How can I define a folder on Mac OSX to be readable and writable to all users that will store all the itunes on that computer and give every user account access?

May 23, 2007 5:57 AM

How can I define a folder on Mac OSX to be readable and writable to all users that will store all the itunes on that computer and give every user account access?

I already have a folder at: Macintosh HD/Library/itunes created. I just need to know the chmod commands to change the folder permissions so that I can redirect the itunes folder for each user to that location and "consolidate library" so that it will move all the music to that location.

Also, will it automatically add things to the users' library if it discovers them in the shared folder or will they have to manually "import..." them, even though they already reside in that shared folder.

posted by ijoyner to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Not sure if this answers your question, but you can change all folder permissions in OS X by:

selecting the folder
hitting apple-I

in the window that pops up, look for the ownership & permissions subsection and change your "group" or "other" settings from no access to read only.

if you point the itunes library to that folder for each user, i don't think youll have to manually import.
posted by phaedon at 6:09 AM on May 23, 2007

You don't need to redo the permissions, since they simply take on the permissions of the enclosing folders. Moving the iTunes Music folder to /Users/Shared should be enough.

Apple has instructions for the whole process here.
posted by pmbuko at 6:17 AM on May 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

+1 pmbuko. However, you will have the problem that additions to the library by User 1 will not automatically flow through to User 2's library: User 2 will need to manually update the library—use the "add to library" menu item.

It's somewhat less confusing if you decide to make one account the main one (where you do all your music ripping, metadata editing, etc), and only on that account will you use the "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" setting. Otherwise you're creating opportunities for contention.
posted by adamrice at 6:38 AM on May 23, 2007

I'd think that the most elegant solution might be to put the music library out in a public place (sudo chmod -R ugo+rwx foldername will let everyone do anything they want to it, including deleting music), and then put aliases from each user's ~/Music/"iTunes Music Library" to the communal one.

I'm pretty sure that iTunes will respect and not freak out because of aliases in its paths (I personally use an alias to move just the music files themselves onto a separate drive, and it works just fine).

You'd run into problems if you ever had two users accessing it at the same time (which could happen with Fast User Switching since it doesn't kill the first user's processes, I think), but as long as you're careful to avoid that, I think you can go for it.

If aliases don't work, I'd try symlinks next. (They are not the same, although they look it from the Finder.)
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:18 AM on May 23, 2007