zencafa
Level 1 (4 points)
Photos for Mac

Q: How can I create a shared multi-user photo library?

This is the situation I am faced with:  We have 5 co-workers in an architectural office that would like to be able to share access to a Photos library (and each co-worker would like to be able to add photos to this library, and edit or tag them as needed).  From what I have read in the apple support community, it looks like it cannot be stored on a shared server.  Instead it would need to be stored on an external hard drive with ignored ownership.   It also looks like it would need to be associated with an "office" apple id / iCloud account and then the individual albums would need to be designated as "shared."  Am I correct so far?  Will this work so that each coworker can access and edit the photos without needing to move the external hard drive around the office to each mac?  Or am I missing something?  I'd greatly appreciate any thoughts or help in coming up with a good solution

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Oct 14, 2016 9:09 AM

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zencafa

Q: How can I create a shared multi-user photo library?

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  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Oct 14, 2016 9:45 AM in response to zencafa
    Level 10 (85,678 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 14, 2016 9:45 AM in response to zencafa

    two different things

     

    sharing locally is done using an EHD with ownership ignored - Sharing photo libraries among multiple users - Apple Support

     

    Or

     

    Sharing via iCloud is done with iCloud Photo Library with all users logging into iCloud using the same Apple ID  --  iCloud Photo Library - Apple Support  --  http://www.apple.com/icloud/photos/ --  With ICPL everyone can add and edit photos and all changes (additions. deletions or edits) made by any user are made for all users although there is a timing issue if multiple users edit the same photo at the same time - only the last edit will show - it can be used this way but it is not really designed for multiple working users

     

    iCloud Photo sharing is not a solution for your needs - it is to share lower resolution photos with people and there is no updating - what you share is what is there and to show changes you have to upload another edited copy

     

    ICPL comes the closest to what you want of APple software - there is Photo management software out there that does everything you want i fyou look for it - it is not free of course

     

    LN

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 14, 2016 9:53 AM in response to zencafa
    Level 10 (108,955 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 14, 2016 9:53 AM in response to zencafa

    Photos for Mac is essentially a single-user application.

    Only one user at a time can open it in Photos.

    You can work around the permissions problems by using an external drive with "Ignore ownership" enabled.

    But there is no documentation at all from Apple, if access over the network is supported or not.

    We only know, that the Photos Library must not be in a cloud storage, that is synced. (see:  Updating from iPhoto to Photos for OS X - Apple Support)

     

    If you store your Photos library in a location that's part of a cloud service (for example, Dropbox, Box, or Google Drive), your library might be damaged by the syncing process. As a result, you could lose photos.

    To see your photos on all your devices, you can use iCloud Photo Library. To back up your library, you can use Time Machine.

    For Aperture and iPhoto we have clear statements fromApple, that any drive with the photo library needs to be locally mounted. It might be the same problem for Photos, because the libraries are very similar. And we have seen quite a few reports here from users who tried putting the library on a NAS and it did not work.

     

    It also looks like it would need to be associated with an "office" apple id / iCloud account and then the individual albums would need to be designated as "shared."

    You can use "Shared Albums" to share selected albums with photos, but shared albums support only a limited photos resolutio,  see:  iCloud: iCloud Photo Sharing FAQ