Best iTunes strategy for a family with multiple Windows accounts

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Level 1

8 points

Best iTunes strategy for a family with multiple Windows accounts

On our previous Windows 7 PC, I set up separate Windows accounts for each of our family members. Since iTunes can't be run concurrently on more than one Windows account, I also set up another Windows account named "iTunes," the sole purpose of which is to have iTunes running in a way that everyone can access it without having to log into each others' accounts. When you want to use iTunes, you log into the "iTunes" Windows account; when you want to do something else on the computer, you log into your personal Windows account.

Two questions: (1) Is there a better way to do this? and (2) Am I right that iTunes still can't be run concurrently on more than one Windows account?

Thanks.

Posted on Mar 6, 2015 12:20 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

272,743 points

Mar 6, 2015 12:32 PM in response to beshara

1) Yes.

2) Yes.

Disable fast user switching, or train everyone to log off properly.

Place your iTunes library at the root of any drive that has sufficient room.

Use the shift-start-iTunes method to connect each user to the iTunes library in its common location.

This has to be done once for each user.

That is it.

Oh, and backup if you don't already do so.

tt2

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Answer 2

beshara Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 8, 2015 3:17 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks. I'm not really interested in disabling fast user switching, or requiring everyone to log off after each session at the computer. Ridiculous that iTunes can't be run concurrently on more than one Windows account after all these years.

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Answer 3

hhgttg27

Level 5

5,591 points

Mar 8, 2015 3:27 PM in response to beshara

If multiple users are sharing a single iTunes library, then only one instance can be running at a time. You can characterize it as "ridiculous" but the iTunes architecture simply doesn't support operations where its database would be capable of simultaneous updates by multiple processes. Disabling fast user switching is a safeguard against having two or more users trying to run iTunes at the same time.

The real answer to your question is to have at least one computer per family member, you can than make use of Home Sharing / Family Sharing to access media across a local network.

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Answer 4

turingtest2

Level 10

272,743 points

Mar 8, 2015 4:05 PM in response to beshara

This is a user to user support forum. Your fellow users can offer solutions or workarounds based on their experience with the application. If you think it should work differently drop a line to iTunes Feedback.

For reasons unknown Apple haven't chosen to allow iTunes to be suspended in one profile and active in another. My recollection is that this applies even if each profile has a different library, although it is some time since I've committed a personal test.

I'm not sure why my suggestion make less sense that your current approach?. As I understand it currently everybody is either signed into their own account when they can do something other than work with iTunes, or they sign into the special iTunes account where they can't access any of their other stuff. You don't have to disable fast user switching. Follow exactly the same steps, but make sure everyone closes iTunes before turning the computer over to another user. Disabling fast user switching helps to enforce that action.

tt2

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Answer 5

beshara Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 10, 2015 10:44 AM in response to hhgttg27

Thanks. The one-computer-per-family-member approach may indeed be the solution. But can each family member drag songs to their iOS devices from the shared libraries, or does the media have to be on the local computer to put it on a device?

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Answer 6

beshara Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 10, 2015 10:58 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks again for your reply. I can't count on everyone to close iTunes on their accounts before leaving the computer. That's the problem. And if their Windows accounts are password-protected, there would be no way to close iTunes on their accounts without them. In practice, what happens is that everyone defaults to doing everything in the Windows iTunes account and ignoring their own Windows accounts. Everyone does most of their computing on their iOS devices, and the "family PC" is used only for iTunes, occasional web surfing, and word processing. I was hoping to be able to dispense with the dedicated Windows iTunes account and force everyone to log into their own personal Windows accounts, but iTunes' inability to cope with multiple Windows user accounts means the best solution is the dedicated iTunes account with iTunes always running on it, preventing it from being launched in any other Windows accounts.

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