Sharing one iTunes library

I have an iTunes library on my iMac and would like to move this to an network drive and have both my iMacs and my MBP share this same library. I have tried a few ways and have had no luck. What steps should I be doing in order to get these results:
Library located on network drive
All 3 macs use this library as their default
Any changes made are shared between all 3 computers.
Thanks

No - the appleTV will only show libraries which are exposed through 'home sharing' , which means you have to have an iTunes instance running somewhere, which you can't do on the NAS (you need a Mac or PC somewhere acting as a server, even if the files still live on the NAS). This is different from the DAAP sharing that lets the NAS 'share' the library to you that you can see at the moment.
To answer your original question, you should be playing the files as if from your local library - John's solution basically puts your library pointer alongside the files on the NAS. Another option would be to copy/keep the library files locally on the laptop, but then change the media files location (under preferences) to be the NAS.
The same point applies that you have to be connected to the network, but instead of failing to open and defaulting the library location - you'd just see '!' next to the files as its can't locate the directory associated with the media.

Similar Messages

Sharing one iTunes library across multiple accounts on the same Mac

Hello, I've poked around at some of the posts dealing with sharing one iTunes music library across multiple accounts on the same Mac but it seems like this can only be done if the libary is moved to a shared folder. I realize this can be done but I was trying to share it the way it is described in a post on Apple support (See link below.). That post seemed to imply that you don't have to move the library from its original location (owned by account A, e.g.), rather just make a couple preference changes in the accounts, use fast user switching and voila. That doesn't seem to work. So my question is this: Is the only way to share one iTunes music library across multiple accounts on the same Mac to move it to a shared folder? I'm running 10.4.8 on an Intel iMac. Thanks in advance!
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93195

After reading this and several other related threads, I am becoming thoroughly confused about all of this. I have a situation similar to the one that pokerpal described in the post dated January 7 at 8:06 pm, except that the music files on my system are located on an external hard drive. Everything else is pretty much the same though - I am the admin user (and the main iTunes user and maintainer) and my girlfriend is a standard user who has no music in her own iTunes library. She can see and listen to and make playlists from and sync her iPod with the music in this library from her account, and I can do the same thing, independent of her, from my account. And if I make a change to information within a song, she doesn't see it, and vice versa, and I understand that. What I don't understand is why when I add a song or an album to the music files by importing a CD or downloading something from the iTunes Music Store, she has no way of knowing that unless I tell her, and then she can add it to her library by using the "Add to Library" function. Is there no way of automatically updating her library files to add the new song(s)? We have almost 15,000 songs and videos in that library, and I don't even want to think about what might have to happen if the answer to my question is "no." Interestingly enough, if I put an update to a Word document in the same exact location (on the hard drive), we can update that and pass it back and forth all day - why is that such a difficult task for iTunes to accomplish?
Sorry I went on so long, but this has been building up for some time, and none of the solutions I've read about here have really been of any help, so I'm a bit frustrated and, as I said at the beginning, confused.
iMac G5, MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Multiple users on one mac sharing one itunes library

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

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

2 Video Ipods Sharing One Itunes Library ?

OK I have the 30 Gig 5th Gen Ipod and I love it. Now I want to swap my Zune for a friends 30 Gig 5th Gen Ipod. That would leave me with 2, 30 GB Ipods. My question is how do I use 2 Ipods with one Itunes Library & account? I'm probably going to want one Ipod to just Automatically update to the Library and the other I will just pick & choose manually, if I can. Is this possible ? I know I have to name the new Ipod a different name. I hate the Zune software so I'm giving up on it and having 2 Ipods instead. I also have the IM7 Altec Boom Box and an Ipod adaotor installed in my car. Thanks in advance.

There are various methods of transferring different songs to different iPods with a single iTunes library.
One is to manage the songs manually.
With this setting, you can drag and drop songs/playlists etc onto the iPod from iTunes, and also delete and/or edit songs which are currently on the iPod without affecting the iTunes library.
If you wish to keep the convenience of automatic sync, then you could set the iPods to sync with "selected playlists". This setting can be found in the iPod summary screen under the 'music' tab. With this setting, different playlists can be transferred and later deleted from each iPod without affecting any playlists stored in iTunes or the playlists on the other iPods.
Also, on the 'summary' main page you will see the option to "only sync checked items". With this setting selected, if you remove the check marks from any songs in iTunes, they will not be transferred to the iPod. You can restore the check mark if you want to put the songs back on the iPod at a later date.
Be aware that when playing songs in iTunes, any songs that do not have a check mark against them will be skipped over and will not be played.

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?

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?

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 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.

Two apple ids sharing one iTunes library is it possible?

Is it possible to have one library but for this to be shared with the family who will have separate IDs? Otherwise the only other way I can work out to download onto my daughters new ipad mini is to log in on our iD, download from the cloud then log out again, seems a bit of a phaff.

htuk1968 wrote:
Is it possible to have one library but for this to be shared with the family who will have separate IDs?
Have a read here...
https://discussions.apple.com/message/18409815?ac_cid=ha
And See Here...
How to Use Multiple iDevices with One Computer

Two user accounts, one iTunes library

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

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

How to share one iTunes library with multiple computers AND Apple TV? Help?

It seems like my dilemma may not be easily solved. Hopefully it isn't as complicated as I think it will be. Here's the situation:
My wife hates that, in order to see or do anything with the images she takes, I need to have iPhoto open on my computer (Mac Pro), and she then has to connect to it over sharing.
By the same token, I don't like that she buys iTunes content on her MacBook, which is sometimes a duplicate of content I already have. Now that the App Store is out, that is going to start getting really expensive.
So instead, I want us to be able to:
1) Have ONE iTunes library on the network, and ONE iPhoto library. Both of these would be accessible to any computer on the network. When you launch iTunes, you would get all the media that is in that library.
2) Both be able to access iTunes at the same time to listen to / watch content.
3) Both be able to purchase iTunes content, and when it it purchased, it updates that single library. If I buy a song, the next time my wife fires up iTunes, that song is there for her to listen to.
4) Have our two Apple TV units be able to play content from this library.
So, I know that we need something on the network. I have a Drobo with DroboShare, so that is one option. I also have a spare Mac Pro laying around, along with a copy of OS X Leopard Server.
I just don't know what route we should take with this. All I want is for us to share a library, to be able to both use that library, for us to be able to sync content from that library to our portable devices, and for our Apple TVs to also see that library.
Possible?!

I'm sort of in the same boat. We've got an iMac with separate User Accounts set up and are currently sharing the same iTunes and iPhoto libraries along with streaming them to our Apple TV.
Right now I'm the only one with an iPod, however she'll be getting one in a couple of weeks.
We also just picked up a MacBook yesterday and I'd like to be able to sync certain libraries like iTunes and iPhoto so that no content gets duplicated on either the iMac or MacBook and so that we both have access to the current libraries for each program on our iPods and AppleTV.
I have an external hard drive that I back up the iMac on and I assume I could manually keep things current with that but there's got to be an easier way...that's why these are Macs right?
Bill

When one or more family members who have been sharing one iTunes account wants to create their own iTunes account can they each upload the music/apps from the shared iTunes on their devices to the new iTunes account?

When one or more family members who have been sharing one iTunes account wants to create their own iTunes account can they each upload the music/apps from the shared iTunes on their devices to the new iTunes account?

Yes. I would clarify your statement about the "shared" iTunes Library though. If you want each iOS device to have its own music library, you should create separate user accounts for them. Read:
iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer
How to use multiple iPods, iPads, or iPhones with one computer

Share one iTunes library on a SMB share between PC & Mac

Hi,
Is there anyway I can share one iTunes library and the music files on a SMB share between a PC and a Mac? I assume there would be a problem with how the Mac and PC assign network drives differently would be an issue, or is there a way around this?
At the moment I'm only sharing the music files on the SMB share but with separately iTunes library on the PC and Mac.

I have itunes match. its good but its not perfect. it downloads wrong versions of songs. for example it downloads the censored version of many of my songs. plus it doesnt do podcasts, movies, tvshows, books.
plus it doesnt show my smart playlists in the same track order as on my computer. its good but it has bugs and shortcomings.
thanks for the suggestion but i'd like to try the way i initially posted about.

Can I share one iTunes Library with multiple computers on a network?

Can I share one iTunes Library with multiple computers on a network?
note: one library universally shared, not Home Sharing (one library each, shared to each.)
I want to share one library stores on my server and access it through various local computers. When I buy a song from a computer (non-server), I want it to be added to the library (stored on server). I want it to auto copy to my server, for organization. I want to be able to sync my phone from any computer.
Most of this I can do, if i figure out how to use one universal library for all my computers.
Any ideas how I can do this?

eyeinit,
You can authorize your iTunes account on up to 5 computers at a time.
However, purchased music is downloaded to the first machine to download it, but these articles have more information on moving your music between authorized computers:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93063
This one is for moving all your music using an iPod as a storage drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300173
Hope this helps,
Nathan C.

Sharing one iTunes library

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