Working over a network
One collection can live in a shared folder and be open on several computers at the same time — the family catalog on the home server, everybody adding to it.
Setting it up
- Put the
.ammfile in a shared folder that everyone can read and write. is a convenient way to place a copy there. - On each computer, open it with over the network path.
That is all there is to it — there is no server component and nothing to configure.
What to expect
- Changes are not live. Movies added on another computer do not appear in your list until the database is reopened. Ctrl+Alt+R reopens it in place, which is the quick way to pick up what other people have done.
- The last edit wins. If two people edit the same movie at once, the changes saved later replace the earlier ones, and nobody is warned about the collision.
- Deleted is deleted. Editing a movie that somebody else has just deleted fails with a message; nothing is saved.
- Everyone gets full access by default. To let people look without letting them change anything, use the change protection described in Password protection.
A network share, not a cloud folder. OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive synchronize whole files in the background; with a database open on two computers, that means overwritten changes and corrupted copies. Use a real shared folder on the local network, and keep the cloud for backup copies.
If the shared folder is on a computer that is sometimes off, put the collection on the machine that is on most often, and let the others open it from there.
Free to try. Catalog up to 100 movies at no cost, forever.