Getting Music On The MediaSmart Server

The next step is to make sure that you have music on your server that you can share with other computers.  There's two different ways that you can do this:

1.  Drag Files and Folders Manually

This is, of course, the simplest and most straightforward method to putting your iTunes Library on your MediaSmart Server.  I simply clicked and dragged all the files and folders in my iTunes Music directory to the MSS and that was it.  For us Mac users, this is the ONLY way to get music from your Mac onto the MediaSmart Server.  If you want it to sync, you'll have to use a third party folder duplication program, or possibly an Automator action like this one.

2.  Use The Media Collector (EX485 and EX487 Models ONLY)

Built into the MediaSmart Server is the ability to aggregate or "collect" media from networked Windows PC's and update the iTunes library on the server automagically.  Sweet!  How do you do it?

Navigate to the "Media Collector" option in your Settings menu, and you'll see the panel of options displayed above.  Note all the scanned computers in your household in the "Scanned Computers" box.  These are computers that have the MSS software installed on them and are connected via the network.  Add every Windows based computer that you would like the MSS to collect media from using the "Add" button.

Not only will the nifty Media Collector aggregate music, but photos and videos as well.  You can also specify how often the service should scan each PC for new additions.

Note:  As mentioned before, the Media Collector option is, as of the writing of this article, only available on the EX485 and EX487 models.

Now, head on to the next page to get each of your computers' iTunes setups searching for your new shared library.

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