April 16, 2012

Share your iTunes library with others by using Home Sharing.

Home sharing lets the users on a home WiFi network share their iTunes libraries so the members of the household can enjoy each others' purchases and copy over what they want on their own computers. The libraries they share will appear in the Shared section in the left-hand iTunes column when the computers are turned on and awake, and connected to the network. Family members can copy music, TV shows, movies, books, apps, podcasts, and iTunes U content from the shared libraries to their local libraries with drag-and-drop simplicity. And iOS devices on the home network can use home sharing to get streaming access to the shared libraries as well, as can Apple TV.

Use the Home Sharing command in the iTunes Advanced menu to turn on home sharing for each computer on the home WiFi network (up to five), entering the same Apple ID each time. When you have home sharing turned on, you're able to see the contents of the libraries being shared in the Sharing section in the left-hand column on iTunes, and you can stream or drag copies of the content to your local library as need be. You can also get streaming access to the home shared libraries on your iOS devices when you're connected to the network. Turn on home sharing at the bottom of the Music or Video pages in the Settings app by entering the same Apple ID you used for the computers on the home sharing network. You can then get access to the shared libraries via the More tab on the bottom right of the Music app, and the Shared button at the top in the Videos app. On Apple TV, use Computer under Settings to turn home sharing on, again with the same Apple ID, and then use the Computer icon in the main menu for streaming access to the libraries.