How do I get iTunes Home Share to work? I’ve looked around forums and tried different things, but it just doesn’t seem to work for me.
iTunes Home Share is Apple’s way of allowing multiple computers to connect to, and download media from, an iTunes library on your local network. iTunes Home Shares can be accessed by Macs and PCs running iTunes, or by iOS devices. In order for it to work, all your devices will have to be signed in to the same iTunes account.
Setting up iTunes Home Share is fairly straightforward. In iTunes, head to Advanced > Turn on Home Sharing. Once a Home Sharing icon appears in the iTunes sidebar, click it. Enter your Apple ID and password and then click Create Home Share. Repeat this process on all the computers that you want to connect to the Home Share. When a Home Share is available on your local network connection, the computer name appears under the Shared section with a small home icon beside it. Click on the shared library to connect to it.
Home Shares will be listed in the sidebar under Shared. Click on a library to connect to it.
You can also access your Home Shares on an iOS device. To enable this, navigate to Settings > Music, and at the bottom of the page, type the same Apple ID and password you used to set up your computer. Now, whenever you open the Music app, you will be able to tap More > Shared and switch the library your iOS device is connected with.
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MacinScott
January 13, 2012 at 12:30pm
Also, what about Game Center?
When my son received an iPod Touch for Christmas none of the progress/scores he'd made on games on my iPhone transferred over.
Can you have multiple Game Center accounts and can you get that to sync on new devices?
MacinScott
January 13, 2012 at 12:26pm
Can anyone tell me the best way to set up multiple iOS devices for multiple family members linked to a single iMac with multiple users?
I currently sync all iPhones and devices through my user and purchase all ITMS content through my account. Is there a better way without duplicating my 69GB iTunes library?
I suppose I could relocate the iTunes Music folder to the Shared folder. But then would I be able to manage content by only loading certain music to each users' iTunes Library (for example, excluding "Explicit" songs from the children's libraries?
corybohon
January 18, 2012 at 8:57am
Hi MacinScott,
Have you looked at a previous article we wrote on an application called MediaRover that can automatically keep multiple iTunes libraries in sync? You can find it here: goo.gl/h73VF
