iTunes 10 (or 9) How to set up Home Sharing
Since iTunes version 9, Home Sharing has allowed me to share music, movies, apps and more. With the Home Share feature, I can share my tunes and movies with my family and they can share their tunes with me. I mean I can actually take the movies and music that are on my family’s computers and put them into MY iTunes to play when I want. My son has great taste in music and movies so I’m happy to get the benefit of the long hours of his discoveries of music. This has been made possible because iTunes 9 has “home sharing.”
In the past, if each person chose to “share” their iTunes Library, you could listen to their music, but the music and movies lived in the other person’s iTunes library. You could only listen if they had their computer turned on and running iTunes. Now, members of the same household that want to share (actually exchange) music and movies can. Guess it’s all part of the loosening of DRM so that you can actually listen to music and watch movies where you want to view or hear it.
Here’s how to set up Home Sharing:
- Choose the Main iTunes Account: Decide whose computer (actually iTunes account) will be the main account. All others will use the same itunes user name and password. (we decided that we would use my account name since I’m the head tech mom here). For example let’s say my account username for the iTunes store is simpletechguru@mac.com and that my password is “yoohoo.” (by the way, it’s not).
- Click on the little house: To start setup, click on the home sharing icon on the left column of iTunes on the main computer.(See the below tips if it doesn’t appear.) It will ask you to put in your itunes user name and password.
So, for this example, I put in the simpletechguru@mac.com and yoohoo. - Be sure the other computer(s) are running iTunes 9 (or above): Next, go to the other computer(s) in the house (be sure they have updated to iTunes 9 or above).
- Put in the same iTunes user name and password on those computer(s): On each computer, click on the home sharing icon and put in the same itunes name and password as you used on your computer…
So, for this example, I put in the simpletechguru@mac.com and yoohoo.
- Authorize the other computer(s) to play your iTunes purchases:Now…you will need to be sure that the other computers are authorized to play the music, movies, etc. you have purchased on iTunes (those songs and movies bought before the DRM free option).To authorize the other computers: go to “store” in the top menus and then choose “authorize computer” you will now need to put in your itunes user name and password to authorize the computer to play the songs you bought. (also, if others in you home sharing have songs that they bought and you want to play, you will similarly need to authorize your computer with the other’s itunes accounts.)
Once all computers have been set up to home share and have been authorized, you can now drag movies, music, even iphone applications and ringtones into your library! They will be copied to your library! This is awesome, especially since I pay for my son’s iTunes purchases anyway!
Hint: if you change your mind as to which iTunes account to use across the home sharing OR if you make a mistake:
Go to “advanced” in the top menu. Then “turn off home sharing.” Now go back to “advanced” and “turn on home sharing.” it will ask you again for the itunes account name and password.
TIP: Remember that all computers must be on the same account AND the same home network to share.
By the way, older versions of iTunes allowed you to turn on “sharing” so you could play other’s music etc. But you couldn’t download their media and put it on your iphone or ipod. Now it’s possible.
Excuse me, I need to turn down “Mr. Brightside.” I’ve been wanting that song since I heard it in the movie “The Holiday.” Sure glad my son found it!
Thanks so much. This was so much more helpful than Itunes set up.
one of my accounts is not showing the “little house” on my itunes, therefore i am unable to set it up.
any way to fix this?
Could be a couple of things. 1. Did you set up the home sharing on the other computer (the little house for the computer you want)? 2. are all the computers you want to see on the same account? 3. Is the other computer turned on and iTunes is open (has to be open). Also, if the other computer has another account, have you clicked on one of the songs/movies/apps from that other account and put in the user name and password for that other account?
You have to go to each computer and set up home sharing as I described to get them all to share and talk to each other. You can’t even receive the other computers if all computers aren’t on the same home share.
I would like to connect my PC with iTunes to my wired home network, so that I can see (and hear!) iTunes on my home theater system. The Samsung plasma TV is on the network, and using some incredibly crummy Samsung software (PC Share Manager) I can play any song I want…but I have to scroll through thousands to get to it! I need an interface like iTunes that will allow me to easily control playback from the TV. Any ideas?
Thanks.
Have you tried TwonkyMedia Manager? There are so many questions I’d have to ask…like, do you have playlists set up in your iTunes? I have to play with this a little because I haven’t found a device that has been good about recognizing playlists and genres. Still very buggy. Check back…I’ll write a blog about it once I figure it out. It’ll take some set up I’m sure. Let me know if you find any solutions or if Twonky works for you!
once you import content from one shared computer to the other, is it necessary for the main one to be on and have itunes open?
If your computer is authorized to play (or use) their media or apps–and you have dragged it to your library and it is added– the other computers aren’t necessary. The files are now in your library.
I have both of my computers connected and on the same account, but it does not show a “shared” folder on the left side. What am i doing wrong?
So many questions. 1) IF you are running the newest iTunes (10)… hover over the word “shared” if “show” appears to the right of it, then click on Show. The other thing is to make sure that in your preferences under “sharing” that both computers have “share my library on my local network” and “look for shared libraries” checked. After that…I would need more details.
I don’t have the newest version of itunes (although I do have itunes 9 so I have homesharing) and the computer I’m trying to link with–does… I can’t install the newest update because of parental controls (I’ll ask my parents to install it,) but I was wondering if having the newest update would even help me sync with the other comp (which, again, has the most recent update.) I’ve tried authorizing on both comps and it lets me, but it won’t let the comps share with eachother, even when they both have homesharing on, and have both authorized under the same account. (Also they’ve both activated homesharing with that same account aswell…) Both itunes are open at the same time, I did everything listed, yet they won’t share with eachother. (I went to preferences, etc.) Still nothing… What can I do to make them share with eachother without installing the update?
Cable TV is great specially if you got those digital cable boxes that is coupled with TIVO ”
Both the computers that I am trying to use homeshare with have itunes 10. I have used my apple ID as the main user. My libary is appearing on the other computer however the other computers libary is not appearing on my computer. As soon as I start to homeshare the tab marked sharing disappers on my computer can you help me please?
Do you have file sharing turned on for the other computer? In the iTunes preferences, go to Sharing and be sure the “share entire library” is checked. You don’t say if you are using Macs or PCs. Either way, be sure you have turned on file sharing on the other computer. That’s the most likely cause.
Thanks! This was very helpful. If you could start from scratch (like my wife and I are going to do, as we are new to Mac’s) would you setup a joint iTunes account, or two separate ones? The “macgenius” at the store told me to setup a new email address (ex TheSmiths@XYZ.com) which I’ve done, and was set to create a joint iTunes account.
Let’s assume we will have a family computer with iTunes account ID, TheSmiths@… and that we will have 2 separate laptop computers, one for my wife and I. Should we also have individual discrete iTunes accounts?
However now my concern is sharing an iCloud account as I know there is a 5GB limit for free iCloud sharing.