Applications :: ITunes Sharing Between User Accounts - Finding Guide
Feb 2, 2010
My wife and I have been refrencing the same iTunes library from our individual user accounts in our shared folder on our unibody MacBook for over a year now. Why is it that when I add something to the library, either a purchase from the iTunes store or whatever, it doesn't show up in my wife's library automatically? It has to be added manually on her account.
Now, when she buys a song from iTunes, it downloads to her user account's iTunes music folder, not to the shared folder. Then if I want the song in my library, I have to manually add it. We're both using the same iTunes store user account. There HAS to be an easier way to do this. We both have the "keep iTunes library orginized" checked.
I would like to have my music library available for my wife on a different user account on my iMac under Lion. The music library is on an external drive on my LANÂ
When I try to select it as the source of music in my wife's account, there are no errors, but nothing happens, the music is not added to her iTunes, it just stays in the welcome screen, where to find music, etc.Â
I read a tutorial on moving the library to a shared folder, but I am hoping I do not have to do that. The drive is available to her library, just that nothing happens after I select it. Â
I had this working a while back... but (I can only think it's since I upgraded to iTunes 8) this has now stopped working...
1. I have moved my iTunes Music folder to /users/shared...
2. I go into iTunes preferences and change the location of the Music Library...
3. Restart iTunes...
4. Then I go into iTunes and it works - it's reading songs and movies from the shared location fine...
When I login as a different user (any admin user), repeat steps 2 and 3 and nothing - the library is empty when it's restarted
I also tried this hack from another site around 18 months ago...
[URL]
The instructions are pretty much the same, although this involves creating aliases of the iTunes music library.xml file - but didn't seem to make any difference to the outcome
I need to duplicate my admin account to a new user account( admin) that will let me access the entire volume and all the data within. Â
I have tried - Â
1. I have turned on File sharing from System Preferences, shared the new user account (Also everyone), added files/folders to share the entire original user folder...gave all users Read and Write permission...just about everything...
2. I have run Disk Utility and repaired permissions ( the report said some permissions can't be repaired)
3. I have done everything the manuals here have asked me to do...
4. Went to each folder->Get Info->checked Shared Folder. Even after that folders in the new account it says- I have no access( remember I am an admin the new account too)Â
Info: MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8), iPhone 4, iOS 5.1
The setup: Three computers, one running Windows XP SP3, SL 10.6.4 and L 10.5.8. All three are running iTunes 9.2. The windows xp box is the "server" of the iTunes main library. This is where it is strange. I can see all three library's (depending on which computer I am on). I can see the shared library's and they all have the little house with the music note. The problem is I can't share any music from one account to the other?
If I open up one of the shared library's and try to drag and drop some music into it, the files will not drop. Doesn't matter what computer I am on. I have tried the "automatically add to library" folder and that works about 50% of the time. It will send files over but a good majority of the time it will not copy to all shared library's. I have checked the router settings and also made sure all the settings from within iTunes is correct. I have also made sure all of the accounts are logged into the same iTunes account etc. But nothing seems to be working.
Every file created within the Shared folder is automatically a "read-only" for all other users. How can I make all users able to edit all files within the Shared folder? - The "Apply to enclosed items" does only apply settings to existing files. This means that for every new file you add, you have to press "Apply to enclosed items". - Surely there must be a way to apply the folders setting to all future content? All I want is for this folder to function as any external hard drive; accessible by all accounts without any restrictions!
we have a macbook pro running Leopard. My wife and I have separate user accounts on the single laptop and keep the music in one central Public folder (both or our iTunes are pointed to this public folder). For some reason, my wife is unable to make any changes to song info (album art, change genre, etc.). However, she can play the music, update her Nano, import music, etc. The only thing she can't do is make changes to the song info. This isn't an issue with my account because I am the primary user account on the computer. We are both set up as Admin and I have assigned Read/Write privileges to all files. Does anyone have any idea what the issue could be? Tech support/program specialist has no idea.
I use CleanMyMac to clean up once in a while. its great when deleting apps and such, you just send it to the trash and it finds all the extra stuff, deletes it, and quits on its own. Same when it comes to external drives, it deletes unneeded files from those as well. Once in a while I go into it to clean log files and such, I do not understand what the Universal Binary part is. I run a MBP 5,3 model, with snow leopard. Do I need to keep those files? It says its something that has to do with powerbook.
We picked up our first Mac yesterday, a 13" uMBP. I upgraded the HDD and the RAM last night and reinstalled all of the software, so it is good to go. I have a question regarding multiple accounts though, and sharing librabries.
My wife and I will each have an account on the Mac, to keep our docs and email separate. However, I want a single iPhoto library, and a single iTunes library for us both to use and sync to. I see in my account, I have Music, Pictures, Movies, etc folders, and a Public folder. As it stands, my iPhoto library is saved in my Pictures folder, which I assume my wife could not access from her account by default. Am I correct in thinking that I want to move the library to the Public folder, and then point her iPhoto to the library in the Public folder, and then we would both be accessing and working from the same library? the same would hold true for iTunes, videos, etc?
Two user accounts sharing iTunes library on Macbook Pro. m4p file plays complete on one user account, partial on second user account. Same length of partial play for all m4p's in same album. m4a's play fine in both user accounts.Â
I will soon be setting up an 27" iMac i7 as a single home computer to store the "original copies" of all our important media and documents... as well as being a convenient place to edit pictures and other complex jobs. I will set up two accounts, one each for my wife an I so that we have our own environments to augment our personal laptops (MBP/MBA). This computer will have a good automatic onsite & offisite backup strategy in place to protect our data. We can also share personal data with our laptops via iDisk in Mobile Me.
We will want to keep most things separate... but we do have some data that is shared between the two of us. One particular example is our iTunes music collection.
Now for my question: Is there a way to have both accounts on this computer use the same iTunes library AND also the same database? What I would like is that if either of us is using the computer in our own account... that we see the exact same iTunes library/database. Hence, for example, if either of us buys more music, that we would both see the new music.
If this is not possible... I will just load the music into one account... and use sharing on the other account. Managing two independent databases is too complex, and can lead to losing data.
I currently have a similar setup with a PC... with the data only loaded into one of our accounts. I figured that since I am moving fully to the iMac, then it might be a good time to make an improvement with our music as well.
My wife and I just got a new Mac and are looking to each have their own login for mail, web/bookmarks, etc. but we want to have our media shared so that both users can login and see the same iTunes Library.
Additionally I want to make sure if say one person buys something from iTunes that the other would automatically be able to see it in their library (and wouldn't have to manually add the files/folders).
Lastly, we both use Lightroom and Photoshop and I need to make sure that we can access each other's files in a single location and that we won't get locked out.
I currently have itunes on two accounts set to access a library at /Users/shared/iTunes/. The problem is if iTunes is running on one account and I try to launch it on the other, it gives an error saying it doesn't have write access. It needs to stay running on one for my appletv. Is there a way to start it and have all accounts have access to it as a single process? Run it as root?
I have a single iTunes library on my Macbook Pro. I would like to share between to user accounts, each with Apple ID's. What's the best way to do so? Right now, I've given the second user rights to read/write to the first users "Music" folder. But when one user adds song files, the other must "Add Folder" in order to see the new purchases. It's kind of putsy. Is there a better way?Â
My wife and I have separate user accounts on the same MacBook Pro so that we can both sync our phones to this computer. My account is the primary user account, and my iTunes library is stored in this account. My wife would like to put music on her iPhone so she can run, but I can't seem to access the music library thru her account. I know the files are all on the hard drive regardless, so I just need to know how I can make iTunes on my wife's account access the library that's there. I've tried the steps I could find on Apple's website, but I can't seem to make it work. I'm running the latest versions of everything - even tho the post says I'm running 10.9.1, I'm actually running 10.9.4
Info: MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), iTunes 11.1.3
I have 5 accounts on my iMac. On the main account I have all of the family's calendars. I want to share the kids' calendar on their own account of the computer. Can I do that? I have tried mobile me and I just got frustrated with the duplicates. So I deleted it.
I am not sure how it happened but after upgrading the gmail account, the user accounts were changed from standard users to Mobile Me users. None of the users has ever had that type of account, and I am trying to figure out how to get it back to a standard user account. When the user attempts to log in, it asks for the user name, but also the Mobile Me user name (which they do not have). to make it worse, Mobile Me is no longer accpting new users, so I annot just add an account and log in using the new info.
I have my MBP (running SL) with two user accounts, mine and my fiance's. I watch movies on my ACD and would like to be able to just pick up my remote, open front row and select any movie, regardless of which account is actually signed in at the time.
Can I do this?
To be clear, we have separate accounts and separate iTunes libraries within our respective accounts, each containing some movies.
I've read several threads that say "turn on sharing in iTunes" so I did that, but it isn't working. I can see the content in iTunes itself, but nothing is showing up in Front Row. Does anyone know A) if this is possible and B) how to do it?
iPhoto launches normally and without error in the main (original) user account.
When subsequent accounts are created and logged into, iPhoto is shown on the dock and finder with the generic app icon. When clicked, the icon bounces once, and nothing happens. All other iLife apps operate normally.
Once switched back to main user account, iPhoto icon shows normally in the dock/finder, and operates normally.
I'm surprised I wasn't able to find much at all on this by searching this forum or the web. Maybe I'm looking for the wrong thing. Anyway, here goes:
I want to share an Address Book between different user accounts on the same Mac, without resorting to using MobileMe or another sync tool that requires internet access to function. I had hoped to set it up where the Address Book is in the Shared folder and accessed by each user, but that doesn't appear to be possible. It's surprising that this isn't a natural function in native Mac OS X.
I've also tried exporting an Address Book Archive to the Shared folder. It shows on my account to be 1.6MB. When I log in as another user, it shows to be Zero KB, even after changing permissions, and importing into Address Book does nothing.
Having had a WD MyBook go bad after a couple of years, I am looking for a replacement. One priority is a longer warranty than the weak 1year offered by WD. However, since I fear that all data on this drive is lost, I also want to see if there is a better solution. Is there any advantage to FireWire over USB2.0?
One solution I am considering is an inexpensive NAS drive with two drives setup in a RAID (an example would be the Sabio Storage 2-Bay NAS Enclosure (CM200) - sold by MacMall.) Would this setup be more likely to safeguard my data?
I know there have been a lot of posts about installing additional memory - I even watched the installation video over at OWC. OWC video shows two factory 1GB memory sticks - one in Slot A of the upper riser board and one in Slot A of the lower riser board. It says to move the module from Slot A of the lower riser board and install it in Slot B of the upper riser board to make a matched pair.
But here's the question. I have 4GB of RAM - two 1GB modules in Slots A&B of each riser board from the factory (I know - I know - I should have ordered it with the stock RAM and purchased the extra at less than the exorbitant prices Apple charges - but that's another story). I want to add 4GB more (two 2GB modules): Move the two 1GB factory modules from Slots A&B of the lower riser board into Slots C&D of the upper riser board and then install the two new 2GB modules into Slots A&B of the lower riser board (just as the OWC video implies)?
Leave the factory modules where they are and install one 2GB module in Slot C of each riser board to provide a "balanced" 4GB on each riser board?
Options #2 seems to provide a "balanced" module location (4GB in the upper riser board and 4GB in the lower riser) so the four cores on each CPU can access an equal amount of memory for optimum performance. - but I have read that you need to install the new modules in matched pairs - but does that mean put them together on the same riser board? In the OWC video, if the two new modules were a matched pair then why wouldn't they be put one in each riser board just like the factory modules?
