I have a home network that contains computers with both Macs and PCs. I'd like to use the same iTunes library on all of the machines, so I moved the library folder and all of the media to a network drive.
I updated the library on a Windows machine, but when I access the song on my Mac, it says that the file cannot be found. This is because on Windows, the path was something like:
file://localhost/Z:/Music/Slayer/...
When my Mac asked me to locate the file, I checked the path and it reads something like:
/Volumes/Storage/Music/Slayer/...
I'm still pretty new to OSX, but I'm having a hard time finding a solution that allows me to use the same library on both my Mac and my PC.
I'd like to be able to update a library on any computer on the network and it updates the "shared" library, so I am able to sync my iDevice to any machine on the network.
How do I set up the network so the media file path can be the same on both my Windows and Mac machines?
Thank you.
Best Answer
Basically using iTunes on a shared storage is really bad. Even if you get it running as you want now, you need to reconnect to the network storage before launching iTunes EACH time (and never open iTunes if not connected to the network) otherwise iTunes standard behaviour is to recreate a new iTunes library locally and then you're stuck there again.
However:
Your current problem is most probably that you are using the same iTunes library file/database on both machines (residing on the network volume). There are two parts to your iTunes Library: The iTunes Library Database (.itl and .xml files) and the Media itself. You want the library database to stay in it's default location on your local drive and You Only want the Media folder to be on the NAS.
To achieve this you start up iTunes with a empty library (in the local Music folder) on EACH machine then import the music from the network folder. But before importing make sure you change the setting "Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library" to OFF! Otherwise your data is copied back to the local machine...
Then never start iTunes with your network storage disconnected and you will be fine.