[Macworld]

Post your comments for Sync multiple iPods to one Mac here

[skwidspawn]

alternatively you could do all of the above and share a music library as well, this would cause both users to see the same library. The only problem would be if both users had the library open at the same time, editing or changing the library file might cause issues.

[kirkmc]

That's exactly why I didn't discuss sharing a library. It is fraught with problems, and in most cases will result in disaster.

[extra88]

Yes, I moved my entire iTunes/ folder into /Users/Shared/ and made an ~/Music/iTunes alias in two accounts on my laptop. Additionally, I had to make /Users/Shared/iTunes/ writable by a group both accounts belong to, I do this with a 2 line shell script but it can also be done through Get Info (though maybe not if one account was an admin and one wasn't). I don't have to do anything special to install an upgrade to iTunes but the permissions do have to be fixed after some updates iTunes Library gets replaced.

Two users can't have the iTunes Library file open at the same time so there's not a risk of problems caused by them both changing it.

[DonSmith]

Hhhmmmm... but what if you have your Mac set up with Fast User Switching DISABLED? That way, there's no possibility that two users will be modifying the same iTunes Music Library at the same time? In my family, all four of us are using my iTunes account. It seems that, as long as I have Fast User Switching unchecked, we could all use the same music folder. Yes? If I'm on to something, maybe one additional paragraph for "If all users are purchasing on the same iTunes account AND you have Fast User Switching UN-checked, then you can all use the same music folder!" Or, you could just tell me I have a short between the headphones. :)

[JimmyJazzuk77]

I've been sharing my entire library since March last year and still using fast user switching. No problems at all, if one user logs in while the other has iTunes open it just says that the library is locked. Strangely I set it up following this article from Macworld - http://www.macworld....neslibrary.html

[kirkmc]

In my tests with sharing the library, things weren't that good. First, you need to make sure that the other user has logged out, which can be a problem for some. Second, I kept having permissions problems.

[JimmyJazzuk77]

Everyone's mileage will vary but like I said I've not had a problem. I don't have to make sure that the other user has logged out (though obviously only one user can have itunes open at the same time). The only permissions issues I've had have been after an iTunes upgrade. As Chris Breen says at the end of his piece "If iTunes tells you that the user doesn?t have sufficient privileges to open the library file, log in as yourself, select the shared library, press Command-I, and change Ownership & Permissions for Others to Read & Write." With iTunes shared like this I can sync my iPhone and my girlfriend can sync her Touch from the same library. We just drag the music we each want to our own playlist and sync that playlist to our own device.

[buzglyd]

Couldn't you just use the "sync only checked music and videos" trick?
Seems to work for me.

[JimmyJazzuk77]

I'm not sure if you're referring to my post or not but I'll reply anyway :). 'sync only checked music and videos' would only work in my particular case if myself and my girlfriend wanted the same music on our devices. Also, both our devices are 8gb and the music library is over 50gb so that's a lot of unchecking. Unchecking can also mean that items won't play from the computer (i'm not sure what iTunes rules for this are). Just because I don't want a song on a portable device doen't mean I don't wat to listen to it ever. I suppose you could each add your name as a comment on the songs you wanted on your device and then sync a smart playlist that looks for your name...

[kirkmc]

If you uncheck items, say in a playlist, iTunes will skip them when playing things in order. You can still double-click an unchecked item to play it, though.

[seancollier]

I have had permissions issues doing this.
For the most part things like movie rentals work, but every once in a while I rent a movie that will not play or transfer to an iPod or iPhone. Immediately after the download has finished and I try to transfer it to my iPhone , I get an error message saying the movie has already been transfered to another computer or device. This has happened to me three times, all were caused by permission because the file was in the shared folder.
I you try this setup be wary of file permissions.

[cueballio]

My iTunes folder is much larger than the internal drive on my iBook. My iTunes folder resides on an external disk. Is there still a way to make this tip work?

[seancollier]

Absolutely, just point the iTunes music folder to an external drive. I have my entire music and movie collection on an external 120 GB laptop hard drive.