0

I have my iTunes library on an external hard disk at home. I'd like to listen to my music also at work. For this I have another external hard disk at work.

Is there a way to have the same iTunes library on two different external disks? I tried simply copying it, but iTunes doesn't really seem to recognize the new library.

I'm also unsure how to keep the two libraries both updated: I never have both of the disks plugged into the computer at the same time, so all I can think of is being sure that new music is only added when no harddisk is plugged in, so the music is added to my Notebook's local harddisk, then doing an "Organize Library" from time to time on each external harddisk connected.

Is there a better way of doing this?

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    I'm sure there's another way, but a real easy way to fix this (if you don't mind paying annual fees) is to get iTunes Match.
    – shinjijai
    Feb 12, 2014 at 14:00
  • This is a very useful hint, thank you. If there's not really easy other method, I will do that - it's not a lot of money, I think.
    – Joshua Muheim
    Feb 12, 2014 at 14:05

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

This should work just fine; I do this between work and home PCs. Copying the iTunes music library files is not easy, but can be done. On recent versions of Windows, it'd be C:\Users\_username_\Music\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl you might also copy the XML version for security: iTunes Music Library.xml; I don't bother copying the Genius and Extras.
Then you can add music from the external harddrive, and when you copy the iTunes library files (for example to a USB stick or cloud storage), do a copy of the newly added music files including their path.
And then copy the music files (with path) and update the iTunes library files from the Usb stick/cloud storage.
That is how I have done it.

Improve this answer
3
  • Thank you. I'm not on Windows though.
    – Joshua Muheim
    Apr 11, 2014 at 7:14
  • Ah, then you need to name the work and home external drives with the same name, as the "path" to the actually music files (MP3, M4A, etc) will include the drive name. (For Windows, you can just call your work external harddrive E: and your home one as well.) For Mac, the drive name stored in the library will be something like /ExternalHDD_2TB/ or whatever you name it. On MacOS, rename them both to be to be "JoshuaExternal" or whatever, and then the path names are the same for work and home external HDD. Then the library information (location) is valid for both.
    – jedison
    Apr 12, 2014 at 10:40
  • iTunes Match is also good, but doesn't fully solve your problem.
    – jedison
    Apr 13, 2014 at 20:54

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .