More > JRiver Media Center 26 for Mac
Do databases work across OS?
tangolovers:
Hello HaWi,
Unfortunately I don't have any experience running on a NAS or with Docker, so I don't know if my advice is helpful or not. I would assume the Portable Library would still be a possibility.
Portable Library, I used to go through a very laborious process using Tools > Library Tools > RM&CF to rename with current path. I don't know if that's the process you're referring to, but Portable Library has eliminated all of that and made it a breeze. Let me see if I can explain again...
First of all some background:
Music files are located on my source PC#1 and that's where I do all of my editing & primary playback for now. That's where I'm generating my Library Backup to be used on other platforms. However, I need the capability to be able to play from my Mac as well as PC#2. So, I copied all Music Files and the Library Backup from PC#1 to an External HD "E". You may be thinking, why have a 2 copies of my music files that have to keep being updated every time I perform an edit, but I'll address that at the very end. Now all simply plug my external HD "E" into PC#2, my Mac, or any other computer running MC 26 or higher. But when you create the Portable library you have to tell it what path to look for on your external hard drive.
I was wondering the same thing as you initially, because it was not clear for me how to use Portable Library Rule. When you are adding a rule, the 1st part of the rule (before the "|") represents the path where your music is stored on the "source" which is what the Backup Library will be looking for the music. The 2nd part of the rule (after the "|") is the path of the External HD where you music & Backup Library are now stored. Let me explain:
On my PC#1 the complete path is C:\Users\susie\Music\My Music\.
On my External HD "E", if it is plugged into my Mac, the complete path is path is /E/Music/My Music/...
On my External HD "E", if it is plugged into my PC#2, the complete path is path is E:\Music\My Music\...
Make sense so far? When typing this manually, it's easy to get slashes and things mixed up, so hopefully I got it right as to not confuse you.
So, the Portable Library Rule would vary, depending which platform you're external drive is connected to:
External Drive connected to Mac: Rule = C:\Users\susie|/Volumes/E
External Drive connected to PC: Rule = C:\Users\susie|E:
You don't have to repeat the portion of the path that is the same on source & external drive (i.e. /Music/My Music/).
If you have to experiment, delete the previous rule before creating a new rule. I did notice that as you're creating a rule it initially calls it Rule 0, but after exiting add rule and reopening it, you will see the rule you just created is Rule 1.
Ultimately, if this continues to work as well as I think, I really don't (and shouldn't) need to store my music on PC#1 because that creates double work when editing files/playlists, which requires updating the external HD. I believe the ideal and most efficient way to use this is to have the external HD be your main source that you can play or edit from any computer. So all of the edits are always being done to the same HD. Of course you would then need to be sure you have a backup of that somewhere, which is why I haven't yet removed it from PC#1. In that case, I'm not 100% certain what the rule would look like. That should only affect the 1st part of the rule. What I don't know yet is if the original source path will change as I edit and backup the library on "E".
HaWi:
Thank you so much for your detailed response.
I think I have figured it out. My premise differs from your's in that I only want to keep one working copy of my media (which is on the NAS on /Volumes/music as seen from the Mac and on /data/music as seen from the Docker Container on the NAS. The cool thing is that the Docker Container automatically creates a symbolic link to the /music folder in the /docker/config/data folder on the NAS that contains the media files, so that the media are accessible from the Docker Container in /data/music).
Naturally, I have multiple backups of the media folder, both stored locally and remotely.
I now keep the working library in the Docker Container so that I can serve my music from there and it being accessible 24/7 (the NAS is always-on) from anywhere in the world without having to have the iMac running all the time (heat issue, especially right now :'( ).
I created this library from a backup of the original Mac library. Since this library had the path set to /Volumes/music I generated the portable rule /Volumes|/data and it works perfectly on Docker. I also load the same library on my iMac and don't even need a portable rule because the path is already correct (/Volumes/music). And so, I have only one library, one media folder and can now edit the library on the Mac while still serving it from the NAS/Docker Container.
I guess, you could do the same thing, keep the library at the one location that is always on to serve the library and the media on your external drive to take it with you anywhere.
I am very happy with my set-up now. I would have never dared doing this without all of you guys' help and insight. So thank you again very much!
best wishes,
Hans
tangolovers:
Glad to hear it worked! Congratulations!
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