Multiple Accounts - Shared Apps/Files

Try using the hard drive level users Shared folder for what you want both to see. There may be some permissions problems, so you will have to add both users as read/write. Then click the gear at the bottom and select apply to enclosed items (done in a Get Info (command I).

Hi swtsae,

Set up family share to solve your requirement wrt Apps and iTunes purchases. OS X will set up these automatically. In addition to making the specific document folders shareable which you want to share. In iTunes you also have to enable Home Sharing

Another solution would be to have a shared documents folder with an Access Control List for the documents.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask.

Have fun

Leo

But the iPhoto and iTunes libraries on an external disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and set to ignore ownership and permissions.

Leopardus wrote:

Hi swtsae,

Set up family share to solve your requirement wrt Apps and iTunes purchases. OS X will set up these automatically. In addition to making the specific document folders shareable which you want to share. In iTunes you also have to enable Home Sharing

Another solution would be to have a shared documents folder with an Access Control List for the documents.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask.

Have fun

Leo

Hi Swatsae,

Home sharing in iTunes allows you exactly that, to be able to play, view and use the music, etc in your iTunes library.

You could also in the preferences pane for iTunes make the Library fully shareable.

It could also be possible in iPhoto, but I have not done that before. I use iTunes like that though, centrally managed.

The other work files though, you could use the following

If you want to share things between users on the same Mac, use the /Users/Shared folder. Keep your home folder private, as defeating the protections on the home folder subfolders just gets messy.

With using the Shared folder, you would need to alter the ACL's (Access Control Lists) to allow modification of said documents in the folder.

You will have to create a Group in Users and Groups and put each of the authorised users in that group. Inside the /Users/Shared folder you will then have to create a folder where you aspire to share the files.

Pasting the following in Terminal will add an ACL to that new folder that gives the members of the group permissions on that new folder.

sudo chmod -R +a "<newgroup> allow delete,chown,list,search,add_file,add_subdirectory,delete_child,file_inherit,directory_inherit" /Users/Shared/<newfolder> 

Just replace newsgroup and newfolder with the corresponding names of the Group that you have created and the new Folder name. Then, paste it in Terminal to run. The ACL will enable the users that you put in that sharing group the corresponding right to edit, copy, paste etc within the folder.

Have fun

Leo

swtsae wrote:

By Apps I dont mean just the app them selves but more specifically iPhone and iTunes where regardless of myself or my wife login we see all of our photos, all of our music and playlists etc...

BUT if I log in, then I see my specific iCloud info, I see my calendar info, my iMessage account etc... and when she logs in she sees her's?

This appears to be a fundamental contradiction to me.

You want 2 libraries of iTunes and iPhoto (to see individual iCloud stuff) but you also also want the same libraries (to have identical content).

Are you clear on where the boundaries of iTunes, iPhoto & iCloud are? They are so intertwined I don't think you can easily have one library with several iCloud accounts (please correct me other members).

Using the 'familiy sharing system' is the simplest way to 'make it work as designed' & you will get support from a genius bar it it all goes wrong.

For playlists you will need to do some work recreating them, but from that point it is simple to manage.

If you try the suggested 'consolidating into Shared' instead it starts going beyond the intended use case of both these apps.

Your backups are all good are they? Stash one full backup before making these changes - this is difficult to fix if it goes wrong (which may be after both users have signed in & out of iCloud several times).

I hope I am totally wrong, but it looks like you could be going down a path that is difficult to recover from & doesn't suit what you actually expect.

To move the iPhoto Library:

Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

1. Quit iPhoto

2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.

3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.

4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.

Regards

TD