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User profile for user: LotusPilot
LotusPilot Author
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
290,056 points

Multiple iPhone/iPod - two users - single iTunes Library

Hopefully the community experts can help me solve a what I hope is simple problem for our community experts - in particular tapping tt2’s extensive knowledge in this arena…


Between myself and Mrs LotusPilot, we each have an iPod (principally used in our respective cars) and an iPhone. We have a shared PC in our home office (Win7 - each with our own User accounts) upon which we have a single iTunes Library. Our iPhones are each associated with our individual AppleIDs.


The iTunes Music Library has been built exclusively from our extensive CD library, built over many years, copied natively to the iTunes from CD; there are no Apple Music purchases associated with our devices or iTunes.


Both of our iPods plus my own iPhone have been happily synchronising with our single/common iTunes music library from the PC to these devices. Mrs LP has since (and very reasonably) decided that she would enjoy having our Music collection also copied to her iPhone, reducing the need to carry multiple devices. Herein lies a problem - in that iTunes seemingly doesn’t allow two iPhone’s, with differing AppleIDs, to synchronise via iTunes.


The iTunes Music Library has always resided within its own dedicated HDD Partition, along with the associated iTunes database. iTunes itself resides in its default install path - with iTunes being launched from my own User Profile, configured to access the iTunes Library located within its dedicated Partition. Devices have, until now, always been synchronised from my own PC User account.


I presume that it is possible to launch iTunes from Mrs LPs PC account - and to “point” iTunes at what is to become a common iTunes Library? Has this implications for metadata (such as play count and playlists) or potential for iTunes database corruption - as two separate PC Users will be accessing a common iTunes library? Is it even possible for two users to share a common iTunes library? I am obviously mindful to ensure that two instances of iTunes will not be attempting to access the common iTunes Library (via the PCs Fast User Switching) at the same time.


Any insight and advice in configuring iTunes would be gratefully received.


LP

Posted on May 8, 2022 5:02 AM

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User profile for user: turingtest2
turingtest2
User level: Level 10
274,610 points

Posted on May 8, 2022 7:54 AM

As you've surmised only one instance of iTunes can run at a time, so iTunes needs to be closed before you switch users if you want to open it in a different profile.


With the library in a partition available to both profiles it should be possible to use the shift-launch-iTunes method to select it from her profile as long as iTunes has been installed for all users. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows - Apple Community to make sure that permissions are set such that she has full access to everything in the iTunes folder just as you do.


iTunes should be able to sync with multiple devices, each of which can have their own sync selections. You're limited to syncing protected media from up to five different Apple IDs. The main issue working with multiple users on a single computer is that of association, which locks access to past purchases to one ID for 90 days. See Authorization vs. association - Apple Community for gory details. It should be possible to make and download new purchases on the PC with either account, or transfer purchases made on and downloaded to a device into the local library.


Last I checked iPhones can only be synced or manually managed from a single computer/library so if she has been using the phone independently and now wants to sync with the library there is likely to be an erase and sync warning at the first attempt. Simply make sure that all the content that she wants is in the library and is included in the sync selections.


It should be possible to sync her iPhone with the same selection of media, regardless of which profile you are in, but any device backups will be made in the current profile. If space is an issue you might want to make sure that you're using iCloud for backup. With a single library all playcounts, ratings, play counts etc. live in a common space, regardless of which user profile has opened the library. Each profile can be signed into its own ID.


tt2

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User profile for user: turingtest2
turingtest2
User level: Level 10
274,610 points

May 8, 2022 7:54 AM in response to LotusPilot

As you've surmised only one instance of iTunes can run at a time, so iTunes needs to be closed before you switch users if you want to open it in a different profile.


With the library in a partition available to both profiles it should be possible to use the shift-launch-iTunes method to select it from her profile as long as iTunes has been installed for all users. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows - Apple Community to make sure that permissions are set such that she has full access to everything in the iTunes folder just as you do.


iTunes should be able to sync with multiple devices, each of which can have their own sync selections. You're limited to syncing protected media from up to five different Apple IDs. The main issue working with multiple users on a single computer is that of association, which locks access to past purchases to one ID for 90 days. See Authorization vs. association - Apple Community for gory details. It should be possible to make and download new purchases on the PC with either account, or transfer purchases made on and downloaded to a device into the local library.


Last I checked iPhones can only be synced or manually managed from a single computer/library so if she has been using the phone independently and now wants to sync with the library there is likely to be an erase and sync warning at the first attempt. Simply make sure that all the content that she wants is in the library and is included in the sync selections.


It should be possible to sync her iPhone with the same selection of media, regardless of which profile you are in, but any device backups will be made in the current profile. If space is an issue you might want to make sure that you're using iCloud for backup. With a single library all playcounts, ratings, play counts etc. live in a common space, regardless of which user profile has opened the library. Each profile can be signed into its own ID.


tt2

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User profile for user: LotusPilot
LotusPilot Author
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
290,056 points

May 8, 2022 3:54 PM in response to turingtest2

Many thanks tt2.


To my knowledge, no previous attempts have been made to sync or backup Mrs LP’s iPhone with this or any other PC. Existing backups for Mrs LPs devices are all to iCloud.


Subsequent to receiving your reply, supporting my assumptions, the iTunes library path for Mrs LPs PC account has been reset - the path now being the library of the dedicated partition (H:iTunes Media); the entire music library appears to be accessible. I note that the Library Name (“LotusPilot’s Library”) remains unchanged - this presumably being the expected behaviour.


I’ll try a full sync at the next available opportunity - and will report back.

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User profile for user: LotusPilot
LotusPilot Author
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
290,056 points

May 10, 2022 6:45 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the follow-up. The entire library resides within the dedicated H: partition - including


\iTunes Library Extras.itdb

\iTunes Library Genius.itdb

\iTunes Library.itl

\iTunes Library.xml

\iTunes Music Library.xml

\sentinel


I also took the precaution of creating a backup of these files before making changes to Mrs LP’s profile.

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User profile for user: LotusPilot
LotusPilot Author
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
290,056 points

May 10, 2022 10:18 AM in response to turingtest2

Yes, the original installation (from which the original library will have migrated) will have been a much earlier version of iTunes - initially installed on a WinXP workstation.


Several iterations later, this PC (UEFI but lacking TPM) is necessarily still running Win7 Ultimate - with the most recent supported (but deprecated) version of iTunes.

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Multiple iPhone/iPod - two users - single iTunes Library

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