Sync iTunes on two or more computers
Good day, Habr!
I want to share the experience of free synchronization of the iTunes library on two or more computers. Who cares - I ask under the cat.
In order for your iTunes music library to always be with you - you need to pay $ 24.99. For this money, apple will transfer music to the cloud and you can easily synchronize your media library with all your iGadgets. I did not want to pay $ 24.99 to synchronize music from any computer, moreover, in the iTunes folder there can be not only music, but I would like everything to be always (well, almost always) with me.
Library synchronization is required storage. There are many services that offer to store your data, but they are all free until a certain point and, moreover, not all are suitable for synchronization. But all in order ...
')
I chose between three data storage services: Google Drive, Bitcasa and SkyDrive.
So, I chose SkyDrive. On the computer, I created the SkyDrive folder, in it I created the iTunes folder and moved the entire library to it. All files immediately began to be poured into the cloud. Next, I created the SkyDrive folder on the second computer and I automatically downloaded the files from the cloud. It remains only to specify the iTunes Media folder in SkyDrive in iTunes.
Despite the fact that all the files in our library are stored in one place, in the cloud, we need to pick iTunes to work with different computers. iTunes stores additional library information in the "... \ Music \ iTunes" folder. There are four files in this folder that you need to pay attention to:
Of these files, we are interested in only two files: "iTunes Library.itl" and "iTunes Music Library.xml". These files have an identifier that blocks iTunes synchronization from another computer (it wants to replace all files with those stored in the new library). You can change the identifier in each file, or you can simply save the specified 2 files in the cloud and download them when you need to update the library. These files can be stored in the same SkyDrive, but create a separate folder. When you need to update the library, you will need to copy these files to "... \ Music \ iTunes", and after updating the library - back to SkyDrive. Alas, I did not invent anything better. Well, perhaps, store these files in Google Drive or synchronize via Bitcasa into separate folders (for each computer). But this does not make much difference.
Also, it is recommended to enable the option in iTunes: "Process music and video manually." Allows you to add only selected files to the device.
Now everything is ready for synchronization!
Everything is ready for synchronization, but you need to clarify one more thing:
In conclusion, I would like to say that the above method allows you to keep the library of files always at hand (if there is Internet), but some additional actions are required for synchronization between devices. Of course, I would like to do everything in a couple of clicks and not bother with dragging additional library files, but so far I have not found another solution.
I would be happy to make comments, tips and hints. I apologize for pointing out the wrong hubs for the post: not one other and not close for this subject, at least in name.
Thank.
I want to share the experience of free synchronization of the iTunes library on two or more computers. Who cares - I ask under the cat.
Sync for money
In order for your iTunes music library to always be with you - you need to pay $ 24.99. For this money, apple will transfer music to the cloud and you can easily synchronize your media library with all your iGadgets. I did not want to pay $ 24.99 to synchronize music from any computer, moreover, in the iTunes folder there can be not only music, but I would like everything to be always (well, almost always) with me.
Free storage
Library synchronization is required storage. There are many services that offer to store your data, but they are all free until a certain point and, moreover, not all are suitable for synchronization. But all in order ...
')
I chose between three data storage services: Google Drive, Bitcasa and SkyDrive.
- Google Drive is an excellent service for storing data, but it stores a lot of documents, books, photos and other files that can be transferred to the size of 5 GB with iTunes library and therefore you need to pay extra money for space, which you don’t want to do .
- Bitcasa - offers a lot of space for data storage, but as it turned out, only one computer can synchronize this service. Choose a folder on your computer and make a mirror in the vault. The second computer is the second folder.
- SkyDrive is a direct competitor to Google Drive. Free 7 GB available. It is quite enough to store the library (as for me), but it is worth considering that the speed of downloading and downloading files leaves much to be desired.
So, I chose SkyDrive. On the computer, I created the SkyDrive folder, in it I created the iTunes folder and moved the entire library to it. All files immediately began to be poured into the cloud. Next, I created the SkyDrive folder on the second computer and I automatically downloaded the files from the cloud. It remains only to specify the iTunes Media folder in SkyDrive in iTunes.
ITunes Setup
Despite the fact that all the files in our library are stored in one place, in the cloud, we need to pick iTunes to work with different computers. iTunes stores additional library information in the "... \ Music \ iTunes" folder. There are four files in this folder that you need to pay attention to:
- "ITunes Library.itl" - contains ratings, comments, additional information about playlists and more.
- "ITunes Music Library.xml" - contains information about the location of media files in the library.
- "ITunes Library Genius.itdb" - is recorded after starting the Genius function, your musical preferences.
- "ITunes Library Extras.itdb" - contains information from the database on music CDs.
Of these files, we are interested in only two files: "iTunes Library.itl" and "iTunes Music Library.xml". These files have an identifier that blocks iTunes synchronization from another computer (it wants to replace all files with those stored in the new library). You can change the identifier in each file, or you can simply save the specified 2 files in the cloud and download them when you need to update the library. These files can be stored in the same SkyDrive, but create a separate folder. When you need to update the library, you will need to copy these files to "... \ Music \ iTunes", and after updating the library - back to SkyDrive. Alas, I did not invent anything better. Well, perhaps, store these files in Google Drive or synchronize via Bitcasa into separate folders (for each computer). But this does not make much difference.
Also, it is recommended to enable the option in iTunes: "Process music and video manually." Allows you to add only selected files to the device.
Now everything is ready for synchronization!
Everything is ready for synchronization, but you need to clarify one more thing:
- When you add the iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Music Library.xml files to the iTunes main folder, the library files may not be found. The fact is that on another computer the files are located in a different folder and the files that describe the library have the wrong path.
- The solution to this problem is to explicitly indicate the location of the media file when trying to listen to it (view). The rest of the record will find iTunes itself. Well, or you can try to replace the auto replacement with a part of the path pointing to media files. I did not try to do this, because you need to do the replacements in two files and, moreover, you need to store a string containing the path to the file on the new computer in order to know what to change.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to say that the above method allows you to keep the library of files always at hand (if there is Internet), but some additional actions are required for synchronization between devices. Of course, I would like to do everything in a couple of clicks and not bother with dragging additional library files, but so far I have not found another solution.
I would be happy to make comments, tips and hints. I apologize for pointing out the wrong hubs for the post: not one other and not close for this subject, at least in name.
Thank.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/178937/
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