[vmpaul]

For anybody who has Panther ...

Since you can keep applications running and switch users, I was wondering if you could access other shared iTunes Playlists if every user has sharing turned on?

[Nebagakid]

oooo, good question

I want to know too!

[mikemako]

man I wish they'd make it easier to share a library with other users.. It's so inconvenient to have to import songs into my library, make a playlist, go to another users's library, find the audio files and drag them into iTunes, blah blah blah..

c'mon, just make an option at iTunes setup:

a) use the shared library: all users who select this will share audio files & playlists with each other.

b) use personal library: all users who choose this will have their own library and playlists that will not affect other user's libraries.

[vmpaul]

Supposedly, here's a workaround. I haven't tried it yet.

I like your suggestion mikemako. That's elegant. Very Apple-like.

[nobitacu]

Originally posted by mikemako:
man I wish they'd make it easier to share a library with other users.. It's so inconvenient to have to import songs into my library, make a playlist, go to another users's library, find the audio files and drag them into iTunes, blah blah blah..

c'mon, just make an option at iTunes setup:

a) use the shared library: all users who select this will share audio files & playlists with each other.

b) use personal library: all users who choose this will have their own library and playlists that will not affect other user's libraries.

Very nice way of working this out Mikemako. now... if only Apple will see this and use it in Panther.

Ming

[Brass]

Originally posted by mikemako:
man I wish they'd make it easier to share a library with other users.. It's so inconvenient to have to import songs into my library, make a playlist, go to another users's library, find the audio files and drag them into iTunes, blah blah blah..

c'mon, just make an option at iTunes setup:

a) use the shared library: all users who select this will share audio files & playlists with each other.

b) use personal library: all users who choose this will have their own library and playlists that will not affect other user's libraries.

c) Use both libraries (use only personal playlists)

[Gee4orce]

Yes - you can share the library of another user who's logged on.

[mitchell_pgh]

NICE... Very interesting.

[MartiNZ]

Kind of unrelated but also on an iTunes note: in Panther when you delete a music file straight from iTunes, does the Trash realise immediately that it has something in it? I find it a bit annoying to have to open it first as is currently the case.

[Mithras]

Originally posted by Gee4orce:
Yes - you can share the library of another user who's logged on.

Now how does this work? Does every user's iTunes pick a different port to share on? Or does iTunes bonk if you try to turn on sharing when another user already has it on?

Can another Mac on the subnet see 2 shares from the 1 computer?

[Devin Lane]

Guy's... Hate to break it to you, but as of 7b53, once one user has opened an application (iTunes), another user cannot open that application until the original user closes it.

I tried duplicating the app, and running it from another hd, but it still catches it.

That would, however, be cool. But you could always set up a central storage place (Folder or Disk) for all music files, that way all users could access them.

[kman42]

Originally posted by Devin Lane:
Guy's... Hate to break it to you, but as of 7b53, once one user has opened an application (iTunes), another user cannot open that application until the original user closes it.

I tried duplicating the app, and running it from another hd, but it still catches it.

That would, however, be cool. But you could always set up a central storage place (Folder or Disk) for all music files, that way all users could access them.

WTF? That's contrary to everything I've heard previously.

[SMacTech]

It is working that way with 7B59. You get a message that the application is in use by another user. In a previous build I had iTunes running in each user.
Another thing I dislike is user switching logs you out of iChat too.

[Saetre]

Wow, this is bad. I thought Jobs said they were going to make user switching in OS X better than Xp...I guess there is still hope for change.

[Mithras]

Wow, that's really embarassing. I hope this issue is resolved before Panther ships.

I mean, this is why we have separate /Applications and home folders, right?

Certainly we run multiple copies of an application from file servers all the time... so in this case the only difference is any additional, computer-wide resources that are used... like... like what?

network ports, i guess. what else?

[vmpaul]

Originally posted by Devin Lane:
Guy's... Hate to break it to you, but as of 7b53, once one user has opened an application (iTunes), another user cannot open that application until the original user closes it.

That really takes away from the value of the whole concept.

Why have open User switching if you could (in practice) have access to only a few applications?

[Xeo]

Does this only happen with network apps like iTunes and iChat (where the app does some kind of listening on a port)? Or does this happen with all apps now?

[schalliol]

I don't think this is specific to Panther, but it doesn't seem as though you can make a user use the iTunes folder in shared and keep the playlist too, even if chmod 777 is done on the iTunes files, folders. My problem is that it will use the same files, but not the libarary, even if you select the appropriate folder. I want my wife and I to be able to listen to the same songs, and as we're married, our property is joint and there's no reason she can't listen to it when I'm not.

[tru322]

Well, iTunes 5 might well be round the corner if certain macrumors are to be believed and maybe this new release will address these issues.

Anyone want to speculate further?

[TheDisaster]

On my machine I just made sure all the accounts changed their iTunes preference to use a Music folder at the root of the drive as their library.

[schalliol]

Originally posted by TheDisaster:
On my machine I just made sure all the accounts changed their iTunes preference to use a Music folder at the root of the drive as their library.

Hmm, that's basically what I tried, it doesn't seem to work, are you using 10.3?

[schalliol]

Originally posted by schalliol:
Hmm, that's basically what I tried, it doesn't seem to work, are you using 10.3?

Originally posted by TheDisaster:
On my machine I just made sure all the accounts changed their iTunes preference to use a Music folder at the root of the drive as their library.

User Error, User Error!!:

Yes, I had made a mistake, this does indeed work for me (thanks!). I had to learn some things about how iTunes works. You all probably know, but here's what I learned if some people don't know:

• iTunes always wants to create a folder in "~/Music/ called iTunes and place "iTunes 4 Music Library" there (and the resulting XML file)
• Choosing the folder of your music will be the exact folder that the music is in only, and not the iTunes files noted above.
• You can remove the folder ~/Music and replace it with a symbolic link called Music from the folder you wish to enclose your iTunes files (just use comand-option drag to make the link). In this case I created a folder called Music (you shouldn't have to call it Music if you don't want) in ../Users/Shared/ that will be linked to from the Schalliol user.
• Then, if you create a folder called iTunes in that Music folder and you place the two iTunes files in that folder, when opening iTunes it should use those files. If you don't put any there, iTunes should do it for you with a blank library.
• Then in your advanced settings in iTunes, choose the folder you'll actually be using to store the music files. In my case I decided to create a folder called "Music Library" in the iTunes folder where I put all the music and told it to find the music there.
• I discourage you from making the music folder the root of the shared folder, as there will be other files there. from other programs.
• You must allow the other user(s) to read & write to both the recursive folders and files. Make sure that the two library files are also able to read-write, otherwise this won't work because you need iTunes to be abel to make changes through all users.
• Make sure all users use this same basic link from their home folder to allow "Music" to go to your shared space to access the files.