iTunes Library to Time Capsule

Fil


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Hi all,

This might be an extremely simple question to answer, so I am sorry for any trouble. Also, I am new to Macs so things are a tiny bit confusing at times :p

Anyways, I have a 1TB Time Capsule that I would like to add my iTunes library to. My question is can I do this wirelessly, or do I need to do something special for this to occur? I have only set up Time Machine on it so far and it seems to be that I cannot create any folders in Time Capsule yet. Do I need to connect TC to my modem, or what?

Sorry, I'm not a computer guy in any way and like I said I am new to Macs. So anything you guys can offer me in the way of help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
 

chscag

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The Time Capsule is primarily a backup device for use with Time Machine but can also be used with other backup programs.

What you're asking is to be able to store your iTunes library on it using wireless and then access it wirelessly to play music? I don't think you can do it but even if you can it will be slow. Depending on the size of the library, copying across a wireless connection is always slower compared to a wired connection.

Here's a LINK that you might be interested in to see what they say about the Time Capsule.
 
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Fil


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I don't need to play music from it, just access it from time to time. I have a lot of audiobooks and lectures I want to store of it. I don't need all of them available to put on my iPhone, so if I could add and remove them to and come the TC it'd be great. Thanks for your help!


EDIT:

In my TC it has a folder named "Data". I cannot create a new folder on the same level as Data, but if I open Data I can. When I create a new folder here, will it automatically be deleted once the computer has used the rest of the space for backing up? That is my main worry. If so, how can I prevent that?
 

bobtomay

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Don't know where that Data folder is you're talking about - are you opening up the sparsebundle package? Don't do that. I would suggest you not modify, by either adding to or deleting data from your sparsebundle image from within Finder at all. You're just taking a chance of the possibility of your backup no longer working with TM.

Any separate data you wish to store on the TC, copy it to the root (the top folder) of the drive - see mine below.

20110511-k8q7xfu25ugm5kpkh39as9hb88.jpg



Opening that top folder and here is what I have inside.
Is "Data" your top folder?

20110511-mmidyusf5kiadgud43xbns5qm7.jpg


You'll notice I have 2 individual TM backups along with separate Music, Movie and TV show folders there along with a few others. While many would recommend not storing data separate from your TM backups on the TC, I have been using my TC in this way for over 3 years without issue thus far.

I am assuming here that you are wanting to remove the audiobooks, etc., from your Mac and store them only on the TC?

1st, note that all of that is already stored in your TM backups.
However, anything that you delete from your Mac and only store on the TC, you no longer have a backup for that data. The TC drive dies - you lose all of the data that is stored only on that drive - not a good choice. A backup implies that the data is stored in at least two (2) places.

If you are indeed wanting to move data off your system drive and have a place to store it only - I have my own collection of close to 500 audiobooks myself - I highly recommend you get yourself another external drive. You can then store those on both the TC and your 2nd external.

Multi-partition that 2nd external and you could also create a bootable backup on one of the partitions. That way if your internal dies, you can boot to the external and keep going until you have time to replace the internal drive.

The TM backup does not delete data outside the backup. It only deletes data within the backup, so the other data stored in the root folder is safe from that deletion process when the disc fills up.

However, I do not recommend keeping a TM backup that large unless you have the need to "go back in time" and retrieve prior versions of files.

I have to blow away my TM backup about every 6 months and start over because I move a ton of files on and off of my Mac. It's about time to do that now. For everyone it depends on their usage patterns. Ex. My OS X drive is using 175GB - my current TM backup was started in Dec. and it is already hitting just shy of 500GB in size. Meanwhile, my wife's TM backup was started in Nov. '08 and is still less than 50GB in size.

Hope that helps out some. Or maybe just made it more confusing?? ;D
 

Slydude

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The Time Capsule is primarily a backup device for use with Time Machine but can also be used with other backup programs.

What you're asking is to be able to store your iTunes library on it using wireless and then access it wirelessly to play music? I don't think you can do it but even if you can it will be slow. Depending on the size of the library, copying across a wireless connection is always slower compared to a wired connection.

Here's a LINK that you might be interested in to see what they say about the Time Capsule.
I have my iTunes library on a 2 TB TC and it plays fine about 99% of the time. I have not tried video streaming much. Once in a while the TC is a bit slow to mount the files so I get those exclamation marks iTunes uses when it can't find a file.

There are two fixes for this. Either make sure the TC is mounted before opening iTunes or close iTunes and re-open after the TC mounts. I solved the problem with a simple Automator application that mounts the TC before launching iTunes. I used to solve the problem by putting the TC in the login items for my account.
 

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