Settings for family media server on Mac Mini

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Level 1

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Settings for family media server on Mac Mini

I have gotten a Mac Mini that I am trying to use as a family media server: I’d like to use it to play our very large iTunes/music library and watch streaming services through the browser.

To be honest, I am not sure how to configure it properly: What I have done is put an account on it for me, and an account that is shared by the whole family. This is causing some heartburn:

When I log in with my Apple ID, it copies my Photos library onto the hard drive, taking way too much space. I removed it once, but through some process it has been restored, and I don’t know why or how it is being put here, nor (more importantly) how to keep it from happening.
What should I do about the Apple ID for the family account? It seems that I need one, in order to make it possible for the family account to connect to my music library through Home Sharing. Can I simply create a new one just for this purpose and add it to our home sharing? I’m a little confused, because Home Sharing talks in terms of devices, rather than people.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Mac mini, macOS 11.5

Posted on Nov 28, 2021 8:27 PM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

158,058 points

Nov 28, 2021 11:13 PM in response to rpg25

I suggest you start by taking a look at the following article, especially the section, titled: How to share your Mac media library

In macOS Monterey (also true for both Big Sur and Catalina), there is a "Media Sharing" option in System Preferences > Sharing. By default, it will be configured to point to your iTunes/Music Library. This could be on the mini itself or an externally-attached drive.

When this sharing option is enabled, devices on your local network can both browse and play the media in that Library.

Ref:

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

158,058 points

Nov 29, 2021 9:34 AM in response to rpg25

I think you will find that most articles (I certainly have not checked them all personally), that discuss using a Mac mini as a media server, will provide you with two basic points:

Use an app, like Plex running on the mini, as the media server.
Store your media on your local network. Especially for 4K video content streaming. (I would add that for best overall bandwidth performance, all network devices should be interconnected back to the mini by Ethernet.)

As you can see, Apple's "solution" is either use the "Media Sharing" option to share your Apple ID's Media Library with others, or to use their Family Sharing plan. The latter not really a solution for what you are trying to do,

Hopefully, someone else, who's worked out a solution, will chime in.

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Answer 3

rpg25 Author

Level 1

62 points

Nov 29, 2021 7:18 AM in response to Tesserax

@Tesserax :

Thank you very much for this helpful answer! I believe it gets to the heart of my second question.

But let me follow up. I read your response as saying:

I can have a general family account on the Mac Mini/media server, and this account can see all the media libraries on our network as long as they are shared, and they can be simply shared: they need not use family sharing.

This would be enough to make it possible for the family account to see the contents of our large Music (formerly iTunes) library.

But the documentation is silent about what this implies for things like movies or TV shows that we have purchased from Apple. Are they actually in our library, or are they only licensed? In the latter case, presumably they do not get shared when the library gets shared, and they only get shared via home sharing? In which case we are back to saying that I need a separate Apple ID for the media server, and it needs to be added to Home Sharing.

This may be a species of growing pain that happens when we are making the transition from iTunes-style ownership to streaming-style licensing.

It would probably be most helpful if someone could suggest an article (likely a Mac User community magazine or blog article) that explains how to set up a Media server.

Thanks again!

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Settings for family media server on Mac Mini

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