[HarryHWombat]

Hi --

Not sure if this is the right forum but I think it comes closest to my problems.

I would like to share a central iTunes music folder between an iMac and an iBook airport'ed together. I have overcome a number of initial problems to do with static IP addresses but still have some outstanding issues.

1. iTunes Music Library
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I can either share a central library or have a local library for each machine and populate from the central music directory. Th eproblem with a central library is that I cannot have both machines open with iTunes at the same time - iTunes seems to always want to open the library in r/w mode. Is it possble to do this?

Failing that - I have tried to have local libraries but this leads to problem 2.

2. OS X 10.1 iTunes not embedding ID3 tags in MP3 files
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The title says it all. Out of say 50 tracks ripped only 1 or 2 have embedded ID3 tags ... yes, I have opened the MP3 file in TextEdit and they are not there! (BTW, these are ripped on an iBook 2001, over airport into a FireWire HD). The issue here is that I cannot then drag the music files onto iTunes and get them directorised correctly as iTunes does notknow the artist or the track! Is this me, a feature or a bug?

3. iBook goes to sleep and loses netwrok connection
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When the iBook goes to sleep (is closed) it seems to lose the mount of the FireWire HD. This does not always happen, but often enough for it to be extreemly irritating. Is this standard behaviour or a bug.

4. Created Alias screws up if Netwrok Lost
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An alias I create to a remote iTunes library file will NOT resolve after the newtrok connection is lost and then re-instated. The alias needs to be recreated. This sounds stooopid. Anyideas?

Ok - a lot of issues there. Any help greatly appreciated.

hHw

not sure why your itunes isn't embedding the tags... mine does... OS X 10.1 and the latest iTunes...

but here's a work around in the meanwhile... select all your itunes songs... and go to the menu and click Advanced -> Convert ID3 Tags... and chose a tag. This should set them in all the files. It may take a while if you have a lot of files

arn

[HarryHWombat]

arn thx --

yeah - I found out about this Convert ID3 Tags thing and it does work but it does also suck :-)

I know for a fact that the ID3 tags are not embedded - have you actually looked at the MP3 files or are you just assuming that the tags are embedded because iTunes shows Artist and Album ... ?

When I rip a track or album, iTunes will show me (correctly) the Album, Artist etc as it has put it into the Library. When I TextEdit the MP3 file the tags do not seem to be there. When I look at an MP3 file ripped under 9.2 ... the artist etc are there in plain text at the top of the file.

This is only a real problem when you have more than one "local" library sharing a central MP3 repository.

thx,

hHw

[caifara]

we meet again,
For now I can only say that I work with 9.1 and everything works smoothly, that means that I listen to music with iTunes 1.1 over a wired network and that I can see the album, artist and so on.
I use an internal disk, but it is partitioned and the music isn't on the startup disk, so it's almost your situation but without problems.
I use two libraries, one on the music "server" and one on the other mac.

[HarryHWombat]

caifara thx -- again!

I am getting ever closer to what I want to do. My iMac (upstairs) will stay on 9 for the time being so I can rip the CDs there, have the ID3 tags embedded properly and be generally content.

It is still a little bit of a pain to have to drag the Music folder onto the iBook iTunes to keep it in sync .. you shouldn't have to do that .. but I can live with it.

Thx again!

hHw

[- - e r i k - -]

Here's another tip for converting the ID3 tags... always convert them to v.2.2, not 2.3 as it does not support longer names of artists, titles and albums.

I always convert all my MP3s to v.2.2 before I edit them.

[HarryHWombat]

- - e r i k - - ,

Thx for that - have taken yr advice and converted to v2.2 ...

It is a blinking pain though as it takes significant time to do this convert, iBook 2001 X 10.1 -> Airport -> FireWire HD ... I may even not get all my CDs ripped before iPod arrives

Thx for yr help.

hHw