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Same apps as administrator as standard user?

Hi apple affiliates,


I made two accounts(1 as admin with full control& 1 as standard user with not complete acces) on my new clean Mac with at this moment nothing installed.


I would like to have the same Apps, files and configurations for both accounts , without having to install everything twice .

I tried it before with making a new admin. account after everything was installed on the first one , but I had no same apps and files .

Is it possible to have, for example ,the same music files in both accounts without having double storage in my HDD?


does anybody have any good advice on this matter? (apple support doesn't really seem to explain this matter ).


both accounts have the same Apple ID .


many thanks for any help


best regards



MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 13, 2021 10:07 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 13, 2021 12:06 PM

An admin user and a standard user are exactly the same. There is no difference in the account. Accounts marked as admin get added to the sudoers file which enables them to elevate their privileges. Otherwise, there is absolutely no difference.


You will generally have to authenticate to install apps into the Applications folder, but you can do that from the standard user account. It will just ask for admin user credentials when you try.


As for files shared between the two, that is not simple, as I stated above.

It certainly is much more difficult with things like music, photos, etc. Those programs do not expect that their files are shared amongst multiple users. You could store all of your music somewhere in /Users/Shared, then set up Music to not copy the files into its library, but I imagine that will create some problems. I think you can set up Photos similarly, but I don't know how the referencing by two accounts will play out.


What is the point of the separate user accounts. As I stated, there really is no difference. Running as a standard user mostly protects you from yourself. With Catalina and Big Sur, nothing, including root, can modify the system. It is mounted read-only. Even if something tricked you into authenticating and elevating its privileges, it could not do anything to the OS. root, as a vector for attack, is virtually useless in macOS.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 13, 2021 12:06 PM in response to appelbabbel

An admin user and a standard user are exactly the same. There is no difference in the account. Accounts marked as admin get added to the sudoers file which enables them to elevate their privileges. Otherwise, there is absolutely no difference.


You will generally have to authenticate to install apps into the Applications folder, but you can do that from the standard user account. It will just ask for admin user credentials when you try.


As for files shared between the two, that is not simple, as I stated above.

It certainly is much more difficult with things like music, photos, etc. Those programs do not expect that their files are shared amongst multiple users. You could store all of your music somewhere in /Users/Shared, then set up Music to not copy the files into its library, but I imagine that will create some problems. I think you can set up Photos similarly, but I don't know how the referencing by two accounts will play out.


What is the point of the separate user accounts. As I stated, there really is no difference. Running as a standard user mostly protects you from yourself. With Catalina and Big Sur, nothing, including root, can modify the system. It is mounted read-only. Even if something tricked you into authenticating and elevating its privileges, it could not do anything to the OS. root, as a vector for attack, is virtually useless in macOS.

Jan 13, 2021 4:03 PM in response to appelbabbel

I should be fine using 1 administrator account then :)

The only way you can get Malware is to install it. You can install it while logged into a Standard user account by authenticating with the admin username and password. So, operating as a Standard user when you know the admin username and password does absolutely nothing for you.

You just have to not install malware.

Effective Defenses against malware.

Jan 13, 2021 10:22 AM in response to appelbabbel

I would like to have the same Apps, files and configurations for both accounts , without having to install everything twice .
I tried it before with making a new admin. account after everything was installed on the first one , but I had no same apps and files .

How did you install the apps? By default, they should be installed in /Applications and every user has access to them.

The only way to prevent other users from accessing an app would be to install the app into the user's home folder.


Also, users are independent with respect to files stored within their home directory. You can store files in /Users/Shared so all can access them, but the default permissions makes the person who created the file the owner and doesn't allow others to edit the files. You can set up Access Control List entries which will allow members of a group to all edit files created by others in the group.

Jan 13, 2021 10:42 AM in response to Barney-15E

Hi Barney,


thanks for your swift reply!

Before I did install my apps and files as admin user as I did not have the other account yet. I did make a new account that became the admin and the former became the standard user.

the apps were installed all in applications , music files were imported from cd to tunes. after making the new admin account , I had no same apps and files as before in the admin account.


if I install apps, as admin or standard account, in applications they will be always accessible for both? or do I have to install them only as admin?


haven't installed anything yet now, I do not want to have any double data on HDD...


thanks for your help again!

Jan 13, 2021 1:32 PM in response to Barney-15E

thank you for your reply,


i was told that using the standard account for daily business was best, as indeed it would protect me from myself on the web and such .

but maybe then I should indeed stick to my 1 account as the danger is actually non existing on Catalina .

i am not really planning to do weird stuf on the internet. but I just wanted to be extra careful now with my new Mac as I had much trouble on my older Macs cause of a stupid behavior.


I should be fine using 1 administrator account then :)


thanks again!





Same apps as administrator as standard user?

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