Can I share my iTunes library on an external hard drive between a Mac and a PC?

[trumbldw]

Hi all,

 

I'm wondering if I can rip all my CDs using iTunes on our family iMac to a portable external hard drive, and then listen to the music using iTunes from my Windows laptop at work.

 

Anybody already successful at doing this?

 

Thanks!

Dave

 

[Audio_ELF]

As far as I'm aware - you'll be able to share the iTunes Music files, but the iTunes Library files are not compatible between Windows and Mac. This is due to the difference in syntax when Windows and Mac OSX refer to files

 

So there is no reason you can't use the same external HDD to store the files, but you'll need to manually add them to the Windows iTunes Library.

 

Eloise

 

[souptin]

Disk formatting is a factor.

 

1. FAT32 works on both out of the box but isn't great on either.

 

2. NTFS fine for windows but you need an add on to enable writing to it on a mac. Not sure if snow lep has changed this.

 

3. Mac disk formats like Mac os extended and GUID - you will need an additional program installed under windows to read from these.

 

Sorry that there's pros and cons for every possibility, although all can be made to work.