Need help understanding iTunes accounts - mine vs. DH's

[ead79]

OK all you iTunes experts, I need your help!

Here's the deal. For several years now, DH and I have shared his iTunes account for our iPod nanos. Essentially it's just his account with both his and my computers authorized for his account. We've both downloaded a bunch of songs from the iTunes store, and it has always worked quite well.

DH has had an iPhone for a while now, and I just got one last night. It now occurs to me that it might be better for me to have my own iTunes account since I now have an iPhone.

But what will happen to all my songs that I've downloaded into DH's iTunes account? Will they move to my account if I do something to import them? We obviously live in the same household, so I'm assuming they let you own just one copy of a song and share within a household. I don't want to loose the ability to play all those songs we've bought on his account over the years.

Also, can we share apps? It's no problem if I need to buy them for my iPhone, but I was just curious.

Please help this iPhone newbie out! Thanks in advance!

 

[Jestocost]

You can set up a separate Itunes library and add whatever songs you want from your shared library. You can have as many accounts as you want on a computer for which a given song is authorized; there's only a limit on the number of computers on which a given song can be authorized. You just need to go in and add the files you want to your library. The actual MP3 files stay where they are and are just linked to the new account.

 

[Abbie]

OP, please forgive me for hijacking your thread but I am stuck with an iTunes problem too!

We have a new computer. My son has an iTunes acct with both purchased songs and downloaded songs from our various cd's that are in his iTunes library (and on the old computer). He went to purchase a song from iTunes but it would have erased all the non-purchased songs from his ipod?? Is there a way to move over the mp3 files from the old computer so that he can purchase new ones again?

 

[~Kik-Kik~]

Sorry, but your idea sucks. It's better to just share the account seeing that you most likey share credit card bills. That's really the only reason you split accounts amoun family members. Spouces really have no business to split them, unless you have seperate cerdit cards, or are anal on equal sharing on iTunes cards.

Keep it easy, SHARE!!!

 

[golfgal]

OP, please forgive me for hijacking your thread but I am stuck with an iTunes problem too!

We have a new computer. My son has an iTunes acct with both purchased songs and downloaded songs from our various cd's that are in his iTunes library (and on the old computer). He went to purchase a song from iTunes but it would have erased all the non-purchased songs from his ipod?? Is there a way to move over the mp3 files from the old computer so that he can purchase new ones again?

And to hijack it further-we have a new laptop that I want to move the kids' Itunes account and entire file. Can I just do a file transfer using a USB cord from our desktop to the laptop?

 

[~Kik-Kik~]

To answer both of your questions, sing into the account that made the purchases. Then redownload the songs, they should be free. It works with apps, so it should work with songs aswell. It should ask you twice if you want to buy it click yes, and the second time it should say you already bought it.

All you need to do to play music with itunes on your PC is the account name and password. Remember an account can only be used on 5 computers.

 

[ead79]

Thanks for the help!

We do share the credit card, so now that you mentioned it, it doesn't make sense to split me into a new account.

 

[OK!]

It should be noted that even if a song (or TV show, or movie, or whatever) has already been downloaded, you WILL be charged for it again if you download it again. I recently ran into a situation where my lovely Seagate external hard drive died and killed my entire iTunes library (not to mention close to a terabyte of irreplaceable photos, videos, etc.) and for the select few things I chose to redownload from iTunes, I was charged twice (well, charged full price to download them again). Apps are different because they exist on your iPhone (or were free to begin with), so they can be synced from the phone back into your iTunes library; they don't have to be re-purchased and re-downloaded from iTunes.

HTH!

 

[Abbie]

In our case, we didn't purchase about 300 of the songs since they were burned from various cd's. I think it is a glitch in iTunes that we can't purchase anything new without it erasing all those songs in the library that we didn't purchase. Ugh. The only thing I can think of is to take the old hard drive to our computer guy and have him extract the mp3's and put them on the new hard drive.....

 

[OK!]

In our case, we didn't purchase about 300 of the songs since they were burned from various cd's. I think it is a glitch in iTunes that we can't purchase anything new without it erasing all those songs in the library that we didn't purchase. Ugh. The only thing I can think of is to take the old hard drive to our computer guy and have him extract the mp3's and put them on the new hard drive.....

Yeah, that doesn't sound right. I've moved iTunes libraries to 3 different laptops and never once have seen that problem arise in I don't even know how many different versions of iTunes. Is there some kind of error message that's coming up and, if so, what does it say?

 

[Thumper_Man]

OP, please forgive me for hijacking your thread but I am stuck with an iTunes problem too!

We have a new computer. My son has an iTunes acct with both purchased songs and downloaded songs from our various cd's that are in his iTunes library (and on the old computer). He went to purchase a song from iTunes but it would have erased all the non-purchased songs from his ipod?? Is there a way to move over the mp3 files from the old computer so that he can purchase new ones again?

Yes, there is a way to do this. It's real easy to do, but it's difficult if you've never done it before. Here's a link to show you how to do it. If you still can't get it, send me a PM and I'll try to help you.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329

 

[Thumper_Man]

OK all you iTunes experts, I need your help!

Here's the deal. For several years now, DH and I have shared his iTunes account for our iPod nanos. Essentially it's just his account with both his and my computers authorized for his account. We've both downloaded a bunch of songs from the iTunes store, and it has always worked quite well.

DH has had an iPhone for a while now, and I just got one last night. It now occurs to me that it might be better for me to have my own iTunes account since I now have an iPhone.

But what will happen to all my songs that I've downloaded into DH's iTunes account? Will they move to my account if I do something to import them? We obviously live in the same household, so I'm assuming they let you own just one copy of a song and share within a household. I don't want to loose the ability to play all those songs we've bought on his account over the years.

Also, can we share apps? It's no problem if I need to buy them for my iPhone, but I was just curious.

Please help this iPhone newbie out! Thanks in advance!

There is a way that each of you can have your own library. DW and I do it on our computer at home. We each purchase songs on our own accounts, but share the files so we each have the songs. As I told Abbie, it's kind of a long process. It's easy to do, but difficult if you've never done it. Once you do it the first time, it's get easier to do. Send me a PM and I will tell you how to do it.

 

[golfgal]

Yeah, that doesn't sound right. I've moved iTunes libraries to 3 different laptops and never once have seen that problem arise in I don't even know how many different versions of iTunes. Is there some kind of error message that's coming up and, if so, what does it say?

Can you use the file trasfer to move from one computer to another like you can with word documents, etc. I would hate to erase the library by mistake. It is a combination of Itunes downloads and CD downloads.

 

[Thumper_Man]

Can you use the file trasfer to move from one computer to another like you can with word documents, etc. I would hate to erase the library by mistake. It is a combination of Itunes downloads and CD downloads.

You should be able to. When you transfer the files, and you first open iTunes, you will need to import the library. You can also transport the files using your iPod. This link will show you how to do it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329