How to Set Up Home Sharing on iTunes and Transfer Movies, Music and Apps

Apple iTunes 9 added a "Home Sharing" feature. This is different from just streaming your music library, in that you can transfer copies of anything that's in your Library. You can transfer movies, music, TV shows, audiobooks and even iPhone and iPod Touch applications and share them with up to five computers in your household.

Once you have Home Sharing set up on the computers in your home, every new iTunes purchase (music, movies, TV shows, apps) will automatically transfer to each computer.

Here is how to set it up.

Things You'll Need

• iTunes 9.0 or higher
• Mac or Windows PC
• iTunes Store account

Instructions

1. 

   Upgrade to iTunes 9 or higher if you haven't already. Use the Software Update option in the Apple menu on the top left of your screen.

2. Launch iTunes.

3. 

   Select "Turn On Home Sharing" from the "Advanced" menu at the top of your screen.

4. 

   Type in your iTunes Account email address and password in the "Home Sharing" screen in iTunes.

5. 

   Hit the "Create Home Share" button.

6. 

   Click "Yes" to authorize your computer with that iTunes account.

7. 

   Hit the "OK" button when you get confirmation that the authorization was successful.

8. 

   Click "Done." The Home Sharing icon will appear on the left-side menu of the iTunes window.

9. Repeat the previous eight steps on every computer in your home that has iTunes on it and be sure to use the same iTunes login information.

10. Select the computer you want to share from the "Shared" option in the left-hand menu in iTunes.

11. 

    Click the right-facing arrow next to the computer to expand the Library.

12. Find the media or applications you want to transfer over to your computer.

13. Drag and drop the media on to your Library to transfer a copy of that piece of music, TV show, movie, audiobook, ringtone, playlist or application over to your computer. Repeat for everything else you want to share.

Tips & Warnings

• You can only authorize five computers for each iTunes account.

• Please check out my other iTunes, iPod and iPhone articles.

Resources

• Apple: What's New in iTunes?