iTunes XML file help

[Anonymous]

Ubuntu 7.04
Firefly svn-1586

I am running Firefly on my Linux server and I can play my tunes on my XP Laptop with iTunes. I have all my music on both the laptop and the server.

What I want to do is delete my music off my laptop but first I want to make sure I can rate my music on the server and create the playlists. I can not get my playlists to show up in iTunes, I have looked everywhere to find the answer but I am getting nowhere.

Do I need a copy of the iTunes Music Library.xml file on the server?
If so what do I need to do.

Please help its driving me crazy.
Thanks…

[stretch]

Do I need a copy of the iTunes Music Library.xml file on the server?

Yes, place a copy of it in the directory that you have specified as the music folder in Firefly’s config page.
While you’re in Firefly’s config page, go to advanced settings & check that “process playlists” & “process iTunes files” are both set to yes.

To create playlists & rate music you have to access the library directly. You can do this by sharing the library via SMB or equivalent & setting iTunes to use the SMB share as its library location.
Note: iTunes will continue to place the iTunes library file on your laptop’s internal hard drive 👿 forcing you to copy it across to the server when ever you change it.

There are probably better ways of doing it but it works for me on the NSLU2
My other Firefly server has flac files so I use media monkey for playlists

[Anonymous]

I will have to find out how to do a SMB share for the iTunes file.

If I open my xml file all the paths are to the locations on my laptop, once I move this file to the SMB share and point iTunes to it will it then just update the track paths.

Thanks for you help…

[stretch]

@DOLLAR wrote:

If I open my xml file all the paths are to the locations on my laptop, once I move this file to the SMB share and point iTunes to it will it then just update the track paths.

iTunes will always use the library file located on the local hard drive. Firefly will use the copy on the server and should be able to resolve the paths.
The library can be anywhere you want it to be BUT you can’t move the xml & itl library files

I can’t remember how I moved the library so I didn’t loose ratings. I got iTunes to do it though.
I think it may have been something like open iTunes, change the library location & then ?????

Note: I don’t use iTunes much these days

Edit: Rebooted puter so i can access iTunes. The iTunes help file contains info on how to move the library.
Edit 2: On closer inspection, the help file was useless. Try this http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364?viewlocale=en_US

[Anonymous]

Had a quick look and it looks very promising.
Will try it tonight.

Thanks for your help.
D

[Anonymous]

I have followed the steps and put all my music on the Linux server in a shared folder. iTunes now points to there, so all the music shown in the “Music” section of iTunes comes from the pointing to my server. The music is then shared via FireFly and shows the same songs as the “Music” Section in iTunes, which is all correct.

The problem is that if I make any changes to star rating it does not show these in the FireFly shared section on iTunes.

Is there anything I can do so that a change made on iTunes will change the rating’s served by FireFly.

[stretch]

@DOLLAR wrote:

The problem is that if I make any changes to star rating it does not show these in the FireFly shared section on iTunes.

iTunes stores the song ratings in the library file.
Every time you modify playlists, ratings, etc you need to copy the library file across to the server & wait for Firefly to run a scan or manually start it yourself.

[Author]

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