Hi Everyone

First time here so sorry to get started with another syncing question. I have googled and not really worked out what to do - I'm sure my situation is pretty normal. This is what I need to know:

My wife, my 2 daughters and myself each have a Mac computer and we each have an iPad. I do not want to have multiple iTunes accounts as we listen to a lot of the same music, play the same games, etc.

I would like the following:
Music - we each have our own independent music and some of the same music. We each access our own music in iTunes. At the moment all the music is copied from CDs - none is purchased through iTunes. Going forward I would like to be able to purchase iTunes music from any computer but make it available to any other computer. (Without re-downloading it)

Photos - we each have our iPhoto library and just need to sync to our own library.

Contacts, Calendars - just need to sync to our own info.

Apps, Books, Movies and TV Shows - here we would all like to be able to make purchases (with the same iTunes account) but each to be able to choose which content we would like. If I purchase Angry Birds, I would like the others to be able to access the game too. My thoughts here were to use one computer as the "master" computer for this content, and all other content (music and photos particularly) to be managed on each persons respective computer.

Any help with giving me a better understanding of this would be great!

Thanks, Peter

everything you mentioned is covered except this

My thoughts here were to use one computer as the "master" computer for this content, and all other content (music and photos particularly) to be managed on each persons respective computer.

i will be back with more on how this would/could be done, just remind me...

or someone else take over.

Are all your computers on the same network? Then I think setting your libraries up via home sharing will sort you out.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3819

I'd buy a small NAS box and put all the common music and photo files on that then just point the iDevices to the location of the files on the network. The NAS box could alos be used to dish up files to things like the TV (assuming it's networkable) and to use to back up files on the Macs.

You can have up to five computers on one iTunes account. You can have an unlimited number of iPods, iPhones, and iPads. What you can do is to set up one computer with separate user accounts, or with different playlists for each person. You use home syncing to share data, and you can even set parental limits, and other controls.

Originally Posted by Zwervert

Hi Everyone

First time here so sorry to get started with another syncing question. I have googled and not really worked out what to do - I'm sure my situation is pretty normal. This is what I need to know:

My wife, my 2 daughters and myself each have a Mac computer and we each have an iPad. I do not want to have multiple iTunes accounts as we listen to a lot of the same music, play the same games, etc.

I would like the following:
Music - we each have our own independent music and some of the same music. We each access our own music in iTunes. At the moment all the music is copied from CDs - none is purchased through iTunes. Going forward I would like to be able to purchase iTunes music from any computer but make it available to any other computer. (Without re-downloading it)

Photos - we each have our iPhoto library and just need to sync to our own library.

Contacts, Calendars - just need to sync to our own info.

Apps, Books, Movies and TV Shows - here we would all like to be able to make purchases (with the same iTunes account) but each to be able to choose which content we would like. If I purchase Angry Birds, I would like the others to be able to access the game too. My thoughts here were to use one computer as the "master" computer for this content, and all other content (music and photos particularly) to be managed on each persons respective computer.

Any help with giving me a better understanding of this would be great!

Thanks, Peter

As Def says, home sharing in iTunes is the easy answer. I want to set it up but have been having difficulty. I have PC but you would probably have no problem with Mac.