Comments on: How-to: Consolidate an iTunes Library

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:47:29 +0000

The blog describing the sharing of iTunes are wonderful, thank you. At this point, I have a centralized iTunes directory in the living room. All of my music from my bedroom computer is consolidated there. I am able to open iTunes both in the living room and bedroom and see all of my music without a problem. I have found, however, that if one computer is opened to iTunes, the other computer is completely locked out; I get a comment that the iTunes Library.itl file is locked, on a locked disk, or your don’t have write permissions. Since this does work from time to time, I assume that it is not a problem with a locked disk or write permissions, but rather, a locking of the file when iTunes is in use by the other user. I noticed a comment in the blog earlier earlier on that it should be possible for two users to listen to music from a centralized source.

Is there a workaround for this?

-Ron

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:25:43 +0000

I repartitioned my HD and created an extra partition for storing media (itunes, iphoto) that I want to access and edit from both accounts. I have set this volume to “Ignore ownership on this volume”.

By: Jack K

Jack K — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:48:25 +0000

Thanks for the quick answer. Have considered the Sharing function, but not sure that will solve my problem. But, will check it out again and report back.

By: -DjD-

-DjD- — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:57:24 +0000

Hi Jack,

Check out Home Sharing in iTunes 9.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/whats-new/#home-sharing

iTunes makes it easier to share music, movies, TV shows, and more. With Home Sharing, you can browse the iTunes libraries of up to five authorized computers in your house, import what you like, and automatically add new purchases made on any of the computers to your own library.

By: Jack K

Jack K — Mon, 31 May 2010 17:38:07 +0000

I wonder if you can clarify something.
I currently have 50 gb of music on an external network drive.
This is shared between my wife and I over our local network.
We currently have separate iTunes library files so we can have independent play lists, ratings, etc.
The problem is when music is added on one Mac, it is not visible in the library of the other Mac.
Is there any way around this short of sharing one library file on the network drive? This would require then sharing playlist, ratings, etc.

By: ChrisK

ChrisK — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:11:55 +0000

Newbie question here. I believe I have the sharing iTunes library working between my wife and I. Where do I delete the original iTunes library? Do I go under user user/music/iTunes and delete?
In other words, do I go under my wife’s user account, find the music folder and delete the iTunes portion? The whole folder OR only the music in the iTunes folder?
Thank you

By: David

David — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:32:36 +0000

Don’t bother with the Terminal operations per Steve… the easy way to do this is just as DjD instructed and change “read/write” permissions in the “Get Info” pane. Be sure to click on “Apply to enclosed items” as well so that all items in the iTunes folder gain the same permissions. Thanks for your work DjD. Outstanding!!

By: -DjD-

-DjD- — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:03:14 +0000

Hi Leo,

I’ve not tried this with iPhoto so can’t say for sure but in principle, the same rules should apply.

By: Leo

Leo — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:50:07 +0000

DjD, Thanks for the email.

Something similar but unrelated to Itunes. I was wondering if you could do the same with your iphoto library?

Do you just moved your iphoto library to the shared drive? and if you upload new photo’s like itunes, how do you ensure that it goes in the shared drive?

Did you use the same concept so that you can share the photo library with your wife?

By: -DjD-

-DjD- — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 09:16:00 +0000

Leo, you're right about the permissions. Check out Step4 in my original post and it should clear things up.