Is it possible to split an iTunes library on the MBA?

[bob99]

I've read about moving your iTunes media to a different drive in order to save space, but is it possible to have two different iTunes libraries?

One would be stored locally on the MBA (say your top 250 songs, and top 3 movies) and then the rest of your files would be on an external drive / home network.

When you open up iTunes at home, all your media is magically there. When you open it up on the road, it's just the pared down greatest hits.

If anyone is operating with a system like this, I'd love to hear about the specifics of how you set it up.

Thanks,

Bob

 

[Cynicalone]

You could do this by manually managing your content. I'm not an expert on manually managing iTunes. So I'll leave explaining the details to others.

You can easily have iTunes use your internal drive for music and an external for video. I'm sure this would be similar.

 

[alexandero]

I'd wish there was a solution too - I have a Time Capsule sitting around at home, and would prefer not to keep a 50GB audio only library on the expensive MBA SSDs, but to keep the older stuff on the Time Capsule instead.

And actually I'd prefer if I could do it via smart playlists, e.g. songs with less than 3 stars, songs I havn't heard in a while, music of a specific genre etc should be kept on the Time Capsule. Manually managing artists e.g. by symlinking them to an external drive feels like back in the 90s.

 

[GGJstudios]

You can also do this with one library:

How to split a single iTunes library over two media locations

 

[flynz4]

You can easily have iTunes use your internal drive for music and an external for video. I'm sure this would be similar.

Can you do this if you do not have iTunes manage your media collection? Can iTunes be configured to store and manage your music on one drive and video on a 2nd drive?

/Jim

 

[bob99]

GGJstudios, thanks for your reply.

Your method is probably what I will end up doing. I'm split on whether or not the exclamation points / not available tracks are a good thing. On one hand, that way you always know the contents of your full media collection... But I'd like the option to restrict the list of files to what's currently available on the local drive.

In any case, thanks for your help with this!

Bob

 

[GGJstudios]

I'm split on whether or not the exclamation points / not available tracks are a good thing. On one hand, that way you always know the contents of your full media collection... But I'd like the option to restrict the list of files to what's currently available on the local drive.

You can set up playlists or smart playlists to identify what's stored internally and what's on an external drive, if you wish. That's what I've done.

 

[flynz4]

GGJstudios, thanks for your reply.

Your method is probably what I will end up doing. I'm split on whether or not the exclamation points / not available tracks are a good thing. On one hand, that way you always know the contents of your full media collection... But I'd like the option to restrict the list of files to what's currently available on the local drive.

In any case, thanks for your help with this!

Bob

If I understand iCould correctly (big assumption there)... you will be able to keep your entire iTunes music library in the cloud, and then choose which subset you want in each of our devices.

I currently keep 100% of everything on my 2TB iMac, but then keep subsets on my iDevices and my MBA. It looks like iCloud should simplify that... at least for music.

/Jim

 

[theSeb]

Just wondering if you tried it and if it was successful. I am wanting to do the same thing, Thanks.

Would be nice if itunes had a feature like
Music -> This Specified Folder
Videos -> That Specified Folder

Just to add to ggjstudio's linked thread and response: you can do this with symbolic links and still have iTunes "manage" your library.

 

[bob99]

Hi theSeb,

Could you go into a bit more detail about symbolic links? I've never played with them before, but I do like the idea of iTunes managing the media.

Thanks,

Bob

 

[theSeb]

Hi theSeb,

Could you go into a bit more detail about symbolic links? I've never played with them before, but I do like the idea of iTunes managing the media.

Thanks,

Bob

I'll be happy to give you a full explanation but I am on the iPad right now and don't want to type all of that out. If someone doesn't answer your question in the meantime, I'll come back to this thread tomorrow (it's nearly midnight here)

 

[jdechko]

I ran across an app called TuneSpan recently (via Addictive Tips). I haven't gotten around to trying it yet, but if it works as well as it says, it should be helpful. It looks like it's a much easier way to keep your library in order while moving some media to an external hard drive--easier than doing it manually, anyway.

(I'm not affiliated in any way to either group, by the way.)