Using a shared drive over several macs

I have several macs, with separate user accounts for the family on each.
I have a central one, a 2010 Mac Mini, that I have an external drive attached to. this is to be used as the main iTunes server for everyone.
however, even if I make this drive the itunes medial folder on one of the other computers (we have an imac in an outbuilding), whenever this machine is shut down, the path is lost and has to be set up every time the imac is used
what am I doing wrong?

it won't work like this.
if iTunes is launched on one of the client Macs, and the host Mac isn't available, iTunes will default back to the Mac's internal iTunes folder.
either keep the host Mac running 24/7 or attach the external to your router and let that run all the time.

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