I have had an iPhone and using iTunes for over 6 years now. I have dealt with this duplicate issue and tried to manage, often finding it complicated and avoiding the issue altogether leaving my music in total disarray.
Recently I have finally talked my husband into leaving the Droid world and crossing over to iPhone. Both of our teenage daughter also have iPhones now as well.
I have a iMac.
I am trying to compile years and years of music collections onto my iMac in a shared folder. I am creating multiple user accounts on my iMac so that every individual can plug in their phone and sync to their own iTunes account and manage their own apps, photos, music, etc on their own.
I have created the shared file, and I have created everyones user account. I want to manage the music correctly the first time. If this becomes a complicated issue, my husband will abandon the cross over to the iPhone, and my teenagers will surely only complicate media management even further, leaving a disaster for me to clean up.
I NEED simplicity! I am tech challenged person! I have been reading this thread and it is all greek to me. I do not understand anything being said.
One thing I love about Apple products is how simple they are to use, and user friendly. Unfortunately I do not find that to be true when dealing with iTunes and music management.
I do not want duplicates every time I open iTunes, I also do not want missing files every time I try to listen to something, or try to sync to my phone.
Could you please give me the simplest step by step instructions on how to manage this correctly from the very start? I am a overwhelmed military wife, mother of 2 busy teenagers, with more things being added to my to-do list than I can keep up with. I need to get this done in a day....or it will never be completed!
Starting with my Shared File in which I am moving all my music to so that each multiple user can access the content.......... what do I do next?
Step #1...........