[kman42]

I'm trying to devise the best strategy for my iTunes music for my home G5. I have always had it set up with the music folder in the Shared directory so that my wife and I can both access it. In addition, I have aliases for the iTunes Library in both of our Music pointing to the real Library also stored in the Shared directory. Essentially, my wife and I share the same music and the same library file such that everything in iTunes appears exactly the same in both of our accounts and any changes that either of us make apply to the other account.

I just got a new iPod for my birthday after my wife co-opted my old one. Now we each have our own iPods and we are both getting a little annoyed by the other's ratings system as it distorts smart playlists that we both like to use. We would now like to start using separate iTunes Libraries so that we can customize our playlists and our ratings.

Is there a solution to this that doesn't involved having totally separate Music folders with the same music collection duplicated necessitating twice the drive space? Do the MP3/AAC files carry the ratings info or is this stored in the Library file? If the latter then we can share the same music folder, but have separate Library files which would be great. But then what happens if I rip a CD or buy a song from iTMS? Is there a way for it to be added to her Library automatically the next time she opens iTunes? Is there an Applescript for this?

Any thoughts or ideas or experiences would be great!

kman

[posthumanus]

haven't had a chance to use this yet

http://www.malcolmadams.com/itunes/i...arymanager.php

but it might be of some help

posthumanus

[Toyin]

Originally posted by kman42:
I'm trying to devise the best strategy for my iTunes music for my home G5. I have always had it set up with the music folder in the Shared directory so that my wife and I can both access it. In addition, I have aliases for the iTunes Library in both of our Music pointing to the real Library also stored in the Shared directory. Essentially, my wife and I share the same music and the same library file such that everything in iTunes appears exactly the same in both of our accounts and any changes that either of us make apply to the other account.

I just got a new iPod for my birthday after my wife co-opted my old one. Now we each have our own iPods and we are both getting a little annoyed by the other's ratings system as it distorts smart playlists that we both like to use. We would now like to start using separate iTunes Libraries so that we can customize our playlists and our ratings.

Is there a solution to this that doesn't involved having totally separate Music folders with the same music collection duplicated necessitating twice the drive space? Do the MP3/AAC files carry the ratings info or is this stored in the Library file? If the latter then we can share the same music folder, but have separate Library files which would be great. But then what happens if I rip a CD or buy a song from iTMS? Is there a way for it to be added to her Library automatically the next time she opens iTunes? Is there an Applescript for this?

Any thoughts or ideas or experiences would be great!

kman

That's a tricky one. The playlists, ratings, play counts, date added, last played...etc are kept in the iTunes library files. The album cover, artist, album, song title, composer, and genre are kept in the ID3 Tag.

I'm not sure, but if you choose for iTunes not to organize your music library, it should be possible to create iTunes Library's in both of your music folders and than edit information on the tracks separately. You may have add the music to iTunes again. Back up the iTunes folder that contains the iTunes Librarys in it before you do anything. Let us know how it works out.

[kman42]

Well, is it possible to make it so that my iPod only gets updated by my iTunes library and not my wife's library? I kept the Music folder the same for both of our accounts, but we are now using separate Library files. The problem now is that both of our iPods update regardless of who is logged in. I want my iPod to update to my account and wife's to update to her account? Is this possible? Seems like a serious oversight on Apple's part if there is no way around this as more and more households will be getting multiple iPods as they continue to get cheaper.

kman

[Toyin]

Originally posted by kman42:
Well, is it possible to make it so that my iPod only gets updated by my iTunes library and not my wife's library? I kept the Music folder the same for both of our accounts, but we are now using separate Library files. The problem now is that both of our iPods update regardless of who is logged in. I want my iPod to update to my account and wife's to update to her account? Is this possible? Seems like a serious oversight on Apple's part if there is no way around this as more and more households will be getting multiple iPods as they continue to get cheaper.

kman

Are you both using separate iTunes 4 Music Library and iTunes Music Library.xml files? I thought the iPod/iTunes sync preferences were somewhere in those two files. I bought my wife the iPod Mini for Valentines day, but I think I'm just going to keep two separate music folders. Keep us up to date.

[kman42]

Originally posted by Toyin:
Are you both using separate iTunes 4 Music Library and iTunes Music Library.xml files? I thought the iPod/iTunes sync preferences were somewhere in those two files. I bought my wife the iPod Mini for Valentines day, but I think I'm just going to keep two separate music folders. Keep us up to date.

We have one Music folder with all the songs in it. We have two iTunes 4 Music Library files and two iTunes Music Library.xml files, one of each in our respective Music folders. These used to be shared via aliases, but now they are separate.

It doesn't seem to matter if you keep it all separate. The iPod syncing prefs seem to go with the iPod. If I put it on Automatic it is done Automatically in both accounts. If it is Manual, it is manual in both accounts.

The problem is that whatever account is open is the one it will sync to. You can solve this by putting it on only sync these playlist mode, but then you don't have access to the rest of your songs if they aren't in playlists. Furthermore, if you add a playlist you have to check it in that dialog for it to be sync'd.

kman