iTunes questions
Is it possible to share the iTunes library among all users of a system? Have them all import to and access the same one?
Is it possible for all users of a system to use the iTMS songs purchased under one account? Say, I purchase the music under my user profile because I am the only user with a credit card. Can my girlfriend under her account use the songs?
Is it possible to buy music off the iTMS under multiple iTMS accounts (i.e. switch accounts without logging in as a different user)?
Can I load music onto my iPod form multiple computers without "reseting" it. Say, I have one computer in my dorm room and another one at home. Can I use both to fill up my iPod without loosing all of the music I loaded up from one system when plugging it into the other?
Is it possible for all users of a system to use the iTMS songs purchased under one account? Say, I purchase the music under my user profile because I am the only user with a credit card. Can my girlfriend under her account use the songs?
Is it possible to buy music off the iTMS under multiple iTMS accounts (i.e. switch accounts without logging in as a different user)?
Can I load music onto my iPod form multiple computers without "reseting" it. Say, I have one computer in my dorm room and another one at home. Can I use both to fill up my iPod without loosing all of the music I loaded up from one system when plugging it into the other?
Comments
Is it possible to share the iTunes library among all users of a system? Have them all import to and access the same one?
\tNo. You can set it up so that each user will import music to the same folder, but that would not work at all as you might hope. Maybe there is a third party solution.
Is it possible for all users of a system to use the iTMS songs purchased under one account? Say, I purchase the music under my user profile because I am the only user with a credit card. Can my girlfriend under her account use the songs?
\tYes, it is the computer that is authorised to play tracks, not the OS X user account
Is it possible to buy music off the iTMS under multiple iTMS accounts (i.e. switch accounts without logging in as a different user)?
\tYes
Can I load music onto my iPod form multiple computers without "reseting" it. Say, I have one computer in my dorm room and another one at home. Can I use both to fill up my iPod without loosing all of the music I loaded up from one system when plugging it into the other?
\tYes, just make sure that you set up the iPod in both copies of iTunes to be "manually updated" (you are given the opportunity to turn off auto-sync when you connect an ipod to a particular computer for the first time). You then simply drag-n-drop the songs you want from itunes to the ipod. If you want to go the other way (ipod --> computer), there are third party programs to do this.
Originally posted by Mr. H
No. You can set it up so that each user will import music to the same folder, but that would not work at all as you might hope. Maybe there is a third party solution.
How can I set this up? When they import into the same folder, does iTunes present the same folder to each user as the library? And how will this not work as i might hope?
Originally posted by Mr. H
Yes, just make sure that you set up the iPod in both copies of iTunes to be "manually updated" (you are given the opportunity to turn off auto-sync when you connect an ipod to a particular computer for the first time). You then simply drag-n-drop the songs you want from itunes to the ipod. If you want to go the other way (ipod --> computer), there are third party programs to do this.
Is this also possible between a Mac and a XP PC?
I have a 3G iPod (and soon, my girlfriend an iPod mini) and I don't know what filesystem they use. I do remember that they used to have a Mac and a Windows version because of different filesystems.
Can you link to some of the programms that let you re-import songs from the iPod, please. I don't want to store two copies (on on the music the other on the data part of the iPod) just to synch my two computers.
How can I set this up? When they import into the same folder, does iTunes present the same folder to each user as the library? And how will this not work as i might hope?
iTunes maintains a database file (called "iTunes 4 Music Library") of your music library, and stores it in ~/Music/iTunes/ it is not possible to change the location of this file through the GUI. It may be possible to change it by editing the prefs file or something, but I don't know.
So, let's say that you want to use the folder /music/ (i.e. a folder called "music" at the root of the hard drive) to store the music files imported by iTunes. You change the default library location in iTunes under the advanced preferences tab to /music/. However, as already mentioned, the library file will still be stored in ~/music/iTunes/.
Under this configuration, when you import music using iTunes, the files will be stored in /music/artist name/album name/, and iTunes updates the library database file in ~/music/iTunes/. iTunes only updates the database file when it is used to add files to the library. In other words, when itunes is launched, it doesn't scan the library folder to see if there are any new files in it that were not there before and update the database file accordingly.
Therefore, if you have user "a" and user "b", both set to import music into /music/, there would be two itunes library files, one in /Users/a/Music/iTunes/, and another in /Users/b/Music/iTunes/. All music files would be stored in /music/, but user a would only see music user a had imported, and user b would only be able to see music user b had imported.
If you could find a way to make iTunes use the same database file for both users, then it would work like you want it to.
Hope all of that made sense!
Is this also possible between a Mac and a XP PC?
I have a 3G iPod (and soon, my girlfriend an iPod mini) and I don't know what filesystem they use. I do remember that they used to have a Mac and a Windows version because of different filesystems.
If you want to be able to use an iPod on a PC and Mac, make sure that it is PC formatted. The reason that they used to sell different versions is that the PC version shipped with MusicMatch software; the hardware was the same. Now, they all ship Mac formatted, and PC users are prompted to re-format the iPod when they first plug it in.
However, since Mac OS X can read both mac and PC formatted disks, you can use a PC formatted iPod with it.
If your iPod is Mac formatted and you don't want to re-format, you could get MacDrive 5 for Windows which allows Windows to read HFS+ formatted disks.
Can you link to some of the programms that let you re-import songs from the iPod, please. I don't want to store two copies (on on the music the other on the data part of the iPod) just to synch my two computers.
I haven't used any so wouldn't know which to recommend. There are loads for the mac and assume that there are plenty for Windows too. Try versiontracker.com
Originally posted by Mr. H
iTunes maintains a database file (called "iTunes 4 Music Library") of your music library, and stores it in ~/Music/iTunes/ it is not possible to change the location of this file through the GUI. It may be possible to change it by editing the prefs file or something, but I don't know.
Could you store the "iTunes 4 Music Library" file in /Users/Shared and put an alias to that file in ~/Music/iTunes?
I just set up some dummy accounts in OS X to test some stuff out.
I tried using hard links (UNIX equivalent of aliases, but more powerful), but that didn't seem to work. I could have done something wrong, I'm not a UNIX expert.