Family iTunes Sharing
My wife and I have seperate accounts on the mac (can't wait for panther to make switching back and forth as easy as XP)
The problem is we most of our CD collection in my account and she has some downloads and random stuff she likes on hers (she is less anal about the state of iTunes ie. I can't stand when the auto CD fill in puts artist in the song field and song in the artist field but she could care less)
Anyway, is there a way to "sync" the iTunes on each account without taking up 2x as much space (copying the songs to each account)?
Thanks in advance
(After writing this I realized I posted in DH, if it belongs in GB....sorry)
The problem is we most of our CD collection in my account and she has some downloads and random stuff she likes on hers (she is less anal about the state of iTunes ie. I can't stand when the auto CD fill in puts artist in the song field and song in the artist field but she could care less)
Anyway, is there a way to "sync" the iTunes on each account without taking up 2x as much space (copying the songs to each account)?
Thanks in advance
(After writing this I realized I posted in DH, if it belongs in GB....sorry)
Comments
Originally posted by BRussell
Have you tried to move the iTunes music library to a non-private location, such as the top-level Documents directory? You can set the Music Library location in iTunes Preferences, if you haven't tried that.
Does this work, I don't see where to change the library location in iTunes.
I've heard people speak of dynamic linking or something, that seems to be the best possible way to do it.
then open the itunes prefs (do this for both accounts) and click the advanced option
change your "iTunes Music Folder Locacation" to the iTunes Music Folder in your Shared directory
I'm not sure how to use the same library file...maybe move the original iTunes 4 Music Library file to the shared directory and allow both users to have full access to the file (read/write) and then create 2 aliases and place one in each users itunes music folder (~/Music/iTunes Music).
I don't know for sure if the alias thing will work, but u both will have access to the tunes if u put them in the shared directory for sure.
Hope that all made sense.
Originally posted by JohnHenry
My wife and I have seperate accounts on the mac (can't wait for panther to make switching back and forth as easy as XP)...
Fast user switching just gave me an idea.
I believe that when you switch users, the applications of users who are switched out are still running in the background. If you turn on iTunes music sharing in your account, then switch to your wife's account and she launches iTunes... I wonder if she'll see your shared music available in her iTunes?
If this works, you could play each other's music easily, without having to mix your libraries into one shared library.
Anyone out there running a developer build of Panther want to give this a try?
Originally posted by shetline
Fast user switching just gave me an idea.
I believe that when you switch users, the applications of users who are switched out are still running in the background. If you turn on iTunes music sharing in your account, then switch to your wife's account and she launches iTunes... I wonder if she'll see your shared music available in her iTunes?
If this works, you could play each other's music easily, without having to mix your libraries into one shared library.
Anyone out there running a developer build of Panther want to give this a try?
seemed like a good idea...
7585 build of panther btw
Originally posted by Cosmo
seemed like a good idea...
7585 build of panther btw
Now that kind of thing could put a big kink in the usefulness of fast user switching. I wonder if this conflict exists for all apps, or just some apps? Will simply making a second copy of an app fix the problem?
iTunes, especially with sharing turned on... I can see where there might be some unavoidable resource conflicts over things like TCP/IP port addresses. Maybe iChat will be a problem too. But if two users also can't run Safari or Word or Mail or iPhoto at the same time as each other... "Hey, honey, can I quit you out of everything you're doing so I can get some work done?"... that would suck.
I moved my iTunes library to shared to try that suggestion and upon moving it back, when i open my iTunes there is nothing...
I imported from the old folder and everything is back with NO ratings...it took forever and a day to rate my whole library (14 days worth of stuff)
Please tell me this is fixable
Originally posted by JohnHenry
For the love of all that is Holy!
I moved my iTunes library to shared to try that suggestion and upon moving it back, when i open my iTunes there is nothing...
I imported from the old folder and everything is back with NO ratings...it took forever and a day to rate my whole library (14 days worth of stuff)
Please tell me this is fixable
Look for iTunes preference files (Home folder, in library?) everything may be in there, I could be wrong, I don't rate my stuff so I'm not sure where it is kept. However, it has to be on your hard drive somewhere. If you didn't delete it, it's still there.
You can change your music folder location (where the songs are stored) to a public folder, so you can access them, but then if some else rips a CD it won't be added to your iTunes list.
You have to use dynamic linking (alias of some sorts I think) to share libraries...like the actually document that stores the information about where the mp3s are stored, so that if someone changes something it changes it for you too.
But...My girlfriend and I each have an account on the old iMac and she has no music in her iTunes library so gave her full access to my iTunes library with the permission thingy in Get Info then I copied iTunes Music Library data file and .xml file from my Library and plopped the copies in her iTunes library. Upon next launch, she had full access to all the music. The only problem is that if I add more stuff to my side it is not reflected on hers.
I think these method can also be tweaked to access your iTunes library from outside the home. But I'm not sure.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone!
Originally posted by shetline
Now that kind of thing could put a big kink in the usefulness of fast user switching. I wonder if this conflict exists for all apps, or just some apps?
Only for a few if not just iTunes, by the accounts I've read.
Viz iTunes and user switching: In earlier builds of Panther, I read that it was possible for one user to play a tune on their account, switch to another account, and still hear the first user's music. The second user was able to play a different song altogether from their side of the fence, thus producing a rather unique musical experience.
Apple somewhere along the line specifically made a point to prevent that from happening.
Treading the forums/fora the past few months, I've not come across any other instance where this blocking occurs in Panther - it seems the Safaris, Words, and Mails of the world are safe.
Originally posted by LudwigVan
Only for a few if not just iTunes, by the accounts I've read.
Viz iTunes and user switching: In earlier builds of Panther, I read that it was possible for one user to play a tune on their account, switch to another account, and still hear the first user's music. The second user was able to play a different song altogether from their side of the fence, thus producing a rather unique musical experience.
Apple somewhere along the line specifically made a point to prevent that from happening.
Treading the forums/fora the past few months, I've not come across any other instance where this blocking occurs in Panther - it seems the Safaris, Words, and Mails of the world are safe.
I was really looking forward to running iTunes under two accounts, to separate some of the music but still allow sharing. Weird that this was disabled, esp. since it would be just for iTunes.
Perhaps a later update to iTunes (v5?) will provide this feature?