OS X :: Two Accounts Sharing One ITunes Library/database?
Nov 18, 2009
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.
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 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 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
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.
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.
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 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
Is it possible to listen to the music on my OSX partition while on my Windows 7 one? I don't want bring my music files over to my Windows 7 partition, so is there anyway to share my itunes library between partitions?
I cant get my speakers to work with my Mac Pro so since I have my macbook pro on my desk also I want to share Itunes with my macbook pro since I can use my speakers through that. Is there any way I can have the itunes on my macbook pro use the library from my Mac Pro?
He has a Mac and a PC on his network and would like to share his library between these machines. Now sharing the music is easy through the home sharing feature of iTunes, but he would like to take it a step further and also use and edit his playlists on both of the machines and keep them synchronized. Is there anyone who can give me some pointers on how we can set up his system so he can do this?
I recently purchased a 27" iMAC running OS X 10.7.3. This iMac is now connected to my home network/workgroup.
- I want to build a new iTunes Library on my 1TB internal Mac HD.
- I want my 3 non Mac Machines (1 XP Prof and 2 Windows 7 Home) to be able to view the contents of my new (not yet built) iTunes Library resident on my iMac and of course be able to
- play that content.
- have play counts from my Windows-based be saved back to my iTunes Library.
- be able to rate a song from any computer (Mac or Windows) within this iTunes Library and have that rating saved back to this iTunes Library.
I don't want to have to rely on iTunes "Shared Library" function. In other words I want all PCs to be able to read/write to the same iTunes Library file.Before I purchased my iMac, my iTunes Library existed on one of my Windows-file system external drives. The pre-requisites for allowing multiple Windows PCs to access/share/write to the same iTunes Library was to:Â
- share the Windows folder on the external drive in which the iTunes Library file was stored (allowing network users to be able to change the files), and
- make sure all Windows-based PCs ran the same iTunes software version.
I don't want to change the version of Windows iTunes software from the currently installed 10.5.0 version.Can my Windows PCs access and utilize the same iTunes library file that I plan to build on my iMac hard drive? What older version of Mac iTunes software should I install on my iMac in order to allow the Windows PCs to access and use the iMacs iTunes library file?
I have a Macbook Pro, Power Mac G4, and my girlfriend's Dell. I want to put my iTunes Library on my TimeCapsule so when I'm at home I have access from all the computers. But i also have a copy of my library on my LaCie Rugged to save space on my MBP, not to mention the copy of the library on my iPod. Is there an easy way to sync my iTunes Library on my iPod, my portable HD, and TimeCapsule?
I keep all my iTunes files (podcasts, audio, video, etc.) on my main Windows 7 desktop. I just got a Macbook Pro and so far I've been using the sharing feature in iTunes to listen to my music on the MacBook. I've just set up file sharing on my windows 7 pc and now I'm able to see all the actual files on my MB. I was wondering if there was any way that I could just point my MacBook to the same directory that my windows 7 pc uses for iTunes and have the SAME library file on each computer. when I make changes, add songs, etc, to either computer, the library files would sync (update) the new information and I'd basically have an exact replica on either computer. Of course I realize that this would mean that my Windows 7 desktop would basically be the host for all these files and would have to remain online which is no problem. And I realize that I'd only be able to have one iTunes open at a time, which again is no problem. So basically I'm just wondering if there are any programs that could allow me to do this? I've seen programs that copy all the files from each computer and have them in sync that way, but like I mentioned, I don't want the actual files on my macbook. The windows 7 will be the host. I just want to sync my library files so I can make changes on either computer.
1)On my G4 mini, I have iTunes 9.0.3 which houses my current music library (not music files)
2)On an external drive, I have all my music files, organized by iTunes.
3)My new iMac - has exactly the same iTunes 9.03 installed. I have no music on my new iMac and in fact have not even opened iTunes as yet.
Can I:
a)Copy the entire iTunes Folder (located inside the Music folder) on the mini, and paste it into the iMac Music folder, replacing the iMac iTunes Folder.
b)Disconnect from the mini the external drive on which I have all my music files organized by iTunes, and hook it up to the new iMac.
Will my new iMac now play the music through iTunes just like the mini did? And after that, can I simply switch the external music hard drive between the iMac and mini as I please as long as I don't add/modify music in one and not the other library?
my wife and i have separate accounts on the same Macbook. we both share the actual media/files no problem. the problem we're having is that the changes to the tags and album art is not shared. can we share that too?
ITunes - 10.6.1 - Latest version on the Latest OS - 10.6.8 - Everything is upto date.I have the music library on this iMac - my primary computer.I have windows PC running exactly the same version of iTunes - 10.6.1.I enabled music sharing ( NOT HOME SHARING) - on my MAC and the shared library does not appear - I went through all the tips and tricks - Firewall is turnd off on my MAC/Both are connected to the same routrer within the same subnet.I could not figure out - So I turned on the music sharing from the Windows Itunes.. Immediately the shared library appeared on my mac - This is to narrow down the issue.However when I turn on the music sharing on the MAC, it does not appear on any devices, windows, ipad etc.Yes Itunes is open and running on my iMAC.This should not be this difficult.
I have a very particular issue that I am trying to find the best way to manage through. I have two computers. An iMac connected wirelessly and a Hackintosh connected wired. The Hackintosh is my hometheater PC connected to my TV. My iMac is in the bedroom and is home to all my pictures and music and other stuff we share as a family. After getting my AppleTV2, I converted all my movies and tvshows to Mv4, which are all stored on a separate media server in the closet. The iTunes on the hackintosh "houses" all the video media where I have imported all the video media on the media server but the links are all pointing to the media server - iTunes is not set to copy the media when imported. It allows me to access all of the video media on the appleTV2.
In the ATV2, to access the music and photos, the family has to switch from using the Hackintosh and choose the iMac computer. This is not ideal. The preferable option would be to have one iTunes library to manage all the media so you do not have to back out of one computer into the other. However, I have not found a good way to share just the music portion of my iTunes library from the iMac to the Hackintosh. I do not want the bedroom imac to manage all the media since its not always on and its wireless which creates hiccups on the high def video files. I first tried mounting the iMac iTunes music folder on the network, importing the music into the Hackintosh (creating links back to imac iTunes music folder).
This works but the problem is keeping it up to date after the initial import. I use Hazel and creating a script to basically watch the music folder for newly added or modified files and import those into iTunes. The problem is if I imoprt an updated file that already exists in the Library it creates a duplicate. Same problem if the music is stored on a NAS. I have tried the trick of moving everything to the server and sharing the iTunes ITL files but this does not allow you to have both iTunes libraries open at the same time. I haven't seen anyone who has this particular issue where they want to keep a "portion" of their iTunes libraries in sync.
I've consolidated my library using iTunes on OSX. I've been following a tutorial that lets me share a library between OSX & Windows... apparently you need to create the library in OSX first, then add the .itl extension to the library file. Shift-clicking iTunes in OSX lets you select this 'new' library with the result that a new database (iTunes Library.itl.xml) is created.
I added a laptop to our home network that'll primarily be used by my wife. Most of our iTunes content is on my system. I wanted to share the library across the network and give her the option of importing tracks off mine. This will let the whole family use either computer to sync their iPods.
I set up the Home Sharing option using verion 9.0.2 on both machines. I didn't use a password. I can see the other computer's libraries under 'Shared' on each system and access their files to play. But when I select the library, I don't get the 'Import' option that is listed in the Help menu instructions. Without being able to import the tracks, we have to go back to the main machine to sync.
I have myself a 2010 macbook. go me. My friend here has an Acer (pc). We both have itunes (go us). I want to share my library with her because I've got like 5,000 songs that she wants. WELL. I can see her library on my mac but she cant see my library on her pc. Did I not do something right here? We're using home sharing. So she's technically on my account but I cant seem to be able to get her to see my library. I've check the firewall on both. I've checked everything. What do I do?
I just home shared from a pc to a mac. I see my library transferred over but how do I get them into their original playlists? Do I have to start all over and do it manually?
I have a 500GB time capsule that I sue to host my iTunes music and library. I pointed iTunes to the TC folder where the music is. Then I did control+click on the iTunes icon and pointed iTunes to the library which is also located at the TC. As long as I don't restart the computer it works fine, I can open and close iTunes and it finds the library ok. But every time I restart the computer I have to tell iTunes where the library is. Is there any way to configure iTunes so it does not "forget" the library's location?
I really want to play my music in multiple rooms at the same time. I know I could buy an atv or airport express for my home theater but don't need all the extra functionality. Can I use a laptop hooked up to my sound system which is also connected to my itunes library on my iMac via home sharing to play music at the same time on both computers?
