need 2 accounts, share all files, but not email/messages

Question

need 2 accounts, share all files, but not email/messages

Please let me know if anybody has any ideas on how to do this.

We have a computer which we would like to share with 2 adults (and possibly later some others). We would like 2 separate accounts, in which we can log in separately, and share almost everything:

files
documents
music
contact list
calendar and events

However, we don't want to share email or iMessages (ie: text messages which show up on our laptop).

How do we set things up so that we have privacy with email/iMessage, but share all those other files?

MacBook Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3)

Posted on Feb 25, 2018 3:47 PM

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Answer 1

MoonJ.

Community Specialist

Feb 26, 2018 9:11 AM in response to YosemiteSully

Hi YosemiteSully,

I understand that you'd like to have multiple accounts on a MacBook Pro, but you want to share most of your content. I'm happy to provide some help for this.

To start, you'll want to set up a user account for each person using the Mac. The following article will explain how to do that:

macOS Sierra: Set up users, guests, and groups on your Mac

Once you have separate users set up, you can set up file sharing to share files and documents with each other:

macOS Sierra: Share files with others who use your Mac

Then you can set up Family Sharing to share calendars and iTunes Store purchases:

Set up Family Sharing - Apple Support

Since Family Sharing doesn't allow sharing contacts, you can share the contacts manually:

Share a contact on Mac - Apple Support

Or you can add a second iCloud account on each account to sync the contacts or other individual items:

macOS Sierra: Change settings for a second iCloud account

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Cheers!

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need 2 accounts, share all files, but not email/messages

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