I have been researching this issue, but I am still not clear about the best way to handle our family situation.
I have one MBA (at the moment) and three users (two adults, one child) with separate Apple IDs, each with its own User Account. The iTunes library is located on an external HDD.
I would like to allow each User to access all content from this drive, but be able to add/remove which content appears, especially when it comes to music and podcasts, even if it all remains on the external HDD.
I do not want the content copied from the external HDD to the MBA. There is simply not enough space on the MBA. The HDD is large enough to accommodate each user's content--most of which is shared (music).
Currently, I have each user set to have his/her iTunes media folder in the Music folder. I have unselected the option to "copy files to iTunes media when adding to library." However, this will not suffice because then the podcasts are copied to the MBA and not to the external HDD.
Questions:
1. Would it be better to point the iTunes media folder to the external HDD?
2. Should I select or unselect the option to "Keep iTunes media folder organized" for each user?
3. Can I add all music to each user's iTunes library and delete the albums which are undesirable or will deleting an album for one user delete the album for all users?
4. When adding an album to iTunes, do I need to add it to each User's library separately afterwards?
What is the simplest way to handle this?
I am aware of home sharing, but while this seems to make everything available to everyone, it has drawbacks:
1. The Administrator account which would share the iTunes media folder would always have to be on
2. I don't think it is possible to customize playlists, music, etc., without it also affecting each other User.
I have one MBA (at the moment) and three users (two adults, one child) with separate Apple IDs, each with its own User Account. The iTunes library is located on an external HDD.
I would like to allow each User to access all content from this drive, but be able to add/remove which content appears, especially when it comes to music and podcasts, even if it all remains on the external HDD.
I do not want the content copied from the external HDD to the MBA. There is simply not enough space on the MBA. The HDD is large enough to accommodate each user's content--most of which is shared (music).
Currently, I have each user set to have his/her iTunes media folder in the Music folder. I have unselected the option to "copy files to iTunes media when adding to library." However, this will not suffice because then the podcasts are copied to the MBA and not to the external HDD.
Questions:
1. Would it be better to point the iTunes media folder to the external HDD?
2. Should I select or unselect the option to "Keep iTunes media folder organized" for each user?
4. When adding an album to iTunes, do I need to add it to each User's library separately afterwards?
What is the simplest way to handle this?
I am aware of home sharing, but while this seems to make everything available to everyone, it has drawbacks:
1. The Administrator account which would share the iTunes media folder would always have to be on
2. I don't think it is possible to customize playlists, music, etc., without it also affecting each other User.
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