Can I share my iTunes library with family members?

Question

Kens Ipod Author

Level 1

9 points

Can I share my iTunes library with family members?

I've seen and read so many different threads on this subject I'm not sure which is right.

I have an Apple Id

I run a Windows PC and the internal network can be made to be fully wired.

I used iTunes and I've ripped our entire music collection into it. It is about 40GB in size.

Over the years I bought music from Apple and I understand it is digitally protected.

My wife has her Windows computer, her own Apple ID and two (2) albums purchased from Apple in her library. Nothing else in the iTune library

I turned on Family sharing so at some point she can share my purchased songs but this is not a priority. We already share iCloud storage.

I want my wife to have full access to our ripped songs, I want then to play on her phone outside our network.

One article I read suggested copying my entire library onto a USB thumbdrive and then copying it into her computer. (This is what I've done to move my library to a new computer several times.)

Once copied I would start iTunes on her machine. It would likely have my playlists and her two download albums would be gone.

If I follow this process I assume she will be able to sign in to her iTunes (with copied library) with her Apple id and while my purchased music maybe unavailable the ripped CD's should be accessible. If as I assume she can sign in with her Apple ID I assume she can download her two purchased albums.

I'm suggesting this approach as her library is limited and it saves her importing hundreds of songs.

1) Would this process have the desired outcome?

2) Would I mess up her itunes library, or her Apple ID, other than needing to download two albums again?

3) Is there a better way - remembering I want her to be able to listen to our CD's even when she is not connected to our network? I don't want her music being dependent on my computer being on.

Appreciate the help.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Sharing iTunes Library Content

iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Jul 14, 2025 7:58 AM

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Answer 1

muguy

Level 10

90,860 points

Jul 14, 2025 8:12 AM in response to Kens Ipod

Copy the folders that include the music (the ones that list the artist name). Drag those into the Automatically Add to iTunes folder within the Media folder where she stores her music. When iTunes is next opened those files will be added to her library.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

277,937 points

Jul 16, 2025 1:30 PM in response to Kens Ipod

You and your family can manually copy unprotected media between your computers and their respective libraries. iTunes music purchases since 2010 are generally free of DRM. Apple Music subscription content on the other hand cannot be loaded into a library from local files, it will be rejected, and always needs to be downloaded directly from Apple's servers.

iCloud Storage is not and should not be used to store any part of an iTunes library.

tt2

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

277,937 points

Jul 18, 2025 3:54 AM in response to Kens Ipod

What should happen when using the Automatically Add to iTunes folder, when iTunes is running, is that each subfolder is checked for valid media content, anything found is added to the main library somewhere in the folder above, e.g. ..\iTunes Media\Music\<Artist>\<Album>\etc. I don't know if iTunes moves the files, or makes a copy and then deletes the original. It should move them, but might not. If the files aren't removed from the Automatically Add to iTunes folder then they would likely be added as duplicates on a later pass, so I suspect you'd see evidence of that. Anything hidden will be deleted automatically, e.g. hidden artwork thumbnails generated by Windows Media Player or similar. Anything not hidden that iTunes doesn't like (e.g. not a media type iTunes handles) gets moved to a Not Added subfolder with the date/time of the attempted import. As folders are emptied of content that is moved/copied elsewhere they should be deleted automatically. Offhand I don't know if iTunes or Apple Music will perform garbage collection at a later date if this hasn't happened. If you have any third party anti-virus software I would make an exclusion for your iTunes folder, and separately for the media folder if it is on a different path (i.e. not (..\iTunes\iTunes Media).

Did the B & C artists get added to the library? Have you explored the Automatically Add to iTunes subfolders to see if they still contain music files or are empty.

See also Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows - Apple Community in case permissions are preventing iTunes from accessing the content you are trying to add to your library.

FWIW you can copy files directly into the media folder, then use File > Add Folder to Library and select the iTunes Media folder to add all content within it that isn't already known to the library. Existing files won't be duplicated.

tt2

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Answer 4

Kens Ipod Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 15, 2025 6:02 AM in response to muguy

Thank you. I seem to have managed to post this question twice. First I got error message but I can see this did get posted.

Thank you for the response.

So basically I copy the USB Thumbdrive iTunes library (my iTunes Music Folder) in a workspace on my wife's machine. I then open up the iTunes Music folder in this temporary work space. I select all the folders, less the automatically add folder from my library, and drag all these folders into her "Automatically Add" folder.

I assume this will also move some of my purchased music to her machine which might play since I've enable Family Sharing.

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Answer 5

Kens Ipod Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 17, 2025 6:09 AM in response to Kens Ipod

Thanks turingtest2 for answer. I'm using muguy's approach.

So I have a question. I started small. Copied one album, open itunes and things worked very nicely. The Automatically Add to iTunes (AAti) folder was cleaned up after its process. So I tried another artist which I knew had a lot of music, the import went as planned.

I then copied all the "A" artists into the AAti folder. Process took time but the folder was again cleared once process was over.

Copied the "B" artists. Waited over 30 minutes for AAti folder to clear. Nothing. Closed iTunes and restarted. No change.

Copied "C" artist into folder hoping this would cause "B" to be removed. Nope.

I don't see a progress meter anywhere and I'm starting to get concerned that within the iTunes parent folder I have two copies of the music. One set of files in the Automatically Add to iTunes folder and one copy in the media folder.

Is there a progress indicator I'm missing?

What causes Automatically Add to iTunes folder to be clear.

This process is happening on a Dell i5 12th gen with 16GB ram and M.2 solid state. Task Manager says iTunes is using 0% CPU

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Answer 6

Kens Ipod Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 18, 2025 6:13 AM in response to turingtest2

Okay, apart from the folders not deleting everything is done.

The B & C folders were empty of music so iTunes moves the files to the higher level folder or creates a folder by musician at the higher level.

Once I saw the actual files were moved I deleted folders and carried on with mixed results.

Sometimes the folder names were deleted from the Automatically add folder and sometimes they weren't.

As I proceeded I maintained doing a few letters with each import. I would start iTunes and just leave it be as there is no progress indicator nor are there any error messages that I saw.

I never thought to look for hidden files, my bad.

The process did create a "Not Added" folder and two subfolders. These both appear to be empty even with "Show Hidden Files" enabled.

Of note and as I mentioned I had already enable Family Sharing. So even the folders with just my recently purchased music played fine on my wife's machine. No extra messages or sign ins.

Very glad I asked this question again. The Add Automatically process and the process to just copy into media folder, last sentence in tt2 response are both very good and clean approaches.

I wish some of the other much older threads in forum were deleted or maybe Apple has a support article.

Thank you both for the professional answers. Not sure how to mark this thread solved .... but it is SOLVED.

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