Transfer only spanned files to a separate computer's iTunes library
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I keep all the music on a portable drive that I take with my macbook pro everywhere. I recently offloaded all my movies and tv shows to a NAS using TuneSpan (LOVE IT!) so that they didn't take up all the space on my portable.
We just got an iMac and Apple TV and I'd like to now have that iTunes to point to the Spanned files but not my entire library (since all my music is now in iTunes Match, and my wife has downloaded some songs to the new iTunes).
Is there any way to use TuneSpan so that iTunes sees the spanned files, without having to copy them to the hard drive and re-span them?
thanks!
The same question
Thanks for getting in touch. Sorry I didn't get back sooner.
This is not really what TuneSpan was designed for. TuneSpan isn't made to deal with sharing files between libraries.
But, it would be possible for you to add the video files on the NAS to the iTunes Library on the iMac without having them copied to the iMacs iTunes Media folder.
To do this, you can go to the Advanced iTunes Preferences on the iMac, and uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library". Then, you can drag the stuff in from the NAS and iTunes will reference them from their current location.
When you've added those files, you can go back into the Advanced iTunes Preferences and recheck that setting for normal use.
But, this will not setup any kind of continued syncing between the libraries. If you span new stuff to the NAS from the MacBook Pro iTunes Library, it will not get automatically added to the iMac's iTunes Library. Also, if you happen to restore some videos back to the MacBook Pro iTunes Media folder, then then iTunes on the iMac will lose track of them.
So, it's not a perfect solution, but it's the best I can offer with what's possible through iTunes. This just isn't a problem that TuneSpan is made to solve. But, I hope you can get things setup how you want. Good luck! :-)
Thanks for getting in touch. Sorry I didn't get back sooner.
This is not really what TuneSpan was designed for. TuneSpan isn't made to deal with sharing files between libraries.
But, it would be possible for you to add the video files on the NAS to the iTunes Library on the iMac without having them copied to the iMacs iTunes Media folder.
To do this, you can go to the Advanced iTunes Preferences on the iMac, and uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library". Then, you can drag the stuff in from the NAS and iTunes will reference them from their current location.
When you've added those files, you can go back into the Advanced iTunes Preferences and recheck that setting for normal use.
But, this will not setup any kind of continued syncing between the libraries. If you span new stuff to the NAS from the MacBook Pro iTunes Library, it will not get automatically added to the iMac's iTunes Library. Also, if you happen to restore some videos back to the MacBook Pro iTunes Media folder, then then iTunes on the iMac will lose track of them.
So, it's not a perfect solution, but it's the best I can offer with what's possible through iTunes. This just isn't a problem that TuneSpan is made to solve. But, I hope you can get things setup how you want. Good luck! :-)
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