One iTunes Library, multiple user accounts?

Hi,
I recently purchased a new iMac 21.5" for my Family and want to share my iTunes library with my wife's OS X user account so we can both access the same music/media on both accounts. Is there an easy way to do this? Maybe place the files in a "shared" folder?
Also, What's the best way to move my iTunes media to my new Mac from my old PC?
Thanks,
C

The Apple store will move everything from the pc to the mac or you can call Apple Support and they will help you do it.
If you type "share itunes library" into the search bar at the top of this page next to "Support" and find articles to show you how to do this.

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One iTunes Library, Multiple Users

Is it possible to have one iTunes library (say the Administer's iTunes library) and share it with multiple users on the same computer?
Thanks.
Mick

See if this helps: iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer

How can I share my iTunes library between user accounts in iTunes 11

Since upgrading my iTunes library to Version 11 I can no longer share the library between user accounts on the same Mac.
The 2nd user is asked to create oir use an iTunes library, but when it is pointed to the Media folder it cannot share it.
Previously in iTunes 10 it all worked fine.
How can this be done please?
The library is in a shared areas that we both have Read/Write permissions to.

jc_hering wrote:
that works for anything he purchases after he creates the new account. What about his current music that currently resides in my itunes library? How can I get his current music out of my library into his new account/library?? Thanks..
Copy it to his computer into his iTunes library and authorize his computer with the iTunes account used to purchase them..
You cannot tranfser items from one iTunes account to another. Purchased items remain part of the iTunes account is was purchased with.
iTunes account - used to purchase items
iTunes library - where purchases (and CD RIPs) go on the computer

Problem with iTunes and multiple user accounts in Windows

I am running iTunes on a PC (Windows XP) and have multiple user accounts. When I switch between user accounts and try to open iTunes, I get a message that tells me I can't open the program because another user is using it. Is it really true that I can only have iTunes open in one user account at a time on a PC with multiple user accounts ?!? If not, what am I doing wrong?

You are right, can only have one open. You have to log out of a user before logging in to another user to use iTunes. Do not use the fast user switching ability of Windows.

Sharing iTunes Library between user accounts...possible?

Hello all,
I'm an experienced Mac user but am currently setting up a new iMac for my family. I've never had more than one user account because I'm the only one who uses my macbook but now my family wants 3 different user accounts for the new iMac in their home.
Because I only use my one user account at home, I never thought about the fact that different user accounts would also split up iTunes music libraries. If I import music from a CD, I would like that to be accessible and available when using any 1 of the 3 user accounts. Is this possible?
For example, my mother and father purchase CDs together...so they both own the same albums. They want to share music on the iMac, but if I import discs twice it takes up twice the amount of time and much more importantly twice the amount of space. How can I get around this??? Can one user access another users iTunes library and make that the default folder?
Thanks for your help as always!!

What you need to do is locate the iTunes Music Folder that contains the actual music in a location that is read/writable by all users. By definition, the security on each user's home folder keeps others out.
A common suggestion is to locate the music in the /Users/Shared/ folder and make sure that everyone has read/write privileges. Bear in mind that means that anyone will be able to delete all the shared music.

Single Computer / Single iTunes Library / Two User Accounts????

I am a DJ, I use my PowerBook and Traktor DJ Studio for gigs. I recently purchased a iMac and I would like to use it to organize my music and playlists. I would also like to create a separate user account on the iMac for my wife to log into and use. Is there a way to have both user account access the same iTunes library, so that if she adds songs to the library, I will have them when I log in and more imporatantly, I when I restore my collection onto the PowerBook, all the new music will be there as well.
I hope I am explaining this properly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

See if this is of any help: iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer

One iTune Library - Multiple Computers - Playlists?

I am running a couple of Windows PC from the same iTune library stored on a network drive.
There's no need to use "sharing" in this situation since all computers access the same library.
So far so good.
My problem is that I cannot see the Playlists from one computer to the other, is there a way to achieve that?
I did try sharing previously (share everything) and it did not make any difference.
Any ideas out there?

I am running a couple of Windows PC from the same iTune library stored on a network drive.
There's no need to use "sharing" in this situation since all computers access the same library.
So far so good.
My problem is that I cannot see the Playlists from one computer to the other, is there a way to achieve that?
I did try sharing previously (share everything) and it did not make any difference.
Any ideas out there?

One iTunes library, two users?

My brother and I share a computer, and we both have the same taste in music. Is there any way that we can both have access to the same iTunes library without having to duplicate it? How about iPhoto?

iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer tells you 2 methods of sharing.
You would be interested in the second method which describes setting up a library at a shared location.
I don't know about iPhoto either. Check the iPhoto forum or post a question there.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

Multiple ipods, one computer with multiple user accounts - Vista

My daughter just got a new ipod for Christmas, and she has her own login on our family computer using Vista. So she has her own folders for documents, pictures, etc. I installed iTunes under her login thinking that it would pull songs from her the folders in her account, and allow her to log into her iTunes account. It pulled every song on the computer into iTunes. When I plug in her ipod I have an option of syncing it and pulling every song on to it. Bad user experience.
My request is simple. How can my daughter have her own login for itunes that is tied to her iTunes account, pulls music from her files when she is logged in on the family computer?

Hello David Macintyre, Welcome to discussions.
If your daughter has a majority of iTunes Store purchased content on her iPod. She can transfer all these purchases back into iTunes via the following informational link below.
This will then allow her to sync back and forth from the iPod. You will also need to ensure she is authorized on this account. There is a link below that covers this as well.
Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1848
About iTunes Store authorization and deauthorization
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1420

Can I install iTunes in separate user accounts on Windows Vista 64-bit?

Hi,
My wife and I use different user accounts on Windows Vista 64-bit. Before I go and mess things up on my computer, I wanted ask some questions:
1) Has anyone has successfully installed iTunes to multiple user account?
2) If so, has anyone successfully shared the same music root directory for 2 different iTune instances.
I'm thinking with iTunes very tight integration with the music files (for indexing/searching, etc), that it would be bad to have add/change/delete on the same music root from 2 independent installations.
Experience OR opinions welcome!

) Has anyone has successfully installed iTunes to multiple user account?
You don't install the iTunes application more than once. Each user account in Windows will have its own iTunes library.
If so, has anyone successfully shared the same music root directory for 2 different iTune instances.
Many people have done so. This should help:
iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer
Note that iTunes has no folder-watching capability, so if you add a track in one user account, the other user will have to add that new item manually, either by using the Add To Library command or dragging the item into the iTunes window. There are a couple of potential solutions from other developers, though:
http://albumbrowser.klarita.net/iTunesFolderWatch.html
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/itunes/hack-attack-automatically-sync-itunes- to-any-folders-175161.php
Thanks to Meg and Hudgie for the tips.

Multiple users sharing one itunes library

i have multiple users on my mac, but i'd like us all to be able to access the same itunes library. when i go to itunes prefs on one of the other users accounts and redirect their music library to my folder, it says it is doing it, but itunes still goes to their own music folder instead of mine. i can share my library with the sharing pref, but while they can now listen to my music, they still can't use it in imovie. is there any easy way around this problem??
thanks for your help.

I wrote a simple shell script that executes each time a user logs in (well, actually, each time I log in, coz' it's not really applicable to other users). It syncs my work and home addressbooks and iCal calendars to one another.
I named it "sync". Then I read somewhere that if you wanted to make it double-clickable (to launch it from the Finder), I appended a ".command" filename extension (so it's now named "sync.command"). I also did a chmod 755 to that file so that it had execute privileges. Depending on whether you give each user their own copy of this thing, or keep a single copy in, say, the /Users/Shared directory, you may have to play around with chmod. Whatever, just so long as the user that has just logged in has execute permissions to the file, and to the entire path to the file, you should be good.
Then, in SysPrefs > Accounts > Login Items, I added that "sync.command" file to the list. So, really the only difference is I'm not wrapping mine inside an Automator script like you are.
I had tried adding it to ~/Library/LaunchAgents and make a launchd plist for it, that would kick it off at login. But I didn't get that to work. Don't know why. But just adding the double-clickable executable unix script to the Login Items list did the trick. Whether the plist has to hang out there with it, I don't know. I still have it there, though, in case I ever get motivated to figure out what's wrong with my launchd plist file. So, if just adding it to the Login Items list doesn't do it for you, you could try making a (functional?) launchd plist for it and plopping them both in ~/Library/LaunchAgents, too. That's how I am now, and, like I said, it launches at user login as that user's process (not as a root process like the above referenced article said how login hooks worked -- although, you may want it to run as root since you want this to work with multiple users...in which case, you might want to listen to Cole and not me...).

ITunes library on one computer with multiple users

Mom, Dad, and kids each have their own log-in to this computer. Mom is the main administrator and when we downloaded all the CDs to iTunes, it went to Mom's iTunes Library. Dad has logged in under his name and purchased items from iTunes store which are now in his library. We now have 2 separate iTunes Libraries. How can we make the iTunes library the same for both Mom and Dad?
Dad just got iPhone and wants to be able to sync his apps to his computer login as well as having access to Mom's iTunes library - it would seem to me that the easiest way to do this is to copy the library from Mom to Dad or somehow be able to have Dad share the itunes library. Can't figure out how to do this. Any help would be appreciated.

To share an iTunes library among multiple users, put the iTunes library in /Users/Shared/Music/iTunes, and for each user, make an alias from ~/Music/iTunes to /Users/Shared/Music/iTunes. Set permissions on /Users/Shared/Music/iTunes (and everything inside it) to give each user read and write permissions, and you're all set. My wife have been sharing our iTunes library this way since 2005, without a hitch.
Also, you'll have to import the contents of one library into the other, to make one big library, which is an extra step, but there's no way to avoid this now that you have two libraries.
Here are step by step instructions:
1. Figure out which library is larger, and start with that one. I'm going to guess it's Mom's. Log in as Mom.
2. In the Finder, make a folder called /Users/Shared/Music.
3. Move the folder ~/Music/iTunes (that's your iTunes library) to /Users/Shared/Music/iTunes.
4. Select the folder /Users/Shared/Music/iTunes, and make an alias of that folder. (In the Finder, click on File->Make Alias.) The alias will be called "/Users/Shared/Music/iTunes alias".
5. Move "/Users/Shared/Music/iTunes alias" to "~/Music/iTunes alias". Rename the alias to ~/Music/iTunes.
6. At this point, check your work: start iTunes while still logged in as Mom. Mom should see her iTunes library, just as before, as if it had never been moved.
7. While still logged in as Mom, go to /Users/Shared, select the Music folder, and give Mom and Dad read and write permissions on that folder and all its contents.
8. Log out as Mom, and log in as Dad. In the Finder, move Dad's iTunes library from ~/Music/iTunes to the Desktop.
9. As Dad, repeat steps 4 and 5.
10. Now Dad should check his work, by starting iTunes. Dad should now see Mom's library instead of his own.
Congratulations! You now have a shared library. You not only share content, but all playlists, artwork, etc. As Dad, create a playlist, fill it with romantic music, and call the playlist "To My Beautiful Wife". Log out as Dad, and log in as Mom, and Mom will see the same playlist. Crack open a bottle of champagne.
But Dad's content is still in ~/Desktop/iTunes. You'll have to add it to your shared libary:
11. Log in as Dad, and in iTunes, turn on the preference iTunes->Preferences->Advanced->Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library.
12. Still in iTunes, choose File->Add to Library and start adding all the files in ~/Desktop/iTunes. They'll be copied from Dad's desktop into the shared library. Try importing a couple of tracks, and log in as Mom and confirm that both Mom and Dad see the imported content. (I myself have never done this, so I can't give you much guidance about importing, since I started our iTunes library as a single shared library from the very beginning. For all you know, you can just select every folder in ~/Desktop/iTunes and import everything at once. I would imagine you might have to futz around re-organizing everything nicely once you've imported all Dad's stuff, but once that's done, it's done.) Once everything is imported you can trash ~/Desktop/iTunes.
That's it. Any content you add will be instantly available to both users without having to sync or copy anything ever, because both users are always looking at the same library. (If one user deletes something it's gone for both users too, so be careful!) The only trouble you could possibly have are permissions issues, depending on how your system and users are set up. On my computer, after setting it up once, we never had to think about it again. However, we set up a separate account to be the administrator, and neither my wife or I have admin privileges. Since Mom is an administrator and Dad is not, you might find that OS X treats you differently when you create new files in your library. You'll have to try it and see. Good luck!
Message was edited by: dgauthier

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

Can i use a 2nd iphone if i install itunes on another user account.when i tried to create a second library i messed up both phones, the second one now has all my contacts and when it sends txts it either says its my other phone or email address

can i use a 2nd iphone if i install itunes on another user account.when i tried to create a second library i messed up both phones, the second one now has all my contacts and when it sends txts it either says its my other phone or email address. i can cope with the first phone and getting it back on itunes but dont want to syn the 2nd phone until i know it is independant of the other one. Does it matter that both phones use the same itunes store account?

Deleting the account on your phone only removes if from your phone. The account and it's data remain intact and doing so will not effect your daughter's phone.
To do this, first go to Settings>iCloud on your phone and turn any synced data (contacts, calendars, etc.) to Off, and when prompted, choose to keep the data on the phone. When finished, scroll to the bottom and tap Delete Account. Then set up a new iCloud account with a different Apple ID and turn any data you want to sync with iCloud (contact, calendars, etc.) back to On. This will upload your data to your new iCloud account.

One iTunes library for multiple accounts, iPhones, laptops and PCs.

First off, I'll apologize up front for asking a question that has probably been asked a million times. I've searched the intarwebs and these forums but I've seen so many different answers and read so many different threads pertaining to my question that I think I've over-informed myself to the point of confusion.
OK, for the longest time I've had one iTunes library running on one Windows PC in my house. I used that for updating all our iPods. That was fine for the last however-many-years we've had iPods.
We just picked-up a couple iPhones last night.
All I want to do is move the iTunes library to our NAS so that we can both access the library from any laptop or PC in order to update the music on our iPhones using our different accounts.
Is there a definitive way to do this, or do I have to follow one of these sideways, shady and round-about ways to get this done.
Having to run upstairs to the PC seems to be completely needless with all this technology we have!
Any help would be appreciated.

After reading this and several other related threads, I am becoming thoroughly confused about all of this. I have a situation similar to the one that pokerpal described in the post dated January 7 at 8:06 pm, except that the music files on my system are located on an external hard drive. Everything else is pretty much the same though - I am the admin user (and the main iTunes user and maintainer) and my girlfriend is a standard user who has no music in her own iTunes library. She can see and listen to and make playlists from and sync her iPod with the music in this library from her account, and I can do the same thing, independent of her, from my account. And if I make a change to information within a song, she doesn't see it, and vice versa, and I understand that. What I don't understand is why when I add a song or an album to the music files by importing a CD or downloading something from the iTunes Music Store, she has no way of knowing that unless I tell her, and then she can add it to her library by using the "Add to Library" function. Is there no way of automatically updating her library files to add the new song(s)? We have almost 15,000 songs and videos in that library, and I don't even want to think about what might have to happen if the answer to my question is "no." Interestingly enough, if I put an update to a Word document in the same exact location (on the hard drive), we can update that and pass it back and forth all day - why is that such a difficult task for iTunes to accomplish?
Sorry I went on so long, but this has been building up for some time, and none of the solutions I've read about here have really been of any help, so I'm a bit frustrated and, as I said at the beginning, confused.
iMac G5, MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

One iTunes Library, multiple user accounts?

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