Applications :: Syncing A Single ITunes Library Between Two Macs?
Jul 4, 2010
I have a MBP and a MacMini. I wish to have my iTunes library stored on an external HD (which I will share on the network) connected to the MacMini.
I would like to see this same library on my MBP (presumably just point the iTunes on the MBP to the networked external HD for the iTunes folder??).
But now I wish to ensure that any changes made on one machine (additions, artwork update, playlists etc) are synced and show up on the other, and vice versa.
This should be applicable to both content purchases on iTunes and my own content ripped from my CD collection.
I have a Mac Mini, which I primarily leave running to access any files I store on it with my macbook pro being my main machine for daily use.
I will download/buy music on the Pro and will sometimes be a little while before synching it to the Mini via "Home Sharing". Now I have to do this manually right now, but is there a way to setup a script to automatically run on a scheduled basis on the Mini to check for media not in the Mini library and download them automatically from my macbook pro? I only have the two macs using Home Sharing.
I tried looking at scripts, but I saw stuff from using rsync, not sure if automating syncing via Home Sharing would even work by using an applescript of some type or if rysnc is what I would want to use.
I bought an imac 24" 4 months ago and set up individual access accounts on the mac for me and my daughters. I then set up an itunes account for each and I started to pay into their accounts for them to purchase some music and all was fine after syncing each nano with their access account and itunes account.
However, it quickly became apparent that they could not share their music between account even though they are on the same computer. I have tried various searches but to be honest some of the methods suggested I just dont understand hence my appearance here.
Can I now save the music they have purchased etc and take it all to one account and then sync them again with the one itunes account or would i be better to keep the different accounts and change the set-up so that they can see and sync with each others music.
Is there a good guide to having your ITunes library on multiple macs? I have found a couple of links and some stuff here but none of them seem very good, as they use third party software (Dropbox) or Automator scripts that you have to run everytime you open your library.
I have two Macs, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini.I have all my music on MacBook Pro. I want to be able to access iTunes from Mac Mini. But I don't like Home Sharing, because it doesn't really sync my music, and that route keeps two separate libraries.
When I'm home, both Macs are connected to the same network. I want my Mac Mini to access MacBook Pro's iTunes Library, update new music from Mac Mini which gets reflected on MacBook Pro. So that if I consolidate the file from Mac Mini, it gets put into the hard drive of MacBook Pro.
I understand what I'm trying to do, doesn't actually put physical files on Mac Mini. If MacBook Pro is not in the network or is turned off, that I wouldn't be able to access MacBook Pro's iTunes Library.
I don't want to use any third party applications to "sync" my music. I want to be able to do it by using File Sharing and such.
so here's the deal. I have an 80GB drive in my MacBook, which is currently where my iTunes lib resides.
I also have a 250GB external drive. What I want to do is keep my music on my laptop, but store movies and TV shows on my external drive, yet still be able to access them along with my music... know what I'm saying?
I keep all my iTunes files (podcasts, audio, video, etc.) on my main Windows 7 desktop. I just got a Macbook Pro and so far I've been using the sharing feature in iTunes to listen to my music on the MacBook. I've just set up file sharing on my windows 7 pc and now I'm able to see all the actual files on my MB. I was wondering if there was any way that I could just point my MacBook to the same directory that my windows 7 pc uses for iTunes and have the SAME library file on each computer. when I make changes, add songs, etc, to either computer, the library files would sync (update) the new information and I'd basically have an exact replica on either computer. Of course I realize that this would mean that my Windows 7 desktop would basically be the host for all these files and would have to remain online which is no problem. And I realize that I'd only be able to have one iTunes open at a time, which again is no problem. So basically I'm just wondering if there are any programs that could allow me to do this? I've seen programs that copy all the files from each computer and have them in sync that way, but like I mentioned, I don't want the actual files on my macbook. The windows 7 will be the host. I just want to sync my library files so I can make changes on either computer.
I am desperately trying to find a way to sync BOTH my Aperture library and my iPhoto library onto my iPad by using iTunes. I want to keep the Aperture library separate from my iPhoto library as the Aperture library only contains high res images and raw files whereas the iPhoto library is made up of images which were not taken with a DSLR such as point-and-shoot cameras or mobile phones.
I have two Macs, one at each of two locations (home-office and business). One is a Mac Pro (2009) and the other is a recent MacMini, both with OS-X 10.6 and similar specifications.
Would like to have both machines seamlessly match so that I can travel between them with no loss of application functionality.
There is only one user, so one Mac will always have the more recent data.
I understand that there are work-arounds, such as just replacing everything with a new laptop. Or physically transporting an external drive, perhaps backed up via SuperDuper or Qdea for example.
But a backup/restore can take a long time (at each end). So, is it possible to do this without a hardware �sneaker-net� solution?
Third-party apps such as ChronoSync and Martian Slingshot would seem to offer some possibilities. But would that work with an Apple Mail database for example?
Obviously, it is the data that needs to be synced, not the apps, but would there be any issues with application licenses (since some Apps look at the machine ID)? And would it be necessary to sync the Library/Application Support files too?
And what about application updates etc?
Cloud solutions such as Dropbox and Mozy are great for smaller files, but some of the databases we use are several Gigs in size, which is way beyond their capability (both in upload time and capacity).
For example, even an iTunes database might have some minor changes each day, which would need to be synced.
I do use MobileMe and i know I'll be able to sync my mails that way, but due to the cost of internet connectivity in South Africa, I'd prefer not to be sharing my emails over the internet.
Is there a way that I can wirelessly sync my mails using my Airport?
Something automatic that would initiate the sync when both machines are detected on the network would be 1st prize.
I cant get my speakers to work with my Mac Pro so since I have my macbook pro on my desk also I want to share Itunes with my macbook pro since I can use my speakers through that. Is there any way I can have the itunes on my macbook pro use the library from my Mac Pro?
itunes library will sometimes separate songs from a single cd into two separate files with the same cover art and the same cd title. It will then list the artist twice in the library. It will not let me combine the two. How can I put them in the same file? And yes, the artist name is the same on "info".
i Have an iPhone 6 (128Gb) with over 60gb of music synced and I have noticed that whenever I make several changes on my iTunes (genre changes, files directory changes, etc) to multiple songs and then try to sync it to my phone it gets stuck on the last step until I'm forced to unplugged the phone (trying to stop the sync doesn'to work).
Once I reconnect my phone and the backup process starts again all my music files now appear as "other" and thus ITunes now tries to sync all my music again causing an error message stating that I do not have enough capacity..Â
i Have tried to troubleshoot this issue to isolate the problem but with no success. I was just forced to reinstall all my apps and music once again and I am extremely annoyed since it happens quite often (since I do end up editing large amount of songs on a constat basis). after making all those changes on ITunes i always make sure ITunes recognizes those files. I try to close and open iTunes to ensure it updates its library and all the files' links. All songs do appear and play normally on iTunes. Everything works on iTunes but then when I plug in my phone all new or modified songs appear grayed out with the circle to the left (indicating they will be synced, but it never happens)
My IPhone has a large number of albums on it and not all of those albums are in my desktop iTunes Music Library. How do I move albums from the iPhone to iTunes or sync it so the music on the iPhone ends up in the iTunes Music Library? This happened when my desktop went down and I ran iTunes on my laptop and loaded music on to the laptop iTunes Library then onto the iPhone.
I would like to go from looking at the Library and all the albums together to going to just a single album. I used to be able to do this by changing the behavior of the arrows next to the song information for Album to direct to the album in the Library instead of the iTunes store.
However, in iTunes 10, it appears that the arrow links are removed permanently. Is this true? If so, is there a simple way to go from a highlighted song in a playlist or the Library directly to the song's album like you used to be able to, without using the genre/composer/artist/album browser (I have too many albums for that to be efficient, and this is one instance in which I think search is not the right solution).
I haven't found anything via the forum search on this topic, but can remember, that this topic was brought up in recent months.
I have two Macs, one for the road and one for home.
As I have a digital camera, I store the images (jpg and raw) on an external hard drive.
I want to be able to have another copy of those files on my MacBook, for editing on the road, and when I come home, to copy the modified and new images and files back to the external drive.
I also edit some pictures on my iMac, so the process has to be vice versa:
Do any of you know of a software that syncs only the modified files back and forth, and doesn't treat one file (or set of files) as the master and the other as copy like FileSync?
I have an iMac at home and a MBA all running Mac OSX Lion 10.7.3.Â
I use Mail/ iCloud and whilst all my email folders sync, the two inboxes do not and I am forever 'filing' emails into folders on both computers, with a lot of duplication.Â
Is there any way of having my combined inboxes (multiple accounts) all synced too?Â
I keep all my stuff on an external HD. I usually backup the external HD using time machine on my Mac_1 to my time capsule.Â
I recently bought another Mac_2. If I use time machine on Mac_2 to backup the external HD, will it create a separate backup on the time capsule. If so, is there a way I can use the same external HD backup on the time capsule and use either of the Macs to backup the HD.
im getting a MBP for school blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda
i need a program that will allow me to automatically sync files between both my macs. (preferably wirelessly)
id like the notes i take in class on the mbp to sync with the imac when i get home. Id like my picture folders, design work folders, and documents folders to be in sync on both computers whenever im home.
if i add new pictures on the mbp, take new notes, or work on a .psd file.
I want them available on the imac without me having to manually bring them over and vice versa.
i just need a way for the folders to sync whenever im home.
that way when i do a back up on my imac, it also has a back up of the folders on the mbp.
There are lots of options out there but none I'm comfortable with: DropBox. It appears that what people do is put their data files into the DropBox folder locally (or make symbolic links to that folder) and DropBox then monitors this folder locally, if changes are made it propogates the changes to their server and then out to other machines/devices under your account.
I could be wrong and it monitors both local and server.
Anyhow the trouble I have is that I've got tens of gigs and I don't see why I should ever have to take the bandwidth/time/security hit of using the Internet as the go-between.
Plus I'm uncomfortable with DropBox acting as a blackbox; i.e. no idea the logic it's using to determine changes, determine conflicts or manage resolution.
JungleDisk/BackBlaze with Chronosync. Using Chronosync means that you have full control and transparency, i.e. know logic and have logs.
I was going to put aside my concerns of using cloud storage (bandwidth/accessibility/security), however JungleDisk just purged around 60 gig of my data because a 2USD invoice failed to process and I was completely unaware of the invoice processing failure. So for now, cloud storage is out.
(if I do go to cloud, I'll try BackBlaze next time as JungleDisk clearly can't be trusted) Sync over LAN between two Macs (e.g. via Bonjour) and use Chronosync to perform the sync.
Not a bad setup, but I've got the feeling that placing a third disk in between, is somehow cleaner and gives overall better protection.
Therefore I've decided to keep two Macs in sync, to use Chronosync plus a NAS (in my case a QNAP 639-pro) as the middle man.
Others must have done a similar setup (after all it's just a variation on using an external drive as the middle ground).
So some preliminary questions are:
do I need to be concerned that the NAS uses EXT3 (Linux) fielsystem; i.e. will ownership/group permissions or
extended file attributes be an issue?
Is there an issue with not syncing file metadata (.ds_store files comes to mind)?
Syncs take a very long time when you've got tens of gigs, however often it's just a handful of files changing, i.e. OmniFocus, Devonthink, 1Password plus a few active project files. So it seems it's a good idea to have a full sync and some quick sync.
Do people have a similar setup and can describe their Chronosync configs?
It would appear the safest option is to close down 1password, OmniFocus etc. on one machine before hitting sync on that machine, but this introduces overhead, but I guess it depends on how the likes of 1Password writes to file and when
What exactly happens if I checkmark "documents and data" in the iCloud preferences on both my Macs? On iOS my understanding is that developers can build support for iCloud right into their apps, and so, only those apps that are coded to support iCloud syncing will be able to do it. However on the Mac, documents are not stored in an app-centric manner (and I'm glad because I loathe the app-centric document storage aspect of iOS).
So, I'm not clear what happens if you choose to sync "documents and data" over iCloud. Currently I use Chronosync to sync my documents folders between my desktop and laptop. However, this is a fairly hands-on process, and while I still plan on using Chronosync between my computers for several purposes, I would be happy to have iCloud sync certain documents and data between my Macs.
For example, I'd like iCloud to sync my Stickies, Downloads folders, and certain folders of documents like scanned receipts and saved web archives, etc. However I am scared to check the "Documents and Data" checkbox because I don't know what the heck it does. Is it going to scan my computer and upload everything in my documents folder? Or what? I read Apple's iCloud set-up guide but it did not give me a clue regarding this, and I didn't see any links to an advanced manual.
Info: Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2009, 8-core 2.2ghz, 12GB RAM, 10TB
I'd like to take one hard drive and back up 3 different Mac computers using Time Machine. The hard drive has the capacity greater than the 3 computers.
am new to this and have a new iPhone I was wonder if I can get a simple question answer i tried Google and there seems to be a bunch of ways to do what I?m looking for.So I want to take my friends iTunes library (5300+ songs) and transfer them to my library ( 2000+ songs ) and then once that is done I want to be able to put them on my iPhone / ipod 32g ( 32g 3gs black can anyone tell me how and keep in mind I want to kiss (keep it simple st#$id )
I had this working a while back... but (I can only think it's since I upgraded to iTunes 8) this has now stopped working...
1. I have moved my iTunes Music folder to /users/shared...
2. I go into iTunes preferences and change the location of the Music Library...
3. Restart iTunes...
4. Then I go into iTunes and it works - it's reading songs and movies from the shared location fine...
When I login as a different user (any admin user), repeat steps 2 and 3 and nothing - the library is empty when it's restarted
I also tried this hack from another site around 18 months ago...
[URL]
The instructions are pretty much the same, although this involves creating aliases of the iTunes music library.xml file - but didn't seem to make any difference to the outcome
If I get a conventional mp3/aac player that uses standard USB storage, if there something I can get that will sync it with my Itunes collection? I figure there would be two ways; it could just copy the Itunes directory which always has things sorted by artist, or it could try and duplicate my playlists as folders. I'd prefer the latter. Does anyone make software that does this?
I have one song that will not sync to my iphone. It is a 43min long Nike running track which itunes gave away for free last year. I would love to listen to it as I run but I can't find it on my iphone. It is checked in itunes and I have it set to sync my entire music library so it should be on there. Any ideas?
If it matters I have changed my email address that I use for my itunes account since then but to my knowledge all of the older music I bought with that account still syncs perfectly fine.
Also it shows up that it is on my iphone when I look at it in itunes but not on the iphone when it is not connected. I watched it sync saying updating that track on the phone too.
