HELP ME!: Add iTunes / iPhoto Library from Non-Standard HDD Location on XBMC Mac

[helikyler]

Hi guys...

I have been using XBMC on my original XBOX but the XBOX is breaking down due to old/damaged hardware. I'm considering buying an Acer AspireRevo and going that route, but before I do I've installed it on my MBP with Mac 10.6 Snow Leopard.

Can somebody please help me with this problem I'm having....

When you go to add iTunes or iPhoto content to your XBMC installation, it defaults to the current Mac user's home folder /music. HOWEVER, My iTunes and iPhoto libraries are stored at Users/Shared/iTunes/iTunes Music/ and Users/Shared/iPhoto Library/ respectively so that my wife and I can both access the libraries from our own logins.

I think I need to change a path in the default.py file so that it starts in the proper folder but I'm not sure what to change as I don't know the proper syntax for the folder path.

I think it is in this block of code:

def get_itunes_library():
    filename = os.getenv("HOME")+"/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml"
    return filename

Am I on track or way off? If you could provide the proper path (entirely) to point to the location I supplied above OR explain the correct way to do this, i would be eternally grateful.

Kyler

[Smenus]

I admit I haven't actually looked at the code, but the block you pasted looks promising. What happens if you simply change the second line to

    filename = "/Users/Shared/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml"

I don't see why that wouldn't work, especially if that's the only place where the plugin looks for the library location.

Sorry if I'm totally off-base here, like I said, it's only a guess.

Sean.

[helikyler]

Sean,

Thanks for your reply. I think what you provided would work theoretically, but there actually isn't an 'iTunes Music Library.xml' file at that location. The XML file is located in my home folder but it probably directs itunes to look in a folder designated in the XML file (which in this case is non-standard).

The problem is when I try to find my iTunes library in XBMC, it either doesn't find my library or I'm not doing it right.

Thanks again for your help - let me know if you have any more wisdom to offer!

Kyler

[Smenus]

I've had a look at the code for the plugin, and nothing immediate jumped out as something that could cause issues for you.

They use the 'Location' from the xml file, which (on my system at least), has the full path to the file.

Unfortunately, on the machine that I run XBMC, I don't have my iTunes Library set up, so I haven't actually used the iTunes plugin.

However, is there any chance that you could quickly run us through what you do to try and get to your music?

[helikyler]

When I go to Music on the main menu (and by the way I have the Aeon skin installed), it shows a list of standard locations, all of which are empty because nothing has been imported.

Once option I tried (just now) is Add Source and you can type in a path, so I put in /Users/Shared/Itunes/ which is where my library music is saved. That works to navigate directly to the artist/album/song, but I'm still not getting any cover art or any user-friendly way to scroll through/browse my albums visually.

The other thing/option that is confusing me is at the top there is a menu including the option "Library:Off". When I turn it on, it says that the library is empty and to "Populate it via the File Menu". When I go to Music->settings->File Menu, the only option that looks like it make any sense is Import Library. But that just gives me a list of XBMC locations with XML files, it doesn't allow me to browse to any location on my HDD.

Confused.

[Smenus]

OK, so I installed XBMC on my main machine (w/ an iTunes library).

From the looks of things, the iTunes plugin (whilst great), doesn't fit as well with the current library 'thing' as it does with Plex.

What I did to get it to work...
1. Downloaded the latest release from sshcs.com, and the iTunes plugin from the official repo.
2. Ran XBMC for the first time, then quit (just for it to make the folders needed in a sec).
3. Moved the plugin folder to XBMC's Application Support folder. (So it should be at ~/Library/Application Support/XBMC/plugins/music/iTunes)
4. Ran XBMC again, went to the Music view. (Bearing in mind this is PM3.HD, not Aeon)
5. Went into Music Plugins, then iTunes, then the bottom option is '<<Import My iTunes Library>>', which surprisingly will import your Library.
6. You can then browse your Library using the options in the plugin. You cannot scan the contents of the plugin into your XBMC library, so you effectively have to stay in File Mode just with some of the features of Library Mode.

I hope that made sense, especially as it is quite late here.

Sean.

[Smenus]

Sorry for double posting, but I just had a quick thought.

I've been trying to go about this the iTunes plugin way, but you can just as easily scan your files into XBMC's Library Mode, and get all your stuff that way.

Again, using a recent svn build, add the location of the Music into XBMC, and then open up the context menu on that source, selecting 'Scan into Library' (or something along those lines).
XBMC will then trawl the interweb looking for all the info on your music, and at the end, you'll have a lovely library full of information and coverart.
This and this might help...

[helikyler]

Sean, you're a legend!

Thank you for your help, it worked. What I wasn't aware of was the context menu or how to get it. I had been using primarily the arrow keys for navigation and the enter key, but when using the mouse I found the context menu with a right click. (Is there an alternate keyboard command to get this menu?)

Now the problem I'm having is that, although it scanned my library and showed it downloading a lot of cover art, the majority of my music does not actually have cover art still. I have many, many major releases in there and they have all been tagged by iTunes and labeled correctly.

Kyler

[Smenus]

At the moment, I think one of the scrapers might be kinda broken (Discogs, which is apparently blocking all requests from XBMC), which might be the cause of your lack of cover art.

I recently rescanned my collection, using settings from this thread.
It's a long thread, so to sum it up, the best options at the moment...
[Settings->Music->Library]
Download Additional Info = On
Default Scraper = Allmusic
[...->Scraper Settings]
On, Off, Off, On, On, Off, Off, On.

If you're using a skin that shows music fanart, and you have pretty mainstream artists, you should have a pretty full range of that too.

Unless someone can correct me, the only way I found of redoing my library was to trash the MyMusic7.db file in my userdata/Database folder. Then you need to scan the source into the library again, but hopefully the covers and everything else will be better.

Cheers, Sean.