1 year, 4 months ago
Is it possible to get iTunes on one machine to mark a podcast on another machine's iTunes watched?
I've tried googling this several ways but mostly I get complaints about AppleTV not doing this properly since the release of iTunes 10. But my setup is sometimes I watch/listen to my podcasts on my iphone or my office computers but sometimes I watch them on my computer attached to my home theater through Home Sharing. But when I do this last one they never get updated as watched. I want them to get updated as watched so they go away.
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M$2 Answers
Yes, this is possible, but will require a third party application. I use an application called Syncopation that synchronizes my two computers' libraries including podcasts and movies and their play counts, etc. This application allows you to either sync two computers or make one a slave to a master.
The are other applications that do his as well, but from my research, Syncopation handles podcasts the best.
The are other applications that do his as well, but from my research, Syncopation handles podcasts the best.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I wasn't aware that you were not using home share to copy the media files to the computer connected to your home theatre system. It would appear that home share doesn't do what you want it to do - Apple is probably assuming that each computer has a different user and thus it doesn't mark the podcast as played on the other computer so as to not confuse that user. It is also likely because each copy of iTunes is keeping different play stats.
I have an Apple TV and use it to stream to my home theatre, but I have not streamed podcasts yet over it so cannot confirm or deny that the problem exists on it as your Google search returns. Another option is replacing the second computer with an Airport Express... This would extend your wireless network to where your home theatre is and plugs into your receiver with an audio cable. At that point, you can stream directly from the main computer to the receiver over Air Tunes; I do this and it will properly mark the podcast as played. With this setup, though, you will have to control th playing of thepodcast differently... You will have either go to the main computer to use iTunes' controls, or if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch or iPad, you can use Apple's Remote app to control the main computer. Another new option if you have one the above mentioned devices is Apple's Air Play... This is new to iOS 4.2 and allows the direct streaming to the Airport Express from the device, which will update the main computer's play status when you sync.
I will do some digging through Google to see if there is some Terminal command that might change Home Sharing's behavior, but I am guessing there isn't and one of the alternatives above may be the only options.
This wasn't a good reason to actually mark Lenswork's answer unhelpful. That's for answers that aren't related to the question, are rude, violate TOS ... things like that. Lenswork did directly respond to your question and gave you a valid suggestion. And you didn't say anything in your question about not having room on your second computer to copy. He would have had no way of knowing this.
So this doesn't really help as I don't have room on my second computer to copy all the files. This seems to only be an option if you want to keep to copies in sync. I don't doubt that it will mark the watched ones but this doesn't really do many any good if I don't have the room to store all the files in the first place.
If there was an option(which I checked and doesn't seem to be unless they don't cover it) to only synchronize the status of the podcasts this would be great.