Automating iTunes import with multiple users?

When another user on the computer imports new music from CD, repeat steps 6 through 8 to add the music to your library.

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marc.garcia said:

Hello,

I'm interested in sharing my itunes music with my wife on the same computer. I've followed this official documentation http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1203?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US . I'm curious as to whether anybody has found a way to automate the process of importing new music.

Apple specifically states
. It does not surprise that by default iTunes won't make things easy for users when it comes to their own music as they can't make money from that.

Not only adding new music is a mess, but deleting it also represents quite a jump back in time...

Thanks to anyone who finds some time to clarify this for me.

M

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AcesHigh87 said:

Which set of instructions are you using on that page? Do you have the library set up to a shared space (shared folder, external harddrive, etc) and have both users pointing to it as the library OR are you accessing one user's library from the other user?

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[B]On Mac OS X [/B]
Quit iTunes.
Locate your iTunes Media Folder. (This folder may instead be named "iTunes Music" if your iTunes Library was created before iTunes 9).  By default, the iTunes Media folder is stored in one of the following locations:
~/Music/iTunes
~/Documents/iTunes/
Note: "~" represents your Home folder.

These locations cannot be accessed by other accounts on your computer. In order for other users to be able to access your music, you must move the iTunes Media folder from them to a publicly accessible location.

Drag the iTunes Media folder to a publicly accessible location. The Public folder in your Home folder (~/Public) is a good location, or to another location outside your Home folder that other users have access to, such as /Users/Shared.
Important: Do not move the iTunes folder, the iTunes Library file or the iTunes Library.xml file.

Open iTunes.
From the iTunes menu, choose Preferences.
Click Advanced.
Click the Change button.
In the window that opens, navigate to the location of your iTunes Media folder.
Click Choose.
Repeat these steps for each user account that you want to share music with other users.

Note: If multiple users on your computer are storing music in one publicly accessible folder, duplicate song files appear when a user imports music from a CD that has already been imported by another user.

If you are doing the former, it should work no matter who adds music because both users are accessing the same files in the same place. When one adds files they will be added to the shared space and both will get them.

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If you are doing the latter than unfortunately I'm not the guy to help you as I don't know much scripting. Personally, unless I don't understand your situation perfectly, I would simply use the first set of instructions and have a shared iTunes library.

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AcesHigh87 said:

I apologize, I was a little overtired when I read the link and basically read it with "To share your music with multiple user accounts on one computer" and "To listen to another account's music files" being two different things which would make the note in question only relevant to the latter.

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Assuming you have an external harddrive I would test this theory. Copy (don't move, just for security) your iTunes library (perhaps with fewer songs if you have a large collection) to an external harddrive in the same way the link recommends then point to that as the library, again as the link describes.

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On the second user go in once again and point to the same library.

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This way both users should have access to the same files and library and, therefore, be able to add and remove things from it.

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