Using MB on 2 PC's

[bartelbee]

I just posted here (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=9330.0) but I realized that's in the wrong category. Here is what I had posted:

Hi I'm looking for a little help with a similar issue. I started using MB about a week ago and have learned a ton through the forum and wiki. But I am having a hard time getting MB to work properly on different PC's. I'm keeping all my music, playlists, and podcasts on an external hard drive, while saving the MB library files locally on each PC. Whenever I switch PC's, MB recognizes the playlist but it can't find the songs (blue exclamation point). Then today for some reason MB wouldn't start ("Unable to access the MusicBee library path" error) and I had to completely re-install. Should I consider keeping the library files on the external too, as suggested below?

Quote from: spartan on April 03, 2013, 12:59:54 PM
One way is to use an external HDD for all the music and keep the library, playlists, etc. all on the external.
Then MB sees it as one library between the both of them. Anything you do on one is immediately saved to the external which when hooked back up to the other computer displays the exact same thing.

This post (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=12355.0) cautions against that, although I don't have a problem only running one instance at a time. Finally, would installing the Portable Application of MB on my external HD be helpful if I do go that route? I couldn't find a lot of info on the portable version.

Thanks in advance.

[Pingaware]

I just posted here (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=9330.0) but I realized that's in the wrong category. Here is what I had posted:

Hi I'm looking for a little help with a similar issue. I started using MB about a week ago and have learned a ton through the forum and wiki. But I am having a hard time getting MB to work properly on different PC's. I'm keeping all my music, playlists, and podcasts on an external hard drive, while saving the MB library files locally on each PC. Whenever I switch PC's, MB recognizes the playlist but it can't find the songs (blue exclamation point). Then today for some reason MB wouldn't start ("Unable to access the MusicBee library path" error) and I had to completely re-install. Should I consider keeping the library files on the external too, as suggested below?

Quote from: spartan on April 03, 2013, 12:59:54 PM
One way is to use an external HDD for all the music and keep the library, playlists, etc. all on the external.
Then MB sees it as one library between the both of them. Anything you do on one is immediately saved to the external which when hooked back up to the other computer displays the exact same thing.

This post (http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=12355.0) cautions against that, although I don't have a problem only running one instance at a time. Finally, would installing the Portable Application of MB on my external HD be helpful if I do go that route? I couldn't find a lot of info on the portable version.

Thanks in advance.

Basically in my experience, yes to both questions. One library will be significantly easier to deal with.

Portable MB is exactly the same except it doesn't require installation (like any portable app). But this does mean it's easier to patch, easier to modify settings (if you need to dig into the settings file for whatever reason - should happen very rarely, but you never know), and easier to add plugins and skins too (UAC will no longer be a problem in other words). Using a single installation with one library on an HDD will also have the advantage of accumulating play counts from both computers.