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User profile for user: Womanhattan
Womanhattan Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

Instead of having separate Macbooks for work and for personal use, could I get rid of one computer and just use the other with two user accounts?

Hoping several of you can weigh in on this decision -- right now I'm using a 2017 12-inch Macbook 512GB for my personal files, and my work projects are on my 2017 15" Macbook Pro 2TB. I'm thinking of selling the 12-inch and adding a personal user account to my Macbook Pro but wondering how that will affect things like Time Machine backups and my overall user experience. Please note that I have no intention of ever using iCloud -- I back up to external drives. Also wondering whether each user could have a different OS, though that's not essential. I rarely use my personal computer since most of my computer use is for business anyway. I'd appreciate feedback from multiple people on this decision and other factors I might want to consider. Thank you!

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Sep 2, 2020 1:37 PM

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User profile for user: neuroanatomist
neuroanatomist
User level: Level 9
50,071 points

Posted on Sep 2, 2020 2:03 PM

You can only have one OS version across user accounts (technically, you can have multiple partitions with different OS, but then you'd need to reboot to switch users which IMO is not a good user experience) – I'd stick with one OS. Time Machine backs up the entire drive, all users.


So basically, what you want to do will work well. You can enable 'fast user switching' in System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login options, that puts a drop down menu in the menu bar to switch from your personal to your work account.

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User profile for user: neuroanatomist
neuroanatomist
User level: Level 9
50,071 points

Sep 2, 2020 2:03 PM in response to Womanhattan

You can only have one OS version across user accounts (technically, you can have multiple partitions with different OS, but then you'd need to reboot to switch users which IMO is not a good user experience) – I'd stick with one OS. Time Machine backs up the entire drive, all users.


So basically, what you want to do will work well. You can enable 'fast user switching' in System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login options, that puts a drop down menu in the menu bar to switch from your personal to your work account.

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Instead of having separate Macbooks for work and for personal use, could I get rid of one computer and just use the other with two user accounts?

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