I have a MacBook Air, and to save space I have all of my applications on the computer, and my iTunes and iPhoto libraries reside on an external USB Hard Drive. It all works great, but I want to go wireless with the externals so I can have my laptop downstairs, and still access iTunes and iPhoto. If I have my iTunes library on an external wireless drive, and I hold the option key when I open iTunes will the external Wi-Fi drive with my iTunes Library on it show as an option? Will I be able to access my iTunes and iPhoto libraries wirelessly?
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Mike K
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External Regular Use Options – Time Capsule Vs USB Hard Drive for iTunes
Comments: 7 Responses to “External Regular Use Options – Time Capsule Vs USB Hard Drive for iTunes”
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You can do it, yes. You can attach the drive to your Time Capsule.
One was is to not move your library there, but instead storing your media there. Keep the library local, but then have your music files external (set iTunes to NOT copy the files to its library).
Either way you do it, realize one thing: accessing files over wifi is much slower than with a drive connected directly to your Mac. So you will see some speed issues. Particularly with iPhoto as you browse your photos differently -- seeing the photos as opposed to just titles.
What do you thing is abetter option?
- Just connect the usb HD directly to the Time Capsule, or
- Create a new library inside TC?
Aren't you using your Time Capsule for Time Machine backups? You should never use a Time Machine drive for something other than the backups. Forone thing, that means your data isn't really backed up (same drive). Second, Time Machine works best when it has the whole drive to manage. Lots of problems could happen if you are using the space for other things as well.
Understood. I'll need to restore it then and use it as you say and simply connect the USB HD with my iTunes library. Thanks.
Time Mach is a separate issue. The question involves accessing iTunes from a wireless Hard Drive as opposed to USB. Possible?, and if so, too slow to be practical?
It would be too slow for me. But it is a subjective thing.
A couple other options as FYI: if you don't need extensive disk space, put your itunes content on a g-tech slim drive. It's very small and portable and goes well with a MBA. If you need lots of space and access from other computers, look at a Promise NAS ...