I have multiple machines that have multiple purposes but I only have one iPhone. I’ve put all my iTunes files/mp3s on a network samba share to avoid having them limited to one local, bare-metal Windows build. It’s just too tough to get to when your primary machines all run some flavor of linux. I have used external hard drives to manage these files before, but I found that to be a lot more work than simply configuring a virtual machine to manage the iTunes application and a network share to manage its content. I keep the virtual machine on an external hard drive that I back up regularly and that is available to every laptop/desktop that I have that runs VmWare.

To install this on a virtual machine, I had to move my iTunes build. I wanted also to preserve all my iTunes Playlists. I’d put together all these collections and I wasn’t willing to give them up. Here are the details on moving it all while keeping your playlists. Make note that this doesn’t result in an exact one-for-one cloned copy of iTunes. You lose several key features/elements:

– You lose the time/date stamps on the files within iTunes. This means, when you open it up, all the files have the same ‘Date Added’ date. This is a problem if you have a Recently Added folder because, when you’re done, that folder will hold everything;
- You lose all your column formatting. So, if you have a specific way you like to view/browse your collection, you’ll have to re-organize it manually; and
- You lose all the data in your iPhone Apps. The Apps themselves are able to be salvaged and re-sync’d, but the data will be gone.
Read more »