Home Sharing on iTunes

If you are an Apple loyalist, you will already be familiar with the working of iTunes. However, there is more to it than what meets the eye. There are several features of Apple iTunes, that have been introduced with each new version.

What is Home Sharing?

Apple realized that it needed a software platform to manage music content, which can manage the music and videos stored on the Apple iPhone, Apple iPod and other iPhone applications. That was the motivation for bringing out Apple iTunes. Since its first release, its role has been progressively modified and today iTunes is used to even reset the iPhone and iPod.

It is a medium through which you can manage and purchase music from the iTunes store. Since iTunes 9, an extra feature called home sharing has been included that lets you share your iTunes library, with more than one computers connected on your home network. A maximum of five computers can share any content stored in the iTunes library and that too simultaneously. Let us see how to activate the home sharing feature on your local network.

How to Turn it On?

I assume that you already have a network connection in place, which lets you share content via ethernet or wireless networking. To be able to activate home sharing, you must have iTunes installed on each of the machines that you want to share your iTunes library with. You will need iTunes 9 or 10, to be able to use this feature. On each of these computers, open iTunes and click on the advanced tab. Then click on 'Turn on Home Sharing'.

You will be asked for your iTunes account log in name and password to authorize home sharing. Choose a name for the library that you plan to share on the home network. Any content that is added to that library can be streamed by any other authorized computer on the network.

Remember that you need to do this for every computer connected on the network, to authorize sharing. You can also make settings to automatically transfer new content added on other computers on network to your library. Currently, this feature allows for only purchased content to be shared on the network.

Troubleshooting Home Sharing Problems

There may be several instances when you find home sharing not working. Let us see how to troubleshoot this problem. Firstly check if the computer is connected in the network. If it is not, then connect it on the network, to get home sharing working.

If there is no problem with the connection, then check if the computer has iTunes version 9 or later. Home sharing feature is not enabled for earlier versions. If you have an older version, update it to latest iTunes version and then activate home sharing. Make sure that you are entering the same log in name and password for every home shared computer. It won't work, if you are using separate Apple accounts.

Lastly, if there is still a problem, check if the firewall is blocking the home sharing. If it has, then just allow network access to iTunes, by changing the firewall setting of the computer. If none of the above tips help you out, check out the Apple computers website for some more troubleshooting help.

Home sharing is one of the most useful features for people who need to share music on a home network. It has made Apple iTunes more open for sharing music and videos.