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peeb · Sep 12, 2006, 05:22 PM

OK, so the change log says something about having multiple libraries on different drives - I'm excited about this, since most of my music is on an external USB drive, and a bit is on my pbg4, that means that most of the time, when I click on any song, it is not available - I want two libraries, one when I'm connected to the drive, and one when not. I can't find any more info on this though - any ideas?
Peeb

analogika · Sep 12, 2006, 08:51 PM

Yes please.

I'd LOVE to work with multiple libraries - same basic premise, except I have my music on a server when I'm at home.

Currently, I'm using the Shared music thingy, but that won't work with Party Jukebox, nor will it work with CoverFlow, nor will it show covers for anything except the currently playing song.

spblat · Sep 13, 2006, 01:36 AM

Ditto, I have a little bit of music on my laptop, and a ton of stuff on a server accessible when I'm at home.

I looked for it too (Windows version) and couldn't find the feature.

Apple - iTunes - iTunes Overview says:

Multiple Libraries - Build your collection over multiple libraries, and keep them on different hard drives to save space.

Wha??

peeb · Sep 13, 2006, 11:07 AM

The best I can find is this:

Multiple iTunes libraries in iTunes 7 at klavr

spblat · Sep 13, 2006, 11:12 AM

Sweet! That works! I haven't played with it, but I have verified that launching iTunes with the shift key down in Windows produces a prompt to choose or create a library. Mac users can use the Option key.

JKT · Sep 13, 2006, 01:39 PM

You've been able to do that since at least iTunes 5.

Edit: This is also the case for iPhoto.

El Gato · Sep 13, 2006, 01:51 PM

Interesting. But you can only view one library at a time, unless I'm missing something. It would be nice to be able to have both my local music and server music files show up together if the server is connected, rather than choosing one or the other when iTunes starts up.

Also, holding down option while starting iTunes caused the open application directly behind iTunes to hide itself. Anybody else experience this? I thought that I completely lost a Pages document I was working on when this first happened.

JKT · Sep 13, 2006, 01:59 PM

Holding option when switching apps is designed to hide the current app as you switch - this has been an OS feature since system 7.x IIRC.

El Gato · Sep 13, 2006, 03:08 PM

Originally Posted by JKT

Holding option when switching apps is designed to hide the current app as you switch - this has been an OS feature since system 7.x IIRC.

That was it.

maclif · Oct 12, 2006, 07:47 PM

Ok - I think this is the missing link to making my setup work.

I have all of my music on a g4 that I plan to put in a server-type setup, no moniter, keyboard, etc in the closet. I have two laptops (one mac, one pc) that I want to each sync a different ipod to and be able to import/buy music.

If I have two machines linked to the same itunes library file, will that cause problems? I don't forsee actually downloading or importing at the same time on the computers. I just need them both to be editible libraries, not a shared library.

make sense?

jasong · Oct 12, 2006, 09:46 PM

If iTunes is open on both machines simultaneously, I imagine that would cause a problem. I would suspect that when you go to open the second instance of iTunes you will get some kind of error about the file being locked. Backup your library and try it though.

peeb · Oct 26, 2006, 12:28 AM

Originally Posted by jasong

If iTunes is open on both machines simultaneously, I imagine that would cause a problem. I would suspect that when you go to open the second instance of iTunes you will get some kind of error about the file being locked. Backup your library and try it though.

No, this setup will be fine, iTunes plays well with multiple instances of itself sharing files.

jasong · Oct 26, 2006, 09:05 PM

Library files? I know you can have two libraries pointing to the same files with no problems, but can you have two instances of iTunes both using the same iTunes Library file?

peeb · Nov 9, 2006, 05:56 AM

Originally Posted by jasong

Library files? I know you can have two libraries pointing to the same files with no problems, but can you have two instances of iTunes both using the same iTunes Library file?

Right. Sorry for the confusion, I meant that one copy will share the library of the other, not that the would both be using the same library, 'live' as it were. This may not be what you want.