Multiple devices per iTunes

[Technohead95]

I know that a single instance of iTunes can support multiple devices owned by the same person (e.g. iPhone and iPod) but is it possible to use the same installation of iTunes for multiple devices owned by different people (obviously, both living under the same house). My wife has an iPhone which currently syncs to iTunes on our shared laptop. If I get an iPhone as well, I'd like to use the same installed instance of iTunes but with my own profile so my data that is sync'd is different to my wifes.

Anyone know if this is possible? Would I have to use iTunes under a different Windows account or is there some way to do achieve this from under the same Windows account?

TIA

 

[Sirolway]

Completely - you can do either ....

a. Use the same Windows account & just set each device to sync different play lists in iTunes.

b. Use different Windows accounts, in which case you won't see your wife's playlists & vice versa


The advantage of (a) is that you only have to add each album etc / media item to iTunes once. As you have only a single media library, it'll also take up less space.

The advantage of (b) in increased privacy / security, if that's important to you.

 

[Technohead95]

Completely - you can do either ....

a. Use the same Windows account & just set each device to sync different play lists in iTunes.

b. Use different Windows accounts, in which case you won't see your wife's playlists & vice versa


The advantage of (a) is that you only have to add each album etc / media item to iTunes once. As you have only a single media library, it'll also take up less space.

The advantage of (b) in increased privacy / security, if that's important to you.

This is promising but what about other stuff that gets sync'd like the iphone's contact list, calendars, emails, photos etc and will there be any issues updating iphone firmware?

 

[pilot1226]

I'd like to know the answer to this too. My wife and I will be getting iPhones soon and we both have our separate iTunes accounts. I know that I can authorize and deauthorize computers, but we'd like to keep both of them synced to our Windows 7 Desktop since we know that one will always be home and that's the one we prefer to play our media on.

We only have one "login" for Windows, so while I could very simply add her as a User, I would prefer to just have a single account with multiple iTunes logins. I wonder if something can be done from the command line itself, such as an argument like itunes.exe -wifesaccountname or itunes.exe -myaccountname

This is probably a better question for the iTunes/Apple Official Forums.

 

[scaredpoet]

This is promising but what about other stuff that gets sync'd like the iphone's contact list, calendars, emails, photos etc and will there be any issues updating iphone firmware?

For that I would recommend having separate user accounts on the Desktop, and syncing that way.

 

[jkeith0919]

I also think separate Windows accounts is a better option. That's how hubby & I have ours set up. If you move the iTunes media folder to the Public folder, you can each have access to all your music & whatnot.

 

[Technohead95]

Thanks for everyone's help. Different user accounts it is