TuneSpan on multiple computers?
Answered
I had iTunes media (~55 GB) on an external firewire drive. When I TuneSpanned the library, it brought the media folder down to a much more reasonable 1.5 GB. This now fits on the internal laptop drive.
I have two questions:
1. How do I go about eliminating the dependency on the external drive?
2. Is there a way I can then move the iTunes folder from computer A to computer B and have TuneSpan work correctly on computer B?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Jon
The same question
So, TuneSpan was intended to be used to move music from an original (default) location on the internal drive, to external drives.
While it works to use TuneSpan to consolidate media files from external drives to the internal drive, as in the normal spanning process, some "dependent spans" will probably occur. Read TuneSpan Help for more info on "dependent spans"
This is what creates the dependency on the external drive you are talking about. Now, this issue is not as annoying when the roles are reversed and the dependency is on the internal drive, because its always available.
Sadly, this dependency cannot be removed with the likes of TuneSpan, its capability is held back by the closed nature of the iTunes database. What I would recommend it using iTunes to consolidate your library BEFORE using TuneSpan and then bringing TuneSpan into the mix to span out choice track to your external drive.
So, at this point you must be careful, if you want to use iTunes to consolidate your library, you MUST restore all of your tracks to their original location THROUGH TuneSpan, which should be an obvious and straightforward process, but let me know if you have any questions. Making sure there are no "dependently restored" tracks and the TuneSpan Helper is not necessary, it is safe to use iTunes to consolidate your library. You can find the steps for this process online or in the TuneSpan Help in the "Two things to do before using TuneSpan, but not after" section.
If you attempt to do what I mention above, please be sure you understand exactly what iTunes will be doing. (It will copy your files to the default location, leaving the originals which you will most likely want to remove.) If you want to talk more about this process, let me know.
As for your second question, if you move your iTunes library files and folders properly from Computer A to Computer B, you can then move the TuneSpan Application Support folder (located at ~/Library/Application Support/TuneSpan) which contains your TuneSpan database, named "SpanRestoreHistory.tscddb" from Computer A to Computer B and it should function as intended just fine. If there are any inconsistencies between the iTunes libraries on A and B, I cannot guarantee TuneSpan will recognize the library properly.
Thanks for using TuneSpan, please let me know if anything needs further clarification.
- Pico Mitchell
So, TuneSpan was intended to be used to move music from an original (default) location on the internal drive, to external drives.
While it works to use TuneSpan to consolidate media files from external drives to the internal drive, as in the normal spanning process, some "dependent spans" will probably occur. Read TuneSpan Help for more info on "dependent spans"
This is what creates the dependency on the external drive you are talking about. Now, this issue is not as annoying when the roles are reversed and the dependency is on the internal drive, because its always available.
Sadly, this dependency cannot be removed with the likes of TuneSpan, its capability is held back by the closed nature of the iTunes database. What I would recommend it using iTunes to consolidate your library BEFORE using TuneSpan and then bringing TuneSpan into the mix to span out choice track to your external drive.
So, at this point you must be careful, if you want to use iTunes to consolidate your library, you MUST restore all of your tracks to their original location THROUGH TuneSpan, which should be an obvious and straightforward process, but let me know if you have any questions. Making sure there are no "dependently restored" tracks and the TuneSpan Helper is not necessary, it is safe to use iTunes to consolidate your library. You can find the steps for this process online or in the TuneSpan Help in the "Two things to do before using TuneSpan, but not after" section.
If you attempt to do what I mention above, please be sure you understand exactly what iTunes will be doing. (It will copy your files to the default location, leaving the originals which you will most likely want to remove.) If you want to talk more about this process, let me know.
As for your second question, if you move your iTunes library files and folders properly from Computer A to Computer B, you can then move the TuneSpan Application Support folder (located at ~/Library/Application Support/TuneSpan) which contains your TuneSpan database, named "SpanRestoreHistory.tscddb" from Computer A to Computer B and it should function as intended just fine. If there are any inconsistencies between the iTunes libraries on A and B, I cannot guarantee TuneSpan will recognize the library properly.
Thanks for using TuneSpan, please let me know if anything needs further clarification.
- Pico Mitchell
The latest version of TuneSpan (as of 0.9.5 beta) no longer has the "dependent span" issues I mentioned before because of a much better, new, spanning process. And as of 0.9.6 beta (just released) the TuneSpan database name has changed, and TuneSpan will create databases specific to each iTunes Library you load with TuneSpan (they are now called "TuneSpan Library [ITUNESIDLETTERSANDNUMBERS].tsl"). But, the location is still the same.
Thanks!
The latest version of TuneSpan (as of 0.9.5 beta) no longer has the "dependent span" issues I mentioned before because of a much better, new, spanning process. And as of 0.9.6 beta (just released) the TuneSpan database name has changed, and TuneSpan will create databases specific to each iTunes Library you load with TuneSpan (they are now called "TuneSpan Library [ITUNESIDLETTERSANDNUMBERS].tsl"). But, the location is still the same.
Thanks!
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