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I can't remember where I read this, but isn't it possible to make an alias or a symlink to your Library so you can use it with iTunes, no matter where it is, and so you don't have to constantly update it when you put in newer songs from say, Windows? If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll try to clarify. Thanks. :red_indian:

I can't remember where I read this, but isn't it possible to make an alias or a symlink to your Library so you can use it with iTunes, no matter where it is, and so you don't have to constantly update it when you put in newer songs from say, Windows? If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll try to clarify. Thanks. :red_indian:

 

Copied from Macosxhints.com:

 

Play iTunes from anywhere via SMB

By: Ansel_Witty on Tue, Feb 14 '06 at 2:33PM PST

The way I do this is with symlinks... I keep all my music, including the Library File on a separate External Drive...

 

I just made the folder ~/Music/iTunes/ a symlink to the folder on the external drive and iTunes just works exactly as if the folder was local. This gives me two big advantages, the first is if I decide to take my external drive with me, it is simple to have my music all available to me on the next computer by making one symlink on the new computer. It keeps all of my music in sync and also gives me all my ratings and playlists. It is also still linked with my iPod so if I plug it in on the new computer it automatically updates. This would solve one of the poster's problems with not being able to show the playlists to his wife and updating... It would mean you guys both shared the same music and would only work if you only had the Library open on one computer at a time, but it works pretty well for me over a network also...

 

I hope this helps Dax :smoke:

As long as the Library file is also located in the symlink folder, then absolutely it will be in sync between OSes.

Just make sure that the library is using relative paths rather than absolute paths.

 

Relative means things like

"./Barenaked Ladies/Born on a Pirate Ship/01 Stomach vs Heart.m4p"

vs

"/Users/[username]/Music/iTunes Music//Barenaked Ladies/Born on a Pirate Ship/01 Stomach vs Heart.m4p"

Assuming that you do not want to click+drag while holding Command+Option.

 

Personally, I find that much simpler when it comes to linking, at least when I am not doing something crazy where I need the comfort of the terminal's blinking cursor to guide me.

 

:thumbsup_anim:

Edited by Adrian Fogge

But that doesn't sound as cool...

 

That, and atleast under 7.0.1 (last time I tried), when I specified a different location for my music folder, when I bought games through iTunes, they were still stored in the /Users/[username]/Music/iTunes Music/ folder, along with the actual library file. It was just the music, movies and TV shows that were kept on the other drive.

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