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Hi guys,

This is my 2nd post - my first was to have a rant at a software pirate who was blaming Apple when his unlicenced software wouldn't work.

No intro forum here so heres a quicky 'bout me: I am an IT Manager and Tutor at a private college in Hawkes Bay. I am also a team member at geekzone.co.nz. Just bought a Macbook, Penryn 2.4 and loving it.

Q: We have 2 user accounts (me + fiance), and if I share my iTunes Library, she can see+play it, but not make any changes, or playlists of her own etc.

Can I get full sharing of the library going? I want both users to be able to edit titles, change ratings, create playlists etc.

TIA

Hi there,

Welcome..nice rant and thanks for the intro...you can add that info to your site profile when logged in...just look to the left "user menu" and you'll see a link.

Re iTunes, you might want to look at these...
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/beginners-guide-to-sharing-itunes-music/
(see the limits paragraph)

This looks interesting but PC related by the looks of things... http://lifehacker.com/software/itunes/hack-attack-share-your-itunes-music-library-over-your-home- network-230605.php

Phil

If you set iTunes to refer to the same library and music under both logins it should work.

Under the advanced tab in the iTunes preferences have both users refer to the same iTunes music folder location, which you could do by tinkering with the permissions. More simply, move your music folder to an existing location which both users can access eg the HD.

Replace one of the iTunes folders ~/<username>/Music/iTunes with an alias to the other. Once again playing with the permissions to allow access. You may have to fix the alias. Remember to do the right one and backup if you so desire it.

Ensure only one copy of iTunes is open at any time (if you use fast user switching) and everything should be fine, otherwise you get a delightful error message telling you that things are locked or you lack permission or some other lie. Works for me.

Yep, I have the exact same thing going here.

3 Users, 1 iTunes Library, 3 iPods as well.

I have the iTunes Library set up in a folder called Shared Apps (call it what you like) which is at the /Macintosh HD/ level. (I just copied my one to that location)

When each user launches iTunes for the first time hold down the option key and it will ask you to 'Create Library' or 'Choose Library', just navigate to where your shared iTunes Library is.

Works quite well this way. We all have access to the same songs except those bought through the iTunes store. When you are in the iTunes store (if each user has an account) it is the account of whoever is logged in. Our iPods have different preferences for syncing and it all works great.

Great, thanks so much. I will tackle this next weekend.

I wouldn't even go so far as that. Here's how to keep a nice single library and use it between accounts:

Move the "iTunes" that contains all the music to somewhere that both accounts can access, an external drive for example.

If you copied the folder then I recommend removing the "iTunes" folder from your profile but you will also need to remove the folder from the other account as well, just don't remove it from the shared location.

• Ensure you are in the Music folder under your profile
• Also open the shared area where you copied your "iTunes" folder to
• Command Option Drag the iTunes folder to your Music directory on your profile to create an alias to the shared location
• Repeat for the other account

The beauty of this is that one library only exists and no preferences need to be set because all iTunes looks for by default is a directory called "iTunes" in the "Music" directory under your profile. An alias provides a link that iTunes will happily follow. Any music, games, podcasts, movies, playlists, etc will all be usable by each account at the same time even.