layout for song in 9/8

I'm entering some songs in 9/8 time (Irish Slip Jigs) and have a layout question.

Let's say it's an 8-bar section, so 2 lines. And 9/8 time, so I make 3 spaces in each measure. To get them to align well, I add space at the end of each line.

I seem to always wind up with a right-hand bar mark at the end of the first line, after the added spaces. I've tried different ways of entering the space, or the first bar of the second line, but it always seems to happen. Not a big issue, and the player seems to ignore play correctly, but wondered if I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks....Lyle

You do not have to have a measure 3 spaces. If there is only one chord per measure, you can leave it at 4 spaces. Check out waltzes in the exercises, or Take Five etc.
The main problem arises if you have other chords in a measure. The player will attempt to make some sense of it according to how many spaces are in a measure, where the other chords are placed, and the player style selected (swing, eighths) but will bring up a player error if it is uncertain.
The idea of 16 spaces across means the chord symbols will fit within the spaces and still be clear in small screens (phones).

Of course if you are not using the player feature, you can put anything anywhere it makes sense to. For complex tunes/time signatures, constructing exactly what you want might be better done in notation software instead, not in iReal Pro.

These songs have chord changes on beats 1 and 3 of a measure. Sometimes chords change on beats 1, 2, and 3. So the chart looks more accurate with 3 spaces per bar, and I assumed the player would have an easier time.

Should I post a sample with the odd right barline after the spaces to the right of 4 bars?

Thanks...Lyle

Adding a single barline at the right of the last space of a system will automatically add a barline at the beginning of the next system on the left (and vice versa) as you have found.

You could try this:
Insert one space at the left of all your systems and do not use the last space of each system at the end (right.) Effectively this means you have an indented margin of a space (or more on the right) inwards from each end.

From my quick tests, this test song plays ok (3 spaces per measure).

Here is the song:
9-8 song - Unknown Composer

[I would consider all this a workaround at the moment because in the future the song code and playback engine could change, causing problems.]