J&C’s Happy Valley Ho-Hum

So I’ve invested a lot of time (and, at nearly 10,000 songs, money) into my iTunes library. And it works great. Back when I came back from my mission, I bought an iPod and was delighted at how it integrated so well with iTunes (updating play/skip counts, ratings, etc). Then I build my sound system for my car and made sure I had a an HU that connected to my iPod. It works great too. I love it. But I still had one glaring problem with it: It only worked on one computer.

See I’m a geek. I have many computers. My gaming rig (PC), the laptop, the HTPC Mac Mini and my computer at work (all macs). Sure I could share the library across the network, but that doesn’t carry with it the information like play/skip counts and ratings. And Plex, my media center software, ties into the iTunes library on that computer, which is why I’ve never bothered doing anything with the music portion. I don’t have my music on the Mac Mini.

A few weeks ago, though, I wanted to listen to music at work, on my computer, not using my iPod and headphones. So I set out to find a solution. And that I did.

First off, I found out from AstroGeek that I could use dropbox to keep my library the same across all my computers. That was the biggest issue. At first it didn’t work. I was afraid it was because I was trying to sync between a Mac and PC, but luckily, that’s not the issue. It was because I was organizing my collection myself instead of letting iTunes organize it so the file paths for all the songs were specific. Once I changed that, things worked like a charm.

So here’s what you do: (Basics only. Astro Geek goes more in-depth.*)

1. Get a dropbox account. It’s free. And awesome.
2. Make sure iTunes organizes your library for you. (Preferences -> Advanced -> check Keep iTunes music folder organized and Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library)
3. Set the location of your music folder. (Preferences -> Advanced -> iTunes music folder location)
4. Consolidate the library (File -> Library -> Consolidate Library). This will put all your music in that location.
5. Close iTunes and copy your iTunes Library.itl to your dropbox.
6. Start iTunes holding Option (Shift on win) and a box will appear asking you to choose your library.
7. Click Choose Library, navigate to your dropbox and choose your iTunes Library.itl
8. Repeat steps 6-7 for each computer that will be sharing the library.
   If your library is network accessible, skip to step 11.
9. Download FolderShare on all computers that will be syncing the library. Disclaimer.
10. Follow the instructions and sync your music folders.
11. On every other computer, change your music folder location to where it is now being synced to. Or, in the case of a networked drive, change it to that location. Also make sure the 2 checkboxes below that are checked on these computers.

Now your libraries should magically update. I’ve been using this for a couple of weeks between home and work, and it’s been flawless. I bought the Orange Box soundtrack off Amazon, and Re: Your Brains from iTMS at work and when I went hope and opened  iTunes, they played wonderfully. The playcount and ratings were all set.

Now, one last word of warning. I can’t account for what happens if you are using iTunes on multiple computers at the same time using the same library. And make sure you aren’t trying to store your music on your Dropbox. That would be a bad idea. 2GB just isn’t enough. Or shouldn’t be if you have any respect for music. Oh, and just note that when you first open iTunes, it will take a little bit to read the library. Be patient.