Music Library shared on all accounts on Mac

I just bought a Mac book and copied all my music from my PC. I then set up accounts for different family members but they there is no music in their libraries. All the music is in the admin account. How do I share the music with all accounts on my MAC

If you search on this board, you'll find several ways to do what you want. Here's what I did.
1. Move the "iTunes Music" folder from my account to the "Shared" account. This lets everyone get access.
2. For each account that's going to access the music, launch iTunes, go to iTunes>Prefs>Advanced and change the "iTunes Music folder location" to the folder in Shared.
3. (I don't remember if I had to do this next step, but it can't hurt). Go to File>AddtoLibrary, and select that Folder.
After doing that for each account, they'll all be accessing the same folder of tunes. The only problem with this method is that whenever you add music (like from a CD, or purchasing from the iTunes store), only that account will "know" that the new music's there. So every so often I just repeat step 3 above to keep all accounts knowing the full library.
I think there are ways using scripts to copy the libray file itself from one to another account, but you then have to change permissions and do a bunch of other things. I don't bother with that -- repeating step 3 above every once in a while is more than sufficient. Even my kids know now to do it themselves when tunes recently added to another account don't show up in their own accounts.

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I used to have a pc with which I youtube converted the majority of my music library. After I got a mac, none of my youtube converted music would transfer to iTunes on the mac.

I used to have a pc with which I youtube converted the majority of my music library. After I got a mac, none of my youtube converted music would transfer to iTunes on the mac. Any ideas on how to put ALL the music from my phone back on to the itunes on my mac?

You can't sync music not obtained from the iTunes Store currently on your phone to the iTunes library on your computer. Assuming this music on your old PC, your only choice is to copy it from your PC to your Mac. Otherwise, SOL.

How to move music library from old pc to new Mac air

How to move music library from old pc to new Mac air

Here's an Apple article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527?viewlocale=en_US

Question.In my computer music library, I "unchecked" all of the tunes that my daughter put in my library but which I DON'T want on my ipod; but, every time I try to "sync" my ipod it keeps on loading more and more of her music onto my ipod. What is wrong?

Question. In my computer music library, I "unchecked" all of the music that my daughter downloaded onto my computer because I did not want it on my ipod. But, every time I try to "sync" my ipod with my computer now, it keeps downloading her music onto my i-pod, even though her tunes are NOT checked. What is wrong, and how can I get her tunes OFF my ipod?

The best way to manage your music when you have multiple iPods is to change the settings under "Options" so that you manually manage your music instead of it doing an automatic synch each time you connect. To add only the songs you want, highlight them and then "click and drag" them to your iPod. This way none of your daughter's music gets added and you're not in danger of deleting your playlist as well. It will show you how many songs you've added and you can then click on your iPod to verify. To delete her songs off your iPod now, click on the music tab under your iPod so show everything you have stored. Find those songs you want to delete, click on them to highlight then go up to the Edit window and click delete. This will erase them off your iPod but be careful when you highlight. I did that and then had to reload a cd on my boyfriend's, lol. hope this helps

Sharing Itunes Music Library among Multiple User Accounts on One Mac

I have 3 user accounts set up on the computer and one itunes account authorized on all 3 user accounts. I have the music library files placed in the shared folders and permissions set up to allow all users to read & write the music. However, only my user account (the main account with admin privileges) is able to access the music unless I log into my user account, run iTunes with sharing enabled, then exit to the login window. Then the other users can access the shared iTunes library. I have preferences setup to use the same library folders.
An earlier version of iTunes used to allow me to do this, and iPhoto still does allow a similar setup with my photo library.
Is there a way to fix this?
Thanks!

I have an iMac at home with 4 users. I've recently struggled with this and thought I had a working solution ...
I created a new iTunes folder off of root. I then logged in as each user and set the path on their Advanced Tab to /iTunes/iTunes Music/ and dragged and dropped their local iTunes Music folders (~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/) into iTunes. This copies files that aren't there but skips anything that might be in two peoples library.
Then iTunes 8.1 came out and now things are broken. I've rebuilt the index by doing an Add to Library but my Podcasts don't download any more. 8-(

Using one music library with multiple user accounts

I want to use one Music Library and be able to have all my computer user accounts be able to access it. Article 93195 does not work for some reason. It is easy to share music over a network but not on the same computer? This can't be. I have talked to several Apple "Geniuses" and they all scratch their head. One guy could do it in Leopard, but not in Tiger. Could it have something to do with the permissions of the Itunes Music Folder? Any help would be appreciated. This is driving me crazy.

1 Quit iTunes.
2 Drag your entire *iTunes folder* from /Username/Music to /Users/Shared.
3 Log out.
1 Log in on your other account(s).
2 Start iTunes and immediately press an hold the Option key.
3 iTunes will ask to *Create new library* or *Choose existing library*. Select *Choose existing library*.
4 Select the *iTunes library file* in the *iTunes folder* in /Users/Shared.
5 Now go to File -> *Add to library* and select the *iTunes music folder* located in /Username/Music.
6 - iTunes will add all the music in from this account to the main iTunes music folder/library.
7 Delete the *iTunes folder* in /Username/Music
8 Restart iTunes normally (don't hold Option). Everything should be there.
9 Quit iTunes and log out of the account.
10 Do the above steps for all users. Don't do the first 1-3 steps. Start at the second series.
Log into your account, start iTunes normally and all music should be there.
Whenever any of you do anything in iTunes, it will be seen by all since you are using one and the same iTunes library file.
Create a "main" playlist for each user with their own music. Create a smart playlist and set it to Playlist is not the playlist you created above. Select this and it will show you everything NOT in your playlist. Do the same for the others. This will help when adding only the music you want your own playlist.
Note that iTunes can only be opened by one user at a time. If you have Fast user switching enabled, the other users must quit iTunes in order for anyone else to use it.

ITunes Sharing: 2 user accounts, 1 mac

I've turned on Fast Switching, I've enabled sharing in the Preferences...and I still can't get the sharing to work.
It seems to me that it's been broken since I upgraded to Tiger. Does anyone have any pointers.
I'm not trying to share 1 library amongst 2 users, I'm just trying to allow 2 user accounts on one machine to see (and listen to) each others' libraries.
Thanks
-Ray

Ray:
While the article was written for iTunes 4.5, it does not imply that you can simply activate FUS to share music. It is very clear that unless your music files are in a public folder, the are not going to be accessible by other users on the computer.
To quote from the article:
To share your music with other accounts on the computer:
1. Quit iTunes.
2. Locate your iTunes Music Folder. It is stored by default:
~/Music/iTunes or ~/Documents/iTunes/.
b These folders cannot be accessed by other accounts on the computer. In order for other users to be able to access your music, you must move it to a publicly accessible location.
The Public folder in your home directory (~/Public), or to another folder outside your home directory
b that other users have access to,
such as /Users/Shared. Tip: The tilde "~" refers to your home folder. For more information see Mac OS X: Using Your Home Directory.
3. Drag the iTunes Music Folder to a publicly accessible location. Important: Do not move the iTunes folder, the iTunes 4 Music Library file or the iTunes Library.xml file.
4. Open iTunes.
5. From the iTunes menu, choose Preferences.
6. Click Advanced.
7. Click the Change button.
8. Navigate in the Change Music Folder Location dialog to the location of your iTunes Music folder.
9. Click Choose.
Repeat these steps for each account that is sharing music with other users.

Two phones, one music library, one App Store account

We have one App Store account that we use for two iPhones. We want to sync both phones to the same music library, and to do that we set up two OS X login accounts on the computer that has our iTunes library. The music library is shared between the accounts using an alias. We each have our own MobileMe account that keeps our computers in sync with our iPhone's address book and calendars.
I would call this setup pretty hokey. Maybe it's more complicated than we necessary? It allows us to buy apps just once for two phones, keep our contacts and calendars separate and personal and in sync with our computers, and makes it convenient to put whatever music we want on each of the phones.
We will be getting new 4S phones and iCloud and upgrading to Lion, so changes are on the horizon anyway. I am game to change the setup. Does anyone have advice on a better way to set this all up. I imagine iCloud introduces some new possibilities, and I suspect the way we are doing it now is hokier than necessary anyway.
I'm not interested in guesses about what might work. I'm hoping someone who actually knows what will work can save me from trial and error. :-)
Thanks!
Jon

I did some searches before my post, but actually found some things AFTER I made my post that sounded encouraging. If I understand correctly, we should be able to continue sharing the AppleID we use to buy apps and music on all of our devices. We can configure our personal devices and computers to use separate personal iCloud accounts, but somehow share the music and apps with each other. I guess I'm still not clear on how it'll work. :-)

ITunes Music lIbrary Sharing problems; repeatedly asks to authorize computer after it has already been successfully authorized

Having a very frustrating issue. I want to share music from my iMac's iTunes Music Library to my MBP. Purchased music plays fines on my iMac but not on the MBP. I can see the iMac's shared iTunes library from iTunes on my MBP. I have successfully authorized both of my computers using the same iTunes account username and password. When I try to play any purchased iTunes music on the MBP, it asks me to authorize the MBP again. Then it verifies that it is already authorized. Trying to play the same song again asks me to authorize my computer again at iTunes, over and over, ad nauseum. I can log into my iTunes account from both computers (via iTunes) which verifies that the username and password are correct. Both computers have the same version of the MacOS and iTunes, 10.5.8 & 10.4.1, respectively. It does this from multiple user accounts on the MBP. I went to iTunes and deauthorized both computers and reauthorized them again, no change. I uninstalled iTunes & all iTunes preferences and downloaded a fresh iTunes 10.4.1 from Apple, no change. I searched the Apple Communities and tried the suggested fixes in the knowledgebase article, http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1389 with no change. I also ran Disk Utility and rebuilt disk permissions but there were no problems found.
Short of doing clean install of the OS or even a reformat and restore, does anyone have any other suggestions. Thanks in advance.

I had the same problem, the only way to fix it is to oddly enough de-authorize your computer and reauthorize it and you'll have the correct number of authorized computer again.
I do not know why iTunes does this maybe someone else can explain why?

App duplication in iTunes library shared across two accounts on same iMac

I'm sharing media across two user accounts on a family iMac running Yosemite. The shared content is distributed across folders (Audiobooks, Music, Mobile Applications, etc.) inside Users/Shared/iTunes Music. Both accounts have read and write permissions, and family and home sharing are both turned on and linked to one primary Apple ID. In both accounts iTunes preferences point to the same shared folder. The problem: Updates to mobile applications in one account do not carry over to the other. After updating mobile apps for account A, when I switch to account B, I get the same list of apps awaiting updates. If I update for each account, I find duplicates for each updated app in the shared Mobile Applications folder.
I can avoid the duplication by control-clicking, in the Updates window of iTunes in account B, an app that has already been updated in account A. That will open a dialogue window saying the original file can't be found and asking if I'd like to locate it. When I do, the update disappears from the list in the Updates window. However this is a cumbersome process that I'd think iTunes would perform automatically if it were functioning properly. Has anyone encountered this issue and found a better solution?

For iPhoto 09 (version 8.0.2) and later:
What you mean by 'share'.
If you want the other user to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter your library, then enable Sharing in your iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open the other account. In that account, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Your Library will appear in the other source pane.
Any user can drag a pic from the Shared Library to their own in the iPhoto Window.
Remember iPhoto must be running in both accounts for this to work.
If you want the other user to have the same access to the library as you: to be able to add, edit, organise, keyword etc.
Quit iPhoto in both accounts. Move the Library to the Users / Shared Folder
(You can also use an external HD set to ignore permissions, a Disk Image or even partition your Hard Disk.)
In each account in turn: Double click on the Library to open it. (You may be asked to repair the Library Permissions.) From that point on, this will be the default library location. Both accounts will have full access to the library, in fact, both accounts will 'own' it.
However, there is a catch with this system and it is a significant one. iPhoto is not a multi-user app., it does not have the code to negotiate two users simultaneously writing to the database, and trying will cause db corruption. So only one user at a time, and back up, back up back up.

Ipod touch - itunes music library sharing

My 9 year old son has an ipod touch. Can he share my current iTunes music library? If so, how do we configure it in the settings without messing anything else up? We finally just worked it out so we aren't getting each others texts anymore!! Thanks!

Use the same Apple ID/iTunes account that was used to purchase the media. You use it in Settings>iTunes and App stores.
You can redownload iTunes purchases directly to the device as explained here:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
However, note the limit on changing accounts/ID discussed here:
iTunes Store: Associating a device or computer to your Apple ID

ITunes library shared between two accounts

Hi, I have an iMac at home and would like to share the iTunes library between two different accounts (between my girl friend an me). Is there an easy way to do so?
Thanks,
GeMan

[iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1203]

I accidentally added a folder to iTunes music library and now all of my songs are in there twice. How do I delete the folder/music i just imported?

I added a folder accidentally to my iTunes library and now all of the songs are in there twice. I tried to stop the import but it transferred too quickly. How do I delete all those songs without having to click on each one to delete?

Apple's official advice on duplicates is here... HT2905: How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library. It is a manual process and the article fails to explain some of the potential pitfalls such as lost ratings and playlist membership.
Use Shift > View > Show Exact Duplicate Items to display duplicates as this is normally a more useful selection. You need to manually select all but one of each group to remove. Sorting the list by Date Added may make it easier to select the appropriate tracks, however this works best when performed immediately after the dupes have been created. If you have multiple entries in iTunes connected to the same file on the hard drive then don't send to the recycle bin.
Use my DeDuper script if you're not sure, don't want to do it by hand, or want to preserve ratings, play counts and playlist membership. See this thread for background, this post for detailed instructions, and please take note of the warning
to backup your library before deduping.
(If you don't see the menu bar press ALT to show it temporarily or CTRL+B to keep it displayed.)
The most recent version of the script can tidy dead links as long as there is at least one live duplicate to merge stats and playlist membership to and should cope sensibly when the same file has been added via multiple paths.
tt2

Sharing one music library between two users on a mac

I want to set my wife up as a separate user on my mac and share my music file with her so we no longer mix up our iPhone apps. I don't want a second copy on my hard drive. I've tried one method on here HT1203 but it makes a second copy and fills up my hard drive. I do not want to share the whole media library just the music. There must be an easy way to use two iPhones with separate user ids on one Mac so we don't mix up our apps. I would have though that the great Apple would have just sorted this out when you plug in a different device.

First, back up your computer in case it does things you don't like. I'm not testing this on my computer.
You'll have to deactivate iTunes managing your music (deselect in preferences having iTunes organize your music and copying it to your media folder when adding to iTunes). Do the same for iTunes in her account.
Go to your iTunes folder and drag the music folder in Media to the Shared Users folder at the top level of the drive. You may also need to get info on the music folder and change permissions on it and all enclosing items so she has permission to use it too.
It is just possible your copies of iTunes may track all the moves. It would be good if it does. I know I have manage music disabled on my computer and iTunes is good at tracking when I move things around in Finder, unlike when iTunes is totally terrible at tracking when you let it manage music. If it doesn't track then you may have to face rebuilding your libraries using the music in the new location.
You will have to come to an agreement in deleting music. Fortunately in the manually manage mode you are using if you delete a track in your iTunes it will not delete the actual file. You have to manually delete it in Finder which is good because she may still be using the file.
If one of you renames the file, it will affect both. Haven't tried this but in theory you would each retain your individual ratings and last played.
Let us know if it works.
Edit: Found this; compare with my concept piece above:
iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1203 - relocating iTunes' media folder to a shared area but leaving separate library files - extra tip at https://discussions.apple.com/message/17331189

How to transfer itunes library to different user account on mac

how do i transfer all my music, album art, play count, movies, apps, to a different user account on my mac?

Is there a way to have purchased songs located in the Music list on iTunes of two Users and three locations: 1. on the same iMac computer that has two users (we both share the same iTunes account) and 2. on a separate laptop. Two users, same iTunes account, three locations. Possible? I have tried Home Sharing and it will not let me drag the songs from one account to the other; either on the same computer, or to the laptop. I have transferred TV Shows from the laptop to the imac using an iPod. I thought the Home Sharing feature would eliminate this need to manually transfer songs, movies, TV shows etc... What am I missing here?

Music Library shared on all accounts on Mac

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