Laptop not finding current i-Tuens on external hard drive connected to Wireless Router

[pompeyexile]

Sorry this is so long but I want to give as much information as possible.

Last year I spent weeks burning all my 1300+ CD's onto i-Tunes because I have a Sonos system. The i-Tunes sits on a 2TB external hard drive, the hard drive is connected via USB to my TP link Wireless router and the router is connected via a USB to my old tower HP XP windows computer which has 2 cd drives. Unfortunately that computer is on its last legs and the CD burners very temperamental sometimes working and sometimes not and when they do they are very slow and therefore any new CD's I get I'm having more difficulty in burning.

So I thought if I loaded i-tunes onto my laptop and pointed it at the wireless router where the hard drive volume for i-Tunes is showing I could lay the old computer to rest.

However, when I loaded i-Tunes and pointed it at the same i-Tunes media location as the Sonos all I got was a version of my library that was over 6 months old and had all sorts missing. The i-Tunes on the old computer has the very latest with all album covers and if I do add another CD it shows it and when I update my Sonos music library it sees it too.

I tried to set up a home network thinking this would solve it but I'm as computer literate as a native of an Amazonian lost tribe and got into all sorts of bother. Because my old computer runs on Windows XP and that is no longer supported I used the free tool Windows supplied for transferring everything from that computer on to my laptop thinking that perhaps it would transfer the i-Tunes too and then wiped the old machine ready for the tip. Not a sausage! My laptop still didn't see the up to date library. So in my frustration I (now I know this seems drastic) took my laptop back to factory settings, I then loaded i-Tunes and still nothing.

I then thought what if I connect the wireless router directly to my laptop like it is with my old computer, so I took the laptop up stairs unplugged the wireless router from my old computer and....still not getting the latest library. I then plugged the router back into the old computer and went on-line and re-loaded i-Tunes on to it. Without me telling it where to look it immediately picked up the current library from the external hard drive. It just so happened that I had my laptop on with the now empty iTunes on it and I noticed in the 'Music' drop down 'Administrator's Library' so I clicked it and whoosh! my latest updated with all artwork library appeared just as it was on my old computer and on my Sonos.

Result!......Or so I thought. With a self satisfied grin as big as the Cheshire Cats from Alice I thought 'now I can get rid of the old computer' and proceeded to turn off the i-Tunes on it. As soon as I did though the i-Tunes contents on my laptop disappeared and of course the 'Administrator's Library' option in the Music drop down disappeared too. When I turned the i-Tunes on the old computer back on the whole library re-populated my i-Tunes on my laptop.

So, although I can at least see the most up to date i-Tunes library on my laptop I still can't get rid of my old computer which when it really does give up the ghost means I'm stuck.

My present settings are as follows:

Old Computer
i-Tunes media folder location - \tplinklogin.net\volume1
Laptop
C:\Users\Paul\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media

When I plugged the external hard drive into my wireless router it gave me the option under
storage sharing to save what was on it to a FTP server, or a Media server which I did and called it Volume1. When you then had to load the information from the external hard drive it showed 70
pages the first being so many artists on i-Tunes in alphabetical order A,B C and page two might
start at D and so on. What you could not do was pick all the pages.
This seemed irrelevant because as I said both the old computer and the Sonos picks up the whole
current library using the same link.
My network on my laptop is set up as my own (Pompeyexile) and is at present public and that is the name for my wireless network on my TP Link router.

Sorry it was such a long read and if you're still awake your advice would be much appreciated.

In short all I want is to be able to throw away my old computer and still be able to burn CD's to
i-Tunes currently stored on my 2TB external hard drive that is connected to my wireless router and see the latest library.

 

[next010]

Okay what you should have done is this
1) Uninstalled iTunes from Windows 7 laptop and delete iTunes folder from Music folder.
2) Copy iTunes folder from WinXP My Music to Windows 7 Music folder.
3) Reinstall iTunes

This will give you the library from the iTunes on WinXP, then go into edit\preferences\advanced and check that the iTunes library location is \tplinklogin.net\volume1 if it isnt then change it.

By the sounds of it you had Homesharing turned on in the WinXP iTunes and this is what the Win7 iTunes was trying to connect to, so the moment you turned off the PC no more iTunes library.

P.S. Don't forget to de-authorise your WinXP iTunes.

 

[EndlessWaves]

the router is connected via a USB to my old tower HP XP windows computer which has 2 cd drives.

For what function? Generally both are designed to act as USB hosts to connect USB devices to.

My present settings are as follows:

Old Computer
i-Tunes media folder location - \tplinklogin.net\volume1
Laptop
C:\Users\Paul\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media

\tplinklogin.net\volume1 sounds like the network drive (the USB drive connected to the router). What happens if you set the same 'iTunes media folder location' setting on your laptop to the same thing? Is there any difference whether the old computer is turned on or off?

When I plugged the external hard drive into my wireless router it gave me the option under
storage sharing to save what was on it to a FTP server, or a Media server which I did and called it Volume1.

Those are both related to specific ways of accessing the files. A media server would be an alternative to sharing the library directly (although probably doesn't support the iTunes database) but you're not using it on your current setup so it's probably a good idea to turn it off to prevent confusion.

Are you locked into iTunes because of Apple products or is exploring other software an option? Apple stuff does tend to be notoriously un-cooperative.

 

[pompeyexile]

Thanks for your advice guys, I've been up to my neck at work this last month and not had time to sort this out. Anyway Bank Holiday weekend so I'm going to have a go.

In answer to your questions Endless why is the wireless router connected to my old computer? Well because my old computer is not wireless I thought I had to do that simply to access the external hard drive where my I-Tunes is stored. If I couldn't do that I couldn't burn new CD's to it.

Setting the laptop's i-Tunes media folder location to the same thing. Do you mean in I-Tunes advanced settings? I've tried using the TP Link address which the i-Tunes and my Sonos use but all I get is a version that is old and not complete.

I will turn off the Media server on my wireless router and the reason I use i-Tunes is because I got an i-pod classic for my 50th and I use that a lot, plus the Sonos is compatible with it too.

I don;t think it's the I-Tunes causing the issue as it works perfectly well on my old computer and the Sonos, it's my limited brain cells in understanding how computers work and how to get them to do what I want without it simply not working or causing a car crash.

I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[next010]

Your WinXP iTunes is pointed at the TP Link server.

if you've done what I outlined when you install iTunes on Win 7 it will detect the WinXP iTunes library and import it, all you have to do is check that the library location is pointed at the same location as before and that is all there should be to it.

You must uninstall iTunes from Windows 7, delete the iTunes folder in your "Music" folder before copying over the WinXP iTunes folder from XP "My Music" for it to properly import the iTunes library upon re-installation of iTunes.

You cant have two versions of iTunes pointing at the same location (TP Link server) it will mess them up.

 

[pompeyexile]

Your WinXP iTunes is pointed at the TP Link server.

if you've done what I outlined when you install iTunes on Win 7 it will detect the WinXP iTunes library and import it, all you have to do is check that the library location is pointed at the same location as before and that is all there should be to it.

You must uninstall iTunes from Windows 7, delete the iTunes folder in your "Music" folder before copying over the WinXP iTunes folder from XP "My Music" for it to properly import the iTunes library upon re-installation of iTunes.

You cant have two versions of iTunes pointing at the same location (TP Link server) it will mess them up.

Well I've just done in less than 20 minutes what I have been trying to do for months. Whoever you are next010 I owe you a drink or three. A simple solution, simply explained and simple to do. Everything is working exactly as I wanted it to. I've deleted i-Tunes off the old computer and even unplugged the wireless router from it so only the laptop i-Tunes is pointing at the TP link. I've also just burned two new albums on to i-Tunes and although they might have taken a lot longer to burn due to the speed of my cd-rom drive on my laptop, it worked a treat even picking up the album covers which I had to add separately before. I've also just updated the music index on my Sonos and it has picked up the new additions too. I am well chuffed!

So once again thanks to both you and Endless for your advice and help.