this is stevenf.com

One more (final?) approach evolves out of the emails I’m getting about my iTunes question. It goes roughly like this:

• Change mental model such that the Mac Pro contains the “master” iTunes library.

• Keep all the media files stored where they are already on the Mac Mini + Drobo, and add them by reference to the (now master) Mac Pro library.

• Happily sync iPhone and iPad to Mac Pro as desired.

• Periodically (perhaps via script) have the Mac Mini quit iTunes, copy the Mac Pro’s library file over, and restart iTunes.

In theory since all the path references are the same (relative to /Volumes/Drobo on both machines), this works, even if I add new music or download app updates.

The only theoretical downside is a delay between when I add new items and when they appear on the Mini’s library. This is work-around-able by building a way to invoke the Mini’s update script manually.

I haven’t actually tried this yet, but it seems like the sanest, simplest approach to the problem using existing capabilities. Your feedback is still welcome!

Would a USB-over-ethernet thingy let me dock iOS devices with a distant Mac?

Quite possibly. Downsides: A little pricey. Probably doesn’t provide enough power to charge a docked iPad.

(Another)

(Wireless alternative)

It’s worth mentioning that Wi-Fi syncing for iOS devices in iTunes would solve this problem. Wonder if it’ll ever happen…

Another suggestion came in for Syncopation which purports to be able to sync iTunes Libraries across Macs, without necessarily requiring you to duplicate all the individual media files. (Just point iTunes at the media files on your server volume.) I haven’t tried it yet.

SuperSync is a similar app. I don’t know if these programs recognize iOS apps in the library, which would need to be synced to actually solve my problem. (It’s surprising to me how many iTunes utilities still regard iTunes as a container for music only.)

Most people are misunderstanding the question in my previous post: Playback and streaming are fine. As a media server, the Mini is already doing everything I want.

The problem is the Mini server is physically isolated, and so I want to be able to sync my iPhone and iPad to the Mini’s library, but from my desktop Mac. The post goes on to describe one solution I’ve come up with (each Mac runs its own copy of iTunes and shares one library), and the limitations of that (only one copy of iTunes can be running at a time).

One suggestion that was helpful was to enable Remote Apple Events on the Mini and write small AppleScripts to stop/start iTunes remotely.

To stop iTunes on the Mini and launch it locally goes something like this:

-- Quit iTunes on Mini

tell application "iTunes" of machine "eppc://10.0.1.2"
    quit
end tell

-- Wait for "AppleTVs are connected" dialog to timeout

delay 16

-- Launch local copy of iTunes

tell application "Finder"
    open file "LocalHD:Applications:iTunes.app"
end tell

Now I can sync my phone or do whatever with the iTunes library on my local Mac. When I’m done, I can go the other way:

-- Quit local iTunes

tell application "iTunes"
    quit
end tell

delay 5

-- Launch iTunes on Mini

tell application "Finder" of machine "eppc://10.0.1.2"
    open file "RemoteHD:Applications:iTunes.app"
end tell

I call these scripts “Start iTunes” and “Stop iTunes” and put them in my Scripts folder, so they’re accessible from the menu bar.

You could even collapse these into one script with an iPhone sync command in the middle to make it a one-step process.

That helps, but it’s still not as convenient as being able to simply dock the iPhone and walk away.

Is there a better way to do this?

The layout:

I have a Mac Mini with attached Drobo acting as an iTunes server for the house. AppleTVs connect to it, etc. The Drobo’s noisy, so I put the whole kaboodle in the garage.

Meanwhile in my office, I have a Mac Pro. The Mac Pro has my iPhone and iPad docks attached to it.

The Mac Pro and the Mac Mini are on the same network.

The situation:

I want to dock my iPhone and iPad on the Mac Pro and sync with the iTunes library that’s on the Mini.

What’s working:

I configured iTunes on the Mac Pro to externally reference the iTunes Library database file on the Mac Mini. That is to say: the Mac Pro has no iTunes Library database file of its own.

This actually works great, but with one annoyance:

Since iTunes locks the library when it runs, I can only run one copy of iTunes on one of the Macs at any given time.

So, to sync my devices, I have to screen-share into the Mac Mini, quit iTunes there, start iTunes on the Mac Pro, sync devices, quit iTunes on the Mac Pro, and restart iTunes on the Mac Mini.

Non-solutions:

I can’t make a duplicate copy of the library because it’s huge (terabytes) and there’s no room.

In theory I could have a separate iTunes library on the Mac Pro that doesn’t perform consolidation or copy-into-library, and just use external references to all the media over the network. But then whenever I add new media and apps I have to remember to do it in two places.

What am I forgetting?

So, is a shared library with manual arbitration of iTunes clients the best existing way to do this, or am I overlooking something?

Failing that, can I automate the above process somehow?

Email me (link at top of page) if you’ve solved this!