How To: Share your iTunes music with other users on your Mac

If you have multiple user accounts set up on your Mac but would like access to a single iTunes music collection, this "How To" will guide you through the process of setting that up. By default, each user has an individual iTunes music collection that is not accessible to other users on the same Mac. 

To share your iTunes music:

1. Be sure iTunes is not open.
2. Locate your iTunes music folder. 
(Note: Check your "username/Music/iTunes" or "username/Documents/iTunes" folders.)
3. Move your iTunes music folder to a publicly accessible location on your Mac's hard drive. You can move it to a variety of locations including:

1. The Public folder in your home directory ("username/Public")
--or--
2. A folder outside your home directory ("Macintosh HD/Users/Shared")
Caution: Do not move the entire iTunes folder. Only move the "iTunes Music" folder. The other folders and files in the iTunes folder are preference settings for each user's iTunes Library. 

4. Open iTunes and select from the iTunes menu bar > iTunes > Preferences (Command ',')
5. Click the tab for Advanced settings and click "Change."
6. In the "Change Music Folder Location" section, navigate to the iTunes music folder you just moved and click "Choose."

Note: You will need to repeat steps 4 through 6 for each user accessing the iTunes music folder.

Resources
Read this Apple KB Article describing the steps above as well as how to accomplish the same results on a Windows machine.
Read this MacFixIt forum thread about sharing iPhoto and iTunes libraries with multiple users on the same Mac.

Experiencing problems? Have feedback? Let us know!

Resources

Read this Apple KB Article

Read this MacFixIt forum t...

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