Moving iTunes Library

[Walkaa]

Ive read through a lot of cases on this and im still not sure of the solution.

My problem is i have 2 user accounts using the same iTunes library.

The location of this library is: /Users/Shared/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media.

Im wanting to delete one of the user accounts and therefore move all my music which both accounts have added to into the one remaining account.

Any ideas of the simplest and securest way?

Walkaa

 

[switon]

RE: iTunes Library...

Hi Walkaa,

I don't quite understand what iTunes Libraries you have.

You state that you have two user accounts using the same iTunes Library. I assume by this you mean that one user opens iTunes using this single iTunes Library (/Users/Shared/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media) and then through Home Sharing the second user can access this single iTunes Library. Normally, two different user's cannot simultaneously open the same iTunes Library, since iTunes locks the library when it first opens it which would disallow the second user's iTunes from opening it.

So, assuming that you have a single iTunes Library, as listed above, then you can delete the user account that you don't want without affecting this iTunes Library. It will still be there after you delete the user account, and the remaining user account will have access to it.

On the other hand, if you mean that you actually have 3 iTunes Libraries, the shared one listed above plus two additional user libraries, one in each user's folder, say /Users/username-1/Music/iTunes and /Users/username-2/Music/iTunes, and you wish to combine all the music in all of these libraries into the one shared library, then that is a different story.

I find that an easy way to move songs from one iTunes Library to another library is simply to make a Playlist in the source library of all of the songs you wish to transfer. You then Export this Playlist using the iTunes -> File -> Library -> Export Playlist... . Quit this iTunes. Restart iTunes (holding down the alt or option key when clicking on the iTunes icon in the Dock) and choose the other iTunes Library to which you wish to import the songs. You may now Import the Playlist using iTunes -> File -> Library -> Import Playlist... , selecting the Playlist you made for the songs from the first iTunes Library. This will import the songs correctly, including any metadata, into the second library.

If, on the third hand, you are referring to different iCloud accounts with different Apple IDs, then that is yet another story....

Hope this helps,
Switon

 

[Walkaa]

Neither of those.

Its one computer with 2 accounts The iTunes points to the path I provided. When I log into either account 1 or 2 it opens iTunes. As both users have read and write privileges on the folder.

In the end I want to completely delete the one account. I just want to make sure I won't lose any tracks because any track add through user 2 I can't edit on iTunes on user 1.

Hope that helps
Walkaa

 

[switon]

RE: Interesting!

Hi Walkaa,

Perhaps we're talking at cross purposes here...but...

How did you get two accounts to open the same iTunes Library simultaneously? When I try this is doesn't let the second account open the iTunes Library, as the first account has locked it.

Only under the condition of the first iTunes Home Sharing the library can the second iTunes read it.

I performed the following two experiments:

1.a. On a Mac mini, User A opens an iTunes Library on a shared public disk.
1.b. User A has access to the public iTunes Library, but his iTunes locks it.
1.c. User A does not Home Share this library.
1.d. User B, on a MBP computer who has permissions to access the public library on the Mac mini, cannot open the iTunes Library and is informed that the library is "locked" when attempting to do so.

2.a. On the Mac mini, User B opens the same iTunes Library on the shared public disk.
2.b. User B now has access to the public iTunes Library, but his iTunes locks it.
2.c. User B does not Home Share this library.
2.d. User A, on the MBP computer who has permissions to access the public library on the Mac mini, cannot open the iTunes Library and is informed that the library is "locked" when attempting to do so.

Summary, both User A and User B can access the public iTunes Library individually, but not simultaneously, since once one user opens the library it is locked so the other cannot open it. Is this your problem?

So I take it that your system operates differently than what I describe in my Experiments 1 and 2 above. That you can have two accounts that can simultaneously open a single iTunes Library. I find this intriguing, and I'd like to know how it is accomplished.

Home Sharing, of course, is a different mechanism that allows the second account to also read the opened library from the first account's iTunes.

But all this is still superfluous to your problem. And I need to know a little more to understand what you are doing. It sounds like you are saying that both User 1 and User 2 add tracks to the single iTunes Library. Then you say User 1 can't "edit" the tracks added by User 2? What do you mean by "edit"? Are these tracks protected by DRM (or bought through the iTunes Store using different Apple IDs)? If so, then I don't know how to solve your problem, and I suspect you may have to keep both Apple IDs. If these tracks are not protected by DRM or bought using different Apple IDs, then the way of transferring songs from one library to another using the Playlist trick that I described above works well. But you only have a single iTunes Library, so why do you need to transfer the songs in the first place (unless, of course, they are protected by DRM)? You say you need to "move all of my music" from one account to the other. If everything is in one library, then why?

So, if you are trying to get around DRM protections, then I can't help you. If not, then I still don't understand why you are having this problem...stupid me.

Regards,
Switon