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iTunes sharing a music and App library, multiple accounts and multiple device help

As a new iMac user, I find your video casts really helpful. I now have a situation that I would really like advice on….
In my house there are two Macs (MacBook and iMac) that belong to two people (my partner and I). We also have an iPad each and iPhone each, plus an iPod each (although they’re pretty much redundant) we both have our own itunes accounts and have bought various Apps, although I have bought the majority.
What I would like…. The vision if you will, is to do store all of our music centrally on an external hard drive linked to an apple time capsule. I’m pretty confident that I can do the library move, and ‘point’ our itunes software to the central library. However, what I can’t get my head around is what happens with Apps, and how we maintain some form of independence e.g. We both download different podcasts, would we both see what each other have downloaded for example? How would all this work? What do i need to do terms of authorisation?
Your thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.
—–
DJ

Comments: 3 Responses to “iTunes sharing a music and App library, multiple accounts and multiple device help”

    13 years ago

    I wouldn't try to share a library. What I would do is to turn off the preference in iTunes that copies the music to your Music folder. Then store all of your music on the network drive. Then create individual libraries for each Mac/user. Add that music to each library.
    So the mp3 files are in a central location. But each of you has your own library. A bonus is that you don't have to add everything to each library if you don't want to.
    As for apps, that's different. Use Home Sharing for that. You can copy an app from one library to the other with Home Sharing.
    See episode 372: http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-library.html

      DJ
      13 years ago

      Thanks Gary.

      Excellent. I understand the first bit, thanks. Does Home Sharing mean we have to use just one iTunes account? I seemed to have a problem getting that to work when I was playing about with it the other day.

      Thanks once again.

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