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).

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 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.

Problem with second user account sharing one iTunes library

I have an iTunes library that is outside my Home folder that I am sharing between two users. One account functions flawlessly. All the songs are there. Everything is organized into folders by iTunes. iTunes Match is working as it should and all files have been downloaded from the cloud.
I have tried everything to get the second account to work as the other. I have used Apple's instructions to reimport the xml file. I have even recreated that users iTunes account from scratch. But when I go to preferences and point that account to the shared iTunes library the new account wants to copy the files or re-download the music and in both cases making duplicates in the library.
Looking for help.
Message was edited by: bitman

So I have both accounts now working... sort of. The problem is that the common iTunes Media folder they share does not contain the iTunes Library files (.itl and .xml). Those files are still in each account's Home folder iTunes Media folder. I can see this will be a problem keeping the shared iTunes Media folder happy.
I'm not sure how I got things to this point but I do want to correct it.
Can can I copy one of the account's iTunes Library files to the shared iTunes Media folder?

Problem with sharing an itunes library between machines

Hi all,
Hoping someone can help. I've moved my iTunes library onto my Time Capsule and have my mac and windows PC both using it. The problem is whichever machine I open it on, I get a message saying "Updating iTunes Library" for a few minutes. It's fine after that, until I open iTunes on the other machine, when the same thing happens. So have I forgotten to do something, or am I doing something I shouldn't, in order to use the same library across machines?
Thanks all

Anyone have any ideas?

Itunes library on airport extreme usb drive is gone (or hidden)

i cant figure out why my entire library on my hard drive is gone. my music is stored in a folder called "music" on the networked harddrive. i have 1000 artists in my itunes library, but for some reason, only 156 show up in the finder app. when i play them from itunes they play, so i know they are somewhere, and from itunes, when i select a song and then "get info" on a song, it shows where its supposed to be, but its not there in the finder. is is possible that they are invisible for some reason. from itunes "show in finder" brings up a blank finder screen but the song still plays. any ideas?

Sure, I'll explain. Actually this is how network shared drives are supposed to work from what Apple's promotional material says. I have both my iTunes Library and my iPhoto Library on a USB drive connected to my Airport Extreme so that both my wife and I can share the music and the pictures. We will often listen to different things at the same time on iTunes - which will make sense to you as that activity is really only a read. But I can add and delete music at the same time that she listens. With iPhoto we both can look at different pictures at the same time - I suppose just like iWeb can import photos at the same time I am running a slideshow in iPhoto. My problem is that this ability broke during my upgrade to iPhoto 7.0.1 - although it is possible this happened during 10.4.10 and I didn't notice, but I don't think so. As I have mentioned above I now find that I can create a NEW iPhoto Library and be able to share it on both machines again. So - my current question is: can I copy the contents of my old iPhoto Library into a newly created library and retain all the edits, events, titles, rankings, etc? And if so, is there any trick to it.
Regards, Tuck

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

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...).

Sharing one iTunes Library with Fast User Switching

Last year, I started using one MacBook Pro for Office use and Personal Home use, by creating two user accounts on it, and enabling Fast User Switching. I did this when I gave up using two separate desktops macs.
Now I have two rather similar music libraries, taking up too much hard drive space. Once I enabled Music Sharing in my Office iTunes Library, I realized that I could gain access to that Office Music Library when I am on my Personal Home User account. Since my Library on my Office account is the most complete, can I eliminate the iTunes Library on my Personal Home User account, to save hard drive space?
If so, how should I do this?
MBPro17, Pbk17 G4 1.67, Pbk G4 12 1.5, iMac G4, various G4&G5's Mac OS X (10.4.8) Airport Extreme & Express

Glen
Since my Library on my Office account is the most
complete, can I eliminate the iTunes Library on my
Personal Home User account, to save hard drive
space?
Yes.
If so, how should I do this?
Move the iTunes folder in Home/Music on the Personal
Home User Account to the desktop.
Launch iTunes. Unable to locate a library file, it
will create a new one, empty one in a new iTunes
folder at Home/Music.
Connect to your shared library as usual. If
everything is working as expected, trash the iTunes
folder on your desktop.
Regards
TD
My iTunes was created under an admin. user profile that I would like to delete. I created a second profile also with admin privlages but I want to delete the first because I messed up the shortname on the profile. So, if I delete this first profile, will I lose all of my music? Will I lose access to the music?

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.....

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 an iTunes library across multiple computers

I tried Home Share but it did not do what i expected. In addition to doing Home Share, the files need to be copied to each computer apparently.
Is it permitted to have the iTunes Library be located on a shared disc (such as one attached to an AirPort Express)? So that one copy of the library would be used by all copies of iTunes running in the house?
I am confused because different products seem to work differently. If I set up my iMac and my Mac Book with Home Share, each of htem needs a copy of the library in its own disk space. But if I set up Apple TV to use Home Share, it plays my videos from the hard drive of my iMac. Yes both describe Home Share as the same concept.
So far it appears that MacBook and iMac do not share libraries in the sense of using a single copy on disk.
What about iPhone and iPad? Do they read the library from the home sharing computer or do the media files need to be downloaded ahead of time to the iOS device?
What am I missing here?
Thanks,
Bruce

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.

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 on one Mac?

I've one Mac on which Bob would like to use the
iTunes Library of Alice with Alice agreement.
Alice has already enabled the sharing on her account.
But Bob doesn't see anything when looking for shared
Libraries.
How is this possible?
dan

Josef Kowalewski wrote:
hI,
Tell Bob and Alice to follow Apple's advice - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93195
Thank you for this great piece of documentation
which help to find a path to stop stupid duplication
of huge libraries. A search within the Apple Support
with the string "Sharing iTunes Library same computer"
gave no useful information.
Now I have a mostly similar problem I don't find a
word about in the Apple web support.
Bob is able to add to his Library any number of
piece of musique from Alice. But when he wants to add some
albums, the albums aren't imported. The pieces
of musique included in all the albums are included
in the "Library" but the albums contents definitions
are lost.
How is it possible to access to a large set of
well organised albums from another user's account?
dan

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.

Problems sharing an iTunes library on Airport

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