Comments on: MacMost Now 291: iTunes 9 Home Sharing

By: powerskirt

powerskirt — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:00:28 +0000

tried everything mentioned – still no luck. I ended up copying what I wanted to my laptop through drive sharing. Thanks anyway!

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:29:39 +0000

No idea. I just found that my MacBook has the same problem. It shows an older status of files (as far as I can tell the same as the Netbook). The only machine showing the file list in complete is the iMac. The files are on the NAS, though. Weird.

By: Gary Rosenzweig

Gary Rosenzweig — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:54:54 +0000

Do you have Home Sharing turned on for both Macs? Are both Macs authorized in iTunes for the account? Are you using the same account for a “Home Sharing ID”? Are both running iTunes 9 (I assume so, because you need that for Home Sharing). If all that is true, then it is hard to say what might be wrong. Try turning off and on Home Sharing.

By: powerskirt

powerskirt — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:46:46 +0000

I have 2 Macs on a wireless network, one an older G4 with a giant hard drive and my music, the other a MacBook pro. I recently bought an iPhone and would like to use the MacBook for syncing. I upgraded to iTunes 9 on the MacBook and got home sharing set up to the point where I can see and play my music library that’s on my old Mac, however, there is no Import button visable when I select music in my shared library, nor will the MacBook copy files to the local library when I drag them. Any ideas?

By: Gary Rosenzweig

Gary Rosenzweig — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:23:10 +0000

Sounds like something is up with the NAS, perhaps?

By: Oliver

Oliver — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:59:08 +0000

Hi Gary, that is not the case. Some mp3s are accessible, some not. I cut the wlan connection, threw out all files in the local iTunes folder on the Netbook and restarted iTunes. The Netbook still showed the files like before, but could not access them (because the wlan connection was cut). I threw out all files of the playlist manually. Then I relaunched wlan and connected iTunes with the iTunes folder on the NAS again. Nothing happened. I went to “import playlist” and imported the iTunes music library.xml file from the NAS. After some time I stopped thein-progress-window and files appeared in the local playlist. However, this time there were even more files missing than before. This is rather frustrating…

By: Gary Rosenzweig

Gary Rosenzweig — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:04:43 +0000

See what the differences are between the files that are accessible and the ones that aren’t. For instance, are the accessible ones .mp3 files and the others .aac? Then your NetBook may not know how to play .acc files. Things like that.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:59:40 +0000

Thanks for your quick reply, Gary. The Netbook seems to be connected to the NAS “server” library, since the local iTunes folder is empty and there are titles visible (that can also be played). But it seems like some old status, not all the titles (regardless if from CD or iTunes Shop) on the NAS are accessible. Maybe I have to install iTunes on the Netbook new…

By: Gary Rosenzweig

Gary Rosenzweig — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:16:47 +0000

You should be able to do this. Just turn off “Keep iTuns Media folder organized” and “Copy files to iTunes Media folder” in the Advanced section of the iTunes prefs. Then store your music on the NAS, and add it to your iTunes library (maybe start it fresh). iTunes will then act as normal, but your NetBook can then access these files however it wants to access them.
Or, you could simply leave the default settings and store your iTunes library on the NAS.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:19:11 +0000

Hi Gary, thanks for the video, I just discussed with a friend why Apple starts to make things so complicated. I have Macs and a Windows Netbook, plus multiple ipods and an iphone in the household. (I already got rid of all non-itunes compatible players). Since I have an NAS which is running 24/7 I thought it might be a good idea to install my iTunes Library there, and, instead of more or less redundant music libraries, have one “server” to store the music and use the local iTunes as “player”. It kind of works with my iMac, but there is no way I can bring that to work e.g. with the Netbook. Technically it can not be a problem at all, I guess the whole hazzle is only due to Apples fear that somebody might buy and share iTunes files. Do you know if anybody ever succeeded building up an “iTunes NAS server”?

By: Gary Rosenzweig

Gary Rosenzweig — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:29:39 +0000

Hard to tell which piece isn’t in place. Try turning off Home Sharing and turning it on again on each machine. After turning each off, try logging in to the iTunes store using the account you wish to share — or both accounts to “authenticate” your account. Then turn Home Sharing back on. You’ve got to keep tinkering with it, I think.

By: Whitney

Whitney — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:54:00 +0000

I recently just got a laptop and I was not looking forward to transfering all of my music over. I looked into home sharing, I have done every single step, and yet I cannot for the life of me get the import button to appear while using Homesharing.
I have the same accounts for both computers, and my library from my other computer pops up on my lap top I just can’t find an import button!

I can’t click and drag songs either!
I’m so frustrated! I just want my music! PLEASE HELP!

By: Gary Rosenzweig

Gary Rosenzweig — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:00:20 +0000

I’d definitely contact WD support and see what they have to say.

By: Crooked Root

Crooked Root — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:50:57 +0000

I have the same problem, expect that I purchase my WD ShareSpace after I had upgraded iTunes to 9. Still, the WD server does not show up in the Shared list in iTunes. In fact, nothing shows up – there is no Shared list.

By: Gary Rosenzweig

Gary Rosenzweig — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:45:33 +0000

Just a guess: Sounds like the MacBooks’ iTunes are not authorized using the same account as the iMac — this is different than Home Sharing authorization. They actually have to be authorized to play the music bought with that iTunes store account. Menu bar: Store, Authorize Computer…

By: Kamila

Kamila — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:38:37 +0000

We have 2 macbooks, and an imac that we use as a server. Both macbooks can “see” the music files on the imac, but we the import/settings bar does not appear along the bottom, therefore neither can import the music files. Any ideas?

By: Kamila

Kamila — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:36:11 +0000

Gary, we have 2 macbooks, and an imac which we use as the server. The two macbooks seem to see the shared library on the imac, but neither have the Import and Settings bar displayed at the bottom, therefore neither can import the music. Any ideas?

By: Gary Rosenzweig

Gary Rosenzweig — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:11:41 +0000

The old sharing feature is there, the same as before. I was using it before and am still using it. Not sure, but perhaps you are running into another problem. Hard to tell from here.

By: Deb

Deb — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:14:01 +0000

Great video Gary! I noticed that the iTunes Server that is on my WD ShareSpace no longer shows up as a “Shared” library – I double click a song from the network drive on the finder, and the song starts in iTunes, shows up in the main library, but no SHARED library anymore that I can browse from iTunes. What happened to the old sharing? I checked prefs and sharing is on – is this feature no longer available in iTunes 9?

By: Geoff

Geoff — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:40:04 +0000

Home sharing doesn’t work for me as I want to keep my home PC in sync with my work PC.

By: Gary Rosenzweig

Gary Rosenzweig — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:37:48 +0000

You definitely can not use Home Sharing for that. Home Sharing is between two running iTunes programs. So if you want to get the files from a server, you have to use more traditional file sharing techniques. But if you can access the files on your Mac, then you can use them in iTunes. You just need to set up iTunes to not organize your files for you so it doesn’t just copy them over.

By: nozmo

nozmo — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:32:07 +0000

I have a related issue and am trying to figure out if I can combine my existing iTunes files with an assortment of other files I’ve collected over the years and store them on a central Windows Home Server and then use iTunes on my kids pc and on my imac and simply share the files with each respective iTunes accounts.

Basically I’m simply trying to share the files and not the accounts. Is this possible or will there be some rub with the two different systems working from the same collection of files?

By: Gary Rosenzweig

Gary Rosenzweig — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:00:33 +0000

As long as you are both running iTunes and are on the same network, you should be able to use Home Sharing. Turn it on on both and see. If the PC has any sort of firewall or blocking, it may make it tough. But try it and see if you can see each other’s music in iTunes.

By: julie

julie — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:44:36 +0000

i am very confused about home sharing. i just got a pro but my sister has a dell pc, can we still share and what d we dod to set it up

By: Gary Rosenzweig

Gary Rosenzweig — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:47:38 +0000

Make sure both computers have Home Sharing enabled and that both are using the same ID for Home Sharing. Then it should work. If it doesn’t, it could be your home router blocking it or any number of things. Lots of people can’t seem to get Home Sharing to work, so you are not alone.

By: rebecca

rebecca — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:44:15 +0000

we have one computer where we have all of our songs, but i want some of the ones that are on my labtop to put on this computer. and the homesharing button disapears evertime i log in. how can i fix this?

By: Gary Rosenzweig

Gary Rosenzweig — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:50:20 +0000

You definitely can’t use Home Sharing for this. The computers need to be on the same network. I would recommend picking up a cheap USB flash drive and using it to bring the files from house to house when you buy new music.

By: Jaegerbomb

Jaegerbomb — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:30:01 +0000

wuz up,
i just saw your video and i found it quite interesting… my problem is that my mum and my dad don’t live together and i got a computer in each one of their apartments.
if i download songs on one of my computers, i cannot listen to it on the other one, of course.

is there anyway to send the new songs to my other computer without using e-mail (i use the same account on both computers)?

By: Matt Tunney

Matt Tunney — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:08:08 +0000

This just seems like another one of apples misses to be honest, just like the apple tv and time capsule. Disappointing

iLife and it’s packages are for a single user hence the i, even though apple says one of iLifes features is the ability to easily share files with your friends and family.

Apple really should take a new approach to these packages and aim towards a family and home environment set of features. Say limit the number of apple ID’s to 5 (just like the family pack bundles of Mac OS X) and that the users have the same billing address.

By: Matt W

Matt W — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:33:22 +0000

Great review. Completely boiled down the new home sharing feature down to what it is (not much), and saved me the time of trying it out.