Sharing between two users on the same machine

I have read through and tried to find posts about sharing but they are all about doing so via a network. I have a desktop that my wife and I use. Each of us has out own seperate profile so that we can both keep things set the way that works for us and to keep our mail profiles seperate. The problem that I have is that I cant figure out how to have folders that both of us can access and manipulate. I would like to store all our photos on this shared directory and also to be able to have a spot where we keep filees that we both require access to. The iphoto sharing requires the primary acct holder to be logged in to have the othe user be able to access the files. Uggg..

Don't use the Sharing option in iPhoto. Instead move the iPhoto library outside of the /Users area (something like /Document/Photos) so that everyone can access it. The process is described in KB 93603, iPhoto: How to move the iPhoto Library Folder to a new location.
For iTunes follow a similar process. It is described in KB 93195, iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer.
Any documents that you want to share, place in /Documents instead of the default /Users/userName/Documents.

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Can i share music and photos between two users on the same machine?

How can I share my music and photos between two users on the same machine?

Thank you Joe - I tried this but it's only showing a teensy amount of music - the stuff on the second users account as opposed to the giagntic library on the 'main' account. I actually went to a Genius Bar and they said that apple doesn't really want you to share music between accounts - parents don't want to hear their kids music etc. Which seemed strange, but it might be the case sadly Thanks anyway!

TS2972 is it possible to use home sharing between two users on the same computer?

My wife and I have itunes accounts and want to be able to share music we have each bought on our accounts. We have tried setting up the home sharing on our PC but it doesn't show up on the screen. Can anyone please help?

"Is it possible to use home sharing between two users on the same computer?"
No. Home sharing is used to connect two running instances of iTunes across a network. When you switch users on the computer all applications running on the other profile are suspended.
You can however share your respective media folders so that they are visible in either profile and then copy over any content that you want, or you could create a single joint library which you use when either user is logged in.
tt2

Hello there - how can I share my iTunes library between two users on the same computer? I put the library in a shared folder between both and have selected this library on both as well, but when I update iTunes with music etc it only appears on one?

Hello there - how can I share my iTunes library between two users on the same computer? I put the library in a shared folder between both and have selected this library on both as well, but when I update iTunes with music etc it only appears on one?

Thank you Joe - I tried this but it's only showing a teensy amount of music - the stuff on the second users account as opposed to the giagntic library on the 'main' account. I actually went to a Genius Bar and they said that apple doesn't really want you to share music between accounts - parents don't want to hear their kids music etc. Which seemed strange, but it might be the case sadly Thanks anyway!

How do I share one itunes account between two users on the same computer

How do I share one itunes account between two users on the same computer without taking up twice as much space on my hard drive?

You would need to move the itunes folder to a location that both users have permissions to access such as the Shared folder or any folder on the root level of the macintosh HD.
You can find instructions here http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1203 This method allows you to share the content without sharing the same library.

Sync a folder between two users on the same computer.

I would like to sync a folder between two users on the same computer so that they are always the same when I access them from either user.

then place this folder somewhere where both users have access to like in /Users/Shared. then there is only one folder to deal with and you don't need to sync anything.

Share a library between two users on the same mac?

It is possible to share a library between two users on the same mac?

It's doable. As it's been pointed out Aperture has no provisions for file locking so you can't have two users accessing the library at the same time. This includes having one user having the library open only for browsing. Aperture doesn't have a +Read Only+ mode, when it opens the library, even if you make no changes to any images, the library will be written to.
This also means you can't have one user open the library and then stop using Aperture but still have the library open and then have another copy of Aperture open on the library.
Of course if you have two copies of Aperture running even they are on different libraries you'll be in violation of the license and you'll have bigger problems to worry about then a toasted library.

Sharing one Aperture Library between multiple users on the same machine

Is there a way of setting up Aperture so that two different users on the same machine have full rights to do everything?

Ian,
Thanks for the suggestion. It certanly better than nothing, but in my case there is no partition with permissions off and there are other users to whom I wouldn't want to give full rights to the library. As an alternative I thought of simply creating a special user and do all editing from it.
At any rate, it would have been useful if Aperture had something like that built in - like a preferences option, where one could specify a MacOS group name, and Aperture would do all its file/folder create operations within a given library with setgid()/setegid() of that group and corresponding umask() to give rw permissions to that group. Not too hard to do, either.

How can I share a folder between two users on the same mac?

Hi all,
I would like to share a folder between multiple users on the same macbook without having to transfer the folder to the Public/Shared folder.
Is there not a way, using the the folders shared permissions, to allow shared folders from one user to be visible and usable by another user on the same mac without having to move the folder to a designated shared location?
Regards,
Caleb

jrwood116 wrote:
Thanks, but do you have to do that every time you share a folder?
No, you just need to do it once and that's it. Anything that is in the Shared folder is accessible by all user accounts within the same Mac.
jrwood116 wrote:
I've read numerous 'how to share a folder' blogs and they just say it's as simple as clicking 'share' and allowing specific users to access it...none have mentioned this (not saying your advice is wrong at all, just don't get why no-one else has mentioned what appears to be a key step!)
Can you give me an example of such a blog. I suspect you may have mis-understood what they were saying but if you can provide a link, I'll look at it.

How to share iTunes library between two users on the same Mac

We have recently bought a Macbook Pro and have successfully transferred the old PC information onto the Mac. But, the iTunes library from the PC has now just gone into the old user acct. I am now confused as to which iTunes user name I connect my devices? Is there a way to merge these two iTunes through the user accts?
Thanks,
I feel like I learning about computers all over again!

It's doable. As it's been pointed out Aperture has no provisions for file locking so you can't have two users accessing the library at the same time. This includes having one user having the library open only for browsing. Aperture doesn't have a +Read Only+ mode, when it opens the library, even if you make no changes to any images, the library will be written to.
This also means you can't have one user open the library and then stop using Aperture but still have the library open and then have another copy of Aperture open on the library.
Of course if you have two copies of Aperture running even they are on different libraries you'll be in violation of the license and you'll have bigger problems to worry about then a toasted library.

Sharing two iphoto libraries between two users on the same computer?

My wife and myself use the same MacBook with two different user accounts. We both checked the check box "Look for shared photos" in the iPhoto preferences, but my wife's library doesn't appear in my iPhoto and vice versa. How can we manage to do this?

Toni
For tis to work, you have to also check 'Share this Library' and log in to both accounts and have iPhoto running in both accounts, and switch between accounts using Fast User Switching.
Regards
TD

Sharing iTunes library between two users on the same Mac

I recently bought my parents a new MacBook Pro (they switched from Windows). I was able to get all of their songs over and into my dad's iTunes library. My mom and dad each have separate accounts on the MBP, but they'd both like to be able to see (and listen to) the same iTunes library, not at the same time, obviously.
Is that possible? If so how? Is it enough to point my mom's iTunes to the same folder? Do I need to put special permissions on that iTunes folder while logged into my dad's account?

brown_sm wrote:
I recently bought my parents a new MacBook Pro (they switched from Windows). I was able to get all of their songs over and into my dad's iTunes library. My mom and dad each have separate accounts on the MBP, but they'd both like to be able to see (and listen to) the same iTunes library, not at the same time, obviously.
Is that possible? If so how?
the easy way is to use itunes sharing. start itunes in your dad's account and enable sharing in itunes preferences->sharing. then other users including your mother will be able to listen to the songs from your dad's itunes library but ONLY while your dad is logged in. so in order for this to work both of them should be logged in at the same time. to make that possible enable fast user switching in system preferences->accounts->login options. However, this is not terribly convenient.
it's possibly (but surprisingly tricky) to use the same itunes library without having both users logged in at the same time.
Is it enough to point my mom's iTunes to the same folder? Do I need to put special permissions on that iTunes folder while logged into my dad's account?
yes. not just permissions. you need to put inherited ACLs on your dads Music folder to give both of them read+write access to all current and future files in it. so log in as your dad and run the following terminal command (copy and paste please)
chmod -R +a "username allow delete,chown,list,search,add_file,\
addsubdirectory,delete_child,file_inherit,directoryinherit" ~/Music
instead of username put the short user name of your dad's account. it's the same as the name of his home directory in /Users. then repeat the command with your mother's username instead of your dad's. after that log out of your dad's account, log into your mom's account and point her itunes library to his itunes library. to do that start itunes while holding option.

Sharing music between two users of the same computer

My husband and I both have i pods and use the same PC, running Windows XP. We have different user names in XP, but have the same e-mail address and apple account. We can't have both our iTunes open at the same time and can't share music without creating playlists in each others library and then burning them to CDs. More than half the time the CD's fail to burn and we get error messages. We have tried the sharing settings in Preferences, Exporting and Importing files and folders, etc. but nothing works. Are we destined to have to buy the same songs twice?

1 Quit iTunes.
2 Drag your entire iTunes folder from \My Documents\My Music\ to a Shared C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Music.
3 Log out.
1 Log in on your other account(s).
2 Start iTunes and immediately press an hold the Shift key.
3 iTunes will ask to Create new library or Choose existing library. Select Choose existing library.
4 Select the iTunes library file in the iTunes folder in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Music\iTunes.
5 Now go to File -> Add Folder to library and select the iTunes music folder located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Music\iTunes.
6 - iTunes will add all the music in from this account to the main iTunes music folder/library.
7 Delete the iTunes folder in \My Documents\My Music\.
8 Restart iTunes normally (don't hold Shift). Everything should be there.
9 Quit iTunes and log out of the account.
10 Do the above steps for all users. Don't do the first 1-3 steps. Start at the second series.
Log into your account, start iTunes normally and all music should be there.
Whenever any of you do anything in iTunes, it will be seen by all since you are using one and the same iTunes library file.
Create a "main" playlist for each user with their own music. Create a smart playlist and set it to Playlist is not the playlist you created above. Select this and it will show you everything NOT in your playlist. Do the same for the others. This will help when adding only the music you want your own playlist.
Note that iTunes can only be opened by one user at a time.

Sharing between two accounts on the same Windows Vista PC

Is it possible to home share between two different accounts on the same computer?
On my son's account, iTunes for some reason won't connect to the iTunes Store. So I would like to enable him to purchase stuff on my account and then use home share to access it. We both use the same Apple ID at home.

By accident I came across a solution that may work for you. This works on a Mac but I think it should work in Windows as well.
On the Mac, if I log into a user account and launch iTunes and then use Fast User Switching to log into another account leaving iTunes running in the first account. I can then launch iTunes in the second account and access all the media stored in the first account's iTunes library using Home Sharing.
I believe Windows has the same ability that allows one user to log into their account while another user is already logged in. If so you may be able to do the same thing in Windows. I'm not sure what happens in Windows to running application when the second user logs in though. If applications are allowed to continue running then I don't see why this shouldn't work in Windows as well. If applications are paused then I can see this not working. The key here to to not log out of the first account therby forcing the applications to stop running.
The downside is that your son would first have to log into your account and launch iTunes before logging into his own account. If giving your son access to your account password is not ideal you could also create a third computer account that both of you have access to that would be used only to store and buy iTunes content. That account could be used as the sharing account that you both can have access to while logged into your own respective accounts.

How can I share a folder between two users on the same iMac?

I have an iMac with 2 user accounts and I want to share a folder between them. I have gone on to system preferences>sharing and turned on file sharing. I have also got the 'Get Info' thing up, selected 'Shared Folder' and added the other user to the read and write permissions...it just doesn't show up on the other desktop (the folder is on my desktop, I would have expected to see it on the other desktop...?)
Any ideas?

jrwood116 wrote:
Thanks, but do you have to do that every time you share a folder?
No, you just need to do it once and that's it. Anything that is in the Shared folder is accessible by all user accounts within the same Mac.
jrwood116 wrote:
I've read numerous 'how to share a folder' blogs and they just say it's as simple as clicking 'share' and allowing specific users to access it...none have mentioned this (not saying your advice is wrong at all, just don't get why no-one else has mentioned what appears to be a key step!)
Can you give me an example of such a blog. I suspect you may have mis-understood what they were saying but if you can provide a link, I'll look at it.

Sharing between two users on the same machine

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