Photographs from 3 different iPhones into one iPhoto library?

To be ble to set 'ignore ownership' you have to use either an external hard drive or partition part of your Macintosh HD drive and store the library there. Then all users see it as a second drive. No need to mount a disc image each time.

Let me see if I understand it. If I want to store my library on /Users/Shared, I can only do it if I create a disk image. I could either store it in a external HD or a partition that I must create.... correct? I think it is too bad that this partition method is not described in the document I linked before.

Now, imagine I create a partition. How do I create it if I intend to store my iPhoto Library?

I reiterate, this is not what I would expect from Apple and their "It just works". I would expect I can simply store a shared iPhoto Library where they foresee I store shared stuff, and that is /Users/Shared...

Thanks everybody for the help. May I ask how did you figure this out since it is not correctly documented in the link I provided?

You partition the hard drive to make the disc image, although I think the term disc image has a bit of a different meaning to people who have used Widows and think of it as mounting a virtual disc drive. The link you have does explain everything, it's the same link I got my info from.

I think maybe you are getting confused thinking you need to create the disc image to store the library in Users/Shared. You don't its a different process. Using the Users/Shared folder as the location of your iPhoto library is not recommended by Apple. Some people claim you can, and it will work for a while bit you will eventually get permissions errors.

Either use an external hard drive or use Disc Utility to create a partition (disc image). I promise the link the does give all the information you need, just follow it step by step.

You can't disable ownership and permissions on a start up drive.

Your best bet - and easiest to use - is an external drive.

Hello,

and thanks for your response. You are quite right in that when I read Disk Image, I immediately associate it with a large file that can hold lots of information in it... I will try to remember this when considering this problem and the alternatives I come across.

I must say, however, that when I read http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198, I still feel Apple refers to a Image file and not to a partition. Let me reproduce what it is stated in there:

1. From the Image Format menu choose read/write disk image or sparse disk image (recommended).
2. Save the disk image to a location where other users can access it, such as in /Users/Shared/ on your Macintosh HD.

You will want to make sure the image is mounted before opening iPhoto if you want to use this library.

1. Navigate to the disk image; if you saved to the default location, locate the image in /Users/Shared.
2. Select the disk image file.

If the disk image is not currently mounted, double-click the image file to mount the image.

I hate to fumble around with technology. That's why I went for the Apple route instead of Linux and Windows. I can't have my users think technologywise when they want to do something:

Note: If a user attempts to open the iPhoto library while in use by another local user, iPhoto will instead display an alert message. This alert will also appear if a local user attempts to use iPhoto from the disk image over a network.

TBH, this is not "It just works".

As I just said,

I can't have my users think technologywise when they want to do something:

What if the disk is not plugged, or if they forget to turn it on? I would rather prefer to partition my 1TB disk and put my Library in there instead. You may be quite right, implementationwise an external hard drive is much easier, but from a user perspective, it sounds more complicated.

Anybody care to help me figure out how to partition my internal hard disk so I can set the corresponding flag to "Ignore Permissions on this volume"?

Thanks

Ah, it seems the page you are linking to has been changed since I originally did this. You can see the modified date is 14 February 2013. Just use disk utility to partition your hard drive rather than creating a disk image. In disk utility you will see two hard drives on the left. One will be slightly indented and called Macintosh HD, that is the partition that hold the operationg ystem and all your files. The other drive (above the Macintosh HD one) is the actually hard drive installed in your computer. It will have a different name depending on the manufacturer but will most likely start with 1TB. Click on that rather than Macintosh HD. Then the Partition open becomes available on the right. Just use the default settings (Journelled, not Case Sensitive).

You still have to Choose a size which is fixed, so go for something bigger than you expect your library size to grow to. I went for 100GB. This way you do not have to worry about mounting the disk image and you can set 'ignore permissions'.

There is no way to partition the start up drive without erasing it, then partitioning it, installing the OS and all the Apps and data from scratch.

Remember, what you're trying to do is not what iPhoto is designed for. It's designed for one user, and when you try and share it like this, you're working around a database with it's own filing and permissions system plus the OS's setting to keep user data separate.

So, that's why you need a space where two sets of ownership can be avoided.

Essentially, Apple are saying to you: if you want to do this thing that iPhoto is not designed for, then this is how you go about it.

If you and your wife want to share the data then the absolutely easiest way to do it is to use the same account. I note a lot of people create accounts for all the possible Users when there is no real need to. My family iMac has four users, all use the same account, all use the same photo and music library with no issues.

You can partition without erasing. The Macintosh HD is a partition itself you can easily create another partition in Disk Utility without any effect on the Macintosh HD, other than resizing it. I have just done it right now as a test on my MacBook Pro. It's how I originally set up my iMac, as per Apples original instructions.

I presume the updated support document is to make this work with the FusionDrive on the new iMacs and rather than expose the fact that the disk image solution as a less than idea workaround for FusionDrive users and create a second support page for this, they have just come up with a new (less useful) way of doing it.

takenpictures wrote:

You can partition without erasing. The Macintosh HD is a partition itself you can easily create another partition in Disk Utility without any effect on the Macintosh HD, other than resizing it. I have just done it right now as a test on my MacBook Pro. It's how I originally set up my iMac, as per Apples original instructions.

Thanks a million for testing it. What File System do I have to pick up if I want to be able to set that permissions flag, HFS+ Journaled?

I presume the updated support document is to make this work with the FusionDrive on the new iMacs and rather than expose the fact that the disk image solution as a less than idea workaround for FusionDrive users and create a second support page for this, they have just come up with a new (less useful) way of doing it.

My computer is a Mac Mini 2012 with Fusion Drive. Should I rather wait until Apple produces a taylored version for Fusion Drives equipped computers?

To be honest my comments about FusionDrive is only an assumption. If you still have the option to partition the drive then there is no reason why it shouldn't work, the only difference would be that files on the new partition would not be able to move over to the flash storage for increased performance.

Terence Devlin wrote:

...

If you and your wife want to share the data then the absolutely easiest way to do it is to use the same account. I note a lot of people create accounts for all the possible Users when there is no real need to. My family iMac has four users, all use the same account, all use the same photo and music library with no issues.

No real need? what about email? do you guys use the same email mailbox for all your stuff? what about data privacy if, for example, you are planning a surprise party for one of your users and you are using email for organizing it?

Do you guys also have iOS devices? do you also use the same Apple ID on all of them?

I'm sorry but I can not imagine a family computer without 1 account for all the members, and, eventually, one additional shared account for all of them. I still think, though, that Apple's model (Apple ID and stuff) is based on having one specific account for each user. My humble opinion of course...

You could always create a user account that is specifically for iPhoto and anyone wanting to use it just logs on with that account, the downside would be if you want to add images from iPhoto into emails etc.

I still think, though, that Apple's model (Apple ID and stuff) is based on having one specific account for each user.

It is, but you don't have to go by their way if it doesn't mke sense to you.

No real need? what about email? do you guys use the same email mailbox for all your stuff?

Webmail. We have a family mail accout, everything else users can do via a web browser. And of course, Mail can handle multiple mail accounts with no issues.

what about data privacy if, for example, you are planning a surprise party for one of your users and you are using email for organizing it?

Webmail...

Do you guys also have iOS devices?

Yup, 8 of them, a mix of phones and iPads.

do you also use the same Apple ID on all of them?

No, each one has their own ID. But that's not a problem. That only matters when folks want to buy apps for their devices themselves.

takenpictures wrote:

You could always create a user account that is specifically for iPhoto and anyone wanting to use it just logs on with that account, the downside would be if you want to add images from iPhoto into emails etc.

... or if you want Photostream to automatically import the pictures taken by more than one Apple ID into the Library, right?