Sharing music at home; sharing User IDs

My wife and I are faced with a problem of playing music from the iTunes library we have built over the past few years either from CDs or from the Apple iTunes Store.
I recently imported all our Cds into iTunes to save space and allow equal access. Our music now exists on ONE external hard drive. Most music tracks were imported from CDs, and therefore we don't have any restrictions who can play them. But then there is the music that either of us bought before and since married with our different User IDs. This means that music can only be accessed if originally bought by that person and on that authorized Mac.
So what can we do?
Is homesharing a good option? is it a viable option? Doesn't this require both Macs to be open at the same time to enjoy the music? What happens if I go to work with the music hard drive, and my wife needs to listen to tracks? I'd like to clone our music drive so she can access music in this situation, but it wouldn't allow her to listen to music I bought.
Placing all the music on one hard drive makes it easier to consolidate your library, but only if you can access all the music.
What have couples done in the past? Once married, do they create a 'couples' ID and buy music together for the home? Do you authorize your computers to that new account? And if so, what about the older music bought with older User IDs?
How do people work around the authorization problem as well?
Maybe the solution is to create non DRM versions of all our music and then we might be ok? Is that the only solution?
I'd appreciate any thoughts on this matter.
M
ps: EULA has destroyed the idea of sharing. Piracy is so much easier with digital files, but knowing that parents can't hand down their music or films etc to their kids is very sad.

You seem to be making quite a few incorrect assumptions in your post.
MarcusOne wrote:
But then there is the music that either of us bought before and since married with our different User IDs. This means that music can only be accessed if originally bought by that person and on that authorized Mac.
Why do you think it means that? (it doesn't)
So what can we do?
Keep the music on a hard drive at home.
Is homesharing a good option? is it a viable option? Doesn't this require both Macs to be open at the same time to enjoy the music?
Yes.
What happens if I go to work with the music hard drive, and my wife needs to listen to tracks?
"The hard drive"? As in a single hard drive? Don't you each have hard drives on own computers? She can listen to all the tracks in her library.
I'd like to clone our music drive so she can access music in this situation, but it wouldn't allow her to listen to music I bought.
Why do you think this? iTunes purchases have been DRM free for almost 5 years.
And even with DRM, just authorize the computer for each others account (which is automatically done when you enable Home Sharing).
What have couples done in the past? Once married, do they create a 'couples' ID and buy music together for the home?
Personally, I would not recommend it. Keep the accounts you have. No sense in tossing another into the mix.
And if so, what about the older music bought with older User IDs?
Just play it.
but knowing that parents can't hand down their music or films etc to their kids is very sad.
Why can't they?

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Sharing music - NOT Home Sharing or iTunes Match

My husband will be in a very remote location for six months. He will be taking his laptop and his iPad. He which will have electricity but very unreliable internet access, if any. He wants music. Lots of it. Problem is, the majority of the music we have purchased via iTunes and put onto our hard drive from our CD collection is on my computer. We have separate Apple IDs.
What is the easiest way to get the music from my iTunes on the iMac onto his MacBook iTunes?

This should be relatively easy.
You simply need to copy the music files to your husband's computer and import them into his library. Music that was bought recently has no protection. Music that was bought with protection will simply require that you authorize your husband's computer to play music using your Apple ID (it will ask you for the password the first time you try to play one of your music files on your husband's computer).
You are allowed to have up to 5 computers authorized to play music from a single Apple ID, and a single computer can be authorized to play music from more than one Apple ID.
If you can't find where your music files are located, you should be able to locate them by clicking on a music file in iTunes, and then right (control) clicking the file and choosing "show in finder".
Alternatively, if you turn on home sharing for both computers, your husband's iTunes account should be able to see your music library. If you click on it, and then click on "Show items not in my library", he should be able to see all of your music. He can then simply drag those files to his library and then he will be able to play them (after authorizing his computer with your Apple ID).

My Apple TV and IPad drop after x mintues from "Home Sharing". To restart it, I need to close iTunes on my Windows 7 PC, open it , then I can listen again X minutes (15-90 minutes) to my music via "Home Sharing". Any idea why? What worked for you?

My Apple TV and IPad drop after x mintues from "Home Sharing". To restart it, I need to close iTunes on my Windows 7 PC, open it , then I can listen again X minutes (15-90 minutes) to my music via "Home Sharing". Any idea why? What worked for you?

I believe if you updated your Apple TV, you need iTunes 11 to make it work.

Apple TV, browsing music on home sharing, music stored externally

I wonder if anyone can advise...
I recently bought a Seagate Central wifi external harddrive, 3TB. Besides using it as a remote backup disk, one of the main reasons behind it was combining music collections on my iMac and my wife's MacBook Pro. Advantages being we can listen to each other's music without having to have both computers on at the same time. Also, I'd like to use my new Apple TV to access my music via home sharing settings.
So I have combined our music files onto the Seagate. I have changed the iTunes Music folder on both computers so that it looks to the Seagate for all the media. I have then "re-imported" the songs into iTunes from there.
Running iTunes from the computers, this works 100% Ok, even sending via Airplay to Apple TV. The problems come when browsing through using the Apple TV home sharing on My Computers. The Apple TV sees all the albums and tracks as you would expect. But if you play a track it comes up with a message "there is no content".
The strange part is that if I go to the computer and play the track once, when I go back to Apple TV it will them recognise it and be able to play it!
I am trying to find a solution that doesn't involve me clicking through every track of my music collection! Any ideas?

That seems strange.
Have you changed the itunes media folder location to the external drive?
iTunes > Preferences >
Try changing to location to the external hard drive.. so your itunes music gets saved there
Also I'm not sure iTunes can work this way..
I've seen someone try to use a timecapsule the same way and it required them to manually connect to the drive in the finder, before being able to play their music.
Is there a password required when connecting to the drive?

Save music from home sharing to iPad

How do I import music from home sharing to my iPad?????

You don't. that is not what home share does.
You have to sync the music via itunes and the usb cable.
"With Home Sharing in iOS 4.3 or later, you can stream your entire iTunes library over your home Wi-Fi network from your Mac or PC right to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch."
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4557

I would like to download the music in home sharing to my icloud on my iphone/

i would like to download music from home sharing library to my iphone icloud. how is this done?

All music on your iPhone that was stolen should be in your iTunes library on your computer along with all other iTunes content that was on the iPhone - movies, tv shows, books, and 3rd party apps.
With the current iTunes version, you can download previous music purchases and/or you can do the same with iTunes store app on your new iPhone.

Use 2nd gen apple tv and remote control app on iphones and ipad. We can control some functions on the apple tv but unable to purchase, access such controls as reset, restart, turn off home sharing, etc. Home sharing stuck on old apple ID. Please help.

Use 2nd gen apple tv and remote control app on iphones and ipad. We can control some functions on the apple tv but unable to purchase, access such controls as reset, restart, turn off home sharing, etc. Home sharing stuck on old apple ID. Please help.

That is why I said to restore via iTunes, did you check the link?
This will put it back to factory settings and you can set it up with the new ID once you reconnect with your HDTV. This is not done via ethernet, as per the link you need to connect to the computer via micro usb. You cannot bypass home sharing.
FYI: An Apple ID cannot be deleted so the old one would still exist (even if you no longer use the email account it is associated with).

Will my new Ipod synch with a shared library on home sharing?

Will my new Ipod synch with a shared library on home sharing?

You would need to drag the shared library into that computers library so that you now have it to sync over to the idevice.

Iv got a new laptop and i moved all my music though home sharing from my old intunes onto my new one, but my iphone wont sync to the new itunes... could anyone help me with this?

iv moved all the music over thought home sharing... from the old itunes i was using but i want to be able to sync my iphone with the new itunes on my new machine but its saying saying syncing setp 1 of 1 and nothing happens... could someone please help me with this?

Copy the entire iTunes folder from the old computer to the new computer.

Why aren't all albums listed under albums in my phone's Music app (home sharing)

I'm using home sharing to listen to music on my iPhone 4S. I can access the shared library no problem, but when I go to the Album list, not all albums are there. Everything that I've recently ripped is there but only 9 out of ~40 albums that I imported to the library (vs ripping) are listed. If I want to access that music, I can search under Artist.
I checked out the Info on albums that are listed vs those that aren't and I can't see a difference - they both have Artist & Album listed under the Info & Sorting tabs.
The main iTunes install that is doing the sharing is on a Windows 7 laptop; all the devices accessing the home share are either iOS or OS X.

Search pointed me here.
I have the same issue with an iPad3.
My iPad3, fully up to date will only show 8 albums from a home share and frequently misses all or some of the album art work.
Music served by latest iTunes on 10.8.2. Other devices like iPhones and older iPads list all the albums and album artwork without issue.
Did the log out and back in of home sharing step last night. Fixed it once and then no new albums were showing (converted a few more cds) and this morning I'm back to 8 albums according to iPad3.
iPhone 4 ... it is all there, instantly, never needed to log out ordoanything ...
Quite puzzling. All devices are up to date. Presumably the app would be the same for all IOS devices apart from layout.
It is strange also how it picks 8. It is not like they were the first or last ones added. Or alphabetically first or last by artist or album name. It spans dozens of albums.

Transfering Music using Home Sharing with iTunes 9.2.1

I used home sharing on many occasions in earlier versions of iTunes just for playing music. The shared libraries had a small house icon next to them. Everything was fine and dandy until I decided to step it up a bit, by attempting to transfer music from my main library (on my iMac with iTunes 9.2.1) to my PC laptop (running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with iTunes 9.2.1). A cryptic error message was shown when i tried to drag a song from my shared iMac library to my hard drive library (on my pc), following the icon for the library changing to a blue stack of music notes. I then tried the reverse, attempting, on my imac, to change the home sharing settings so that my library would sync with my pc's library, after which the icon changed to the blue stack of music notes. In both cases, the "Settings..." button and "Import" buttons disappeared as shown in the following graphic:
http://km.support.apple.com/library/APPLE/APPLECAREALLGEOS/HT3819/HT38195-en.png
Both computers now will play each other's library music but will not allow for me to change home sharing settings nor transfer the music.
If anyone knows how to rectify this issue or can better explain why iTunes is acting this way, please respond to this post. Your responses will be greatly appreciated.
Alexander

in order for home sharing to work
(a) iTunes on all machines must be authorized for the same iTunes store account
(b) all machines must be on the same network
(c) all machines must have access to the internet.
this read may be useful: _*Troubleshooting Home Sharing*_.
JGG

Sharing Music Help! 2 Users Accounts, 2 iTunes accounts, share SOME music??

Hi - I'm new to Mac and iTunes all together (finally joined the cult... and love it!)
Anyways, My ideal setup is to have 2 User Accounts and 2 Separate iTunes Accounts so my bf and I can buy our own music, obtain separate libraries, yet share SOME music. I want to see all of MY music in the Music Library when I log in, but I still want to be able to transfer some of his music to my phone's playlist and vice versa.
Currently, our Itunes libraries are stored on each of our user profiles /users/name/music. When I log into iTunes, I see my music and [if his user account is logged on] I can see his under SHARED. But that doesn't allow me to transfer his music to my playlists and in the end, my phone.
I read Apple's how-to on pointing each of our iTunes to Users/Shared and but then whenever I'm in iTunes it would just be a huge pool of both our music and I have to weed through all of his.
Any suggestions on how we can both maintain our separate libraries/accounts but share some music (not just listen to each other's music).

In the Finder. I should have said "In the Finder, create the folder /Users/Shared/Music".
In case it wasn't clear, all of the instructions should be carried out in the Finder. iTunes should definitely not be running when you move your library and create the aliases.
A few additional points:
1. There's nothing significant about the folder location /Users/Shared/Music. You can substitute the name of any folder you want, provided all users will be able to read and write to it.
2. Beware of having two or more users accessing your shared Music library *at the same time*. (Since you mentioned you want to share your music between two users on a single MacBook, I assumed only one user would access the library at a time.) This only becomes an issue if at some time in the future you share a library in this way between two computers over a networked drive. If two or more users are making simultaneous changes to the same iTunes library, they will stomp all over each other's changes, and very likely corrupt the library. Note that it's also possible to corrupt your music library if you both are simultaneously logged in on your MacBook via "Fast User Switching", and are both simultaneousy running iTunes and making changes to the library. So don't do that. (Not that you ever would.)

HT202213 how do I find the music from home sharing?

I do have the latest version of iTunes (11.1.5) for both computers and have turned on home sharing with the same account for both.
If it is a factor in this, I have an iPod touch 1st generation, which is also updated to its latest software version (iOS 3.1.3). IThe computers are Windows 8 and Windows XP.
Even though homesharing is turned on for both computers, I can't see where I can view the music that has been shared from either computer. Under "Library" there is no option for homesharing -- only Music, Movies, TV shows, iTunes U, and Apps. What button should I be looking for? Where is it? Am I going bliiiiiiiiind??? Thanks guys for any helpful input

They are gone, but it they were purchased in iTunes you can re-download them. From iTunes Help:
To download previous iTunes Store purchases to an authorized computer:
In iTunes, click iTunes Store (below Store).
Click the Purchased link in the top-right of the Store home page (below Quick Links).
In the page that appears, select a category.iTunes shows you which of your purchases are available for download. You can view all of your past purchases, or just the ones not currently in your iTunes library. Items already in your library aren’t available for download.If you select Music, you can view your purchases by song, artist, or album. If you’re using Album view, click an album to see which songs on it are available for downloading.To search for an item, type its name or a keyword in the search field, and then press the Return key to view your search results.
To download an item, click the Download button to the right of the item.To download all available items, click Download All.
You can download previous purchases on a total of up to ten devices and computers, combined. You can authorize up to five computers at a time with anApple ID.
To find out how to download previous purchases to your iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad, see the documentation for your device.

Prevent Apple TV from playing explicit music via Home Sharing

Hi. I have Home Sharing enabled on my Mac and on my Apple TV. Through the "Computers" icon on the Apple TV, I can watch all my Movies, TV Shows and listen to all my music.
I have now bought a second Apple TV for my son for his birthday. He is only 12, so I have enabled Parental Controls. With this, he cannot view any movie rated higher than 12, and the same goes for TV shows. However, he can still hear my explicit music. The music is tagged as Explicit in iTunes, and I have set the "Explicit Music" parental control option to "Ask", but he can still play it without being challenged.
How can I let him hear the clean music, but not the explicit music on his Apple TV?

UPDATE
I went in to iPhoto and created a new album -- called "TV Screen Saver" and copied the photos from the old album that would not load.
Told iTunes to use that album for home sharing.
Told Apple TV to use that album for the screen saver.
Et Voila!
Must have been something in the various updated softwares that disn't like something from before.
Who knows.

IPad 3 adding music using home sharing

I have home sharing set up correctly between my computer, laptop and and iPad 3.
When I open my music in my iPad I can view the music from my laptop, but I don't see a way to add the music so its there when I'm not connected.
Im pretty sure its easy on the ipad 2. Is there a way on the iPad 3 to add the music from my laptop?

I think that you can only use it to share music to the iPad, but not to copy the music into the iPad's Music app.

Sharing music at home; sharing User IDs

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