Howto Share iTunes Music between Mac OS X and Windows

[Sonic McTails]

*EDIT*

I discovered my method copies the music twice, so it's no good. Sorry to anyone who already tried it and discovered as much.

[XPLORx4]

This is easy. Store your files on a FAT32-formatted volume, and use iTunes for Windows to access them. To access them via iTunes for OSX without making a duplicate copy, just open iTunes Advanced Preferences and uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to music library."

[bdj21ya]

You could also just point your OS X copy of iTunes to use the FAT 32 library of iTunes as it's library as well. (in the preferences) Then you can add songs in either OS and it should update the same library file. I haven't tries it out between OS's on the same computer, but I have done it between different OS's on networked computers.

However, this would probably keep other programs from seeing your music collection (e.g. iLife suite).

[Pu7o]

There is another way to share iTunes's Library in both OSs. First, set the Windows version to use a volume in a FAT32 partition. Then, open Terminal.app, and do the following (inside OS X of course).

cd Music
mv iTunes Backup
ln -s /Volumes/[INSERT FAT32 PARTITION NAME HERE]/[path/to/iTunes/library/from/windows] iTunes

Then, all apps will be able to see your iTunes library (such as iLife apps) and you can still share the library in both OSs.

[piercehan]

There is another way to share iTunes's Library in both OSs. First, set the Windows version to use a volume in a FAT32 partition. Then, open Terminal.app, and do the following (inside OS X of course).

cd Music
mv iTunes Backup
ln -s /Volumes/[INSERT FAT32 PARTITION NAME HERE]/[path/to/iTunes/library/from/windows] iTunes

Then, all apps will be able to see your iTunes library (such as iLife apps) and you can still share the library in both OSs.

can you confirm this works? i am unsure what you mean by insert fat 32 partition name here ... the music i want is in "G:\Music" ... please help thanks