iTunes question (1 Viewer)

[Jon_Are]

I keep my music library on my desktop PC, and I access that via iTunes which is installed on my laptop.

My question: When I add a CD to the desktop, how do I get it to automatically show up on my laptop iTunes program?

What I've been doing is, in the laptop iTunes, clicking on 'add folder to library', then manually locating the new folder(s).

I have to believe there is a better way, maybe some sort of sync?

Thanks!

Jon

 

[Christian Behrens]

Jon,

You have to be a little more specific about your setup. Are you running iTunes locally on your laptop, and the desktop with your music only acts like a network drive that you access from the laptop? In that case you should actually rip the CD from the laptop and write it straight to the network drive (i.e. desktop).

If you cannot rip on your laptop, then I don't see how you can automate this, as iTunes needs to know about new music, and the way you're doing it is I believe the only way.

-Christian

 

[Jon_Are]

Thanks for responding, Christian.

I guess I should have made it clear that I have iTunes installed on both the laptop and desktop, and I access the same library - which is located in a folder on the desktop's hard drive - from either iTunes program.

In other words, one central music folder, two iTunes sharing it.

I have this central folder designated as my library location on the laptop, I would think that the software would automatically see any changes and would reflect them.

Does this make sense?

Jon

 

[JohnRice]

Jon, I do the same sort of thing and have a slightly better workaround. I'm pretty sure this is not how you are supposed to do it, but it works. When I want to update iTunes on the "remote" computer, I quit iTunes and then copy the database files (I believe there are 4 of them) from Users>You>Music>iTunes on the ripping computer to the same location on the "remote" computer, then start iTunes. When it starts up, it will have the new songs available.

You may actually only have to copy the two Library files, but I always copy the Extras and Genius files anyway. Just don't copy the iTunes Music fiolder. It copies all your play lists as well, just so you know. If you don't want to copy the play lists, you might try only copying the two library files.

 

[Shane D]

nothing shows up in itunes until you drag it to a list or import a disk. If you have library sharing turned on on the desktop, then anything you import or drag onto itunes there will show up on anything sharing its library.
If you just have a link to a shared folder on your lap top pointing to the the library on the desktop then you will need to drag the files into itunes to get them to show up.

Actually it sounds like your just sharing the folder over the network and pointing the laptop to it. If thats the case then it has its own 'library' prefs and lists that its saving separate from what the desktop is doing. You may only have 1 folder or music, but both itunes have thier own set of information its pulling lists and information from. I dont think there is anything outside of importing a cd that will automatically add music to your library when new stuff is added.

 

[JohnRice]

Actually, copying the databases as I specified does duplicate the lists. No importing directly into iTunes needed. There are software apps to do this as well, but simply duplicating the databases works for me. You just can't have different playlists on the different computers.