Sharing iTunes library on a network disk from 2 macs on same network

Hi all,
I'm ready to significantly change my network to incorporate an Airport Extreme, an iMac and a MacMini. I'd like to be able to do the following:
1. Install a network disk of 1Tb (connected with RJ45 as any network disk) to hold an iTunes Library
2. Connect a MacMini to the network, to my home-theatre system and to my flat-panel TV and have iTunes installed on that MacMini. This iTunes would go and get the library from the network disk.
3. Connect an iMac to the network and have iTunes installed on that MacMini. This iTunes would ALSO go and get the SAME library from the network disk.
Would that work?
If yes, would you have any recommendations?
If no, how would you suggest doing that?
Thanks.
Alain.

I pretty much am looking for the same answer. Until we buy an external HD to connect to our airport extreme, I am trying to have the laptop access the iTunes folder on the mac mini. I had no problem choosing the correct folder but then iTunes asked me if it was ok to move & organize the folder. I didn't like the sound of that so I cancelled.

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Sharing itunes library amonst 1 users on a single mac

I'm having problems sharing my itunes library amonst several users on a single mac. I've tried copying both the entire iTunes folder and just the iTunes Music folder to ~/users/shared with no luck. Help!

Here's a better statement of the problem -- i have two users on one mac, both have itunes tied to same library on an external drive.
I understand that is what you want to do as you've done it before. However, if it doesn't work anymore, there's not much you can do. It may not be something that can't be overcome, but I don't know what to do besides creating a new Library and rebuilding it with all your music on the external. There also may be alternatives other than what I can think of.
The external drive should be workable like the Shared folder, as long as the permissions on the folder are such that each user can read and write.
Did you tell iTunes to use that location as the Library? You can pick a new Library by holding down the option key when starting iTunes and it will ask where to find the Library.
I don't have a way to experiment with this on my system, but I seem to think a lot of people run their iTunes library that way, so I'm suprised that there aren't more posts about it. It may be something unique to your library, but I'm not sure what it might be.
Apple please fix this.
Since that is an unsupported configuration, I wouldn't put too much hope in seeing a fix.

Could not connect to " home shared iTunes library name "

I'm having an issue with iTunes/ Apple TV. Actually it has been ongoing. I have a particular iTunes library shared on a private subnet (together with the Apple TVs) from a Mac Mini. I can connect and play content any time with iTunes on another computer 100% reliably. But around 60% of the time when I try to connect to it from any of my four Apple TV (2's) an error comes up saying "Could not connect to "<home shared iTunes library name>" ", "Make sure the computer is on the same network as your Apple TV. the iTunes version is up to date and iTunes is running". The answer to those questions (as always with such messages is obviously 'yes':
Yes of course we are on the same network. If I wasn't, the library wouldn't have even shown up in the first place before selecting it
Yes iTunes as always is the latest version thanks to Mac Software Update
Again 'dah'. See response #1
If I restart the offending iTunes library the error is resolved (although sometimes it does require reboot of the Apple TV) but could reappear as early as within the next 24 hours. This issue has been occuring for a very long time however appears to be increasing in frequency. It occured as well on the Apple TV (v1).
Anyone with clues on what's going on here?
Thanks
Greg

I agree that the first debug point should be the network. Though like Greg, I use a Mac Mini to serve up movies to a couple of Apple TVs. From the 'problem' Apple TV, I could see other iTunes movie libraries on other Mac(s), and those would work/play fine. It's only when I try to connect to the iTunes Library of the Mac Mini that I have this issue. It's almost like it's asleep, and doesn't respond. Though I can mount the library folder, and play movies from other Macs w/o a problem while the Apple TV still has the problem.
As Greg mentions, closing and re-opening iTunes on the Mini solves the issue (though only temporarily).
The only difference that I have (non-consistency) is that my Mac Mini is an older model, and cannot be upgraded to run Lion (10.7.x) like my other Macs. The Mini is running 10.6.8, and iTunes 10.6.1 (32-bit). My Macs are running 10.7.3 and the 64-bit version of iTunes 10.6.1.
Is it possible it could be a 10.6 vs. a 10.7 issue? Greg, which version of OS X are your Macs running?

Sharing iTunes library between 2 computers and 2 iPods via network disk?

Hi,
Me and the missus each got a laptop -hers a PC and mine a MacBook.
We both use iTunes and we've both got an iPod.
Recently I bought an Aiport Express and hooked it up with a 1TB WD MyBook -is there any way that we can share our iTunes library via the network disk, so that we can 1. have full read/write access from both laptops and 2. both sync our iPods?
Furthermore, is there a way for iTunes to monitor the music folder, so instead of me dragging music into iTunes (e.g. CD's that were ripped with other software than iTunes) iTunes would just update every once in a while, to check for new mp3's (kinda like Picasa does with pictures)?
More questions most likely will pop up, but this is the most pressing ones.
Thanks in advance
/Jakob F.

*is there a way for iTunes to monitor the music folder, so instead of me dragging music into iTunes*
iTunes doesn't support folder watching, anything you add to a folder on your hard drive has to be manually added to the iTunes Library: Adding Content to iTunes
You could have a look at this Applescript for folder watching on a Mac: Doug's Applescripts - Folder Actions and iTunes or this program for Windows: iTunes Folder Watch for Windows
You'd need to do a deeper bit of research on both as I don't know if either would work from a folder that's effectively not on either computer

How do I view a movie I rented and downloaded to my computer on my apple TV. The ATV is not seeing the rented movie in my shared itunes library? I can't seem to transfer the rental to the ATV from the computer!

How do I view a movie I rented and downloaded to my computer on my apple TV. The ATV is not seeing the rented movie in my shared itunes library? I can't seem to transfer the rental to the ATV from the computer!

Dear friends,
Thank you for responding to my problem so promptly. Frankly, I did not expect to hear from people so soon! The fact is that as soon as I posted the question, I was shown a number of similar queries and managed to find the answer. I have to say it's not intuitive! I have an apple TV original version. Apparently I had the ATV on streaming and not syncing. Streaming does not allow you to stream a rental from your computer whereas you can sync and transfer the rental from the computer!
Thanks again.
Colin

IPad mini video app stops responding when playing videos from shared iTunes library

So when I watch a shared video using the Ios 6 built in Video app, the app stops responding to touch.
Details:
iPad mini running IOS 6 built in video app.
OS X 10.7.5 sharing iTunes library using home sharing
ITunes version 11.0.1
I have seen the same stay problem through upgrades of ios and iTunes when watching from iPad mini. Weird thing is doesn't happen on ipad3, ipad2, or iPhone 4.
Any ideas?
Thanks.

Known issue for quite a bit.
No fix.
Report it here:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

Can two computers use same iTunes library on a network drive?

Can two computers use directly (rather than share) the same iTunes library on a network drive?
My media library is on a network drive attached to my Airport Extreme. Right now I share the library with my desktop Mac. I can share fine, but I would like to be able to add, delete, and make other changes in the media library from both computers. The two computers would not be accessing the library at the same time as I am the sole user of both.

I appreciate your input and I think you're right about this being impossible. But just to clarify, you say I can't "have multiple machines accessing the same music files from a shared location." I can have multiple machines accessing the same music files from a shared location--I just can't have them accessing the same music files simultaneously--which may have been what you meant. For my situation, I think it will be less work to just quit iTunes on my server when I want to run it on my client (using Chicken of the VNC). It's not ideal, but it's less time-consuming than periodically syncing three computers.
Again, thanks for the input.

Iphone and ipod losing sync with shared itunes library - home sharing not working

I hope this can help some people who have had problems with syncing their IOS devices to their shared itunes library.
Having had a lot of trouble with syncing and sharing my itunes libraries from two PC's to an iphone 4 and 4S via "itunes home sharing", I decided to try and find a solution using typical search engine search phrases. I found a number of issues similar to mine that pointed toward local network protocols such as media serving, and the ability or lack of ability to use these protocols by DSL routers.
My solution was simple, change the DSL router. My ISP supplied DSL router was the problem, not being able to identify that the PC's hosting my itunes libraries become media servers when itunes home sharing is switched on. My DSL box is a Tesco Broadband branded/firmware Thomson TG580. As a test I tried out a box from my previous supplier, an O2 branded/firmware Thomson/Technicolor TG582n. Although this wont work with my ISP connection, it will work as a wirless/wired router. As soon as I connected this all together, it worked first time without any hassle. I was mirroring my shared HD videos via the itunes home shared library to my 4S perfectly.
I know this may not help most people, but if you have the chance to test another wireless router, give it a go. Having had a good look, I can't find an Apple compatibility list. Maybe this is something they could do, or maybe someone can point out a site that may have this info?
I am by no means an Apple Fanboy, but I have to say that a lot of the complaints about the home sharing between itunes, ipods, iphones, Apple TV etc. may simply be the router and not itunes or the IOS devices.
My setup is PC's running the latest itunes with Win 7 32 & 64 bit and my IOS devices on 6, I also tested an iphone 4 on IOS 5 that worked perfectly. My 4S is now a perfect HDMI media player/streamer for my itunes music and videos encoded to H.264 using Handbrake.

Assuimg you have the latest ATV firmware, at the bottom of the general settings menu on your apple TV there is an option to reset your apple TV. Try that and then reset it up back on your network.
Before testing ensure the correct time/date/nearest City is setup in the ATV settings and re-enter your apple ID/password and turn on home sharing. You can connect to your network either via wifi or cable and see if it then works.
Resetting the ATV and then checking and re-entering all my settings worked for me.
I guess if not, then the next step is to disable any firewall on your PC and see if that works after the PC is rebooted.
Hope this helps.
Regards... Ken Griffiths

Sharing iTunes library between two Macs on Time Capsule

Hi there
I've just about persuaded my fiancee to get a MacBook, which would give us a mac-only household. If I got a Time Capsule, could we share an iTunes library? We each have an iPod and it would seem like a pain to have to recreate two entire libraries on the Time Capsule, much of which would be the same music.
I'm also assuming we could both use the TC as wireless Time Machine backup for our Macs - is this correct?
Finally, does anyone have a view on the likely range of TC relative to a standard Linksys 802.11g wireless router? The Linksys doesn't quite reach to the other end of my apartment and I'm wondering if the TC is likely to be better.
Very many thanks in advance.

Hello
You will run into pain. I just tried every found solution on Internet. Whatever you will do, it ends up in a hack. Fact is: iTunes administer your library only local. You CAN share your iTunes library on one Mac by menu settings in a network, BUT the Mac sharing its iTunes library MUST run all the time you want to listen to music from shared iTunes library even if the shared library (music files) is on the Time Capsule. It even wont work turn on "Wake up on LAN activity". The shared library will only be available as long as the Mac sharing its iTunes library is up and iTunes opened. That way it makes no big sense to have the music files in library physically on your Time Capsule. Another problem might come up when you stop listening shared iTunes library: As soon as the sharing Mac goes into StandBy mode (time depending) you can't access its library again. Standby must be stopped.
The other "solution" is also to have the whole library on a shared drive (Time Capsule) and to import it on both Macs. You will run quickly into Sync problems, beside its a pain to administer the song library that way: You have to import further songs twice, on both Macs to hear them on every one.
And of course, there are third pary hacks around nobody really wants to use.
After implementing Time Machine into Lepoard Apple wanted to make money out of it and offered Time Capsule mainly for storing data and backups (what both works great, also WLAN works fine).
I hope Apple will find a way in iTunes not to handle the music libraries so restrictive, so it can be accessed f.e. on Time Capsule while the Mac sharing its library must not run all the time.
Hope I could help.
Message was edited by: Tayger

Shared iTunes library gets "sticky"

Hello,
I'm currently running iTunes on my MacBook Pro & PC computer (running Windows 7 Release Candidate 2). The libraries of both machines are shared over the network & can be played from the other machine just fine. I've just noticed a few weeks ago that sometimes, the library from the PC computer still shows up in iTunes on the MacBook Pro, even when the PC computer is turned off. I didn't connect to the PC library so when shutting down the PC computer, I don't get a message saying that users are still connected to the library & asking for confirmation of quitting iTunes.
Furthermore, when the PC computer is powered on again & iTunes is launched, a second library with the same name now shows up on iTunes on the MacBook Pro.
I've recently upgraded to Snow Leopard (10.6) but I had noticed the problem already before that. It might have even started with the previous version of iTunes (both machines are running the latest version of iTunes right now). I can quit & relaunch iTunes on the Mac & it disappears, but it's a bit of a chore.
How could I go about fixing that problem for good ?

margemynx wrote:
We have this great shared ITunes library at work. I'd love to grab some songs from people's lists but I'm hitting a wall and Itunes won't let me do it. Is there anything I can do to get around this (short of asking people to burn them for me, which I really don't want to do)?
Sorry, that would be piracy. You do not own those tracks and your co worker does not have the rights to distribute them to you either.

ITunes library stored on an external hard drive which is connected to my airport extreme, I wish to share my iTunes library over my network, I can do this with my laptop, but not with my iPad, can anyone tell me if it is possible

I have my iTunes library stored on an external hard drive which is connected to my airport extreme, I wish to share my iTunes library over my network, I can do this with my laptop, but not with my iPad, can anyone tell me if it is possible

You can't connect directly to the external drive, but should be able to use iTunes Home Sharing via the laptop.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH1453

Sharing iTunes library between two users on the same Mac

I recently bought my parents a new MacBook Pro (they switched from Windows). I was able to get all of their songs over and into my dad's iTunes library. My mom and dad each have separate accounts on the MBP, but they'd both like to be able to see (and listen to) the same iTunes library, not at the same time, obviously.
Is that possible? If so how? Is it enough to point my mom's iTunes to the same folder? Do I need to put special permissions on that iTunes folder while logged into my dad's account?

brown_sm wrote:
I recently bought my parents a new MacBook Pro (they switched from Windows). I was able to get all of their songs over and into my dad's iTunes library. My mom and dad each have separate accounts on the MBP, but they'd both like to be able to see (and listen to) the same iTunes library, not at the same time, obviously.
Is that possible? If so how?
the easy way is to use itunes sharing. start itunes in your dad's account and enable sharing in itunes preferences->sharing. then other users including your mother will be able to listen to the songs from your dad's itunes library but ONLY while your dad is logged in. so in order for this to work both of them should be logged in at the same time. to make that possible enable fast user switching in system preferences->accounts->login options. However, this is not terribly convenient.
it's possibly (but surprisingly tricky) to use the same itunes library without having both users logged in at the same time.
Is it enough to point my mom's iTunes to the same folder? Do I need to put special permissions on that iTunes folder while logged into my dad's account?
yes. not just permissions. you need to put inherited ACLs on your dads Music folder to give both of them read+write access to all current and future files in it. so log in as your dad and run the following terminal command (copy and paste please)
chmod -R +a "username allow delete,chown,list,search,add_file,\
addsubdirectory,delete_child,file_inherit,directoryinherit" ~/Music
instead of username put the short user name of your dad's account. it's the same as the name of his home directory in /Users. then repeat the command with your mother's username instead of your dad's. after that log out of your dad's account, log into your mom's account and point her itunes library to his itunes library. to do that start itunes while holding option.

I have my entire itunes library backed up to disk.

i have my entire itunes library backed up to disk. I have a macbook pro.

Re: I bought some songs from itunes: from cedar walton's CD one flight down. The CD is no longer available on itunes, and when i play any of those songs, none of them play all the way through. I have not received any error messages. What can i do? Please

Can't get artist to show up when connecting to shared itunes library

I have been having a problem seeing all of my artists when connecting to itunes on my iphone. I can connect to this shared Itunes library, but when I do I can only see about 12-15 artists not the 1,000's I have. When I go to the songs tab I can see all the songs. How can I see all of my artists again?
I am using itunes 10.0.1 (on my iMac) and Iphone 5 version 6.0.2.

In your itunes on the PC, Apple TV 3rd gen does not show up ever this is normal as Apple TV3 does not store any content you can access from the PC
On your Apple TV to see your PC library, Select Computers from the front screen and it should show your pc library.
Setting up Apple TV for HomeSharing

Shared iTunes library, store purchases by more than one user

I'm after some advice about a shared iTunes library. The folder is on an external hard drive. There are two user accounts on the Mac and they both make iTunes store purchases. I have had permissions errors for user #2 when trying to add downloaded songs to the library. I noticed the 'Ignore permissions' option was unchecked, but enabling it does not fix the problem (probably should've done it first).
So user#2 has some downloaded songs in a different directory. I'm at the point where I need to bring everything into one shared library folder, on a permissions-ignored drive, making sure both users can download their individual purchases to the same library. Both users also have an iPhone that they would like to add music from this library to. Am I running into any potential problems - even if I backup the music data and begin from scratch?

Use separate Windows user accounts, or press the Shift key when launching iTunes and create a second library.
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Sharing iTunes library on a network disk from 2 macs on same network

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