Home Sharing bug in iTunes 9?

This post has been updated. See details below.

I was excited to try out the new Home Sharing feature in iTunes 9. The feature isn't as new as some reports suggest--it's been possible to share iTunes libraries among computers in a home network for years now, but the experience was pretty limited.

You couldn't play DRM-protected songs in a shared library, couldn't create playlists from a shared library, and most importantly, couldn't physically transfer songs from a library on one computer to a library on another. Home Sharing promises to change all this, so I gleefully updated iTunes on my Windows XP PC and my MacBook (which my wife has adopted), and enabled Home Sharing on both.

For a brief shining moment, my Mac (which is almost music-free) was able to see the 3,500 songs stored in iTunes on my PC. The transfer button was just sitting there, waiting for me to start moving as much of my music as I wanted over to my Mac.

Now you see it...

But instead of moving ahead, I had to mess around. Long story short, my wife and I have separate user accounts on the PC. There are some songs by some artists (like Journey) that are in my wife's iTunes library on the PC but which I've made sure never show up in mine (I can't stand Journey). So I decided to try to share her library with the Mac.

I closed iTunes on the PC, logged off, logged onto my wife's user account, opened iTunes, and tried to set up Home Sharing. It let me authorize with iTunes--which is necessary for turning Home Sharing on--but as soon as I authorized, the Home Sharing icon in the left-hand column disappeared.

OK. So I logged off my wife's account, logged back on to the PC as myself, and went back to my iTunes library. Now I couldn't see Home Sharing at all. I used the Advanced menu item to turn Home Sharing off and back on--no luck. I went to the Mac and turned it off and back on--no luck, and that made Home Sharing disappear on that copy of iTunes as well! I rebooted both machines multiple times--no luck.

Now every single time I want to turn Home Sharing on, it lets me authorize, then as soon as I hit the "Done" button, the Home Sharing icon disappears. My guess is that it has something to do with trying to authorize two libraries on the same PC with the same iTunes account, but there's no online support for iTunes 9 yet, so I can't tell. (And before you ask, yes, I have both the "Share my local library on the network" and "Look for shared libraries" boxes checked on iTunes on both computers.)

Now you don't.

Lesson: if it's working, don't touch it! Transfer that library, and get the heck out. And if anybody else has had this bug and knows how to fix it, please let me know in comments below.

Update, September 11: I turned on my Mac and PC this morning, started up iTunes, and the Sharing folder and Matt Rosoff's Library icon appeared on both. I haven't changed any settings in iTunes or in my firewall software. I'm not sure what happened, but my advice to those of you who are seeing this apparent bug--and judging from the comment stream, it's not uncommon--is to shut everything down, start up again, and make sure that iTunes is open on both computers.

Follow Matt on Twitter.

[solicitehere]

I enjoyed my Apple products much more before they started getting more market share. Apple has proven to me that they just can't produce good updates or upgrades that just work. And when they do work, they change all your personal settings??? I hope they get it into gear soon, or I'll be switching.

[powerlloyd]

Go ahead, switch.
I'm sure upgrades & such will be a dream...
iLife, Final Cut Pro & the like may be a little challenging.
You will still have Safari, iTunes & Quicktime.

[kelmon]

I couldn't agree more. When I first switched to the Mac pretty much everything worked as advertised and I was really impressed how much better the experience was over Windows XP. However, as the years have gone on I am less and less convinced. I feel that Apple is losing it and that Microsoft has finally got their act together. When it comes time to upgrade my current MacBook Pro I may give serious consideration to switching back to Windows, which is something that I didn't expect myself to be saying a few years ago.

And, yes, I am seeing exactly the same problem as this article with a MacBook Pro and PowerBook connected to each other via an Airport network. Oddly, we seem to have no problem seeing the other computer for the purposes of streaming music over the old Sharing option but Home Sharing has completely disappeared.

[kelmon]

OK, ignore my complaint about Home Sharing - it seems to work OK if you follow the instructions and use the same iTunes account credentials on each computer.

[mightymousenz]

ive just moved (3 months ago) from vista to a macbook pro. if you switch back you will be very disappointed - microsoft is worse than ever. the problem in this thread is to do with vista. all the xp and macs on my network work flawlessly with homesharing. vista has its firewall interfering with the share which is why the icon disappears.

[nouser]

Home Sharing worked flawlessly on my three Macs. This feature makes keeping all three libraries synced a breeze. Fast and easy. Great feature.

[MaggieRed]

Same experience except on two Macs. I even renamed my libraries after sharing was enabled because originally they were both the same name, and within moments both systems updated each other with the new names.

To make it sweeter I used the show only songs not in my system so I could see only the different songs. Great feature.

Sorry someone is having trouble.

[justwinbaby]

I could care less about home sharing and more about how ugly itunes 9 looks. What a disgusting white background, I'm just amazed how my itunes has become unbearable to see.

[boblew4]

i set up home sharing and like he said the icon disappeared

[anriettec]

Hi

I have an iMac (10.6.1) and a PC (Vista) connected through a WLAN router. I had the same problem with the Home Sharing function not working on the Vista computer. The Mac though saw the Vista library immediately. I figured it out to be because I was logged into the iTunes Store (not Home Sharing) using two different accounts. I corrected this, with Windows Firewall turned off. Then I restarted iTunes and the Mac library was visible on the Vista computer. I accessed it and it worked, but only for a few seconds, because I realised that Windows Firewall turned on again.

I then went to Windows Firewall and added two other programs and two ports to the exceptions list:

- iTunesHelper
- iTunesPhoto** (sorry I can't remember the exact file name, but only these two exist in the Program Files -> iTunes folder except iTunes.exe)
- Port 3689 : TCP
- Port 5353 : UDP

After this, I re-enabled the Windows Firewall and the library worked flawlessly.

If this still does not work, forward the ports on your router both: TCP: 3689 and UDP:5353.

[rholiday]

I setup home sharing on my mac pro laptop, windows vista, and windows xp pro machines. Home sharing initially showed up on all three, but after turning them off and back on at a later date, the only machine showing the home sharing icons is the mac pro laptop. They were all setup with the same id and passwords, and all machines are authorized.

[joetesta70]

iTunes is tired and lacks any innovation anymore.

[ikramerica--2008]

he says in response to an article discussing an innovation...

[chipotlecoyote]

Okay, I'll bite. What other music library/player software do you recommend as being fresh and breezy and full of innovative goodness?

[protagonistic--2008]

He probably likes Windows Media Player. :-)

[DrtyDogg]

irkamerica--2008: I didn't see any innovation in that article.

[rapier1]

How does sharing music qualify as an innovation?

[chipotlecoyote]

rapier1: nothing in iTunes strikes me as particularly mindblowing; while it introduced some "firsts" like smart playlists (AFAIK, they had this concept well before Winamp and others did), most players do about what iTunes does. Some players probably do more. I'm not sure any other players have features quite like the "Genius" playlist feature, though, which I've found to be worthwhile, and about as innovative as anything else I've seen on other platforms. I don't know if any other players have social networking integration, either, although that isn't something that I'm too interested in.

But my basic point was: okay, if joetesta70 is going to complain about iTunes' lack of innovation, then he should point to another product or two that's showing us how it's done. If nobody else is doing anything that's blowing your socks off, maybe the "problem" isn't with iTunes.

[ckh1272]

@joetesta70--Only to the ignorant.

[jpg27]

@rapier the new way in which you can share music on the itunes platform is innovative.
Innovative - featuring new methods, original.
Tell me what other software does 'Home Sharing' in the way Apple does?
Even Microsoft brings innovation to some of their products...
Don't knock it if you don't use it...oh my bad if you dont understand HOW to use it..

[smrterthnu]

Say what you will about windows media player, but they sure beat apple to media sharing punch.

[pfern]

Get thee back under the bridge to scare goats, Mr. Troll.

[arcanitestudios]

Do you have iTunes turned on and running at the same time during the import? I had some issues setting it up myself, turned sharing on both, ran iTunes, and nothing. I ran iTunes at the same time and it worked. Now I'm just waiting while it imports about 30 GB of music...

[MattRosoff]

Yes, iTunes is up and running on both.

[ikramerica--2008]

Have you restarted both machines? While iTunes does not require a restart to install, it does place an iTunesHelper app as a startup item, and this might be modified in 9?

[Vegaman_Dan]

Article says the author did reboot... multiple times on the affected systems.

This may be a problem only on the PC side?

[smrterthnu]

Go to Add/Remove programs and uninstall iTunes. Issue resolved

[koeylondon]

Trolly troll is trolling.

[eddiemalloy]

[Done] means DONE, Over, Unlink,

Damn, some people ....

[AllanLane]

No, it doesn't mean DONE! If you had tried it, you would know that. If you hit Sharing while the box is still up (before hitting done) you just get the box refreshed. As soon as you hit done, Sharing disappears. It's happened to me all but one time.
Please file your next unhelpful comments on the Smart Ass thread. Damn, some people ...

[etiahwhite]

I haven't tried out home sharing yet but itunes has crashed on me 3 times...Prior to this I couldn't tell you the last time it crashed. On another note I'm loving that you can rearrange your iphone apps/icons from the computer.

[bsmurray]

Home sharing is not working for me either. Do I need a wired connection between the computers or should it be wireless? In the tutorial video it shows that it is all done wireless. I dont have mac's could that be the problem?

[ckh1272]

See my post on page two for the steps to set up the home sharing. It took me a minute to find it but once I did, everything worked fine between my Mac and my PC. Just make sure both systems are authorized and iTunes has to be open on both systems to play. Hope this helps.

[ckh1272]

Here are the steps below:

The Home Sharing solution is an easy one if you look in the right place. Before or after set up the computers for home sharing (I set mine up afterwords), go to Preferences->Sharing->Share my Library on my local network. Then you can check or uncheck everything you want to show on the other computers and done. My Mac and my PC had no problems after that and were both playing alternate playlists at the same time.

Hope this helps.

[ckh1272]

Also, if you're on a Mac, you need to adjust your firewall settings (in System Preferences->Security->Firewall tab) to allow incoming connections for iTunes.

[MattRosoff]

Based on all the comments I'm reading, it appears to be a PC-specific problem. Doesn't occur in all-Mac households. And to answer the previous question, no, you shouldn't need a wired connection.

[kelmon]

Hi Matt,

I am having the same problem in an all-Mac household. I am trying to connect a MacBook Pro to a PowerBook G4 that are connected to the same Airport Extreme network. I can connect to the other computer's Library via the old Sharing method but Home Sharing just completely disappears.

[brente2]

it's definitely a bug. Happens to me as well... My Mac is on Snow Leopard, and my PC is on Vista. You'd think Apple would test this... ;-)

[anriettec]

Hi

I have an iMac (10.6.1) and a PC (Vista) connected through a WLAN router. I had the same problem with the Home Sharing function not working on the Vista computer. The Mac though saw the Vista library immediately. I figured it out to be because I was logged into the iTunes Store (not Home Sharing) using two different accounts. I corrected this, with Windows Firewall turned off. Then I restarted iTunes and the Mac library was visible on the Vista computer. I accessed it and it worked, but only for a few seconds, because I realised that Windows Firewall turned on again.

I then went to Windows Firewall and added two other programs and two ports to the exceptions list:

- iTunesHelper
- iTunesPhoto** (sorry I can't remember the exact file name, but only these two exist in the Program Files -> iTunes folder except iTunes.exe)
- Port 3689 : TCP
- Port 5353 : UDP

After this, I re-enabled the Windows Firewall and the library worked flawlessly.

If this still does not work, forward the ports on your router both: TCP: 3689 and UDP:5353.

[Gadget70]

All my music is on my iMac and I shared it with my PC. It all transferred over seamlessly. Home sharing rocks! My iTunes accounts on both machines was under my name so that may have helped.

[Gadget70]

Just to be clear, I'm running Snow Leopard on my iMac and Vista on my PC

[MaggieRed]

Excellent.

[anriettec]

Hi

I have an iMac (10.6.1) and a PC (Vista) connected through a WLAN router. I had the same problem with the Home Sharing function not working on the Vista computer. The Mac though saw the Vista library immediately. I figured it out to be because I was logged into the iTunes Store (not Home Sharing) using two different accounts. I corrected this, with Windows Firewall turned off. Then I restarted iTunes and the Mac library was visible on the Vista computer. I accessed it and it worked, but only for a few seconds, because I realised that Windows Firewall turned on again.

I then went to Windows Firewall and added two other programs and two ports to the exceptions list:

- iTunesHelper
- iTunesPhoto** (sorry I can't remember the exact file name, but only these two exist in the Program Files -> iTunes folder except iTunes.exe)
- Port 3689 : TCP
- Port 5353 : UDP

After this, I re-enabled the Windows Firewall and the library worked flawlessly.

If this still does not work, forward the ports on your router both: TCP: 3689 and UDP:5353.

[etiahwhite]

OK I think I got this home sharing thing figured out...So my mom and I have different computers and different iTunes IDs...so from my computer I logged into home sharing using her ID and from her computer she logged in with my ID. After we did that we could see each others library icons on the side. Currently my computer says its loading her library...so maybe it won't work...but I'm not getting the disappearing home icon in iTunes anymore

[jaydubbula]

You don't log into Home Sharing with your ID and Password of the account you are logged in on.

For example: You have a PC iTunes account: JohnDoe and a Mac iTunes account: JaneDoe.

1. Ensure both iTunes account have sharing enabled.
2. Log onto the Mac account (JaneDoe).
3. Click to Turn On Home Sharing.
4. Enter the ID and password you use for the PC account (JohnDoe).
5. The SHARED menu will appear on the left.

Hope this helps.

[mjsweetland]

OK, this is the answer to what the stated problem was. I have to set up my Home Sharing with the username and password of the library I want to see. It worked for me. But that raises another question. Can you only be sharing one library at a time? I got my wife's library showing with all the Home Sharing features, but how do I add my kids'? do I have to turn it off and log in with their accounts?

[kelmon]

AHHHH....

Yes, it helps to read the instructions properly. When I disabled and then re-enabled Home Sharing I note that it does instruct you to use the same account settings on all the computers and that my problems had been caused by both my wife and I signing into our own iTunes accounts rather than the same one. I all seems to work OK now.

[nicmart]

I'm disappointed but not surprised that Apple has, once again, not improved fundamental deficiencies in iTunes. The management of both libraries and song files is poor. Apple thumbs its nose at those who use higher quality files -- Apple Lossless and AIFF -- for home audio, but would like to easily downsize those files for iPods. (Only for the Shuffle does iTunes offer on-the-fly file downsizing.) iTunes is a great way for Apple to direct traffic to its commercial offerings, but it badly needs competition for music file management.

[bschollnick]

Go to iTunes -> Advanced -> Turn on Home Sharing...

But, make sure that your logged in as the same user at the Store.

[missmanda83]

I've been trying to set this up on my sister and I's computers this evening with no success. Both PCs, both Vista.

I just had, for a brief moment, her computer show my library. When we clicked on it though, there was nothing. No songs, videos, etc, etc. Then it disappeared, just like always. I never saw hers on my computer...highly confused. Way too tired to keep fighting with it.

[thooten]

I was having the same problem. After setting up Home Sharing on both my computers, I turned Home Sharing off (under Advanced) and then back on again using the computer I wished to import songs onto. Works fine now.

[shel243]

I am semi-working, having signed off Home Sharing, signed back in to Home Sharing on all three machines (MB, MBP, iMac) on the same iTunes account - the MBP can access both other iTunes libraries, the MB can access the MBP's but not the iMac's, and the iMac can access the MBP's but not the MB's ....(all wireless by the way and SL on all three)
Not quite sure what to make of the bad blood between the iMac and MB - they both fail with the same error message (-3259), with an additional reference to a firewall issue and a specific port to be opened....?

[kaikon286]

ok, i did a little testing on this, and it turns out that on macs, you have to have both itunes open. Well, not open but not quit if you know what i mean. I am still not sure about windows.

Hope this helps

[JabberWockey]

Is this same network only? My apartment build provides internet but every wall jack acts as a different internet connection. Hence my desktop PC is connected via a different jack than my wireless router (which connects to my laptop). We can't get the PC and the laptop to sync - must it be the same home network?

[mynameiscoffey]

Yes they have to be on the same network. One quick solution in your situation could be to temporarily move the wireless router to the wall jack your desktop uses, then plug your desktop into the wireless router. Most (all?) wireless routers should have a couple ports for wired computers as well. This would get you both on the same network and allow you to sync your libraries and should not require anything besides the two Ethernet cables and wireless router you are already using.