Shared iTunes folder on external HDD

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zumpano

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I have an external HDD connected to a router where my music is, and i run iTunes on both my PC with Windows and Macbook with Mac OS X. Both iTunes read from the music folder on the external HDD, and things run smoothly -- except when I add music to iTunes on either Windows or OS X.. I need to add the songs to the other OS manually, by adding the folder, and I have to manually ad the album art as well (yes, I know of iTunes' ability to automatically add album art, but still).

Then, someone tipped me about this how-to, where it says you should put the library XML file on the external drive and make both iTunes use that file for its library. Seems like a great idea, except that on my computers, Windows and OS X reads filepaths differently. Whereas Windows reads file://M:/Music/ .. OS X reads file://localhost/Volumes/Music/Music/ .. and the library XML file has to contain a path..

Anyone who has an idea on what I can do?
 
when it means by localhost is when it trys to find a network drive, localhost just refers to your current computer. Before I tell you exactly where it is on your drive, you need to tell me what folder it's in.
 
it's on the external HDD in the folder Music. In Windows, the external HDD is mapped as M: .. and in OS X the Volume is mounted as Music.. so M:\Music\ in Win, and Volumes/Music/Music/ on OS X
 
I too am looking for the same thing. My PC has a NAS devices mounted as n:\... and the Mac sees it as //localhost/Volumes/... How do I get the Mac to see it as a drive letter?
I've been in the PC world for years and I'm slowly learning about the Mac as my girlfriend has one. Thanks for your help!
 
The Macs will not see drives as a letter. OS X will see the external name as the person who named then intended, the name of the hard drive. Warning though, your NAS is probably formatted NTFS, correct? OS X can only read NTFS, not write to it (thank Microsoft for that one).

So mount the hard rive that has the music folder (on the Mac) then go into iTunes' Preferences and point iTunes to that new Music folder on that mounted external.
 
zumpano said:
I have an external HDD connected to a router where my music is, and i run iTunes on both my PC with Windows and Macbook with Mac OS X. Both iTunes read from the music folder on the external HDD, and things run smoothly -- except when I add music to iTunes on either Windows or OS X.. I need to add the songs to the other OS manually, by adding the folder, and I have to manually ad the album art as well (yes, I know of iTunes' ability to automatically add album art, but still).

Then, someone tipped me about this how-to, where it says you should put the library XML file on the external drive and make both iTunes use that file for its library. Seems like a great idea, except that on my computers, Windows and OS X reads filepaths differently. Whereas Windows reads file://M:/Music/ .. OS X reads file://localhost/Volumes/Music/Music/ .. and the library XML file has to contain a path..

Anyone who has an idea on what I can do?
Click to expand...

Thank you but I'm already able to access the same MAS music store from all computers on my network including the Mac. My issue is moving the music library to the NAS so all share the same playlists and the lib is updated when new CDs are ripped. The PCs are sharing the "iTunes Music Library.xml" thanks to iTunes 7 allowing me to point to a remote lib. The issue is that PC see the NAS as a mapped drive letter and the Mac sees it as a local host name. Each time I start up iTunes, the lib is rewritten to accommodate the path change.
I don't mind changing the way the PCs use it as long as it works for all parties.
I appreciate your help
 
The Mac does not see the NAS as a local drive. You are confusing the way OS X (and Unix, Linux) sees externals. The localhost is there when you MOUNT the external share on your machine (OS X).
 
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