Filed under: Software, Features, Tips and tricks, iTunes, TUAW Tips
TUAW How To: Use your iTunes library over AirPort Disk
First, in order to do this right, we recommend backing up your library before snipping any cables (we also don't recommend actually snipping any cables; they can be expensive to replace). If you haven't gotten into the backup habit yet, Scott's How to Back your music using iTunes 7 tutorial is a great place to start.
Now, on with the show.
We'll begin by assuming you have already set up your AEBS (AirPort Extreme Base Station) and that you have the hard drive you're planning to use. We recommend not hooking the drive up to the AEBS just yet, as moving the typical iTunes library filled with a few GB of stuff would go a lot faster via USB than even the zippier new 802.11n wireless. With that said, and with iTunes shut down, let's get started:
- Begin just as you would with our external hard drive tutorial by plugging your USB drive directly into your Mac (the AEBS is USB-only, which means some of you might have to buy a new drive just for doing stuff like this with your new base station).
- Next, move the "iTunes Music" folder, located in ~/Music/iTunes/, to wherever you want on your external hard drive. If you also have an "iPod Games" folder in there, move that too. Just be sure to keep them together no matter where you decide to place them. Leave the Album Artwork folder, as well as the three individual library files right where they are.
- Wait a while. If you have a large library (ours was over 40GB), wait a long while.
- Once the transfer is finished, unmount the drive and hook it up to the AEBS. Give the two devices a little time to make nice.
- The AEBS by default is set to automatically mount any connected drives on your Mac (or PC), however, a strange quirk happened here: we received a dialog asking to connect to the drive with a password, even though we had never actually set up the drive with the new AirPort Utility. Of course, setting the drive to auto-mount when you connect to your AEBS network would be ideal if you want no-fuss use with iTunes (and any other 'wireless library' setups like this), but the choice is entirely up to you. Pressing cancel on this dialog, setting up the AirPort Utility to use a password for the drive and then setting it to save the pass in Keychain got us back on our way.
- Speaking of choices, you have another one to make: once you open iTunes again, it will still be looking at your local library. We need to tell iTunes the party has moved to the remote drive connected to your AEBS, and you have three options (that we know of) for accomplishing this. Your first option is to open iTunes and go to the Advanced > General tab and use the "Change..." button to tell it where your new "iTunes Music" library lives. Your second option is to give iTunes a kick-in-the-pants before you open it by moving your local /iTunes/ folder to somewhere other than where it currently resides, then opening iTunes. To be honest, we had to go with a unique combination of the two that you *shouldn't* have to deal with, but we're posting it here just in case: We actually had to move our entire /iTunes/ library to the external drive (including the Album Artwork folder and those three library files that previously shouldn't be moved), then completely delete the local copy of that /iTunes/ folder in order for iTunes to actually obey the new library location we set under that Advanced preferences tab. Like we said though: that third one isn't pretty, and it isn't recommended as your first choice.
- Either way, once everything is in its place and you choose the new library location, iTunes will likely pop up a progress window telling you that it's re-analyzing your library. That's fine - iTunes is just double-checking your handiwork.
- As a final check to make sure this all went as planned, click on any library file from within iTunes and press cmd + i (or View > Get Info). At the bottom of the Summary tab in that window is a "Where:" section that tells you the actual file path to that piece of media; be sure that path begins with the name of your AEBS-connected drive, and not "Macintosh HD," or whatever you happened to rename your main hard drive to.
- The fantastic "Consolidate Library" option under iTunes's Advanced menu might become your best friend if you happen to add a lot of media (or automatically download podcasts) while you're away from your wireless network. iTunes is smart in situations like this, but it doesn't tell you it's working some magic behind the scenes: when you're away from your media library, perhaps connected to another network or on the other side of the planet, any content you add to iTunes will be placed in that local ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/ library that we just got done leaving in the dust. This, of course, might begin to annoy the manual organizers in the audience, but this is why we love the genius of Apple's software engineers: once you're connected to your media library again (and this works with our AEBS setup or an external hard drive via USB/FireWire), using that "Consolidate Library" option will tell iTunes to move all of your new media into your true library's location. In this case, since your library is on a drive connected wirelessly, iTunes will shuffle everything over to that drive. Easy breezy library management that takes a mere two clicks.
- You might notice some iTunes operations become at least a little sluggish, such as using Get Info on a file or beginning to play a video. This is natural and, at least from our limited experience so far, nothing to worry about. Just know that some things won't be insta-snappy like they were when your library was non-wireless and on a local hard drive, but music, including skipping tracks, seems to remain pretty quick with this setup.
- We haven't had a chance to try streaming our library over the web using the AEBS's new ability to open itself up to remote access. It should be entirely possible in theory, but there are plenty of factors that could affect performance on both ends, and streaming your library could turn out to be flaky or even unusable.
- We wouldn't recommend this as a solution for sharing as a library repository across multiple machines unless you're up for a little bit of repetitive effort from here on out. The problem is: every time Machine A adds a file into the library, Machine B won't know it unless you chose File > Add to Library... and select the entire /iTunes Music/ library for a re-scan. Of course, you could always manually add new files to each machine from here on out, but you can still run into quirks such as inconsistencies in metadata (ratings, etc.) and things like album art being overwritten or even deleted. If you really want to go down this path, however, you might be able to automate this manual library updating via Automator or AppleScript, but you're on your own there.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Biffo said 7:12AM on 3-02-2007
Nice and thorough, thanks for taking the time over this.
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Justin said 7:56AM on 3-02-2007
There is an easier way to do this. Move the "iTunes Music" folder to the external drive, make sure you delete it from the "iTunes" folder on your local drive. The create and alias (shortcut) to the "iTunes Music" located on the external drive; then move the alias to the "iTunes" folder on your local drive. Open iTunes and viola. I am a new mac user and figures this out a couple months ago. I have yet to see this option mentioned anywhere on the net, though I am sure it is out there. I am not sure if it will work on a PC.
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LD said 8:03AM on 3-02-2007
Oh how I would love to do this. But I can't connect my drive to the AEBSn. It crashes it. I do have a second USB drive that I can attach, but it often crashes during any large file transfer. The only solution is to power the drive off and back on.
Airport Disk is half-baked at this point. I am very seriously considering returning the device because I can't use one of the main features, one of the main reasons I bought the thing.
Very disappointed so far.
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racco said 8:40AM on 3-02-2007
"the problem is: every time Machine A adds a file into the library, Machine B won't know it unless you chose File > Add to Library... and select the entire /iTunes Music/ library for a re-scan. Of course, you could always manually add new files to each machine from here on out"
I have my 50GB + iTunes library stored on an external HD firewired to my G5, this can be easily accessed from iTunes on my G4 down-stares by ticking the 'Share my library on my local network' box in iTunes-Preferences-Sharing. now as long as iTunes in running on my G5 I can access all its media from my G4, and visa-versa
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Dave Chartier said 8:38AM on 3-02-2007
#2: Justin, Apple and some 3rd parties sometimes design their apps to out-think the alias trick, so I didn't want to try it. We're dealing with a lot of metadata and many gigabytes worth of files... I wanted to take the safe, 'official' route through setting this up.
That's not to say the alias trick isn't a decent one, and wouldn't work in other situations. If it works well for iTunes, more power to you.
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Ian Burkhart said 8:42AM on 3-02-2007
i would add this scropt if i was you to remind you that you need to connect to you hd once u launch itunes. I use it for my external drive.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/externaltunes.html
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B deR West said 3:06PM on 5-13-2008
I have two LaCie Porsche drives hooked up to my Airport right now, and no problems. Although I couldn't find out how to automatically connect to the second drive (Anyone else finding Airport Disk Utility quite useless?), but your mentioning Airport Utility has me thinking my answer lies there. I've just been K'ing to it whenever I reboot.
I bought this second drive with the distinct intent to move my library, and I thank you guys for providing this detailed explanation in my time of need (even though you had no idea).
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Justin said 9:11AM on 3-02-2007
This is somewhat off topic, but still relevant. I know there was a script that allowed you to sleep your mac from another mac. Does anyone have the link to this script or know if you can use it to wake a computer too. The reason I ask is because I use a setup similar to #5: Racco and the only problem I have with this is if I am in one room and I am trying to access the shared library on the computer in my bedroom. If the computer is awake all is well, but if it is asleep I need to go wake it up before I can see the music. Furthermore I was wondering if there was a script to have a computer connect to a shared iTunes library automatically. The exact problem is this: I sit down on my couch and turn on the TV that has my macbook connected to it. I want to see the music on my computer in my bedroom, but crap its asleep. So I get up and wake it up. Now I can use iTunes to connect to the shared library on the TV/macbook. I open front row, watch the shows/listen to music, all is good. Then i get up to go work out, I sleep the macbook b4 i get up. When i come back, even if the desktop has not gone to sleep, I still need to reconnect to the shared library in iTunes before I can use front row, actually this may only happen when i close itunes and reopen it but it would still be nice to have the macbook connect to the shared library whenever it sees it. I think scripts like these would be helpful to many people if they exist/were created. I know nothing about writing scripts or anything of the sort so I am of no help.
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Dave Chartier said 9:19AM on 3-02-2007
#8: Justin - Sorry, but that is off topic and shouldn't be discussed here. While our own forum system might or might not be in the works, this question is better for the forums at the likes of MacNN, MacRumors and even Apple's own http://discussions.apple.com.
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Dave Chartier said 9:21AM on 3-02-2007
#7: B deR West - though you didn't specify whether you're trying to hook up *both* of those drives to the AEBS with a USB hub, I confirmed with Apple that you do in fact need one. You can't daisy-chain USB devices, you have to use a full-blown hub, and preferably one that's powered. Apple Store employees were skeptical as to whether even a drive and a printer would work together on a non-powered hub.
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fischziege said 9:26AM on 3-02-2007
thats it, im sold. i am currently on a dell xp machine, (since im a poor student...) but i have long decided that my next os is not one coded in redmont. i was interested in the new airport base station for exactly this feature! i found all the other network storage solutions for wireless routers rather clumsy, but when its easy as that, ill do it! does outomounting the drive work as easyly on pcs? icould get a base station right now... god, i think im going to faint...
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Nick said 9:28AM on 3-02-2007
Does anyone know how to access airport disk from the internet using Windows XP.
Doing it with a mac is easy. CMD +K in finder. Put your router's IP (your telephone modem must be in bridge mode). Put in your password (don't use airdisk accounts; only use the airdisk password option). You connect and enter password thats it!.
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racco said 10:08AM on 3-02-2007
@#8: Justin - you raise a good point. and a quick and easy(ish) answer is VNC (or apples remote desktop if you can afford it)
I wont babble on with a long explanation of how to set up VNC because its off topic.
check the wiki for info on VNC if you don't know about it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VNC
heres a short 'what you need'
a VNC server running on the machine you want to access. heres a good (free) option
http://www.redstonesoftware.com/products/vine/server/index.html
and a VNC client on the machine you want to access it from
again, heres a good (free) option
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/chickenofthevnc.html
once you've got it all set up, you'll be able to access your mac up-stares from your mac down-stares and wake it from its slumber
saves you running up stares
hope that helped
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Nelson said 4:20PM on 3-02-2007
Great idea but.....see this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4090114#4090114
my airdisk keeps dropping offline after a couple of days and will not reconnect. I have to unplug/depower the whole mess to get the disk to allow connections again.
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calamod said 12:05PM on 3-02-2007
Re: #7 and #10, I don't doubt Apple knows what they're talking about with respect to daisy-chaining USB drives, but many "unsupported solutions" work fine in practice. Specifically, I was envisioning a LaCie Triple Interface daisy-chained via firewire to two, three, n external drives. As long as AESB can access multiple drives and the only issue is power, why would a LaCie Drive be different than a hub? I readily admit that I don't know the specifics of USB/Firewire/Power Management, but it seems worth a try. Any thoughts?
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Dave Chartier said 12:29PM on 3-02-2007
#14: I admittedly am no hardware engineer myself, but I believe it's an issue of the hub itself needing power to traffic all the data flowing in and out. The devices that are plugged in, such as printers and hard drives, are typically powered on their own, but I *thnk* the hub still needs its own juice to keep things running. After all, that can potentially be a *lot* of data flying around.
Again though, I'm no expert. This is just from some experience seeing performance differences between externally powered and bus-powered USB hubs. Ever try plugging something like an iPod into Apple's standard USB keyboard? Mac OS X will typically tell you that it won't work; that you have to plug it into a USB port that is actually powered (which are typically at least the ports on the Mac itself).
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Grover said 1:08PM on 3-02-2007
Just FYI, you can move the whole iTunes folder to another location if you like by holding option when you start up iTunes. It allows you to create a new iTunes library anywhere you like.
I use this to keep different libraries for different types of media. I have one library for music, another for sound clips and and stock music, and a third for audio books. Just option+click to choose which library to open.
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mayo said 1:50PM on 3-02-2007
Are you sure it's a good idea to access the iTunes library on network drive from multiple machines? Keep in mind that the iTunes library contains a database. Databases usually don't fare well with multiple apps trying to write into them unless they are designed for it, and I highly doubt iTunes' was.
I'll just hold out and wait to see if somebody corrupts their database and looses all their ratings, play counts, and whatever else they store in the db...
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Dave Chartier said 2:22PM on 3-02-2007
#17: This is why I recommended you leave the three library files inside the ~/Music/iTunes/ folder on your local machine. *Those* files are the database, which means your machine maintains its own copy of that database. It's highly unlikely your database will be corrupted, even if more than one person begins accessing the *media* kept remotely on the AEBS drive.
Though note that I recommended against allowing more than one users to access your media anyway. Not because *your* copy of the database could become corrupt, but because your machines could get out of sync as to what media is actually on the remote drive.
You have nothing to worry about with this setup in terms of corrupting your iTunes db.
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M said 2:44PM on 3-02-2007
I did this independently of this article a few weeks ago. It works...kinda. I'm wondering if anyone else is having the problem I am.
I moved my library, changed the location, maintained my database folder, etc. I can access all of the files. What I've found is sort of odd. First, when I try to open from iTunes and access my directory, I often only see one or two folders inside the iTunes folder instead of the multitude of artists that are there. Some even appear to be missing (like TV Shows). Buuuut, I can access them from my playlist and play them. Other times I try to sync up my iPod and sometimes it syncs my videos, and sometimes not, though I have plenty of capacity. I've had to switch to manual iPod updating in order to sync "The Office" or "Lost".
Anyone else notice this? I'm thinking maybe my Lacie HD is crapalicious.
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