iOS: Setting up Home Sharing on your device

Summary

With Home Sharing in iOS 4.3 or later, you can stream your entire iTunes library over your home Wi-Fi network from your Mac or PC right to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Products Affected

iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iTunes

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Setting up Home Sharing in iTunes on your computer

To stream your iTunes library to your iOS device, you will first need to enable Home Sharing on your computer.

Note: To stream your iTunes library to your iOS device, you will need iTunes 10.2 or later.

Open iTunes on your computer.
iTunes 11 and later: Choose File > Home Sharing > Turn on Home Sharing.
iTunes 10.2 through 10.7: Choose Advanced > Turn On Home Sharing.
Enter the Apple ID and password that you use for the iTunes Store, then click Create Home Share. You need to enter the same Apple ID and password on your computer and your iOS device.
Repeat steps 1 through 3 on each computer you want to use for Home Sharing.

Now that you've set up Home Sharing on your computer, follow the instructions below to set up and use Home Sharing on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Setting up Home sharing on your iOS device

Tap Settings > Music or Settings > Video to enable Home Sharing.
Note: Enabling Home Sharing in either setting will enable Home Sharing for both types of content.
In the Home Sharing section, enter the same Apple ID and password you entered on your computer (or computers) and tap the return button.

Playing Home Sharing content on your iOS device

iPhone

With iOS 5 and later, tap [Music or Videos] > More... > Shared or tap iPod > More… > Shared with earlier versions of iOS.
Select a shared library.

iPad and iPod touch

To listen to shared music:

With iOS 5 and later, tap Music > More... > Shared or tap iPod > Library with earlier versions of iOS.
Select a shared library.

To watch shared videos:

Tap Videos > Shared.
Select a shared library.

Additional Information

If you receive an error message saying that your device was "Unable to turn on Home Sharing", then you may have entered your password incorrectly. Tap OK and try again.

Error message