Sharing your iTunes library across computers

If your computer is connected to other computers over a local network, you can share items in your library with up to five of those computers. While your computer is on and iTunes is open, others in your network can play your shared items, but shared items can’t be imported into others’ libraries.

If you want to import items from other iTunes libraries on other computers in your home, you can turn on Home Sharing. You can use Home Sharing with up to five computers. To use Home Sharing, you must have an iTunes Store account.

Sharing is intended for personal use only.

To share your library with other computers:

  • Choose Edit > Preferences, click Sharing, and select “Share my library on my local network.”

  • Select the items you want to share.

  • To require users to enter a password before they can see your shared items, select “Require password” and enter a password.

To turn off sharing:

  • Choose Edit > Preferences and then click Sharing.

  • Deselect “Share my library on my local network.”

To import items from other libraries using Home Sharing:

  • Choose Advanced > Turn On Home Sharing.

  • Type your iTunes account name and password, and then click Create Home Share.

  • Using the same user name and password, repeat steps 1 and 2 on each computer.

  • To import items from another computer, select the computer (below Shared), and drag items from its library to yours.

  • to automatically import iTunes Store items downloaded to a computer you’re Home Sharing with, select “Automatically import new purchases from [Computer Name].”

To turn off Home Sharing:

On each computer, choose Advanced > Turn Off Home Sharing.

You can share movies; radio station links; and MP3, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, and AAC files. You can’t share programs purchased from Audible.com or QuickTime sound files.


Related Topics

Looking for shared libraries

Sharing your iTunes library across computers