One iTunes library, multiple users?

R

riddle

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Is there a hack that will let two or more users share a joint iTunes library on a single Mac?

I've tried chmod'ing everything in one user's library 666 (777 for directories) and replacing another user's library with a symlink to the first but that doesn't consistently prevent permissions errors. Possibly I could set up a cronjob to keep overriding whatever is resetting the permissions but that's too much of a hack even for me.

(Note that I'm not talking about iTunes music sharing across a network. I want both users to be able to add to the library and manipulate playlists, and besides I don't think that that sharing feature works within a single Mac.)

I'm presently running iTunes 6.0.1 on Mac OS X 10.4.3. Any suggestions? Seems like this would be an often-requested feature for home users.
 
I think you could solve the permissions problem by putting the library on a different volume, and checking the "Ignore ownership on this volume" box in that volume's Get Info window. This is one more reason I like to partition internal drives.

I've never actually done this, though. My hands-on experience with multi-user systems is pretty limited, so I could completely off-base.
 
Here's Apple's recommendation on the subject:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93195

I tried it and it does let multiple users see a shared collection of songs but it does have two shortcomings:

1. There are no shared playlists.

2. If one of us loads more music, the other one will have to go through File > Add to Library before they'll see the new tracks.
 
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