Restoring multiple users/libraries

Hi - my hard drive crashed and I was able to restore iTunes and re-synch my iPod under my user name. Before the crash, my iPod synched to my user account and my wife's iPod synched to her user account. We keep our music in a shared folder.
Now I am trying to point iTunes under my wifes user account to the shared folder and it is giving me an "access denied" error. She is set up as an Administrator (as I am) and I do not understand why the error.
Help!
Thx, Chris
Dell 8400 Windows XP Pro

If you want to share the one library, you can set either or all of the iPods so that they only get updated with only certain playlists (you can update from more than one if you wish):
Loading songs onto iPod automatically - Mac
Choosing the update option "Sync Music - Selected playlists" allows you to create a playlist specifically for the iPod and drag the tracks you want into it. If you tire of the list and want to change it, you just add or remove the songs you don't want. The ones you take out out remain in the library to be used some other time if you choose. You can read more about playlists at these links:
iTunes: Creating playlists of your favorite songs
How to create a Smart Playlist with iTunes
Or you can choose to update any or all of the iPods manually and just drag whatever content you want to them: Managing content manually on iPod
Loading the iPod shuffle differs slightly but it can still be used with the others, for details have a look at this page:
Loading songs onto iPod shuffle - Mac
It's also possible to have multiple libraries in a single Mac user account. To create or access a second (or more) library, hold down the Option key when launching iTunes 7. In the resulting dialogue you will get the option to create a new library or navigate to the other Library.
Note: You can only have one Library open at a time and iTunes will default to the last library opened if you don't use the keyboard command to choose one. This can prove tricky when using multiple iPods, if you don't use the keyboard command you can risk syncing to the wrong library:
Using multiple iTunes libraries -Mac

Similar Messages

Multiple users/libraries

We have five different users on this computer (family) and we all have ipods. Question is, we all like a lot of the same music, yet up until now, we've each downloaded the same CD's over and over again, to put them on our own itunes libraries. Seems to me that this is taking up way too much space on the computer. Is there a better way to do this? There must be....thanks....
All 7 of our ipods are listed below....thanks!
~~Mara
Power Mac G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9) 3: 60G ipods, 1: 4G nano, 2:10G ipods, 1: 1G shuffle

If you want to share the one library, you can set either or all of the iPods so that they only get updated with only certain playlists (you can update from more than one if you wish):
Loading songs onto iPod automatically - Mac
Choosing the update option "Sync Music - Selected playlists" allows you to create a playlist specifically for the iPod and drag the tracks you want into it. If you tire of the list and want to change it, you just add or remove the songs you don't want. The ones you take out out remain in the library to be used some other time if you choose. You can read more about playlists at these links:
iTunes: Creating playlists of your favorite songs
How to create a Smart Playlist with iTunes
Or you can choose to update any or all of the iPods manually and just drag whatever content you want to them: Managing content manually on iPod
Loading the iPod shuffle differs slightly but it can still be used with the others, for details have a look at this page:
Loading songs onto iPod shuffle - Mac
It's also possible to have multiple libraries in a single Mac user account. To create or access a second (or more) library, hold down the Option key when launching iTunes 7. In the resulting dialogue you will get the option to create a new library or navigate to the other Library.
Note: You can only have one Library open at a time and iTunes will default to the last library opened if you don't use the keyboard command to choose one. This can prove tricky when using multiple iPods, if you don't use the keyboard command you can risk syncing to the wrong library:
Using multiple iTunes libraries -Mac

ITunes Match, multiple users/libraries

I've poked around a bit, and can't find a clean answer to my question.
My situation is three users, a couple of shared devices, and several ipods/iphones. To this point, we have used one apple id for everything. But each user has pretty specific tastes, so three fairly divergent music libraries. I want each user to be able to manage their library in the cloud most effectively without merging. iTunes Match, however, doesn't differentiate by library. If I turn it on for everyone, everyone's music gets mashed together, including play counts and playlists.
My next solution was to just give everyone their own apple id, and pay for each person to have music match. However, when I tried this last night, as I activated a new id, I was told my computer was already associated with an Apple ID, and that ID would be locked out for 90 days in terms of iTM.
My conclusion is that there is no way to have multiple users manage their libraries independently using iTunes Match. Is this correct? Does anyone know of anyone work arounds? Am I missing a setting somewhere?
Thanks

Each user on each computer will have to set iTUnes to use the external as the library location.
Next depends on what you want to do. Move all files to external then using iTunes add the files to iTunes library again. Empty library in iTunes then add files to library recreating library from scratch.
All users will have to maintain each library separately even though all files will be in same place and accessible to all users. When one person adds something to their own library the other ones will not know it. If someone else wants those files also then they will have to use add folder or add file option to add the files to their own library. It should not duplicate the files on the drive but is sometimes does when you do this. Deleting files or renaming them can be problematic if one user deleted a file another user has in library it will affect both. Podcasts are an exception, these will always duplicate if multiple users subscribe. This allows individual management of episodes.

ITunes Issues - Multiple Users/Libraries

I am experiencing several issues that revolve around multiple users, multpile iPods and two networked computers. To describe the situation - I have two computers networked with an external drive connected to the main computer. My wife, my son, and I are all users of the computers, we all have our own iPods and it seems like we have multiple libraries out there. I am looking for a solution to do the following: Consolidate all of the libraries into one shared library that all of us can use located on the external drive (due to size constraints and trasportability). The external drive is a plug and play type device with ample space for this. SOme of the issues I have are some songs appear in one iTunes list with a gray exclamation point in front of them and then you have to go searching for the proper folder/library to locate the file, so obviously there are multiple libraries/folders. I believe this has everything to do with my sons "ability" to fix things on the computer. Can anyone direct me to or provide me with a solution to this dilemma? Is there a way to consolidate these without creating multiple copies of the same songs (this has also occurred in the past when my son was solving things. Sorry for the long description but I am trying to provide as much info as necessary.

Each user on each computer will have to set iTUnes to use the external as the library location.
Next depends on what you want to do. Move all files to external then using iTunes add the files to iTunes library again. Empty library in iTunes then add files to library recreating library from scratch.
All users will have to maintain each library separately even though all files will be in same place and accessible to all users. When one person adds something to their own library the other ones will not know it. If someone else wants those files also then they will have to use add folder or add file option to add the files to their own library. It should not duplicate the files on the drive but is sometimes does when you do this. Deleting files or renaming them can be problematic if one user deleted a file another user has in library it will affect both. Podcasts are an exception, these will always duplicate if multiple users subscribe. This allows individual management of episodes.

Restore multiple iTunes libraries

I have two iPods that have separate libraries. Installing an iPad messed them up.
I down loaded the latest iTunes version, managed to view one library in iTunes by moving the xml file to desktop, deleting the itd file and importing xml.
Tried same for second library but now have blank iTunes with no content for both libraries. (I restored both deleted itd files)
I have the XML files for both. When importing xml via file, library, import play list menu in iTunes there is a message saying some files can not be found.
Any ideas ??
Thanks John

When you hook up your iPod it should say some file aren't found would you like to Import them (If so Import them) If not, but you have all the Music you need on your iPod there is software to transfer your music.

HT2688 Working on a single computer with multiple users, I have set things up to allow each user to view and listen to the others' music libraries under the "Shared Library" function. Can you then connect an iPod touch and copy music from a shared librar

Working on a single computer with multiple users, I have set things up to allow each user to view and listen to the others' music libraries under the "Shared Library" function. Can you then connect an iPod touch and copy music from a shared library?

Was your wife logged into the libray at the time you tried to log in? I have had a similar problem and it was because another user was logged into the library when I attempted to. I got the permission denied banner.

Using home sharing, can you sync libraries between multiple users in a household?

Using home sharing, can you sync libraries between multiple users in a household?

Hey lindsay146,
Home Sharing lets you to stream or transfer music, movies, and more with up to five authorized computers in your household. You can learn more about it in this link:
Understanding Home Sharing
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3819
Welcome to Apple Support Communities!
All the best,
Delgadoh

I have multiple users on my computer with separate iTunes libraries. can we share?

I have multiple users on my computer with separate iTunes libraries. Is it possible to share the libraries? The "share library" preference doesn't seem to work.

Hi b noir, I also have two users on one pc with two different iTunes libraries. But I also want to put them onto an external hard drive so that I can free up some memory on the pc. So I figure I need to consolidate the two users iTunes libraries first before moving to hard drive? But not quite sure how to do that on the iTunes 11? Thanking you in advance!!

One Computer, Multiple Users, Multiple iTunes Libraries

Hello
My family shares a single Mac via Fast User Switching. We all have separate iTunes libraries. I had some difficulty getting TV to be able to use all of the iTunes libraries as alternate sources for streaming music. I'm posting this here as I've noticed a couple of questions here about it with no solutions.
The symptom is that you are able to add the multiple libraries to TV by entering the passcode in iTunes but when you try to the new source, it fails to load the library. 'Loading <library> name ...' goes on forever or eventually gives up and then the library appears grey in the source list and you have to go through the registration process again. Music sharing appears to work between copies of iTunes running on the same computer.
It's a firewall problem.
It seems that iTunes choose a new TCP port to share each different library. For me it seems to allocate ports in the 4915x range. I can't find any documentation about this. The ports are not listed in the well known list for Apple products. I discovered it because the Windows version of iTunes has an informative error message that tells you to check that a particular port is open in the firewall for the particular library when it fails to load it.
To fix it you just need to open these ports in the Mac's firewall. After that, provided all the users remain logged in with iTunes running, you will be able to stream their libraries.
I hope this helps others to get it working more quickly than I did.
I see that there are some Apple employees participating in these discussions. If you see this, maybe you could modify the documentation? Or add the solution to the How-To pages? I'll submit some feedback anyway.

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 photo libraries with multiple users

Can I set my imac up so that my photo library is shared between the multiple users on the computer? If so, how do I do it?

iPhoto: Sharing libraries among...: Apple Support Communities

Shared Photo & Music Libraries for Multiple Users on Same Machine

I've setup multiple users on a single machine and I'm trying to have a common shared folder for photos (w/ Adobe PSE) and music (w/ iTunes). First, on photos:
-Tried setting up a folder on /users/shared/pictures. How can I "share" the main folder and have permissions carry down to all subfolders and files?
-I've given the other user permission, but when logged on, Finder window only displays icon, not preview of image? In cover flow mode, image shows up, though?
-Is this the best approach or is /me/public the better way or /me/pictures (shared) a better way?
And then on music:
-recommendations on best approach to have a single library with multiple users and multiple iTunes accounts.
Thanks in advance

The iTunes sharing is for sharing music between computers on a network.
To share music on a single PC, read this article
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93195

How do I remove an imported iPhoto library at multiple users

There seem to be different ways of sharing an iPhoto library among multiple users on a single Mac and I guess I didn't select the best one ...
My wife and I both have an account on our Mac (I am administrator).
Originally, only on my account we viewed our photos, but my wife wanted to have the same iPhoto access via her account.Makes sense!
Via 'system preferences > share' I marked the picture folder in which the iPhoto library is stored as a 'shared folder'.
Then in my wifes account, I started iPhoto and I imported the iPhoto library file in this shared folder (and 'yes', I unchecked the option in the preferences menu to avoid copying photos on import ;-)
Well, for the next hours or so, the system started to import the photos ... although my photo library contains more then 10.000 pictures (!!) the status bar during import indicated a shear amount of ±260.000 pictures to be imported (as it turns out it includes the 'faces' as pictures).
To make a long story short - how do I restore iPhoto on my wifes account by e.g. removing/undoing the imported library. I am a bit hesitant in removing the library since it is the library stored in our shared folder and I don't want to delete that library file. I 'just' want it to turn back to the original 'empty' iPhoto on my Wife's account and share our library in a different way.
By the way, although the iPhoto library/events are a mess on my wifes account, it still looks good on my account.
Thanks.
D.

Trash the Library in your wife's account.
Never import one Library to another. Every version and thumbnail is imported like a distinct photo, you lose all your Albums, Keywords etc., the link between Original and Previews is destroyed, the non-destructive editing feature is ruined and so on. In summary: it's mess.
For iPhoto 09 (version 8.0.2) and later:
What you mean by 'share'.
If you want the other user to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter your library, then enable Sharing in your iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open the other account. In that account, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Your Library will appear in the other source pane.
Any user can drag a pic from the Shared Library to their own in the iPhoto Window.
Remember iPhoto must be running in both accounts for this to work.
If you want the other user to have the same access to the library as you: to be able to add, edit, organise, keyword etc.
Quit iPhoto in both accounts. Move the Library to the Users / Shared Folder
(You can also use an external HD set to ignore permissions, a Disk Image or even partition your Hard Disk.)
In each account in turn: Double click on the Library to open it. (You may be asked to repair the Library Permissions.) From that point on, this will be the default library location. Both accounts will have full access to the library, in fact, both accounts will 'own' it.
However, there is a catch with this system and it is a significant one. iPhoto is not a multi-user app., it does not have the code to negotiate two users simultaneously writing to the database, and trying will cause db corruption. So only one user at a time, and back up, back up back up.

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 under one itunes account

I have multiple mac's (both desktops and laptops) as well as multiple iphones and ipads at home. I am limited in itunes to only 5 devices - what should i do? set-up a different itunes account for my kids (but then they will not be able to access the music and movies that have already been purchased).
Unsure how to best set-up 4 people (with each having an iphone, ipad and mac) itunes.
Any suggestions?

Ideally, each will have their own iTunes account.
I am limited in itunes to only 5 devices
Each iTunes account is limited to 5 computers but 10 devices.
So you can have content from one iTunes account on 5 computers and also 5 iDevices.
set-up a different itunes account for my kids (but then they will not be able to access the music and movies that have already been purchased).
Yes, they will. Just authorize each computer for the other iTunes accounts.
Make sure you go to iTunes prefs > Store and disable Automatic downloads.
Also disable it on the iDevices in Settings > iTunes and App stores.
You can share content between users/libraries by using Home Sharing.
See this -> Understanding Home Sharing

Multiple users on multiple macs sharing iPhoto Library

How can different family members (using personal logins) all access the same iPhoto library, regardless of which of our two iMacs they happen to be logged into?
I thought the solution would be as simple as:
Plug an external hard drive into the Airport Time Capsule.
Copy our iPhoto library onto the external hard drive.
Log in as each user, open iPhoto and point to the iPhoto library on the external hard drive.
I've searched the support forums and can't find a successful example of this. Does it work? If not, is there another elegant solution?
I'd also be interested in how to back up the 'networked' iPhoto library. I plan to use iPhoto's "publish to Flickr" capability for this as it also solves how to share photos with our family's many iOS devices.
Ps. I'm new to the Mac environment so am still learning my way with OSX (be gentle please).
Equipment
x2 iMacs (<12 months old) running the latest OSX and iPhoto software versions
2TB Airport Time Capsule (brand new) with a 1TB USB external hard drive plugged-in (not sure of the formatting).

How can different family members (using personal logins) all access the same iPhoto library, regardless of which of our two iMacs they happen to be logged into?
I thought the solution would be as simple as:
Plug an external hard drive into the Airport Time Capsule.
Copy our iPhoto library onto the external hard drive.
Log in as each user, open iPhoto and point to the iPhoto library on the external hard drive.
This cannot work, unfortunately, for several reasons:
iPhoto is strictly a single user database. Only one user at a time can open it.
An iPhoto library needs to be on a locally mounted volume. It cannot be on a network share.
The file system of the drive needs to be MacOS Extended (Journaled).
Apple's only recommendation to share an iPhoto library is this: iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users
If you want to share photos and not the library, see this: iCloud: iCloud Photo Sharing FAQ
Trying to put the iPhoto or Aperture library on a network volume, will result in library corruption or data loss:
Use locally mounted Mac OS X Extended volumes for your Aperture library

Restoring multiple users/libraries

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