How to import items from another iTunes library?

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How to import items from another iTunes library?

I have have home movies in my iTunes on my iMac which my wife wants to import into iTunes on her Macbook. Both macs have Home Sharing turned on. She has my library showing under Shared in her iTunes and she can see my entire library. She selects the item she wants to import but there is no way to import it. It cannot be dragged and there is no Show menu at the bottom of the iTunes window as iTunes Help says there should be.

She is using OSX 10.6.8 and I'm using 10.7.2. We both are using iTunes 10.5.

Please explain how to do this import.

iMac 22.5, Mac OS X (10.7.2), Safari 5.1 iPhoto 8.1.2 Time Capsu

Posted on Nov 16, 2011 12:57 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 16, 2011 5:02 PM in response to grok12

Read my post in this thread about the differences between Home Sharing and Library Sharing. It should clear things up for you.

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Answer 2

grok12 Author

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Nov 16, 2011 5:53 PM in response to Gino Cerullo

Gino, thanks for the reply.

First of all the beginning part of your post doesn't apply to me since we have two macs without their firewalls enabled.

But the part about Home Sharing vs Library Sharing is great stuff. We both have both sharings enabled and you say that HomeSharing should override Library Sharing. But my library appears on her macbook as a stack of CDs which means Library Sharing is being used rather than Home Sharing which should be used. Can that be why dragging doesn't work?

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Answer 3

Nov 16, 2011 6:04 PM in response to grok12

You are correct, the firewall issues didn't pertain to you. I just didn't want to copy and paste the other stuff all over again.

That is exactly why dragging doesn't work. Make sure you have Home Sharing configured using the command in the 'Advanced' menu.

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Answer 4

grok12 Author

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Nov 16, 2011 10:29 PM in response to Gino Cerullo

No doubt about it, Home Sharing is enabled on both macs. When I click on the Advanced menu I see "Turn Off Home Sharing" on both of them. So I don't understand why it doesn't work.

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Answer 5

Nov 17, 2011 6:28 AM in response to grok12

Did you use matching Apple IDs on both?

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Answer 6

grok12 Author

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Nov 17, 2011 3:41 PM in response to Gino Cerullo

You are very sharp, Gino!

So I removed the unwanted @mac.com from her Apple ID in my System Perfs - Users & Groups -Other Users and now on her mac my library appears with the Home Sharing icon under her Shared.

However, on my mac her library appears with the Library Sharing icon. But that shouldn't matter since I don't want to copy anything from her mac to my mac.

But unfortunately she still can't drag items from my library to hers. I'm really puzzled by that.

So I went the extra mile and entered my account into her Other Users and now both macs show Home Sharing icons for the other's Library.

But she still can't drag my items. I'm baffled.

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Answer 7

Nov 17, 2011 4:11 PM in response to grok12

Despite the fact that drag-and-drop of music tracks does not work do you see the 'Import' and 'Settings…' buttons on the bottom-right side of the iTunes window? If yes, what happens when you select tracks and hit the 'Import' button?

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Answer 8

grok12 Author

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38 points

Nov 17, 2011 7:15 PM in response to Gino Cerullo

No, the only thing at the bottom right is a "Choose which speakers to use" button.

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Answer 9

grok12 Author

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Nov 18, 2011 8:00 AM in response to grok12

Excuse me there is also "Start Genius" and "Show or Hide iTunes Sidebar."

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Answer 10

Nov 18, 2011 11:21 AM in response to grok12

Here is a screen shot of what you should be seeing once Home Sharing is turned on and the remote shared library is select.

On the left-hand sidebar you should be seeing the remote iTunes Library with the house icon under the Shred category. When you select it, all the media from the remote shared library should be listed in the main iTunes windows. Along the bottom you should see the 'Show:' pull-down menu on the left side and the 'Settings…' and 'Import' buttons on the right side.

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Answer 11

grok12 Author

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38 points

Nov 18, 2011 12:38 PM in response to Gino Cerullo

I do not have that pane which contains the Show pulldown and the Setting and Input buttons. I've looked through the View menu and Preferences and cannot find a way to enable it.

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Answer 12

Dec 31, 2011 12:07 PM in response to grok12

I now have that same problem. Did you ever get it solved and how?

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Answer 13

Jan 1, 2012 10:57 AM in response to grok12

I had the same problem, and thought it was related to iTunes Match, but once I made sure to use the same Apple ID on both Macs, the problem was solved.

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Answer 14

Jan 2, 2012 8:53 AM in response to Godfather858

I had the same issue and think I just figured it out. While I thought we were in Home Sharing, and I could see and listen to my wife's library, I could not move items between libraries. In fact, the icon next to her name and mine i the Shared column was a music note symbol, not a House. So I logged both of us off and shut down Home Sharing, then logged back in and put home sharing back on. We now have the House Icon, and I can move items. Hope that this helps.

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Answer 15

Feb 11, 2012 3:47 PM in response to kathleenfromprovidence

This worked. Thanks to the prior instructions I pieced this together.

1. I disconnected the "sharing" setup between my husband's computer and mine.

2. Turned off iTunes sharing on my computer.

3. Quit iTunes on my computer.

4. Turned off iTunes sharing on my husband's computer.

5. Quit iTunes on his computer.

6. Restarted iTunes on my computer.

7. Turned on Homesharing on my computer using my Apple ID

8. Restarted iTunes on his computer.

9. Turned on Homesharing on his computer using My Apple ID. (Not his ID. My ID, so that both computers are linked using the same Apple ID and password. This is important. )

It worked! on the left panel, under "Shared," his music library shows up with a house icon in front of it. Click on his library and at the bottom of the iTunes window the "show" button appears, with the options of " All items", "Items not in my library". Same happened on his computer showing my library.

You can take it from there. Hope this helps the next person!

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