Synchronized iTunes across OS X user accts?

[Trey M]

Hi all,

I consider myself pretty literate using OS X but I have kind of a dumb question. I've spent an hour trying to figure out how to accomplish this and still can't find a solution.

I'll start off by saying that iTunes is just terrible. I know this topic has been discussed to death, but it's truly incredible how bad and confusing Apple's implementation of iTunes is among the Apple Music/Match/iCloud Music Library features. I still can't figure it all out 100%.

Anyways, I have 2 user accounts on one of my Macs. I do this because one is my personal account one is my work acct, there's many benefits to keeping them separate. Anyways, both are admins on my Mac. I used File Sharing to share the music folder from my personal acct then attempted to import, several different ways, into my Work iTunes library. While my local music is transferring over fine, I can't seem to import my large number of Apple Music songs into my work's account. I also am having trouble transferring over some local downloads that I imported after internet downloading. iTunes purchase music is fine, but I just can't seem to figure out how to transfer 100% of my internet-download-imported music into my Work account.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Are you using the same Apple ID for iTunes on both user accounts? If you're using separate Apple IDs, you'd need a family membership to do anything with Apple Music files - Apple Music downloads have DRM.

 

[awair]

It's possible, but a bad idea.

If you create an iTunes library in a accessible location, such as /Shared/Music, then the library might be able to be shared. The reason not to do this is that, if you accidentally left a user logged in and accessing iTunes, corruption to the data files may occur when a second user tries to access the app/library.

My recommendation would be to keep your Media in the shared location (and not let iTunes relocate it), use this for all users, and have separate, privately accessible iTunes library files.

God luck.

 

[Trey M]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah I'm using the same Apple ID for both accts. I have a 256ssd in my MBP but I have storage space issues all the time. I was trying to avoid having duplicate iTunes media in each acct. Perhaps the shared solution will work.

Not entirely sure how to create unique library files per user acct but I'll try to figure it out

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Don't try to copy the contents of the library, or to use separate libraries. If you Shared the library folder correctly, you can connect to the same iTunes Media folder from both User accounts: iTunes > Preferences > Advanced: iTunes Media folder location.

 

[awair]

iTunes will automatically create a library for each new user (first time app is used).

This is only a catalogue file of preferences, and file locations.

One of the preferences is for iTunes to relocate any media. I would suggest that this is the only step to be avoided.

Sharing your library (via iTunes) is possible, but the other (primary) user must remain logged in with iTunes running.
Sharing your media (folder) with permissions is probably too complicated for most, and not necessary, if you are:
Sharing your media by locating it in an implicitly shared location (ie the 'Shared' user folder). This is my personal choice, but other scenarios may also work.

 

[Trey M]

iTunes will automatically create a library for each new user (first time app is used).

This is only a catalogue file of preferences, and file locations.

One of the preferences is for iTunes to relocate any media. I would suggest that this is the only step to be avoided.

Sharing your library (via iTunes) is possible, but the other (primary) user must remain logged in with iTunes running.
Sharing your media (folder) with permissions is probably too complicated for most, and not necessary, if you are:
Sharing your media by locating it in an implicitly shared location (ie the 'Shared' user folder). This is my personal choice, but other scenarios may also work.

I'll definitely go ahead and try this. I've already Shared my PrimaryUserAcct>Music folder via file sharing and it's accessible via both accounts now. Should this suffice or is there significance to actually moving it to a designated 'Shared' folder?

 

[awair]

I'll definitely go ahead and try this. I've already Shared my PrimaryUserAcct>Music folder via file sharing and it's accessible via both accounts now. Should this suffice or is there significance to actually moving it to a designated 'Shared' folder?

Either way will work fine: I'm not sure if you need "Read & Write" privileges for the media, or if "Read only" privileges will do.

Using the Shared User Folder location, privileges will default to Read/Write, sharing anything in your home folder defaults to Read Only (which would be preferred, to make sure that nothing is deleted accidentally). You can change this to Read/Write if desired.