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[ubernode54]

So, I finally got around to getting a license last night and got MC up and running again. I'd dabbled with MJ for a couple months and decided MC was simply the way to go (I wanted some transcoding abilities, and the video player for the client machines).

Anywho, I guess I'm a bit confused about the library sharing. I've been able to get it to work, but I was hoping it'd work differently.

As it is, and as I understand it, when a client opens the library being served on another machine, the client no longer has access to their own library. All their playlists are replaced (in the view) with those in the served library. So, they can't drag/drop items into their own library, for example.

I have all my ripped and downloaded albums on my machine. My fiancee has her own tastes, but would like to have access to my files to place on her iPod. Searching through a library is easier than through file directory structures (I do have one of my mp3 directories mapped to a drive on her machine), but I can't seem to find a way to give her access to my library to add the things that she wants without filling her own library with all the stuff I like and she hates!

I guess what I was really hoping to see was the ability to open multiple libraries at the same time. This would help me, even, because I keep different 'quality' of mp3s in different locations, and would like to keep them in different libraries. Same issues, though. I'd have to duplicate my efforts in the libraries (or create a template, yes) and it seems like it would be difficult to fill my own iPod from two different libraries.

Anybody have any comments or possible solutions to my dilemma?

Cheers!   

[DWAnderson]

You have correctly grasped how libraries work on MC.

If I were you I would mantain a single library and add a custom field for whose library a given piece of media was in, e.g. 1 for yours, 2 for hers and 3 for both. Then I would create a separate set of viewschemes for each of you, filtered on the values in this custom field.

[ubernode54]

That sounds like a wonderful idea. I have my share mapped to a drive on her machine to address security and read-only issues. Is it possible to apply the appropriate tag to an Auto-Import folder entry? That would be nice. Kind of an auto-tag.

Can you also tell me if it's possible to export/import smartlists b/w libraries?

I'll really have to play around with the views etc.. Is there a way to save and restore these as well? I'd hate to spend the time to getting everything right and then lose it. Even then, to migrate between my computers would be nice too!

And, to avoid a separate post, is there a particular way that I've missed to automatically remove files from the library that no longer exist? Or is it more convoluted than that?

Thanks!

[AoXoMoXoA]

Personally I find MC works well to do the seperating and filtering, allowinghte user to have everything in one library, yet only need be presented with whatever segment thay may choose to use.

Import all your music and import all her music. Then as suggested above create a tag (or use the physical drive or folder if you both have seperate locations) to tell MC which is yours and which is hers (and which is both).

By creating View Schemes you can have one 'His Library' and another 'Her Library' so you can browse only your own stuff. This way both are instantly available without changing libraries and losing access to one.

The power of MC to create custom filters and views is one of it's great features.

[ubernode54]

Yes. I've now created View Schemes simply based on their filename (path) since all Her files reside on her C:\ drive and mine on her V:\ drive. I can share MY separate libraries as different mapped drives and create View Schemes accordingly. This eliminates the User-Specified tags and the required adding/updating of them every time you add files to an auto-import directory.

So to see hers, View Scheme includes files that the filename (path) starts with c:\.

To see mine, include files that the filename (path) starts with v:\.

And to see all, she just has to click on the big Audio button to see her entire library.

So if I want to share a different group of files with her, say, my images folder, I'd map it on her computer to a different drive letter, then I can create the views based, again, on the drive letter instead of a tag. Easier to auto-import a drive letter.

Please tell me if there's an error in my logic. 

[MusicHawk]

Many ways to go, and your (new) way should meet your needs.

But consider the possibility that this system might end up with the same music file on your drive AND her drive, using extra disk space. And if you look at the entire library you'll see it as duplicates -- and hear it as duplicates if you play the entire library. Not a big deal for just a few tracks, but maybe you'll have many tracks in common?

Another approach is to put everything on one drive, even in one folder structure, then use a custom field (or a certain value in a standard field) to identify what you like, and what she likes, and what you both like. I use the multi-value Keywords field, and have all kinds of keywords, for music style, in some cases music purpose ("dinner"), vintage, etc. It's then easy to create smartlists that filter on whatever combination of Keywords and other fields I choose -- part of MC's power is to have MANY playlists, for many purposes, all based on one library.

I do this with my iPod and my wife's iPod -- different musical tastes. We each have our own smartlist that we sync to our iPod, but from the same library/tracks, so if we both end up with a track, because we both like it (maybe for different reasons, as specified by multiple keywords), it's coming from the same ONE track on the library drive -- very efficient to store, update, etc.

Having everything in one place is disk-efficient and makes it easy to create backups.

[ubernode54]

Thanks for the input. I'm slowly getting more familiar with the powers of MC and slowly figuring how best to this so that it works for both of us. I've so far taken bits and pieces of all these suggestions, and it's coming together quite nicely. Lots of questions still...