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Question for Mac Monkies

Fredzilla

Monkey
Aug 5, 2003
285
0
Seattle
I've got two questions - the first one being a bit more broad, and the second being program specific.

1) One user, 2 Macs - iMac and Macbook Pro. What is the most logical way to network the two so that I'm not duplicating everything in both locations?

2) The ability to 'share' my iTunes library as well as my iPhoto library, mainly so I don't have to make copies of files in multiple locations every time I add files. I've queried some of the Mac forums and most people either recommend, a) Put both libraries on NAS drive, or b) store libraries on one PC and put the library folders in the ~public/ folder.

Here are the problems I've had with both solutions for the library question.

- When I put the libraries on a NAS drive, anytime a Mac goes to sleep or restarts, it doesn't see it as the EXACT same location, so iTunes and/or iPhoto can't find them again unless I manually map each image or song again... with over 10,000 files, it's no small task.

- If I put the libraries in the public folder, then I'm required to have that system up and running to be able to access the libraries.

I'm not really too concerned with HDD space since memory is pretty cheap, but I'm just not sure how to get the job done. Ideally, I'd like to have the libraries each stored locally on each Mac, but be able to have the libraries sync with each other automatically.
 

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My Nuts Are Flat
Apr 18, 2002
18,040
3
Towing the party line.
i tunes should share automatically via bonjour. At least it does on my network, maybe there is a setting in itunes to turn on? You can easily map the folder though just but choosing to share it in the get info window.

You have to have both machines on in order to see it automatically in itunes, otherwise you can map an NAS, but it has to be done via command line, there is no GUI for it.

I gave up copying stuff over to my laptop, because i can't afford the 60gb my library uses.

The mac forum advice you received is probably the easiest solution.