Sharing on the same machine between different user accounts

I've always used a single user account and all for of us (2 kids, my wife and I) shared the same user account. The other day I upgraded to Tiger and decided to create user accounts for everyone in the family. I wanted everyone to see all the songs and all the playlists. So I placed my Music folder on one of my firewire drives and created aliases for each user pointing to that common Music folder (also opened up permissions, etc) and it appears to work.
Problem: if one son has iTunes open in his account, and I switch to my account, I can't bring up iTunes "some kind of lock error". I can believe that.
So, what is a better way to do this? I do want to share all the music, so if I rip a CD in my account, all the other users will see it. But I could live with each user having their own set of playlists. It would be nice if I could "import" playlists, so they could get all of their playlists to start with.
Is there a better way to do this?
Thanks,
Alfredo

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Sharing iphoto library on the same computer between different users

Can anyone tell me how (without having to write my own code) I can share photos easily (so I can teach my parents, who know nothing about mac, how to do it) between different users on the SAME COMPUTER?
I am so frustrated! You can share with anyone else in the world, but when it is on the same computer I can't figure out how to share!

Hi Mereditty,
Here are all the links I have for sharing a couple of different ways.
SHARING IPHOTO LIBRARIES
Sharing libraries between users on the same local network
You can also share a library on the same machine between users the same way.
Sharing libraries between users on the same machine...
-both users must have sharing enabled in their iPhoto Preferences
-both users must be logged in and have iPhoto running
-Remember that you can only view the other library. You can't edit the photos or play the saved slideshows or view the made books or burn them to CD or DVD. The books and slideshows will show up as an album. You can play that album as an "on the fly" slideshow. You can drag images from the sharing library to your library in the source column to import them to your library. You can then edit, add to albums, books, slideshow, etc.
Sharing links from Apple....
Sharing your photos between computers
About shared photos
Turning off photo sharing
Looking for shared photos
SHARING ONE IPHOTO LIBRARY BETWEEN USERS ON SAME MACHINE
You can try one of these three methods:
1- Use iPhoto Library Manager-the paid version
The documentation page will give instructions on how it is done.
2- Sharing one iPhoto library between several users on one machine
3- Share an iPhoto Library in tiger Using ACL's
4- I have also read about ShareAlike
There is no other info on the site about how it works.
I strongly urge anyone wanting to try any of the methods for sharing one iPhoto Library folder among more than one user to backup all iPhoto Library folders before attemptin anything.
Lori

Share Photos on the same iMac with different user accounts... How do You???

Hello,
I was wondering if there is a way to share photos with another user (same computer, different log-in names) on the same iMac?
There are two users on my iMac and I want to be able to share photos and other documents, music etc. with them, but can't seem to do it.
Please help.
Thank you.

What you mean by 'share'.
If you want the other user to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter your library, then enable Sharing in your iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open the other account. In that account, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Your Library will appear in the other source pane.
Any user can drag a pic from the Shared Library to their own in the iPhoto Window.
Remember iPhoto must be running in both accounts for this to work.
If you want the other user to have the same access to the library as you: to be able to add, edit, organise, keyword etc. The problem here is that OS X works very hard to keep your data safe and secure from the other users. You're trying to beat what's built in to the system. So, to beat the system
Quit iPhoto in both accounts
Move the iPhoto Library Folder to an external HD set to ignore permissions. You could also use a Disk Image or even partition your Hard Disk.
In each account in turn: Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting dialogue, select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new library location. From that point on, this will be the default library location. Both accounts will have full access to the library, in fact, both accounts will 'own' it.
However, there is a catch with this system and it is a significant one. iPhoto is not a multi-user app., it does not have the code to negotiate two users simultaneously writing to the database, and trying will cause db corruption. So only one user at a time, and back up, back up back up.
Lastly: This method seems a little clunky at first, but works very well. Most importantly, it uses the System to do the job for you.
Create a new Account on your Mac, call it Media. Create an iPhoto Library there. (BTW: This will work for iTunes too.)
Enable Sharing on the Library:(Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open the other accounts. In those accounts, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. The Library will appear in the other source pane.
This means that both users will be able to see the pics. If you want to use a pic then simply drag it from the shared Library to your own in the iPhoto Window. This means that each user can have their own edits.
If you want to add photos to the Library: Log into the Media account for that purpose.
To make it all seamless: Set your Mac to log into the Media Account automatically. Set iPhoto to launch on log-in. Then switch to your own account using Fast User Switching.
Net result: a Library that's permanently available to all users but also protected. Each user can have their own versions of the pics if they want.
No partitioning, no permissions issues. Uses no extra disk space. What's not to like?
Regards
TD

Sharing files and iCal events between different users (accounts) on one Mac

Hi,
I have a new iMac with Leopard. I have two accounts on this machine: one for myself and one for my girlfriend. I want to share files with her such as iPhoto events (so I don't have to import photos twice), iCal events (so I don't have to send her an email to synch our calendars), music from iTunes and other files.
Does anyone know how to easily do this? I have tried the drop folder for sharing but it only appears across a network if I am logged in and won't transfer to different users.
Daniel

thanks, zevoneer. apparently, I gave up too early in my own search. I'm trying it now - the copy process is taking some time. Well, I had hoped to narrow the access down to only one other account but at least this should provide the access that is needed.

How do I share music from different itunes accounts in the same Mac, in different users account on that Mac with different iPhones?

Hi
My wife and I share the same Mac.
She has her session and I have mine thus each of us has our iTunes session with our own music and settings.
She has her iTunes account and I have mine too.
And..;)...she has her Iphone and of course I also have mine.
So, the big question:
Both like music that the other has bought but we do not want to buy it twice! (through her account and mine).
Is there a way to share music I purchase so she can have it in her iTunes session and therefore have it also on her iPhone when she syncs..and of course viceversa for me too?
It goes without saying that although we like music the other one has, we do not like all of the music, so basically we want to have the possibility to share those special songs we like so we can have them both in our phones and individual Itunes sessions.
Was that clear or I lost you???
Any answer will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

First of all if you havent done it yet i think u shold authorize the mac on both accounts on itunes. You also can switch the accounts on your Iphones at itunes while you are in the internet adn download the music.
This is just an idea you should think of. For sure there are other ways I dont know.

How do I share photos and music between different user accounts on the same macbook

How do I share photos and music between different user accounts on the same Macbook? i.e. I want all to be able to access family photos when logged into their respective accounts. Same goes for the iTunes library. Hope this is possible...
Thanks!

To give other users read-only access to your iTunes library, use the Sharing features of iTunes. Sharing works over the local network as well as on the same computer. See the built-in help for details.
To give others selective access to your iPhoto library, you have the option of using iCloud Photo Sharing, if the privacy implications don't bother you. The images will be stored temporarily on Apple servers.
If you want to give full read/write access to more than one user, see the support articles linked below.
iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer
iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users
There is a way to share the library without moving it to a secondary volume. If you really need to do that, ask for instructions.

How can i share photos on the same mac but different users?

how can i share photos on the same mac but different users? we have different iphoto acounts and just want to be able to look under users in the finder and view another users iphoto.

You may try moving ur librarie to the folder /Users/shared if and link it to iphoto from there
You may locate and link libraries from arkiv-->change library in iphoto

Sharing Playlists and Music on the Same Computer with Different Users

I'm trying to share music and playlists between different users of the same computer.
Ideally I'd like to use the same iTunes music folder for all users, and have the same music and playlists show up no matter which user logs in (without having duplicate copies/files of the same songs clogging up our hard drive).
also would like to be able to sync our shared iPod no matter which user panel we're logged onto.
is any of this possible with the new version of iTunes?
thanks much i advance.
vince

If you want all users to be able to access the same music, but with different libraries, NikkiG's advice is spot on. However, I thought I'd throw in my 2¢ since I just set this up for a friend.
If you want all your users to have exactly the same library, and not just access to a shared library, do the following:
-move the entire "iTunes" folder (~/Music/iTunes) into the Shared folder or to separate drive.
-in each user's account, remove the iTunes folders (or just move them to a new location until you're positive this method works for you)
-pop open Terminal.app (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and here's where it gets a little dicey; type the following into the command line:
ln -s /Users/Shared/iTunes/ ~/Music/iTunes/
What this does is create a symbolic link (think alias, but more technical and powerful) between the iTunes folder in the Shared folder, and each user's iTunes folder. This way, each user is directly accessing the iTunes library, and not just through the shared area in iTunes itself. This allows them to add/remove music and playlists to the same library.
HOWEVER, this method will mess up if you have multiple users logged in and using iTunes at the same time.

Sharing libraries between different user accounts on same Mac

I am having difficulty sharing the same library between two different user accounts. I thought it would be simple matter of allowing the second user account access to the itunes folder in the first user's home folder and then changing location of second user's library in Advanced menu of second user's iTunes. However, second user iTunes still acts as though it is pointed at its default library. Can anyone help me here?

thanks, zevoneer. apparently, I gave up too early in my own search. I'm trying it now - the copy process is taking some time. Well, I had hoped to narrow the access down to only one other account but at least this should provide the access that is needed.

HT3819 How to use homesharing between different user accounts on the same iMac?

I find plenty of articles about homesharing on iTunes between computers, but not between two different user accounts on the same iMac. Any advice or direction to an existing artical is greatly appreciated. I'm knew to the Mac and still have Windows on the brain.
I am trying to share iTunes music and movie purchases between my user login and my wife's.
Thanks

Hello careymp1017,
This can be achieved, but will not utilize HomeSharing. Further information and steps can be found in the following article.
iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1203
Cheers,
Allen

I would like to transfer music from my account to my wife`s on the same Mac but different users, i want her to have her own i tunes account but now that she has downloaded all of her stuff in my account , she has to "erase and sync" how can i troublshoot

I would like to transfer music from my account to my wife`s on the same Mac but different 2 users (hers and mine), i want her to have her own i tunes account but now that she has downloaded all of her stuff in my account , she has to "erase and sync" all of her stuff when she opens her account which has nothing in it!, how can i send stuff from my i tunes account to hers? same computer different users, how can i trouble shoot please help!!??

how do i share then? can she upload music if we share it somehow?
If so how??
i am also having the same problems now with IPhoto, she has all of her/our pics in my IPhoto library.
I have told her that now i have bought her the Ipad she would have to log into her user, the only thing is there is no music in her itunes account nor photos in her I Photo library, i have spent all day trying to find a way to "share" but no luck,
Please help i`m going mad!
Surely we could just share these...?
I need step by step instructions please someone send me a link on "how to share pics and music!"

Share the same files to different users over the network

Hi,
I have a server running in my home network and want to share my photos accross the network. The photos have to be accessable from linux and windows clients and from different user accounts. The filesystem to share is btrfs right now. I would like to stick to it, but if this should turn out to be an issue, I will change it to s.th. else. I could use samba with a dedicated samba user or ftp, but both solutions feel hacky to me. Is there a better approach to the problem?
Thanks,
Wolfgang
Last edited by ReedWood (2013-09-13 08:32:26)

Personally I'd go with an ftp server since I got that to work in the past but samba might do a decent job, too (don't know, never used it). But you can also just set up a web server to share your pics (maybe with a nice gallery web app?). The technology used itself does not matter that much.
Now, on to the important question: What about security? Do you need some kind of authentication or can you get away without any login stuff (since no bad guys can connect to your network anyway)?
FYI I used vsftp and pam as described at http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/centos-re … users.html to get my ftp server running. You might be able to expand this to other solutions as well. I had to password protect my ftp server since I wanted to have write permission, too. For read only I might have been fine with anonymous ftp back then.

Share address book between different user accounts on same computer

my wife and i share one computer, but just started to use separate user accounts to keep our mail accounts separate. all our addresses are stored in the address book on my user account. is there a way to share that account with her so that she has access to all the addresses. this would be much easier that have 2 address books to keep updated.
i do have a .mac account and i have only activated one email address.

thanks for your response andrew. i've tried that but address book asks for the .mac name of the person you want to share with. i don't have a family pack .mac subscription only a single one. so would setting up an email alias for my wife accomplish this? is there a way to do this bypassing .mac all together simply because we're using the same computer?

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Share music on same mac with different user accounts

I'll try to make this clear, i have an imac with a large itunes collection. my two kids have accounts on that same mac, and want to be able to listen to what i have in my itunes. i can't see putting three copies of the same music on the same computer. is there a way to let them play what i have in my itunes account while they are logged in to their own account on the same computer?
imac (5 years old) Mac OS X (10.4.6) macbook, G4 I book, I book, Imac
macbook w/ superdrive, G4 with combo drive, I-book w/o cd burner Mac OS X (10.4.6) macbook, G4 I book, I book, Imac

Jase, you said "Music sharing works across different user accounts, whether they are on the same computer or different computers", but my son will log into his account where he currently has no music. in the window on the left, we can see the other computers in the house that are on line, but there is no sign of the master account (on that same imac). i assume this is because the master account is not logged in, therefore the secondary accounts can't find the master account's music, nor can I from a remote computer ( my macbook, for example). for instance, right now from my macbook i can see my son's itunes list (on the imac) in my "share window" (even though his list is empty). he can also see my macbooks list in his "share window". he cannot see either my list on that imac, or his sisters list on that same imac. all acounts on the imac have sharing turned on, as well as "look for shared music" turned on.
i guess the focus is on this: can the master user itunes list be made available to other users on that same computer while they are logged in as other users (and the master account is logged off, which it has to be in order for the secondary accounts to be logged in, right?) I can't think of any other way to ask this, so i hope that clarified what we have tried and what we are asking for.

Sharing on the same machine between different user accounts

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