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sabre 39 · Dec 26, 2006, 01:14 PM

A while back, I ripped my entire CD collection to MP3s on a fileserver on my network. The collection, 25GB or more, sits on a linux box and is accessible over the network to my wife's and daughter's Windows machines using Samba. Of course, on my Linux desktop, I just mount the network drive to /pub/music using nfs, and it works great.

I am trying to make these songs available to me on my MacBook using iTunes, but when I try to add them to my iTunes library, iTunes just shows me the multicolored beach ball. If I work with another program while this is going on, I can't get the iTunes menu bar to show up again. If I hide firefox, for example, even though iTunes window appears active, I still have firefox's menu bar showing.

Is there an easier way to do this? Is my problem just that the library is too big for iTunes to deal with? Network speed should not be the problem. I am using an 801.11g access point.

Hi I'm Ben · Dec 26, 2006, 02:25 PM

Are you able to connect both computers through a wired connection just for the initial drag&drop into the library. It's probably a bit much for the 802.11g to handle put a straight ethernet connection should handle it just fine. After it's been added once I don't think iTunes will have any trouble accessing it from a wireless location.

sabre 39 · Dec 26, 2006, 03:08 PM

Yes, I could connect them with a wired connection, but I'm not sure I understand why. Will iTunes copy all the music over to my MacBook? That's not really what I want. Will it recurse through all the folders on the share and catalog the .mp3 files?

The share is called MUSIC. Do I drag and drop it into Music in my home folder? Or, do I drag and drop it into Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/?

I can open the share and drag individual songs into an iTunes playlist, and they will play. But, I had imagined that I would be able to browse the collection from within iTunes in the way I can with amaroK on my linux box.

Chuckit · Dec 26, 2006, 03:11 PM

If you have the preference "Copy to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library" checked (which it is by default), it will try to copy all 25 GB onto your computer.

sabre 39 · Dec 26, 2006, 03:49 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

If you have the preference "Copy to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library" checked (which it is by default), it will try to copy all 25 GB onto your computer.

I would prefer not to copy it all over to my MacBook. I don't listen to music when I am away from home, so I'd rather not lose the storage space. Maybe I'll reconsider later, but for now, I just want to listen over the network. I just checked, and I did have "Copy to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library" selected. I've deselected it now.

I need to correct something I said in my other post. I've thought about it a bit, and I realized that amaroK took a good long time to scan my collection the first time I started it up. So, I shouldn't be surprised when iTunes does that too. I'll hook my MacBook up to the network using a cable and see if it goes any better.

I'm still not clear to me though into which folder I should drag and drop the share. I dragged and dropped it into Music/iTunes/iTunes Music, but that doesn't seem to have worked.

seanc · Dec 26, 2006, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by sabre 39

I would prefer not to copy it all over to my MacBook. I don't listen to music when I am away from home, so I'd rather not lose the storage space. Maybe I'll reconsider later, but for now, I just want to listen over the network. I just checked, and I did have "Copy to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library" selected. I've deselected it now.

I need to correct something I said in my other post. I've thought about it a bit, and I realized that amaroK took a good long time to scan my collection the first time I started it up. So, I shouldn't be surprised when iTunes does that too. I'll hook my MacBook up to the network using a cable and see if it goes any better.

I'm still not clear to me though into which folder I should drag and drop the share. I dragged and dropped it into Music/iTunes/iTunes Music, but that doesn't seem to have worked.

Why do you want to drag and drop it, so you can access your music just by clicking the link?

sabre 39 · Dec 26, 2006, 04:06 PM

Originally Posted by seanc

Why do you want to drag and drop it, so you can access your music just by clicking the link?

Yes, I guess so. Since I don't have any music in it yet, I'm not really sure what to expect. I had imagined that once I had configured iTunes to see the directories on the MUSIC share, I would be able to browse the album folders, drag and drop titles from the browser into a playlist, and then hit play.

I think what I am trying to do is get the music on the share MUSIC to show up in the iTunes browser. How do I do that?

seanc · Dec 26, 2006, 04:26 PM

Well the shared music business in iTunes seems to only work with iTunes but i'm sure if you can work out how it works, you can fool iTunes and it should pop-up with xyz Shared Music in the sidebar. You could install Amarok using X11 on your MacBook, maybe there's a Mac version?

Hi I'm Ben · Dec 26, 2006, 04:48 PM

Originally Posted by sabre 39

Yes, I could connect them with a wired connection, but I'm not sure I understand why. Will iTunes copy all the music over to my MacBook? That's not really what I want.

No iTunes will not copy it over if you don't want it to, but it does have to load in all the metadata and scan the library for gapless playback. If it's connected to a wired connection which is much faster than wireless this process will be easier for iTunes to do and probably avoid the spinning beachball you're getting.

Chuckit · Dec 26, 2006, 05:01 PM

Originally Posted by sabre 39

I would prefer not to copy it all over to my MacBook. I don't listen to music when I am away from home, so I'd rather not lose the storage space. Maybe I'll reconsider later, but for now, I just want to listen over the network. I just checked, and I did have "Copy to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library" selected. I've deselected it now.

I need to correct something I said in my other post. I've thought about it a bit, and I realized that amaroK took a good long time to scan my collection the first time I started it up. So, I shouldn't be surprised when iTunes does that too. I'll hook my MacBook up to the network using a cable and see if it goes any better.

Yeah, that should work. I was just thinking that if you had the "Copy to" preference checked, it would not only scan the folder, but also copy everything in there to your local hard drive. That would take a while.