I'm not quite sure if this is the right spot for this or not but oh well...

 

If i put all my music on an unraid server (I'm gonna build another one just for this) Can i use itunes on 4 different computers with the itunes music folder location being on the unraid box.  In other words, can i use an unraid server to house all my music and still use itunes on 4 computer and share the music?

 

thank you

Gidday,

 

I've got all my music in a share called "iTunes Music". Basically I just have a local library on a couple of computers that all point to the "iTunes Music" share. BUT, don't point iTunes to the share through the preferences. Point it to the local "iTunes Music" folder, but turn that folder into an alias or shortcut. That means that if you forgot to mount the share, iTunes won't default back to a local copy.

I've got my itunes library on my unraid server. However I'm not accessing it from multiple computers. I would attempt it though by doing the following:

 

Go to edit>preferences>advanced - and set the location of the library to your unraid server. I created an iTunes share and made a subfolder called 'Library". I selected that as the library location. Make sure both options below that box are checked (keep music organized & copy music).

 

Next you need to consolidate the library. This will move all of the files over to the folder you just set. It used to be under advanced>consolidate but now I believe it's under file>library>consolidate.

 

Then you need to go to your current iTunes music directory (exit iTunes first) and copy the album artwork folder and itunes library.xml and .itl files into your itunes share on the server.

 

Then launch iTunes and hold the shift key down while it's booting. You'll get an option on the screen to choose library. Click it and then select the iTunes Library.itl file you just moved.

 

That get's it working for one computer. I think you should be able to repeat the last step on the additional systems and point them to the same library file. This assumes that you only have a library on one computer and just want to point all of the other computers to that same library. If you currently have multiple libraries, then I would consolidate them before doing this. (don't delete them though on the original computers in case this doesn't work!)

I added a new section in the FAQ, called Integrating unRAID with Other Apps, and added an iTunes entry (found here) with a link back here.

 

Perhaps other apps (various media players, SageTV, BeyondTV, rsync, others) can have their own entry, with links to relevant threads.  I'm not sure this is the best way to do it.  A section of the Best of the Forums might be better, or a How-To Integrate External Apps page with a list of various apps, or some other page dedicated for this.

That is a great idea.

 

thank you.

 

now if i could just get the damn thing to boot id be good to go.

I tested it this afternoon by installing the latest version iTunes on my work laptop and pointing it to the library.itl file. It worked perfectly. The first time through I got an error message stating the library file was created by a newer version of iTunes. So I downloaded the latest version and it worked fine.

 

I wanted to test the ability to modify the library from both systems, so I set the iTunes preferences on my laptop to keep music organized and copy music when added. I had to set the library file to the "Library" subfolder because iTunes really wants to keep the content in a folder called "iTunes Music" and seems to set that as the default library location. It might be easier just let it use that folder rather than putting it in "library" like I did. It actually created an empty folder in my iTunes share called iTunes music that I simply deleted. iTunes then spent about 5 minutes rebuilding the library file. It apparently moved the existing library files into a folder called Previous iTunes Libraries. And then it asked me if I wanted to copy my music into the library folder. I selected no, since all of my content was already in the appropriate folder from previously doing this with my PC.

 

Then I imported a test mp3 file. It was added to my library and when I opened iTunes on my PC, the file was in the library! Success! So it looks like as long as you have both systems pointed to the same library file and both iTunes versions are current, it works just fine.

 

It also looks to me like you could even merge multiple libraries using this method by first pointing each copy of iTunes to the library file, setting the appropriate options under edit>preferences>advanced, and then importing the folders that contain the music on each system.  I'm not going to test this on my iPhone, but I even suspect you could sync your ipod or iphone from any copy of iTunes in the house.