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)

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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

One iTunes Library Two Hard Drives

I want to share one iTunes Library or Media folder (Its the same thing isn't it?) between two bootable partitions. Each has its own copy of iTunes.
There are 3 partitions in total: The first 2 (mentioned above) each run an OS an the 3rd is a Data partition for storage. The Data partition is where I want to store my iTunes Media folder.I have managed to move and successfully run the iTunes Library/Media folder from the Data partition on the Lion partition. But it my computer won't play fair and share its musical toys with the other iTunes app.
I don't see any reason why this is not possible but just I can't get a shared parition to work on both Lion and Snow Leopard partitions. The partitions do have different versions of iTunes on if that makes a difference (Lion has iTunes 10 & SL has iTunes 11)?
I'd love to get this sorted iTunes takes up huge amount of space on my computer and I really miss my music when I'm working on Snow Leopard!
All helpful words an whispers much appreciated!

If you want to use two external drives to store your itunes content, there are a couple of ways you could go about it.
You could choose to have just movies (for example) on one HDD and everything else on the other. You could further choose to have your itunes music folder on one HDD and have all content copied to it by default. When it comes to movies (in this example) you can place these on your second HDD and add them to itunes by using OPT-drag, which will temporarily disable itunes from copying the file to your itunes library.
You could also entirely disable disable itunes copying files to your itunes music folder from the itunes preferences and manually manage all your content.
Personally I'd just buy a 2 TB (for example) drive and ebay your old drive once you have moved everything from it to your new one.

How to share iTunes library: two users, two iPhones, one iTunes library

My wife and I just purchased new iPhones. I would like to be able to sync music from the library on my account to her iPhone, which syncs to her account. Please advise.

You can sync multiple iPods and/or iPhones with a single iTunes library on a computer.
If your wife has her own computer login account on your Mac where she stores her account information and calendar events which is synced with the iPhone, she can sync everything but iTunes content via your iPhone sync preferences under her login account, and sync iTunes content only via her iPhone sync preferences with iTunes under your login account.
You can disable automatic syncing when the iPhone is connected - there is a preference setting for each iPhone under the Summary tab for the iPhone sync preferences, and iTunes includes a global setting to not automatically sync when an iPod or iPhone is connected.
Your wife can create an iTunes Playlist with your iTunes library and place the music she wants available on her iPhone in this Playlist. Select sync selected Playlists and then select this Playlist only to be transferred to her iPhone. She can select which video, podcasts, etc. via her iPhone sync preferences.
You can do the same with your iPhone sync preferences with iTunes.
If you want to share the same iTunes library with multiple computer login accounts, you can transfer your iTunes library to an external drive which iTunes under each login account will be associated with.

One Aperture Library, Two Users

I have two users on a single Mac and I'd like them to share one Aperture library (see the same albums, pictures, tags, etc). Both need to be able to create folders, projects, etc that the other one can see.
I don't want to have to readjust permissions constantly, like I have to do now (I just chgrp whatever, chmod g+rwx on a Library currently, but one user consistently can't add things, can't set import location to where it should go, etc).
Any solution to this? This HAS to be a common use case - don't a lot of people share picture libraries?

I needed to use my library with two different accounts that are on the same MBP. I read where you might be able to put the library on an external disk and check ignore ownership on the info of the HDD. I had recently installed a 320GB HDD to avoid having to drag around an external so I thought maybe if I partitioned the drive it would "see" the second partition as an external. I partitioned off 50GB and checked the "ignore ownership" in the bottom left corner of the info window. I option+opened Aperture and created a new library in the second HDD. After opening Aperture, I imported a few pics into the library and made dup's. I modified them in my account, closed out of Aperture and logged off. I then logged in under my wife's account and was able to open Aperture by option+opening Aperture and choosing the new library location. The pics that I had imported under my log-in were there as well as the the modified versions. I re-modified the versions to see if it work the other way. I closed out of Aperture and logged out of my wife's account and logged in under mine. I clicked on the Aperture icon in my dock and it came right up w/out any problems. I was able to view the versions that I re-modified under my wife's log-in.
I know you shouldn't share the library across users just in case two account users are trying to access the same library at the same time; but in my case it is one laptop with two accounts so we wouldn't physically be able to access it at the same time.
So if you have a big enough HDD and you don't want to drag around an external, partition it however big you think you'll need it, check the "ignore ownership" box in the HDD info window, add read & write permissions for the different accounts, move/copy your current library to the new partition and option+open Aperture to choose the new location.

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.

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 photo library, two users - what's best?

It seems like such a common need but there doesn't appear to be an obvious answer or best practice to this problem. My wife and I bought a new iMac that we hope will function as the "hub" for us. Up to this point we have been using a series of different mac laptops that belonged to either her or me (and worth clarifying, were NOT shared between the two of us). We want to consolidate those libraries on our new iMac but not under a single user profile. We strongly wish to maintain seperate user profiles on the new iMac but share and edit our photo library using Aperture (we shoot with a DSLR and other cameras).
I would think that a lot of families have a similar need and would want to share a library but the articles and threads I am reading don't have an obvious solution.
We have the opportunity to start afresh so I would like to do this right. I attempted to copy a "master" library to a shared location under the users folders but despite setting read/write access, this seemed to not quite work (images weren't resolving and Aperture would throw errors when opening).
Any advice or is there a helpful guide to setting this up that I have missed?
Thanks in advance for your time and help!

If you want to share your Aperture Library, you will have the least problems with alternatingly accessing it from different accounts, if your Aperture Library resides on a separate disk, or disk partition. A "Shared Folder" may be problematic - there have been issues with wrong access control lists and apparently unsupported video Re: Aperture cannot read newly imported video since Lion upgrade.. If you put your Aperture library on a separate disk (or partition) you should set the "Ignore Ownership on this Volume" flag for this volume, and then your wife and you should be able to read and write the Aperture Library without problems.
Also, an Aperture library needs to be located on a local, MacOS Extended formated volume, and the performance is best, if the volume is internal, not external. Is it possible to add a second internal disk to your iMac?
I am sure you know, that Aperture is a single user application; so only one person at a time should access your Aperture library.
Good luck!
Léonie
P.S: How to set the ignore ownership flag for a disk from the "Get Info" panel:
Message was edited by: leonieDF added screen shot

One Itunes account, two users

My husband and I both received ipods for christmas. We do not like the same music so want different songs on our ipods. How can I pick certain songs from the library and he pick others. I don't want to keep having to skip songs because we have the same music on both ipods. Thanks so much for any help!

My advice is to stop using the checkmarks to sync your iPod....if you are doing it that way. Make some playlists with just YOUR favorites and sync your ipods with selected playlists.
Once you try it, you'll see what I mean....it is SO much easier.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1204

Can users have one iTunes library deriving from two drives?

Hi everyone,
I keep my 4 & 5 star songs on my C drive and the rest (all stars, 1,2 3, etc.) on my exhternal hard drive.
Whenever I want to listen to my music, all I can readily play are the tunes on my C drive.
I'm guessing the issues having one library for tunes stored on separate drives is insurmountable?
I say that because I'm guessing that my iPod (4th gen) is only capable of importing from one library?
I think the biggest issue is either I don't know how to (or maybe users can't) list a second drive so that iTunes can load all songs from both drives whenever I do have the second drive up and running.
Adding to the second drive library issue, I can't figure out how to permanently tag my external HD's (I've got 6) so that their drive letter is not automatically defaulting to their order of prescence.
I can deal with that issue by simply not opening iTunes while I the second drive has been assigned a drive letter other than what iTunes (hopefully) is set to (i.e.; hopefully C and F drives).
But can users have one iTunes library deriving from two drives?

Seems I've over come what is something I'd hoped/expected iTunes would be capable of (ie; reinitiating the pathway for external HD music files when their drive letter is the only thing that changed).
I tried the obvious by going to iTunes's Edit>Preferences>Advanced and clicking the change button for "iTunes Music folder location", then entered the current drive and pathway (as the drive is currently assigned, F as opposed to the original G) and of course iTunes still couldn;t find the missing tunes.
Giving up on the hope that iTunes was designed smarter than it is (ie; each and every single missing tune req's manual redirection of pathway, as opposed to a preferable tick box for something like 'use the last redirected pathway').
And I finally figured out how to properly changed drive letter assignments, but still uncertasin if that means permanently tags my EHD's with that drive letter.
For that to be permanent, maybe I need to name each drive regardless that Windows already has unique inforamtion on each HD. Suppose I'll soon find out if the drive at this point has fianlly stored its drive name and whether or not Windows will contiue to change the EHD drive letters simply by the order which I am introducing them to the os.
No real luck with rats nest USB hubs as they crash my os alot, so I'm left to trying to find an easy way of managing the EHD drive assignments. THe following is the closest I've yet to come to doing that:
Click Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management, and then in the left pane, under Storage, click Disk Management.
Right-click the drive, partition, logical drive, or volume for which you want to assign a drive letter, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Click Change.
Click Assign the following drive letter (if it is not already selected), click the drive letter that you want to use, and then click OK.
Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the drive letter change.
Again, too bad iTunes doesn't afford a 'find' feature for 'missing' files such that one might be afforded a tick box for 'do not prompt again, instead use the last indicated location for "iTunes Music" folder as the base storage location'.
This drive renaming thing is a real hassle. Not like somebody couldn't have guessed it and Windows and/or iTunes can't afford some script, etc. to better manage 'tagging' EHD's and/or re-locating 'missing' tunes.
But then what would we have to complain about, not that they listen anyway.

Two user accounts, one iTunes library

Hello,
trying to solve problem with sharing one itunes library on macbook pro (mid 2009) between two users. I moved all itunes folders to shared folder, open itunes on new account with alt key, choose library and seems to be working. However it isnt...on my account I did the same, worked sometimes. After a qwhile I recognized that i cant use both accounts simultaneously. Once I log in to new account and open itunes and then I just switch users (not logging off) and try to open itunes, the first picture warning appears...I include also pictures with sharing preferences which should be OK.
Any ideas how to solve this?
Once I log off from account, it starts working with other one. But wioth simple switching users, it doesnt work (or rarely:-/)

judge2001 wrote:
Do I also have to create an user account on my Mac for her in order to have her own addressbook and calendar?
yes.
How will she access "my" iTunes library from her account?
click here for information.
you can authorize iTunes on her user account to play/use content purchased with your iTunes store account and vice versa.
JGG
edited by the Jolly Green Giant (where Green stands for environmentally friendly)

Two iphones different accounts one itunes library?

My wife and I each have an iphone 4 each with its own apple account. Can I sync both phones in itunes on a Windows PC using one itunes library. We share the same media files. Do I have to set up two Windows user accounts and two different libraries?
I also have an ipad which uses the same apple account as my iphone, and I am able to sync both devices using one itunes library and one Windowws account.

judge2001 wrote:
Do I also have to create an user account on my Mac for her in order to have her own addressbook and calendar?
yes.
How will she access "my" iTunes library from her account?
click here for information.
you can authorize iTunes on her user account to play/use content purchased with your iTunes store account and vice versa.
JGG
edited by the Jolly Green Giant (where Green stands for environmentally friendly)

Multiple users on one mac sharing one itunes library

Hi, I read through this thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3753008 and was able to have two users share one itunes library on one computer (yay). However, for the new user, she can't add any music files to her itunes even though I already made sure that she had read/write permissions for the shared folder. Can anyone help? Thanks! (I recently upgraded to mountain lion on a 2009 macbook, if that matters at all. Thanks.)

During the last months... did you get the answer yet, i also would like to know if this is possible

One library, two users

Can I have one iTunes library and two users with separate music on their ipods?

Yes. How to use multiple iDevices with one computer.

Managing apps for multiple users in one iTunes library

Hi - my wife and I both have iPhones and separate iTunes ID's. We both share music in one iTunes library and sync to the same library. We also backup our phones to that same computer. We have some apps on both phones (for example, Pandora) and when we backup/restore our phones, iTunes apparently will put "my" version of apps on her phone and "her" version of apps on my phone. Afterwards, when I update apps, my phone will ask for BOTH my iTunes ID AND her iTunes ID. Similarly, her phone asks for both her ID and my ID. Presumably, this also uses two of my FIVE authorized devices, which is also a problem.
My question is how can we manage our apps separately on iTunes so that we can get rid of this annoying behavior? It is very common for families to share one common iTunes library, so I don't see why this would be unsupported.
Thanks for any assistance!

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One iTunes library, two users?

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