new Photos app sharing library across users

How do I share one Photos (v 1.0) library with multiple users on one Mac? Currently, I have a 115 GB iPhoto (v 9.6.1) library that I share across users on one Mac. It's stored in the shared folder, and all family members have access. After installing the new Photos app and upgrading my library, I moved the new Photos app library into our shared folder, and changed permissions to allow read & write access for a second user, but it still will not open in that user's account. I must avoid duplicating the iPhoto library in each user account because I don't have enough disk space for 3 115GB libraries.

OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB

Posted on Apr 10, 2015 10:09 AM

139 replies

sujovian

Level 1

4 points

Oct 26, 2016 11:10 AM in response to ManuelSJR

when you wrote this:

chown -R staff writethefullynameofthephotoslibrary

I think you meant this:

chgrp -R staff writethefullynameofthephotoslibrary

or perhaps this?

chown -R manolo:staff writethefullynameofthephotoslibrary

Nov 20, 2016 8:48 AM in response to Rufulo

A working solution is available on this "Ask Different" question.

léonie

Level 10

200,675 points

Nov 20, 2016 10:14 AM in response to metatechbe

If that worked for you, you have been lucky. It will break, if you add new items to the library. Any new file I added from a different user account caused the library to be repaired, when I switched back to my account. And it still does not solve the problem, that the system Photo Library is continually in use.

Nov 20, 2016 10:41 AM in response to léonie

I tried importing a new picture under the first account, and access under the second account, and it worked. Maybe because no new directory needed to be created ? Indeed, it might not work in all cases in the long term if Photo does not create new pictures with the correct permissions...

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new Photos app sharing library across users