[mfox]

I just set up a new user file in Panther for my daughter so that she can have the setup she wants for her desktop; it's on an iMac G3. The original/administrator account was set up in my name. I have some songs in my iTunes file that she wants to play from her desktop, and there are also some photos we both want to be able to see in iPhoto. I have been able to figure out how to make copies of these and put them in her music and pictures folders, but surely there must be a way to have these things accessible to both of us without having to make duplicates. I know about shared folders and dropboxes, but iTunes and iPhoto look for things in particular places, and iTunes in particular will make copies of things added to a library that are not in the user's music folder. Any suggestions?

[t_hah]

Could you just set her iTunes shared music folder to your shared folder (~/Public), where you would be keeping all your music files?

t

[Krusty]

Originally posted by mfox:
I ...I know about shared folders and dropboxes, but iTunes and iPhoto look for things in particular places , and iTunes in particular will make copies of things added to a library that are not in the user's music folder. Any suggestions?

Go into iTunes -> Preferences (in the "iTunes" menu) --> Advanced --> Click "Change" location of iTunes Music folder. Set the folder to a neutral location (such as your public folder or the "shared" folder under "Users"). Set the same location for your daughter. You are now sharing the same folder. On the same tab there is a checkbox that says "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library". You can uncheck that and it will stop making copies in the iTunes music folder. Of course, if you change the location of your music folder so that both of you can use it, you'll probably want to leave it on now. One thing ... music you add will NOT automatically be added to her music library .. she'll have to choose iTunes->File->Add to Library (and choose the shared folder) to pick up any new stuff you may have added.

iPhoto is more of a pain. You'll just have to keep your original pics in a neutral folder and each person can view them or import them manually.

[mfox]

Thanks for the replies. I hadn't realized that the preference option to "share my music" applied to users of the same computer as well as other computers. Once I did that, and selected my account's iTunes folder for my daughter's music folder location, all music problems were solved (including the permissions problems I had previously). However, I haven't been able to find a comparable setting in iPhoto that allows one to either share photos or identify a folder location. So I guess I'll have to duplicate the shared photos in two separate iPhoto albums. :