[HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

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hansenwernersen
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[HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

Post by hansenwernersen »

maybe some of you have a similar enviroment, therefor I want to share my experiences

My enviroment @ home, where I use
1 notebook with XP pro in my office
1 gaming PC with XP pro in my office
1 notebook for my wife with XP pro at her room
1 notebook (very old P3 600mhz) with Win 2000 at my hobby area in the basement
(1 macmini htpc enterainment center in the living room)

What I have done:
1. create a netlogon.bat to logon to the NAS shares
2. copy this netlogon.bat (maybe change user and password after copying) to all pc's and added to the autostart folder
3. Create a new itunes library by open ituned and holding the shift key at the same time
4. itunes will ask you now, if you want to choose a library or create a new one. Please choose create a new one on a NAS share where all users have access to.
5. create a folder itunes (or whatever name you like) on the NAS share, where want to have the music on (itunes needs at least on folder. it cannot handle a drive letter as a storage position)
6. in itunes settings change the storage position to the NAS Share, where you have created your itunes folder and choose this folder (in itunes it should look like x:\itunes where x:\ is the drive letter in windows). Check also that itunes administrate your music folder and adding files to your library will be copied into the music folder.
7. add music in itunes
8. Do step 3 for all others pc's. But here you now choose select library and navigate to the library which you have created on your NAS share. But keep in mind, based on the user rights on the NAS share the users of the other pc's are able to delete files or change any information in your library. In the case you do not want this, you can copy the library files from the NAS share to anywhere on the local drive in the netlogon.bat. You just need to add copy x:\itunes library c:\anyfolderonyourlocalcomputer (x:\ =windows drive letter for the NAS share and itunes library = the folder on your NAS where the library is stored). Then just select instead the local folder for the itunes library instead the one on your NAS share. But in this case, any local created playlist or changes will be deleted when the library files will be copied
Nikopol
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

Post by Nikopol »

Hi,

Thank you very much for all these information. I have a very similar environment and I will try it this evening.
However I have 2 questions:
- What do you write in your netlogon.bat files? I don't understand what is their use as windows automatically mounts the network shares on startup.
- I see that you also have a Mac mini... what did you do in this case as a netlogon.bat file should not work there !

Thank you,
Nicolas

My enviroment @ home:
1 notebook with XP pro
1 gaming PC with XP pro
1 notebook for my wife
1 macmini media center in the living room

Qnap TS-209 Firmware 1.1.4
hansenwernersen
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

Post by hansenwernersen »

Hi Nicolas,

I am using the netlogon.bat for more just mounting the share. I delete with this temporary files and folders, empty the trashcan, copy some files from the NAS, checking some things and so on during the startup process of windows.

You're right normally windows could mount the shares during the startup process. That's also a possibility. I am used to do it with a batch file since years and it is the best thing for my wife, because we only switching on our WLAN for her, when she want's to work somewhere else and very often she forgets to do switch it on. Then the share are not mounted in Windows and have to mount them again manually. In this case, I told her, after switching on WLAN just click on this icon on your desktop and everything will be fine.

I am not a very experienced Mac user. I added the shares manually with apple + k and then I attached in starting objects at the mac user settings. The nice thing with a Mac is the apple scripting. I found some very helpfull scripts at this http://dougscripts.com/itunes/ and im using "List Music Folder Files Not Added v2.0" 2-3 times a month to add the new files to the local itunes lib on the mac, depending how many new files there are
jessr
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

Post by jessr »

Hi,

On my TS-209 i created a sub folder Music within Qmultimedia and off course enabled the iTunes server on the TS-209.
Just by installing and starting iTunes on a my windows desktop or notebook will see the Qmultimedia share. Just by clicking on the share will load the library and that's all to it. The NAS doesn't ask to login or whatsoever.
I was trying to get Media Player working with UPnP (Twonky server) but had to spent to must time to understand this. I didn't got it working. So i tried iTunes and to get this working was child play comparing to UPnP.
I hope this info will help you.

Configuration:
OS PC: Windows XP Home SP2
OS notebook: Ubuntu 7.10 / Windows XP Home SP2
firmware TS-209: 2.0.1 Build 0304 Beta
disks: 2 WD Caviar SE16 500GB, RAID 1 (mirror)
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AllTheGearButNoIdea
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

Post by AllTheGearButNoIdea »

That's all fine jessr, but that does not allow full 777 access to the itunes music just playback on any machine.

In our house I have one laptop, one media centre PC, three desktops and two ipods along with an iphone and three nokia mobiles that all sync with itunes (The phones via itunes agent), every PC can sync phones or ipods and all playlists and music are available for syncing/playing/burning at any PC. All done in a similar manner to Hans.

You can't do that with itunes server can you? :D
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Uncle B
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

Post by Uncle B »

Hello,

It would be nice to have a bit more control than the built-in iTunes server but I like the idea that the server updates everyone. i.e., If you add music to the server everyone can see it. If you use one of these setups where 4-5 PCs access the same network share to add music each one must update their library to see what others have added.

To that end I think I will have one administrative iTunes account that stores music in then NAS share but with the iTunes server using that folder too.That way everyone gets the music the admin adds.


It would be nice to be able to add playlists tho.
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Tantive
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

Post by Tantive »

I dont really see a point in the iTunes server, you can listen to music - but nothing else.
Last edited by Tantive on Mon May 05, 2008 1:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Uncle B
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

Post by Uncle B »

Er...
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18pcs
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

Post by 18pcs »

Would you please ne kind enough and share your netlogon.bat file. I too am having a problem as when I restart the computer the Itunes library returns to default as it cannot find the music folder on the /<Multimedia as it is password protected.

hansenwernersen wrote:maybe some of you have a similar enviroment, therefor I want to share my experiences

My enviroment @ home, where I use
1 notebook with XP pro in my office
1 gaming PC with XP pro in my office
1 notebook for my wife with XP pro at her room
1 notebook (very old P3 600mhz) with Win 2000 at my hobby area in the basement
(1 macmini htpc enterainment center in the living room)

What I have done:
1. create a netlogon.bat to logon to the NAS shares
2. copy this netlogon.bat (maybe change user and password after copying) to all pc's and added to the autostart folder
3. Create a new itunes library by open ituned and holding the shift key at the same time
4. itunes will ask you now, if you want to choose a library or create a new one. Please choose create a new one on a NAS share where all users have access to.
5. create a folder itunes (or whatever name you like) on the NAS share, where want to have the music on (itunes needs at least on folder. it cannot handle a drive letter as a storage position)
6. in itunes settings change the storage position to the NAS Share, where you have created your itunes folder and choose this folder (in itunes it should look like x:\itunes where x:\ is the drive letter in windows). Check also that itunes administrate your music folder and adding files to your library will be copied into the music folder.
7. add music in itunes
8. Do step 3 for all others pc's. But here you now choose select library and navigate to the library which you have created on your NAS share. But keep in mind, based on the user rights on the NAS share the users of the other pc's are able to delete files or change any information in your library. In the case you do not want this, you can copy the library files from the NAS share to anywhere on the local drive in the netlogon.bat. You just need to add copy x:\itunes library c:\anyfolderonyourlocalcomputer (x:\ =windows drive letter for the NAS share and itunes library = the folder on your NAS where the library is stored). Then just select instead the local folder for the itunes library instead the one on your NAS share. But in this case, any local created playlist or changes will be deleted when the library files will be copied
sunbeamgls
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

Post by sunbeamgls »

Thanks to all for this post, its really helpful

hansenwernersen

Does your solution allow all PCs to see all the same playlists, artwork, ratings etc. etc. please?
Yagodewinter
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

Post by Yagodewinter »

Hi,
I have tried to set up my iTunes environment as described, but it does not work for me. I copied my iTunes folder including all settings and the library to my NAS. Before I had iTunes copy all files to the NAS.

Now, when I open the library with another PC than the original one, iTunes takes an awful lot of time to check the library and than freezes with the main window open.

Any suggestions?

As I would love to sync my Apple TV with two of the PCs and the same library can someone tell me how this could work?

Thanks

Yagode
statler2
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows PCs

Post by statler2 »

Get the same behaviour. iTunes freezes when I try to import an DVD backup to a newly created library on the NAS OR if I move the files folder from the PC (XP) to the NAS and the corresponding lib afterwards (which should work, reading through several posts on the web).
I guess it´s something around the SQLite database "behind" iTunes and the file access to the library xml-file.

Did you try to copy the lib and files into one folder?
Can you kill the iTunes process? (doesn´t work for me, must restart)

Some unplausible thoughts: file system ext4 on the NAS? Or the virus scanner?

Any ideas are welcome to solve that :evil: thing
faithhevans
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows P

Post by faithhevans »

I tried several applications, including Syncopation, but they are all partially working, with issues and unreliable. Also, if you don't keep the library at the same coordinates in the disk, they could not work on every computer. This might be a bit late but you need to authorise the computer to allow it to connect to your ipod/iphone. When you connect you device in there will be an icon with the name of the device.
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TanGU
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows P

Post by TanGU »

Well, personally i use SongBird : http://www.getsongbird.com/

First, it will create your library from a network share that YOU want.

Then, you can ask Songbird to update your iTunes library. So both are syncronized and you can still use iTunes to stream or sync your iphone/ipod/ipad ;)

Simpler, and easier.
camelcode
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Re: [HOWTO] Sharing one itunes library on multiple Windows P

Post by camelcode »

hi,

thanks for sharing this info i have almost similar environment as yours and would love to try this out.
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