Q: new Photos app sharing library across users

Training myself is easy.  Training one's wife... Well...  :-)

Let's just say that an improved Photos app from Apple would make marriages even happier.  Let us keep the app open and even make edits -- no shared folder or external HDs required.  It is 2016, after all.  This sort of thing shouldn't be that hard.  And since numbers talk, consider well how many married couples there are who have situations and needs just like this.

Hi,

No, an ACL will not let you have the same library open simultaneously by two different users. All that an ACL system will let you do is ensure that anyone with the right access will continue to have access to the given set of files and folders including any new files that get created.

As another poster noted, a Photos library is more than just the image files. It's also a database of information about those photos, the edits that were made and much more. It is well outside of the scope of an app like Photos to support multiple users accessing the same database for both reading and writing information to it.

In summary, there is no way for multiple users to have the same Photos library open at the same time. This is not even possible in Aperture. Simultaneous multi-user read/write access is a non-trivial problem to solve.

cheers,

-tomek

Ok - then tell Apple not the users here

http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

LN

Let us keep the app open and even make edits -- no shared folder or external HDs required.  It is 2016, after all

This is no problem. There are 3rd party apps that allow this kind of capability. Just buy one of those. They start around the $400 mark.

What you ask is not trivial to do and is expensive. But if that's what you want, pay for it. It is, as you say, 2016 after all.

JDW1 wrote:

 

Training myself is easy.  Training one's wife... Well...  :-)

 

Let's just say that an improved Photos app from Apple would make marriages even happier.  Let us keep the app open and even make edits -- no shared folder or external HDs required.  It is 2016, after all.  This sort of thing shouldn't be that hard.  And since numbers talk, consider well how many married couples there are who have situations and needs just like this.

IT is funny that you think the technical part of sharing a library the important one.  The short time my husband and I tried to share a photo library we were continually fighting about which photos to keep and which photos to delete. He lined to keep all embarking photos, and I liked to keep the happy looking photos. Rating the photos was also continous fight.  our solution for a happy married life was buying a second laptop and sharing selected photos, but not libraries.

It's only important to me because my wife and I "just get along" when it comes to our photos.  I am the primary photographer, and I shoot enough shots of each scene to keep her and myself satisfied.  We only delete the burred or really bad shots.  My kids use the same computer too, but they use my User account because it's in English.  My wife has her account in Japanese.  And although I close Apple Photos after I am finished, my kids don't.  And so when my wife goes to open her Apple Photos, well, you get the picture.  :-)

Buying a second laptop would probably result in a fight for us because Apple laptops are a serious financial commitment, and with kids attending private school (I live outside the US), our family budget is always on the mind.

It's 2016.  Databases with multi-user editing features have been on the market for decades.  And with Apple's power, might, money and near limitless engineers, it's not like aforementioned improvements to the Photos app would be near impossible.  Again, where there's a will, there's a way.  The Macintosh itself is evidence of that.  Had there been no will at Apple, we'd all be using some flavor of Windows today, or worse.

Databases with multi-user editing features have been on the market for decades.  And with Apple's power, might, money and near limitless engineers, it's not like aforementioned improvements to the Photos app would be near impossible

No one says it's impossible. What are you prepared to pay for the facility?

And although I close Apple Photos after I am finished, my kids don't.  And so when my wife goes to open her Apple Photos, well, you get the picture.  :-

ahhhh... so there it is.

You have a teachable moment in front of you... an educational opportunity.

You want Apple to resolve it for you with a technical solution.

It's 2016.  Databases with multi-user editing features have been on the market for decades.  And with Apple's power, might, money and near limitless engineers, it's not like aforementioned improvements to the Photos app would be near impossible.  Again, where there's a will, there's a way.

It is also a design decision based on the primary requirements.  When Apple released Photos it made it small and fast and easy to maintain  by stripping most of of the legacy code and sacrificing compatibility with older applications. Sure, it would have been possible for Apple to add support for a multiuser database, but it  would probably have been in conflict with the other design goals like a fast response time when searching and editing. As already pointed out, the asset management part of Photos is a database system. A single user database is fast, but the additional code required to synchronize concurrent database transactions in a multi user system makes the response time longer. It is a trade-off in a database design, if you want to burden it with the multi-user overhead and make each and every access to the data slower or keep it simple and fast as a single-user database.

Apple opted for the single-user database and offers many ways to share the photos, but not the library.  If you want to change the priorities of the development team send feedback to Apple.

It's 2016.

Funny that you are saying this.     Even airlines do not get it right with their multi-user flight booking systems. On my last flight I had again been assigned the same seat as someone else, and most likely because the concurrent database transactions of the check-in systems had not been properly synchronized and caused dataloss.

Apple opted for the single-user database

It's worth noting that none of Apple's competitors in this space offer this facility either, even those much more enpensive ones like Lightroom, Capture One, etc etc

How much would I pay?  Why thank you for asking.  How about "whatever it takes to bring it to market"?  Now if you would simply speak to Apple on my behalf, get the job done, then we can do the wire transfer.  But I need to see results first!  :-)

Teaching moment?  Ah yes.  I recall the days of DOS and CP/M.  Who needs a silly GUI when you just need to kick your brain in gear with DOS!  Teach!  Learn!  Do!  Ah yes...

Airlines won't "get it right" even in 2416.  They exist in an alternate universe.  Do you honest wish to compare our beloved Apple with them?  Surely not.

My goodness, what a large number of posts either defending the status quo or basically saying, "your opinion to make this software a better tool to improve your photo life is quite nearly in vain."  Even so, I persevere. 

And before you say it, yes, I always send Feedback to Apple.  They definitely know my name, let me tell you!  Seriously, I write them feedback when nearly anything comes to mind.  But I also continue to voice my opinions in the forums too.  All said, Apple Photos can be improved.  That's it in a nutshell.

Best wishes.

Part of the development of any operating system (and unix based operating systems in general), is enhancing the multi-task and multi-user aspects.   A related part is enhancing security.    The operating system should have the core needed for these, available for all programs.    How everything will be connected safely is the future of computing.

Note, starting off with SIRI using Apple programs then providing an interface for other programs is how these enhancements may work.

My goodness, what a large number of posts either defending the status quo or basically saying, "your opinion to make this software a better tool to improve your photo life is quite nearly in vain."  Even so, I persevere. 

I don't believe I am defending the status quo at all.

I believe you have admitted that this issue could likely be resolved if your children modified their computing habits. Yet you are advocating for a structural change in the way this app functions.

It would be better for you. You would get the wife off your back without having to teach your children about data integrity.

You are absolutely entitled to both your opinion and to express it here, Might I add, more intelligently than some.

Yet another case of...

YOU'RE HOLDING IT WRONG!

:-)

Computing devices have traditionally allow us to accomplish things without bending our lifestyle to suit the computing device.  In other words, computers and software enhance life, or at least they should.  They shouldn't require us to bend our lives to their will.  That path leads to Skynet.

As Spock said...

"Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few"

To which Kirk replied...

"Or the one"