I have a desktop system that I use as a server. I also have a MacBook Pro that is my main computer. I've done a lot of organization and cleanup of my music library and have it all on my MacBook Pro.
I'd like to be able to keep the music library on my MacBook Pro in sync with the desktop machine so that my wife can access everything from her own MacBook Pro.
I thought about setting up folder actions that would copy the files into the "Automatically add to iTunes" folder. However, since I like to use the "keep my iTunes library organized" option, the files get moved into the iTunes music directory and I can't write a script that will compare my MacBook Pro's iTunes music library with the "Automatic" directory on the server.
Also, a simple file copy will not sync metadata like ratings and plays. Is there a free, automated solution for syncing iTunes libraries between 2 Macs?
Below is how I finally did it based on the rsync
suggestion:
I used the link provided by James in this answer (but I took out the --size-only
option after the first sync):
iTunes Utility - Merging Libraries
I also took out the --force
option (because it's redundant when also using --delete
). so my rsync command looks like this:
rsync -av --delete ~/Music/iTunes/ /Volumes/robert/Music/iTunes > ~/Automation/automator/logs/itunes_rsync.log
I then integrated this into an Automator workflow. Looks like this: Get Specified Servers ► Connect to Servers ► Run Shell Script ► Eject Disk.
Creating it as an iCal Workflow is screwy for me because I use MobileMe and the iCal event gets synced with my other machines where I don't want this workflow to run. So instead, I created an agent using Lingon that runs the workflow every 8 hours.