Comments on: How-To: One iTunes Library With Multiple Computers

By: Steve in Seattle

Steve in Seattle — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:37:30 +0000

Sounds like a windows file permissions problem to me. On your server, try giving the other user accounts that access that folder “Full Control” permissions:
1.) On the iTunes folder on your server, right click, choose “Properties”
2.) Click on the “Security” tab
3.) Click the “Advanced” button.
4.) Click the “Edit” button, then the “Add” button.
5.) Enter individual users you want to have access and click the “OK” button. You didn’t mention if your Windows Home Server is a domain controller or not. If it is, you might just make sure the group “Domain Users” (no quotes) has “Full Control” permissions, this may be all you need to change rather than list the individual users.
6.) In the “Permission Entry for iTuenes” window, click the “Full Control” box under the “Allow” column.
7.) Click “OK” on each window to close them all out.
8.) Try to access iTunes from your other user accounts. You may have to log out and back in, but I doubt it.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:23:35 +0000

I am using Windows 7 and iTunes 9. I have a desktop with two logon’s mine and my wife’s. Additionally I have a notebook with a universal log on. My music is all on one shared folder on my Windows Home Server. I have successfully mapped iTunes to the server folder with the music; and the iTunes library to the library file on the server. So, it all works great with my desktop logon. However, when I log off iTunes and log into my wife’s account or the notebook’s account and attempt to point iTunes to the library file on the server it states that the file is locked or that I don’t have permission to use it. Is this something with iTunes 9? Any suggestions. I’ve tried to troubleshoot for hours now.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:37:02 +0000

I am having the same problem as bins. All my music is on my Mac Mini, and I’m connecting to it with a Windows 7 laptop. Everytime I switch computers it rebuilds the library. Also, whenever I go back to iTunes on the Mini I don’t have permissions to the “iTunes Library” file. My user has been taken away, and there is a user “nobody” that has the only read/write access. I can re-add myself to the file, but then iTunes still does the “Updating iTunes Library” thing.
Any suggestions?

By: bins

bins — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:45:06 +0000

Great tips!
I have the NAS sharing (Time Capsule, iTunes 9.0.2, Snow Leopard) configured, but every time I switch computers and start iTunes I get Updating iTunes Library which takes quite some time (45 min or more with 100Gb music)…
Any suggestions to speed this up or stop this from happening?

By: Steve in Seattle

Steve in Seattle — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:11:17 +0000

Aaaah foo. I used special characters before and after the words Shift and Option in my reply above. Here, this should be more clear. My apologies.

Use the Shift key on a Windows machine where you see instructions to use the Option key. Also, be sure to hold the Shift key while double clicking on the actual program icon, not a shortcut. (Find the actual program icon here: Start button -> All Programs -> iTunes -> iTunes)

By: Steve in Seattle

Steve in Seattle — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:08:08 +0000

Use the key on a Windows machine where you see instructions to use the key. Also, be sure to hold the key while double clicking on the actual program icon, not a shortcut. (Find the acutal program icon here: Start button -> All Programs -> iTunes -> iTunes)

By: Dan in London

Dan in London — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:20:53 +0000

Guys, I’m trying to set this up but on windows.

I get as far as “select option and double click itunes”. Obviously this is a MAC function. What is the function for windows? And how to you point itunes to the .itl file?

Cheers,
Dan

By: Steve in Seattle

Steve in Seattle — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:08:33 +0000

Awesome post. I have been able to share my library easily with XP but Windows 7 was not letting iTunes default to the network share I have always had my library shared out on, it insisted on keeping the library files on the local hard drive even though I used the Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> iTunes Folder Location setting to point to my network share. That’s all I needed to do with XP at least. Your client setup tip on how to point iTunes to the the library file did the trick. THANK YOU!!!

By: SteveK

SteveK — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:53:57 +0000

Wow – this is exactly what I want to do. I have a Windows environment with a AD server. On teh server is a shared folder with ALL the iTunes music. I want to have a shared library as well as 2 or 3 personal libraries. Can you please provide in depth instructions on how to accomplish this.

Thanks so much in advance.

By: Arun Venkatesan

Arun Venkatesan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:53:10 +0000

sync all your calendars to gmail and that should help with calendar sync

By: tilman

tilman — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:31:31 +0000

Hi,

I tried this with Apple iDisk and it worked. Cool Tipps, thanks a lot! I also tried using my Timemachine Airport Extreme Backup Volume (over Network) and here I just copied my local iTunes Forder (and all media files) to it. This woked, too. So what I ask myself: is it really necessary to go the way that is described here regarding creating a new xml and folder etc? isn’t it the same if you copy all your itunes data to the NAS/iDisk and the option start iTunes, let it scan and correct the paths and it works from different computers – as long as you don’t access the file from 2 computers at the same time?

Tilman

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:16:49 +0000

@UV-Birke
Sounds promising.

Is there any danger of corrupting files using this approach? Or does syncopation assure that no two computers are writing to any given file at the same time?

By: Face

Face — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:03:48 +0000

you hold down Shift key when double clocking the itunes icon. you may need to try it twice for it to prompt you.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:49:39 +0000

Try SuperSync

http://www.supersync.com

By: Dwain Willis

Dwain Willis — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:42:54 +0000

When choosing the library, ensure that you do not have that library already opened on another machine. Quit ALL instances of iTunes on all machines except the one you are trying to map to.

By: Scott S

Scott S — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:39:21 +0000

Scott (Jan 9th)… I am very interested in your set up… I moved my library to an external drive and would like a second user (my wife) to be able to access the same music library… Any chance you can supply me with a little more specific info re: your set up and the steps took to get there?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:41:52 +0000

I would love to figure out how to have the itunes library open on multiple machines at once.

Echodido – Mac only, limited storage space, and only syncs one playlist. I want my entire library synced on both machines.

Syncopation – Again, Mac only. Looks promising, but I use PCs.

By: Niall Smart

Niall Smart — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:42:04 +0000

This is all very complicated :) We’ve built Echodio specifically to solve this problem – it work just like DropBox, and easily syncs your playlists, tracks, ratings and metadata across multiple iTunes libraries – and for peace of mind keeps a backup in cloud storage. We also have support for streaming from the cloud to Boxee, so you’ve the same music collection everywhere.

Right now, we’re in beta, so it’s free to use. See http://www.echodio.com to signup!

By: Dan Schneck

Dan Schneck — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:24:29 +0000

Great tutorial – thanks for your efforts and willingness to share!

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:47:41 +0000

I use this setup storing my music on an AirDisk. My setup includes a macbook and a mac pro and I want to be able to share the same music on both computers supporting the ability for both computers to run itunes at the same time, two different people. The only way I have found to do this is to have two itunes folders that contain the itunes library (itunes library.xml) or more, one per user that wants to simultaneously access the library. The benefit of doing this is to be able to avoid needing to constantly synch music files to multiple locations, each user can maintain their own play lists. The downside is that when new music is added to one library it is not automatically added to the other libraries, this has to be done manually. With a little tinkering I bet I will be able to figure out how to automagically synch the two itunes library xml files, that would keep both perfectly in synch while allowing multiple users to simultaneously access them.