how can i share photos between users on the same mac?

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how can i share photos between users on the same mac?

Dear All,

My wife and I use the same MacbookPro, but our own different login Accounts on the Mac, how can we share photos bewtwen these 2 accounts.

Say, I've downloaded some pics from my camera and would like to transfer to her login account.

Can I do it on the desktop level or can I use iPhoto to do this? I'd like to know how to do bothways, without having to duplicate the files(ie saving 2 copies of the same file on the computer)

Isn' there a 'New' feature on iPhoto / Aperture saying that it uses the same 'Unified' library or something ?

Can this feature help? but how to activate?

Pls help.

Thanks

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Sep 8, 2012 8:52 PM

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Answer 1

macjack

Level 10

111,242 points

Sep 8, 2012 8:56 PM in response to dinglay

Put them in Users/Shared folder.

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Answer 2

sberman

Level 10

274,080 points

Sep 8, 2012 8:59 PM in response to dinglay

Macs have a folder called "Public" for this purpose. See this from Finder's help:

Share files with others using a drop box

To give a copy of a file to another user, you can copy the file to the person’s Drop Box.

HidePut a file in the Drop Box of another user on your Mac

Open the user’s Public folder (in their home folder in the Users folder on your hard disk).
Hold down the Option key and drag the file to the Drop Box in the user’s Public folder.
Click the desktop to make sure you’re in the Finder, and then choose Go > Computer.
Double-click the icon for your computer’s internal disk (usually named Macintosh HD) to open its folder.
Open the Users folder, and then open the folder for the person to whom you’re giving a file.
Open the user’s Public folder, and then drag the file to the Drop Box. To keep a copy of the file for your own use, hold down the Option key while you drag.

Even though you can put items in another user’s Drop Box, you can’t open any Drop Box except your own.

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Answer 3

dinglay Author

Level 1

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Sep 8, 2012 9:10 PM in response to sberman

Thanks guys for the prompt replies

But dragging into the Drop Box , will this be duplicating the files?

but for photos , if I wanna share between users, say, I have my photos in my iPhoto / Aperture library, and I would like the other users of the same Mac to see and use them without dragging / duplicating them, is this possible?

or can we simply access them by opening iPhoto/Aperture using the other acc?

Isn' there a 'New' feature on iPhoto / Aperture saying that it uses the same 'Unified' library or something ?

Can this feature help? but how to activate?

Thanks

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,116 points

Sep 8, 2012 9:29 PM in response to dinglay

If you share your iPhoto Library in iPhoto Preferences, other users on the Mac and on your network can view and use your photos.

You must remained logged in with iPhoto running for others to see the photos. You can use Fast user Switching to do that (Users & Groups System Preferences).

I'm not aware of a new feature allowing what you want. I think what you are talking about is the ability to not store the image files inside of iPhoto's Library. You can index them from any folder. So, I guess you could use that by storing all the image files in the Shared folder and telling iPhoto to leave them there (iPhoto Preferences, Advanced).

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Answer 5

dinglay Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 8, 2012 11:30 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks Barney-15E

🙂

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