2 PCs, 1 MacBook Pro and 2 iPhones... How do I maintan 1 music library?

[iMerlin]

I hope I can explain this well enough...
I currently have my wife's laptop and iPhone, my PC and iPhone and Im getting the new MBP when it comes out. Right now I have a copy of all our music on each computer as well as an external USB HDD. So my wife's laptop has 80+ gb of music, my PC has a copy and the USB HDD has a copy. Well anytime one of us add something to thier library that the other might want, I have to basically copy it to all 3 locations.
What are my options for keeping ONE location for all of our music. When one person adds a song, it appears on both of our iTunes? Should I just delete the music on the computers and set our iTunes to run off of the USB HDD which I will make a network drive?
If I do this, wont it effect our playlists and ratings and all that jazz?

When I get the MBP I was also thinking about getting the Time Capsule to do backups. So at that point couldnt I just plug my external USB HDD into the USB of the Time Capsule and then network that drive for every computer to use?
Would I think be able to sync my iPhone to my PC or my MacBook Pro?
Im so confused damnit!

[420greg]

First off the drive to use with time capsule will have to be formatted Mac OSX Extended, so your windows machines will not be able to see it. But macs can see windows drives (Fat 32) just fine.

I have all of my music on a 100 gig firewire drive formatted FAT32. It is hooked to my macmini and shared on my network. The location for my music library in iTunes on my mini, my macbook, and my wifes HP all point to the netwrok share. that way all of the music is in one place.

If any of the 3 computers rips or downloads any new music, as it is added to iTunes it is copied (you have to have this option checked in all 3 itunes) to the iTunes music library.

All of our music is on one drive, but all 3 iTunes can access and use it.

You will only be able to sync your iPhone to one of the machines, as the iPhone gets 'married' to the initial computer you sync with.

[iMerlin]

Originally Posted by 420greg

First off the drive to use with time capsule will have to be formatted Mac OSX Extended, so your windows machines will not be able to see it. But macs can see windows drives (Fat 32) just fine.

So since Windows machines wont be able to see the OSX extended formatted hard drive but Macs can see windows, I should just keep my external USB HDD connected to my main PC and set it as a network drive. Then get the Time Capsule for backups and networking. But since the USB drive is still connected to the PC, all the computers in the house will still be to see the USB drive?
Once I get the TC will I be able to back up my PCs including the shared music folder?

Originally Posted by 420greg

If any of the 3 computers rips or downloads any new music, as it is added to iTunes it is copied (you have to have this option checked in all 3 itunes) to the iTunes music library.

All of our music is on one drive, but all 3 iTunes can access and use it.

Ok that info conflicts with something one of the Mac guys told me. He said they could all share the same drive, but when one makes a purchase or rips a CD, it wont show up in the iTunes library but it would download to the shared drive. So if I downloaded the new Disturbed, I would see it in my iTunes but my wife would have to import the folder in order to see it in her iTunes. But he didnt mention about the option that you are talking about.
So when you download a new song or whatever, it appears in your wifes iTunes library also? Does she have to do a refresh or something?
What about playlists, do you just have a seperate lists for each of you?

Originally Posted by 420greg

You will only be able to sync your iPhone to one of the machines, as the iPhone gets 'married' to the initial computer you sync with.

Ok, with that said, if I wanted to start using my Mac to sync my iPhone, would I have to do a restore on the Mac so the iPhone gets married to the Mac?



Thanks for all the help 420, you never let me down. I cant wait for 420 this afternoon!!

[420greg]

Originally Posted by iMerlin

So since Windows machines wont be able to see the OSX extended formatted hard drive but Macs can see windows, I should just keep my external USB HDD connected to my main PC and set it as a network drive. Then get the Time Capsule for backups and networking. But since the USB drive is still connected to the PC, all the computers in the house will still be to see the USB drive?
Once I get the TC will I be able to back up my PCs including the shared music folder?

You will want to hook the the music drive to the mac for the windows machines to see it. If you hook it to the pc and share it the mac will not see it.

Originally Posted by iMerlin

Ok that info conflicts with something one of the Mac guys told me. He said they could all share the same drive, but when one makes a purchase or rips a CD, it wont show up in the iTunes library but it would download to the shared drive. So if I downloaded the new Disturbed, I would see it in my iTunes but my wife would have to import the folder in order to see it in her iTunes. But he didnt mention about the option that you are talking about.
So when you download a new song or whatever, it appears in your wifes iTunes library also? Does she have to do a refresh or something?
What about playlists, do you just have a seperate lists for each of you?

I run an apple script called "list music files not added" you can get it here.
I run it after my wife says she has added soem new stuff to the library.

It will make a playlist of everything on the music drive but not in the itunes library. As soon as you open this playlist it will add all the new content on the drive to your itunes library.

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/script...p=listnotadded

Playlists are local. But if you have all the itunes set to share you will be able to see and play each others playlists.

Purchased content can be played on five diffrent machine. So the first time you play something in your itunes that the wife boaught with her itunes it will ask you for a pasword to authorize the machine.

Originally Posted by iMerlin

Ok, with that said, if I wanted to start using my Mac to sync my iPhone, would I have to do a restore on the Mac so the iPhone gets married to the Mac?

You will not have to do a restore. Once you hook the iPhone to the Mac, it iwll see it as a new phone and ask you if you want this mac to be the new computer the iphone syncs with.

Originally Posted by iMerlin

Thanks for all the help 420, you never let me down. I cant wait for 420 this afternoon!!

Me either...

[iMerlin]

Originally Posted by 420greg

You will want to hook the the music drive to the mac for the windows machines to see it. If you hook it to the pc and share it the mac will not see it.

Not sure why Im so damned confused by this. So when I get the MBP and Time Cap, Ill hook the USB drive to the TC. But at that point will it ask me to format it? Or will it just retain its current formatting which is FAT32?

I mentioned this to a Mac genious. I also told him I would be getting the Time Capsule and he said I could just use the TC as my network shared drive. But I thought that the TC could only be used for backups?

Anyway, thanks again 420.

[420greg]

Keep the music drive fat32 so the windows machines can see it.

I would not bother with time capsule. I would just get a cheap external drive with a hard drive slightly bigger that the mac books drive and use time machine.

[acosmichippo]

actually, a windows computer can read any format hard drive if it is being shares by another device on a network. In other words, if you have an OSX hard drive hooked up to a time capsule, it WILL be available to windows machines.

With that said, you CAN just use the time capsule's hard disk howeve you want to... Time machine backups, network storage, or whatever. But, as a current time capsule user I would not recommend it. Instead I would opt for an airport extreme, and share your current external HD off of it. You could even use this for time machine backups. The benefit here is that if your network is f'd, you can sill get to the backup file via a direct USB connection...

Anyway, I don't think there is a solution to your iTunes dilemma. A few months ago I tried to set up a networked iTunes library, but iTunes will simply not do it. You can stream music from shares libraries, but that's it.

[iMerlin]

Originally Posted by acosmichippo

With that said, you CAN just use the time capsule's hard disk howeve you want to... Time machine backups, network storage, or whatever. But, as a current time capsule user I would not recommend it. Instead I would opt for an airport extreme, and share your current external HD off of it. You could even use this for time machine backups. The benefit here is that if your network is f'd, you can sill get to the backup file via a direct USB connection...

You make a good point hippo, if the network is jacked for some reason, that throws a wrench into the works! Ill have to think about this one.

But for some reason the idea of having a 1tb solution, that also upgrades my wireless network to 802.11n and allows all my machines to backup... its almost worth the cost. Not to mention being able to get rib of my POS print server that I cant ever get working anyway (linksys).

So if I use the Time Capsule for backups and as my network drive for media, what backups the Time Capsule?

[acosmichippo]

that's true, if you want a file server AND print server all in one, then the TC is the way to go. I just have not had a pleasant time with mine, so i try to give people alternatives.

As for backing up the TC, it does have a feature that lets you archive any data on it onto another hard drive connected to it via USB... but you have to manually initiate that through the Airport Utility. Of course, if you're script-savvy, i'm sure you could find a way to schedule it through automator.

[420greg]

This link will help you get your drives set-up so they can see each other on a mixed network.

http://www.ifelix.co.uk/tech/3020.html