Home Sharing vs Shared Libraries

What's the difference between the new Home Sharing feature in iTunes and the older Shared Libraries feature?
Why does iTunes still have Shared Libraries listed under the Sharing tab in Preferences... if Home Sharing is better?

Home sharing only works with computers on the same network, like within your house. When both machines are authorized with your iTunes account info, you can actually grab, drag and drop content from one library to the other. The other sharing, I believe, will work on a broader range (like your neighbor across the street) but only allows the person sharing to listen to your library.

Similar Messages

  • Changed routers and now home sharing libraries are not found.

    I have recently changed routers in my home and now my home sharing library is not found . I have checked IP address I have connection and when home sharing is turned on the nextwork name pops up on the screen. however none of my movies or libraries are there and it times out. All worked fine before I changed the router and the only reason I changed was due to the old router being 15 years old and I would loose connection about every 15 to 30 min when streaming. please help Apple support says it the router , router support says its apple, router is NETGEAR N60 Duel Band

    Welcome to the Apple Community.
    It may be your router settings, but as you were having some issues prior to changing your router, it may well be interference, start by trying a different wifi channel.

  • I can't access my Home Sharing libraries

    I have tried so many times to find the shared libraries, and looked at all the advice so far. I have a windows, with the newest iTunes, 10.5, and am trying to connect my new mac to it, same iTunes 10.5. The boxes are ticked, the network is fine, there is no blocking firewall, both computers are authorised. I have also re-installed and re-started my computers numerous times. My old windows computer has connected to other computers before. After I sign in to home sharing and click done, it disappears. Where you go to tick the boxes, under preferences/sharing, it says "On, no users connected". its the same on both machines but they are on the same account. How come? and how can I get to share my libraries across computers? If i cant then i bought this very expensive new laptop for nothing.

    Let me explain the two different ways of sharing media libraries in iTunes and hopefully that may shed some light on how things work for you and others and lead to a solution to your problem. This will also allow me to correct something in my previous post.
    I use Home Sharing exclusively and don't always remember about Library Sharing but iTunes also has another sharing feature called Library Sharing that is a little different and slightly more restrictive.
    Home Sharing is enabled by selecting Home Sharing from the 'Advanced' menu (see screen shot below) and entering your Apple ID and password. Home Sharing allows unrestricted access to the shared iTunes library from computers on the network as well as from iOS devices. Home Sharing is required for access by iOS devices, they do not work with Library Sharing. Home sharing also allows you to copy media from one computer to another, something you can't do with Library Sharing. Home Sharing overrides Library Sharing if both are enabled.
    Library Sharing is enable by selecting 'Share my library on my local network' in iTunes Preference (see screen shot below.) Library Sharing does not work with iOS devices. Library Sharing only allows for the playback of media from shared libraries. You cannot copy media from one computer to another using Library Sharing. The 'Status:' indicator will display a count of the number of computers that are connected to your library using Library Sharing. Home Sharing connections will not be indicated here. You can also restrict who can connect to your library using a password. This password restriction has no affect on Home Sharing connections. They are authorized and controlled by the use of Apple IDs.
    How to tell if you are connecting to a library shared by Home Sharing or Library Sharing (see screen shot below.) A Home Sharing library icon looks like a house with a musical note on the side. A Library Sharing icon looks like a stack of CDs with a musical note on top. They are both labeled by the name of the shared library as configured in iTunes Preferences.
    I think I've covered everything and hope this helps people understand the difference between the two types of shared libraries and how to configure each.

  • Can't copy songs between home shared libraries

    I used to have home sharing set up to automatically copy songs between my wife's iMac and my Mac Pro. About a month ago, I changed the boot drive in my Mac Pro to an SSD. Sometime after, I also de-authorized all of my computers from iTunes (I had some dead computers that I wanted to clear out and re-authorized the two computers we are currently using). I just noticed today that songs we each buy are no longer synched between our computers, and I suspect either the iTunes deauthorization or the moving of files between computers must be the reason.
    The shared libraries still work, and I can play songs from my wife's library and vice-versa, but we can't even manually copy songs. The "Settings" and "Import" options on the bottom are missing, the option to show songs missing from my library is also missing, and where I used to be able to drag songs from one library to another, this no longer works.
    Both of our computers are on the same network and we are both logged into the same account. I read other posts that suggested turning off home sharing on both computers. I did this, rebooted both computers, and then turned sharing back on. Still no importing. I also tried logging out of iTunes and logging back in again, but still no dice.
    Apple products are so nicely designed, but when they break, they often leave no clues as to what is going wrong, and it can be infuriating trying to figure out why!
    Does anyone have any idea what is wrong?
    Help is much appreciated!
    Thanks,
    Ron

    Okay ... I just solved my own problem. I read about turning on / off home sharing, but I didn't realize that there are two similar sounding options for doing this. I went to "Preferences --> Sharing" and chose to turn on / off sharing of my library. This did nothing.
    However, I later noticed that in the Menu Bar under "Advanced", there is also a way to turn on / off home sharing. I turned this on / off, and my files are now sharing again. Yay!!!
    Ron

  • How do I share my iTunes library to an iPad without using "Home Sharing"?

    I have set up my iTunes library to be shared with others over our home network.  This is the "Share your library" option, and NOT "Home Sharing" since my wife has her own Apple ID and I, unfortunatly, have 2.  She was wanting to listen to our music on her iPad but could not figure out how to access the shared library.  The "Music" app (click more, select library) only seems to work for Home Shared libraries.  (In fact, I had tried Home Sharing first and when I turned it off, all of the buttons at the bottom of the Music app's screen disappeared - note:  she has no music stored on the iPad.)
    So, how can an iPad access a shared iTunes music library without using Home Sharing?
    (iPad 2, iOS 6; Mac 10.8, iTunes 10 because 11 totally inhibits my ability to use my iPod the way I want.)

    -> Home Sharing is different than logging into the iTunes store.
    You enable Home Sharing using one AppleID. Doesn't matter which you use but all devices must use the same AppleID for Home Sharing.

  • Home Sharing between 2 Apple ID accounts on separate PCs...can our iOS devices access both?

    Hi All
    Hope someone can help.  My wife and I have separate iTunes accounts with separate Apple IDs on separate PCs.
    We both have HomeSharing turned on and can access each others music libraries from both PCs which is great.  However when I try to access the home shared libraries from our devices (I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad 2, and my wife has an iPhone 5) when connected to the home network I can only see my own shared library on my devices and my wife can only see her own shared Library from her iPhone 5.
    Just for background we are both running the latest iTunes and are on win7 PCs, my iPhone 4 is on iOS7, the iPad 2 and iPhone 5 are currently running iOS6
    Is there a way to see each others shared libraries on all our devices when we connect to the home network through wifi?
    Many thanks!
    Chris

    Hello Chris G Shirley,
    In order to do this, you would need to switch between the two Apple IDs used on each system in Settings > Music.
    On iPhone, go to Settings > Music, then log in to Home Sharing using the same Apple ID and password.
    iPhone User Guide - Home Sharing
    http://help.apple.com/iphone/7/
    Cheers,
    Allen

  • Home sharing

    hey guys,
    SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME OUT HERE.
    okay so now i've set up home-sharing. Computer A can see B's library and Computer B can see A's library with the HOME ICON there.
    question is i have computer C. how can i allow computer C to see both A AND B'S library with the home icon??
    i'm clueless because home sharing seems to be allowing only 1 user to turn it on, on ONE COMPUTER. so i cannot see multiple home-sharing libraries even if i have another 5 computers. To fully understand my previous sentence, if you could follow these few steps:
    1. open itunes
    2. "welcome to itunes" will pop up
    3. click on "getting started with itunes 9"
    4. focus on the home sharing part
    5. you can see they have Ashley's library, Jessie's library and EVEN! TERRY'S LIBRARY.
    see, i don't understand how this is possible. right now all i can get is 1 computer see only 1 shared library and not 2. can someone please enlighten me??
    thanks,
    sam.

    Did you set up home sharing on C using the same exact itunes store login that you used for A & B?
    A, B, and C have to be turned on and running itunes for this to work.
    They have to be on the same computer subnet, too. You can't home share a work PC with your home PCs....the work PC is not at home.

  • Next step in home sharing

    hey guys,
    SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME OUT HERE.
    okay so now i've set up home-sharing. Computer A can see B's library and Computer B can see A's library with the HOME ICON there.
    question is i have computer C. how can i allow computer C to see both A AND B'S library with the home icon??
    i'm clueless because home sharing seems to be allowing only 1 user to turn it on, on ONE COMPUTER. so i cannot see multiple home-sharing libraries even if i have another 5 computers. To fully understand my previous sentence, if you could follow these few steps:
    1. open itunes
    2. "welcome to itunes" will pop up
    3. click on "getting started with itunes 9"
    4. focus on the home sharing part
    5. you can see they have Ashley's library, Jessie's library and EVEN! TERRY'S LIBRARY.
    see, i don't understand how this is possible. right now all i can get is 1 computer see only 1 shared library and not 2. can someone please enlighten me??
    thanks,
    sam.
    Message was edited by: sam_ng
    Message was edited by: sam_ng

    ???
    Some more details may take you to an answer

  • ITunes 11.0.2 will not allow me to drag any files to import items between computers using Home Sharing. Help?

    There are no "import" thumbnails and I'm un able to drag and drop files. I've ensured on both computers that they both have sharing capabilities. All the websites say that I should be able to just drag and drop the files into the outgoing computer linked to my homesharing network, but there is not reaction from the file when i try to grab it.Thanks everyone!

    I can not find the "Show menu" button either!    I am trying to do Home Sharing between 2 PCs in the same room.  The Home Sharing Libraries show up ok on each, with the various tunes displaying on each, but I can not move (or "import") tunes from one computer to the other!   It also won't allow me to drag from my husband's library to my library, and vice versa.    I can play them ok on each computer, but the dragging or importing is not happening.
    Apple, please fix this!   Both PCs are up to date with iTunes 11.0.2.26.
    Anyone have any suggestions?   I just want to move legally purchased music from one computer to the other.  This shouldn't be that difficult.     It's supposed to be the point of Home Sharing!

  • Itunes will not allow home sharing?

    Mac 10.8.5 and Itunes 11.3.1 will not turn on home share on same WiFi network (or using Ethernet).  Both my Windows 7 laptops run Itunes and allow home sharing.  I have uninstalled Itunes, opened all ports, taken down firewalls, and even did an ancient dance.  Even Apple customer support has been unable to help me.  Has anyone else experienced this or might have a recommendation?  Thanks!

    I can not find the "Show menu" button either!    I am trying to do Home Sharing between 2 PCs in the same room.  The Home Sharing Libraries show up ok on each, with the various tunes displaying on each, but I can not move (or "import") tunes from one computer to the other!   It also won't allow me to drag from my husband's library to my library, and vice versa.    I can play them ok on each computer, but the dragging or importing is not happening.
    Apple, please fix this!   Both PCs are up to date with iTunes 11.0.2.26.
    Anyone have any suggestions?   I just want to move legally purchased music from one computer to the other.  This shouldn't be that difficult.     It's supposed to be the point of Home Sharing!

  • Can't wake Lion over wifi (or ethernet) using iPad and home sharing.

    I've upgraded to Lion and everything's fine apart from one problem: using my iPad to access home shared iTunes content on my mac no longer works when my mac is asleep.
    That's a change in behaviour from Snow Leopard; I used to be able to sleep my mac and then wake it over wifi using either my iPad or iPhone to access all of my home shared libraries.  The mac screen used to light up for ten seconds and then go dark again, but it served me the files.
    Lion seems to go into a deeper sleep which it can't be woken from.  If I attempt to wake my mac from my iPad within about ten minutes of putting my mac to sleep then home sharing seems to work and lets me use the home share libraries, but if I leave it any longer than that then the mac seems to fall into a coma and can't be woken.  The weird thing is that I still see a "shared library" folder on my iPad, but when I click on it nothing happens.  I think my Time Capsule is listening for wifi access and issuing the magic packet to the mac, but the mac just ain't listening.  
    I'm using a Time Capsule in bridge mode from an ADSL modem and I've accepted a TC firmware update last week and I'm on lion 10.7.3.  I've tried using Ethernet to connect the mac to the TC (and temporarily disabled the wifi connection) but that still doesn't work.  Also, note I'm NOT suffering from the problem that 10.7.3 seems to be giving a few other people - my mac reconnects to my wifi just fine when I wake it up manually.  For the record, This was an upgrade, so there's still a tick in "wake on network" in power settings and home sharing on iTunes is still configured the same as it was before.
    Does anyone have any suggestions about how I can get home sharing to work when my Lion mac is asleep please?
    Jon

    Jonathan:
    The reworked release of the Combo came available the 2-nd or 3-rd of Feb, if you downloaded 10.7.3 complete after that date it will be OK already, no need to instal the Combo. But you can see the exact number of 10.7.3 in System Information/ Software panel: it should be 11D50b.....
    fzahn:
    I understand, I have TC and Extreme also, no need to set anything. And indeed I understand that it may be important for (as it is for me),
    BUT even if it worked after you replaced the kext, I advise strongly not to read in an old kext over a new one, that may give other issues (you observed one already: Airdrop)... I hope you backed up the Lion one... for example such "replacing" was done in one (lousy) tool called TrimEnabler (to install Trim on a non-Apple SSD in the SnowLeopard OS): it replaced the whole kext. I read that there is a new version for Lion that just replaces the text piece that regards the identification for the Apple SSD's.... I do not dare to use such methods.... I advise to read the kext and compare the two (SL and Lion) and perhaps find a way to just replace the one string that is different (be sure it is precisely the same  lenth in caracters)...  BTW: after every update of Lion you have to do it again probably. Keep searching for a better way to solve your problem.
    Did you do the firmware update of the TC and Extreme already?
    BTW: there are two Airport Utilities for Lion: Airport Utility 5.6 and Airport Utility 6, the 5.6 is the "old" visual but in the new one 6 you can not change as many settings; if you want them both, change the name of the one you already have by putting the version number at the end of its name in Utilities, and install the other one, it will be installed additional not over.
    Lex

  • Unique identification of shared libraries

    I have two computers at home sharing libraries with my AppleID.   Most of my content is on one of them.  When I try to share it with AppleTV or my iPhone, they both show up as (my name)'s Library, in random order, so I often pick the wrong one first.  Since connecting to a library is kind of slow on my iPhone 4, this is really annoying.
    Is there a way to give them unique names, so I can tell them apart?

    yep in Preference, General there is a box at the top where you can edit the display name

  • How do I go from using a single Apple ID with multiple libraries to using home sharing?

    Until now my wife and I have opted to share our iTunes/Apple ID and use multiple libraries to manage our iPhones. This has become increasingly difficult...with issues such as having apps I've downloaded that she doesn't want automatically downloading to her library and even her phone. Now, add in the fact that I want to continue to manage my iTunes library from our PC and allow her to manage hers from her new MacBook Pro and we have good reason to move to home sharing with separate Apple IDs for each of us.
    My question is the logistics of doing so. Not only do we need to replicate her existing library on a new Apple ID, but then we need to migrate all the necessary files over to her MacBook Pro. Quite honestly, I don't even know where to begin. Is it possible to associate her existing library with her new Apple ID without having to create her library from scratch? Then is there anyway to migrate only the items in her library over to her MacBook Pro as opposed having to move all of our music & apps? Where do I begin?
    Thanks!

    Okay...I misunderstood and thought we needed separate ID's...but I see we actually need to use the same ID which simplifies things in my mind a bit. But still some followups...
    1) What do you mean by restore the library on her computer? Simply open her library file in iTunes?
    2) On our current machine...media is actually split between a couple folders but all under the My Music folder. But there are multiple subfolders (iTunes, Her iPhone, and Amazon MP3). I presume as long as I copy over the entire My Music folder there shouldn't be any access issues when the library is opened on her machine?
    3) Is there any easy way to get rid of all the extra files that she doesn't have in her library? For instance, all my music and apps that she doesn't actually want, is there any easy way of separating those out from the files that are actually linked to in her library? Vice versa for me...once we've go her library set up on her machine, any easy way to purge all the extra files from my PC that aren't actually in my library?
    Thanks!

  • HT202213 I have 3 users on one computer with 3 unique user accounts.  Each have unique ITunes accounts.  How do we share our music libraries using home sharing?

    I have 3 users on one computer with 3 unique user accounts.  Each of us have separate and unique ITunes accounts.  How do we share our music libraries using Home Sharing?  Everything that I can find talks about sharing between networked computers, but this is all on the same computer.  I just want to share between ITunes accounts.  Thanks!

    Hi b noir, I also have two users on one pc with two different iTunes libraries.  But I also want to put them onto an external hard drive so that I can free up some memory on the pc.  So I figure I need to consolidate the two users iTunes libraries first before moving to hard drive?  But not quite sure how to do that on the iTunes 11?  Thanking you in advance!!

  • Having issues setting up the use of two iTunes libraries on one Apple TV.  I can set up my iTunes library as I can turn home sharing on from my own computer, however, my fiance only has an iPad with home sharing turned on and it does not find his account?

    I have a new Apple TV which I am struggling to set up with both mine and my fiances music.  I have a laptop, but my fiance only has an ipad and it only seems to sync my music library from my iTunes account.  He has homesharing turned on on his iPad but the Apple TV does not recognise his iPad.  It seems from the help that I have read online that homesharing works when you use the same itunes account, is not possible to be able to use two different itunes libraries with two different accounts (and only one computer)?
    Thanks

    Both libraries would need to have been setup to use home sharing with the same Apple ID in order for that to work.

  • Merging libraries and home sharing

    What is the most efficient way to consolidate and share a library consisting of music from two Apple IDs?
    Our setup is this: My husband and I each have our own iTunes accounts, plus we have imported our own CDs to our respective libraries. I have a Mac laptop with limited space; he has an HP Touch/Vista with lots more space, plus we have a TimeCapsule that is also our wireless router, and we both have iPhones. We'd like to have all our music in one place at home, not on my laptop, and be able to access all of our music and sync any of it to our iPhones (I am ok with only syncing at home when I am connected to the network, if need be), and to be able to buy new music on any of the computers or iPhones and ultimately have it sync back to the main library. What is the best way to do set this up, and what do we have to do to maintain it?
    Before iTunes 9, I tried third party syncing solutions combined with putting everything on the TimeCapsule and having both iTunes libraries set to TimeCapsule. However, the connection to TimeCapsule is not always available (have to re-login), and rather than giving an error when it's not available, iTunes just reverts to a local library, which defeats the purpose. So, it seems like we need to have a main library resident on the HPTouch (periodically backed up to TimeCapsule) and then do Home Sharing to give me access via laptop (without necessarily copying everything to it, only what I want at the moment) -- but then, how do we handle the two Apple IDs? If we authorize each other's computers to use music from either ID, will I be able to see (via home sharing on my laptop) the whole "main" library all at once when I log in with either ID? Or will I still have to login (via home sharing) with two separate IDs to see the music corresponding to each? Or am I making this too complicated?

    Update: it seems to have worked to do this:
    1. Authorize both computers to use both of our IDs.
    2. On both computers, use one ID (in this case, my husband's) to start home sharing.
    3. On my husband's (desktop) computer, in iTunes, view all music not on that computer, select all and copy to library, so that the whole combined music library is now contained on his computer.
    4. Export my playlists and import to his iTunes (I put his playlists and mine in separate folders for ease of use).
    The latter step makes it possible for my smart playlists to grab everything in the library (which resides on his computer), and that playlist is still accessible on my laptop via home sharing, without my having to have all the music in the playlist reside on my laptop.
    Now I should be able to empty out my library if need be (to save room on my laptop), and only load up the songs for the playlists I want to have mobile access to -- just click on a playlist via home sharing, and tell it to copy all the music from the desktop that I don't have on my laptop.

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