media.
I have a 120GB SSD on my PC in the LR. (with an 80GB drive I may put with it for extra space if needed)
A 250GB MBP
A 2TB drive (installed in a USB/eSATA enclosure)
A 1TB drive
A 500GB usb WD Passport
I use iTunes for Movies, Music, Podcasts
I use Picasa for Pictures
I want to house these large libraries on the AEBS Airport Disk and have the MBP and PC access the media. I ideally want iTunes to identify that as the iTunes Media Library for both the MBP and PC. I haven't found a good run down of how this would work. Especially since I want to make sure Directv can access the media as well as the PC and MBP.
I will store all my media on the 2TB, I will use the 1TB to backup all the media in a safe, and the 500GB I want to split for Time Machine and Windows backup. With all my media off those drives, 500GB should be enough space to keep backups for a while to restore programs and what not from.
Thanks for any help.

I want to house these large libraries on the AEBS Airport Disk and have the MBP and PC access the media. I ideally want iTunes to identify that as the iTunes Media Library for both the MBP and PC. I haven't found a good run down of how this would work.
Please check out the following TUAW article to see if it will help provide some additional details.
I will store all my media on the 2TB, I will use the 1TB to backup all the media in a safe, and the 500GB I want to split for Time Machine and Windows backup.
You may want to revisit your strategy to using an AirPort Disk for Time Machine backups and that is because Apple does not support this. If your backups are critical to you, then I would strongly recommend that you reconsider using another destination source option.

AirPort Disk works on Vista but is ULTRA SLOW on MacBook Pro...please help.

This is nuts, huh? Please help.
I can copy files using Window's Vista at about 7MBps so it takes around 2min 40secs to copy a previously bought 1.3GB iTunes TV show from the AirPort Disk (connected via USB 2.0)to my Vista machine. I understand this is a reasonable speed, if you think it should go faster let me know. When I try to play it with iTunes directly from the Airport Disk(by control clicking it and telling it to play with iTunes, not sure this is the best way, advice appreciated) it plays okay but I get a fair amount of stutters where it will skip a 1-4 seconds. Any way to fix this? Or should I just download it to my computer and play it from there. I was trying to save space and confusion on my computers and just play via the Airport Extreme Disk.
NOW THE WEIRD STUFF! It takes 4 hours to download the same TV file mentioned above from the Airport Disk to my MacBook Pro! And to stream the movie from the Airport Disk is impossible. Can anyone offer suggestions? I searched online and could not find any help.
Additional Info that might be helpful:
-AirPort Extreme 340ll/a, Version 7.5(I assume that's the firmware version).
-I erased with 0s and formatted an external 7200RPM 8MB Western Digital drive to "Mac OS Extended Journaled" via my MacBook Pro's USB port, using Disk Utility.
-My wi-fi connections seems fine: for web surfing it is fast with my Macbook and Windows computers, so that's not a problem. FYI, I did some internet download speed tests and got like 15,000-20,000kbps, which is pretty good, right?
-I hooked the drive up directly to my MacBook Pro's USB 2.0 port and copied the same HD TV show file to the computer, and Apple's "Activity Monitor" utility showed it is reading and writing at 30MBps which I understand is quite good. So it does not appear to be a hard drive problem either.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Cause of problem:
I found out that the problem was that in the "Airport Utility" under "Internet Connection" tab, the "Connection Sharing" had been set to "Off(Bridge Mode)". This stopped my MacBook Pro from accessing the AirPort Disk(an external hard drive connected to the AirPort Extreme Base Station). I still find it weird that My HP computer could access the AirPort Disk just fine and my MacBook Pro was so ultra slow(i.e. 4 hours to copy a 1.3GB file!) accessing files on the hard drive.
So, how did the default setting get changed to cause the problem to being with? I got some error pop-up box that said there were 2 NAT tables causing a conflict of some sort, so I followed it's instructions which put it in bridge mode which caused the problems. The reset of the wireless router put the "Connection Sharing" back into "Share a Public IP address" mode which is the default.
So anyway, this appears to be the end of this story, and I hope this post saves some people out there from some headaches and lost time!
Peace!

Can see but not browse to Airport disk, also cannot print in Bonjour

I suspect this may be related to a firewall issue or perhaps the way my corporate PC is set up (logged into Domain with VPN to Internet. What else might cause:
Windows Exporer to hang and crash when I try to browse to Airport Disk which is clearly visible in WE
nability to print, Bonjour or otherwise tothe USB attached printer in Airport. Macs work just fine
Thanks in advance

Hi wrkeen,
Please share more details about this issue：
1. Provide the error messages for better analyzation.
2. What solution have you done to test the homegroup?
If we enable the network discovery, we will be able to find other computers or devices on the network.
Please take the following steps for troubleshooting:
1. Run the network troubleshooter to exclude the network issues. For more information, please refer to the following article.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/using-the-network-troubleshooter-in-windows-7
2. Go through this path Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings and check if we correctly configure file sharing and other settings.
Please take a look at the following article about troubleshooting file sharing.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/troubleshoot-file-and-printer-sharing
Best regards,
Fangzhou CHEN
Fangzhou CHEN
TechNet Community Support

Sharing itunes on airport disk... walkthrough???

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