Network sharing of iTunes library issue

Hello,
I've searched for a similar problem, but did not find one.
I have a main computer where I keep all of my MP3's on an external drive. I've sucessfully shared the library to the second computer - all of the playlists show up complete with artwork. The problem is, when I try to play or download to an iPod on the 2nd machine, I get an error message on the second computer the "the original files can't be located - would you like to locate them? Well, yes, I would, but not for 500+ albums!
I've got the 2nd machine pointed at the main folder of the drive where the music folders are located in preferences. I can individually re-locate the files on the 2nd machine and fix it this way, but is there a global way to point the 2nd machine at the correct location of ALL of the folders on the external drive connected to the main machine?
Both machines are running iTunes 7.4.3.1
Thanks!

This issue of sharing music among many different Macs on one network seems to be much harder than it should be. As mentioned above it would be ideal to be able to walk up to any Mac I own in my home (all of which are registered with Apple to play my AAC files) and listen to any song I want from a common library of songs on an external drive (and from any user account on each of those Macs). Also, if the fancy strikes me to hop onto iTunes and buy a song I should be able to do so from ANY computer and have the song automatically be placed into that external library AND show up on EVERY iTunes library of every user on every Mac in my home. This is where it gets sticky - I have been able to point each iTunes to the iTunes Music folder on the external drive (either directly pointing it to the folder or using an alias as mentioned above) but there is no way that I have found to AUTOMATICALLY have a new song I have purchased show up on all Macs. What I need to do is manually go to each iTunes (on each Mac and on each user account!) and add that purchased song to the iTunes library of that Mac. Confusing, right?? Gets worse if you purchase songs on more than one Mac in your home (I have 3). Apple really should make this entire process seamless -- especially if they want to have us buying media (songs, movies, TV shows, etc...) from them to play wherever and whenever we want on our Apple products (iPods, iPhones, AppleTVs, AppleToilets, etc...). Would seem straightforward to have iTunes check a file to see if a new file has been added to the main library on the external drive and if so, add that file to that particular iTunes library. Just some of my thoughts.....

Similar Messages

Who is Sharing my iTunes Library?

I was wondering if there's a way to find out who is sharing my iTunes library on a local network.

You can make your copy of iTunes ignore other shared libraries on your network by unticking the checkbox next to Shared Libraries under the Edit > Preferences... > General tab.
Of more concern might be the network secutity implications if your machine is sharing a network with unknown others.
tt2

Sharing an iTunes Library across multiple user account and a network.

Sharing an iTunes Music Library across multiple user accounts.
Hello Everybody!
Firstly, this was designed to be run in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. It will not work with earlier versions of Mac OS X! Sorry.
Here's a handy tip for keeping your hard drive neat and tidy, it also saves space, what in effect will be done is an iTunes music library will be shared amongst multiple users on the same machine. There are advantages and disadvantages to using this method.
• Firstly I think it might be worthwhile to state the advantages and disadvantages to using this approach.
The advantages include:
- Space will be saved, as no duplicate files will occur.
- The administrator will be able to have complete control over the content of the iTunes library, this may be useful for restricting the content of the Library; particularly for example if computer is being used at and education institution, business or any other sort of institution where things such as explicit content would be less favorable.
- The machine will not be slowed by the fact that every user has lots of files.
The disadvantages to this system include.
- The fact that the account storing the music will have to be logged in, and iTunes will have to be active in that account.
- If the account housing the music is not active then nobody can use the iTunes library.
- There is a certain degree of risk present when an administrator account must be continually active.
- Fast User Switching must be enabled.
Overview:
A central account controls all music on the machine/network, this is achieved by storing iTunes files in a public location as opposed to in the user's directory. In effect the system will give all users across the machine/network access to the same music/files without the possibility of files 'doubling up' because two different users like the same types of music. This approach saves valuable disk space in this regard and may therefore prove to be useful in some situations.
This is a hearty process to undertake, so only follow this tutorial if you're willing to go all the way to the end of it.
Process:
Step 1:
Firstly, we need to organize the host library, I tidied mine up, removing excess playlists, random files, things like that. this will make thing a bit easier in the later stages of this process.
Once the library is tidied up, move the entire "iTunes" folder from your Home directory to the "//localhost" directory (The Macintosh HD) and ensure that files are on the same level as the "Applications", "Users", "Library" and "System" directories; this will ensure that the files in the library are available to all users on the machine (this also works for networks)
Optionally you can set the ownership of the folder to the 'administrator' account (the user who will be hosting the library.), you may also like to set the permissions of 'you can' to "Read & Write" (assuming that you are doing this through the user who will host the library); secondly you should set the "Owner" to the administrator who will be hosting the library and set their "access" to "Read & Write" (this will ensure that the administrator has full access to the folder). The final part of this step involves setting access for the "Others" tab to "Read Only" this will ensure that the other users can view but not modify the contents on the folder.
Overview:
So far we have done the following steps:
1. Organized the host library.
2. Placed the iTunes directory into a 'public' directory so that other users may use it. (this step is essential if you plan on sharing the library across multiple accounts on the same machine. NOTE: this step is only necessary if you are wanting to share you library across multiple accounts on the same machine, if you simply want to share the music across a network, use the iTunes sharing facility.
3. set ownership and permissions for the iTunes music folder.
Step 2:
Currently the administrator is the only user who can use this library, however we will address this soon. In this step we will enable iTunes music sharing in the administrator's account, this will enable other users to access the files in the library.
If you are not logged in as the administrator, do so; secondly, open iTunes and select "Preferences" from the "iTunes" menu, now click the "Sharing" tab, if "share my library on my local network" is not checked, the radio buttons below this will now become active, you may choose to share the entire libraries contents, or share only selected content.
Sharing only selected content may be useful if their is explicit content in the library and minors use the network or machine that the library is connected to.
If you have selected "share entire library" go to Step 3, if you have selected share "share selected playlists" read on.
After clicking "share selected playlists" you must then select the playlists that you intend to share across your accounts and network. Once you have finished selecting the playlists, click "OK" to save the settings.
Overview:
In this step we:
1. Enabled iTunes sharing in the administrator's account, now, users on the local network may access the iTunes library, however, users on the same machine may not.
Step 3:
Now we will enable users on the same machine to access the library on the machine. This is achieved by logging in as each user, opening iTunes, opening iTunes preferences, and clicking "look for shared music". now all users on the machine may also access the library that the administrator controls.
This in effect will mean that the user will not need to use their user library, it will be provided to them via a pseudo network connection.
As a secondary measure, I have chosen to write a generic login script that will move any content from the user's "Music/iTunes/iTunes Music" directory to the trash and then empties the user's trash.
This is done through the use of an Automator Application: this application does the following actions.
1. Uses the "Finder" action "Get Specified Finder Items"
1a. The user's "~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music" folder
2. Uses the "Finder" action "Get Folder Contents"
3. Uses the "Finder" action "Move to Trash"
4. Uses the "Automator" action "Run AppleScript"
4a. with the following:
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Finder"
empty trash
end tell
return input
end run
IMPORTANT: Once the script is adapted to the user account it must be set as a login item. in order to keep the script out of the way i have placed it in the user's "Library" directory, in "Application Support" under "iTunes".
Overview:
Here we:
1. Enabled iTunes sharing in the user accounts on the host machine, in effect allowing all users of the machine to view a single iTunes library.
2. (Optional) I have created a login application that will remove any content that has been added to user iTunes libraries, this in effect stops other users of the machine from adding music and files to iTunes.
Step 4:
If it is not already enabled, open system preferences and enable Fast User Switching in Accounts Options.
Summary:
We have shared a single iTunes library across multiple user account, while still allowing for network sharing. This method is designed to save space on machines, particularly those with smaller hard drives.
I hope that this hint proves to be helpful and I hope everybody will give me feedback on my process.
regards,
Pete.
iBook G4; 60GB Hard Drive, 512MB RAM, Airport Extreme Mac OS X (10.4.6) iWork & iLife '06, Adobe CS2, Final Cut Pro. Anything and Everything!!!

how to share music between different accounts on a single computer

Sharing 1 iTunes library on a network

I have recently added a new Airport Extreme (n) to my setup and now have a usb hard drive.
I want to use this drive to host my itunes library and therefore make it always available to the computers in our house.
We have 2 macs (10.4.8) and 1 pc (running xp sp2)
I have managed to transfer the music library from my MacBook to the network drive and can play music ok.
The other computers cannot see the library in itunes.
Can someone please give me some guidence on what to do, I have searched this forum but can't see an answer that t fits ( given my limited abilities)
Thanks in advance.
Cheers
Powerbook G4 15' MacBook (Black) Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Not easy because in order to open just one library file you would have to be running the same version of iTunes on all computers which would be limited to the lowest version supported by your computers (the G3). Try to open a iTunes 10 library with 9.2.1 and it will refuse. This in turn might not support your equipment. Even if you can do this you would have to make sure only one copy of iTunes was running because the library file cannot be opened by multiple copies of iTunes at the same time.

Sharing my iTunes library with other computers on the network

Hi Everybody,
I have an external hard disk with about 125 gigs of music on it, and I've spent a year going through it and categorizing it, and rating the songs. The hard disk is plugged into my Aiport Extreme, and communicates with my iMac just fine. My plan was to use my old windows laptop w/ iTunes, plug it into my stereo in the other room and have it pull music off the hd through the Airport, so I could have a jukebox for my stereo.
I have the windows machine communicating with the Airport and hd, so I have access to the music. I thought I might be able to get the library information if I Exported the Library to the external hd, but it did't work. Next I Exported my playlist from the Mac's iTunes, and Imported it on to the pc's. This shows my playlists, but they are all empty and there is no My Rating information.
What I would love it to do would be to have mirror playlist information on each computer, and any changes in the playlist would automatically get updated on the other computer's iTunes. for this I would think you would need your Library information at the source of the music, so on the external hard disk, and it would be shared by each computer. It'd be great if all the album covers did this too. I really don't want to have to go through all that music again on the pc, and would probably just use my iPod with my stereo if this is not possible. Any suggestions?
Forgive me if this has been written about already. Seems like someone else would have run into this too, but I couldn't find any searching through the discussions.
Thanks, -Victor

Chris CA wrote:
Move the entire _iTunes folder_ located in *My Documents/My Music*/ to a Shared directory. Make sure to set this folder for read/write permissions for all users.
I set my permissions as follows OS 10.4.X:
first under the original owners login, change all permissions to read & write, then change 'group' to wheel. Then change the owner from the user to system (I applied to all within ~ may not be necessary).
Start iTunes holding the Shift key and select *Choose existing library* then pick the iTunes library file you moved into the Shared directory.
In iTunes 7.5, you'll need to hold the Option key and then pick the /Users/Shared/iTunes/iTunes Music
Quit iTunes and log out of your user and let her log in.
Start iTunes holding the Shift key and select *Choose existing library* then pick the iTunes library file you moved into the Shared directory.
Now she needs to File -> *Add folder to library* and pick *My Documents*/My Music*/*iTunes*/iTunes music*.
This will add all her music to the common library.
Once this is complete, she can delete *My Documents*/My Music*/*iTunes.
Do this for all users. Any changes made by one will be seen by all.

Sharing an iTunes Library over WAN?

Sorry if this question has been asked before but my searching of the forum here has only seemed to turn up questions and anwswers on sharing over a local network. Here is my question.
Is it possible to share an iTunes library over the internet? And if so, how? If it isn't I'd like to know so I can stop trying to track down how to do this.
I have a Titanium G4 at home running iTunes 6.01 using a cable modem and router. The router firewall has been setup with the proper ports for iTunes and FTP (FTP works fine). My work computer is a G5 running iTunes 6.01 connected via a DSL modem/router.
I have no other issues connecting to my home computer from work, but I can't see my shared music at home on my work computer.
Thanks for any info.

Issue solved. Here is what I did. I setup my Mac at home so I could connect at work. Inside the iTunes library on my work Mac I created an alias to the iTunes Music folder on my home Mac. Since my library at home and work are exactly the same iTunes on my work Mac sees a local library file but is streaming the music over WAN from my Mac at home.
The are some stops and starts as the connection is over WAN, but it's pretty smooth. Do not know what will happen if I need to add or subtract from the library on either Mac.
Just bringing this to the front in case anyone is interested in trying it themselves.

Sharing an iTunes library - best practices/howto? (iDrive?)

I would like to know how others have solved this issue:
Scenario:
* I have an iMac and a macbookpro (MBP). My wife uses the iMac and syncs her iPhone there. I use the MBP and sync my iPhone against the MBP. I usually sync my phone at the office (not on my home network).
* I listen to the iTunes library on the MBP at work.
* It is that listening to the iTunes library and syncing at work that prevents a simple network share of an iTunes library on the home network.
_Finally to the question_: How do we share an iTunes library that we both can listen to at any time and sync our phones against.
_My answer (not working too well)_:
* I put all our music (25GB) on mobileMe in an iDisk and pointed iTunes at the iDisk on each mac. I setup the iDisk to sync a local copy of the iDisk on each mac.
* I am starting to see sync errors and worry that changes to the iTunes library may get lost if changes are made on both the iMac and MBP and then sync, as the sync utility must pick a version of the file, one version will get lost
- mattb

Trevnew wrote:
when looked in preferences the old location was still there, eventually changed in preferences
Trev,
changing iTunes media folder location via preferences > advanced tells iTunes where to put new additions to your library, not where the current content is.
also, with your library now on the NAS, you must make sure the NAS is mounted on your desktop before launching iTunes.
... still showed an issue with the file locations and the exclamation marks.
you may have done something wrong initially (during re-locating your library to the NAS) because the exclamation marks usually appear when media files were moved using the finder and iTunes lost track of their location.
you might be able to use this script:
iTunes Track CPR v1.3
This script attempts to locate the files of so-called "dead tracks"--iTunes tracks designated with (!)--that you assume are not actually missing but are still located in the iTunes Music folder in their "iTunes File Order" (Music -> Artist -> Album -> file.xxx)."

Sharing One iTunes Library on a iMac and MacBook - Please Help!

I realise that this has probably been answered a million times on this forum, so I apologize in advance. I recently bought an Airport Extreme and connected to my wireless home network, my internet speeds have increased (don't ask me why because I don't know) and I am really happy with the results, I have just one issue which I am hoping to resolve.
I have a iMac in my study, and a MacBook which I use all around the house. I have an external hard drive connected to the AEBS which has all of my files on, including my iTunes music. The problem is, I download music on both computers, and if I download a track or a movie onto the itunes library of one, it doesn't appear on the other computer, even though both iTunes apps are pointing to the same folder on the external hard drive.
The question I have is, how do I make both itunes libraries share the same library, so if I add a song on my mac it will automatically appear on my macbook when i use it next.
Both macs are fully up to date, and running Leopard
Many Thanks
JC

This is really an iTunes question. How do you configure a remote library which updates properly for all clients?
I suggest that you ask in the iTunes discussion area.

Sharing ONE iTunes Library on TWO Macs (Mac and MacBook) Using Airport Extr

I did put this thread in the Airport Extreme forum, but I have moved it here on advice.
I realise that this has probably been answered a million times on this forum, so I apologize in advance. I recently bought an Airport Extreme and connected to my wireless home network, my internet speeds have increased (don't ask me why because I don't know) and I am really happy with the results, I have just one issue which I am hoping to resolve.
I have a iMac in my study, and a MacBook which I use all around the house. I have an external hard drive connected to the AEBS which has all of my files on, including my iTunes music. The problem is, I download music on both computers, and if I download a track or a movie onto the itunes library of one, it doesn't appear on the other computer, even though both iTunes apps are pointing to the same folder on the external hard drive.
The question I have is, how do I make both itunes libraries share the same library, so if I add a song on my mac it will automatically appear on my macbook when i use it next.
Both macs are fully up to date, and running Leopard
Many Thanks
JC

This is really an iTunes question. How do you configure a remote library which updates properly for all clients?
I suggest that you ask in the iTunes discussion area.

Sharing one iTunes library

I have an iTunes library on my iMac and would like to move this to an network drive and have both my iMacs and my MBP share this same library. I have tried a few ways and have had no luck. What steps should I be doing in order to get these results:
Library located on network drive
All 3 macs use this library as their default
Any changes made are shared between all 3 computers.
Thanks

No - the appleTV will only show libraries which are exposed through 'home sharing' , which means you have to have an iTunes instance running somewhere, which you can't do on the NAS (you need a Mac or PC somewhere acting as a server, even if the files still live on the NAS). This is different from the DAAP sharing that lets the NAS 'share' the library to you that you can see at the moment.
To answer your original question, you should be playing the files as if from your local library - John's solution basically puts your library pointer alongside the files on the NAS. Another option would be to copy/keep the library files locally on the laptop, but then change the media files location (under preferences) to be the NAS.
The same point applies that you have to be connected to the network, but instead of failing to open and defaulting the library location - you'd just see '!' next to the files as its can't locate the directory associated with the media.

Sharing Mac iTunes library with Windows PC (I want to be able to read/write)

Greetings from a new Mac user. 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:
- 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.
Assume: I don't want to change the version of Windows iTunes software from the currently installed 10.5.0 version.
Question 1: Can my Windows PCs access and utilize the same iTunes library file that I plan to build on my iMac hard drive?
Question 2: 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?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hmmm... thanks for the reply. This of course, yields another question. When you say 'you could format to FAT32 which both can use'; do you mean format the iTunes Hard drive on which my iTunes music now resides? If so, this would mean I would need to copy the music off the internal iMac hard drive, then format the drive to FAT32, then copy the music back.
Is this what you meant?

Sharing an iTunes library across bootcamp

At the moment, using bootcamp, I run both OS X and Windows 7. At the moment my iTunes library is on OS X and I would like to share it across both OS's.
Would I'd like to do would be to save my library on an external HDD and have both OS's access it. Is this possible? Would it create problems with podcasts that I download?
Would I have any issues syncing my iPhone or iPod; for example would this only be possible from the one OS?

I think I have this figured out although I haven't tried it yet. Put the music/movies/etc. in the users/shared/media library and make sure it is accessible by all users, or at least you and your wife, and then import the media into your iTunes library from each of your profiles.

ITunes stops sharing of iTunes library

I share my iTunes library in my home network, clients are another mac and a windows vista notebook. Without touching the main machine which is sharing the library both clients stop playpack. Both clients can´t access the shared iTunes library until I restart the "master iTunes".
With OS 10.4.x there never were any problems, since using 10.5./10.5.1 I did not test the access to the shared iTunes library until today. Maybe another hint: I´ve got TimeMachine running.
Does anyone have a clou or a solution?

Was fixed by the last security update 2007-009 1.1 (10.5.1)

Problems sharing an iTunes library on Airport

I have a wireless Airport network between three Macs in my home. On my eMac i tried to share the iMac's music library through Preferences>Sharing. However, when the computer tries to share the music library, it comes up with this message:
"Could not share with "computer name" as it does not have connected speakers"
I dont know exactly how to fix this.
eMac Mac OS X (10.4)

This isn't something I've done myself, Trapper. So I don't think I could help you fix anything if you ran into complications. But ...
There's a discussion on how to do that (for an earlier version of iTunes) in the comments section of the following blog entry (the blog entry itself talks about a different scenario):
[Syncing iTunes library between Mac and PC|http://blog.toonetown.com/2006/07/syncing-itunes-library-between-mac-and.htm l]
One potential additional complication mentioned there ... if you have purchased content in your library, you may end up using up two authorisations on that Mac (one for the Mac OS and one for the Windows OS).

Sharing an iTunes Library w/Multiple iPods/Computers

I'm sure there is a tutorial somewhere that tells you how to do this...but I cant seem to find one. I'm trying to find out how to share one iTunes library that is on my mac with another computer on my network (a laptop PC). I have 2 ipods as well, and would like both ipods to be synched to the same itunes library. Is this possible? Please help!
thanks

Not really. Each computer will have a separate library within iTunes. They can be set to use the same file storage location but I have no idea how to do that with a Mac.

Network sharing of iTunes library issue

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