Sharing iPhoto between 2 users on 1 iMac

Hi Folks,
Firstly I know that there a quite a few posts about this subject already on here, however none of them have a very straight forward plain English answer.
I have a 2011 iMac running the latest update of Mountain Lion. I have two users accounts set up on this, mine and my wifes. WHen I moved over from PC to iMac last year I moved all the photos into my user account as it is the main one, however.. I want my wife to be able to access those photos too. Whats the answer? I've read a few discussions about storing all photos on an external drive, I have an external drive but I'm using it as my Time Machine drive, does this make any difference?
Also, being as my wife has an iPhone (Same as me) she now has a number of photos in her iPhoto library, what will happen to these it I somehow manage to giver her access to my iPhoto library?
This is starting to really cause me some issues now and if there is anyone out there who can help I would really appreciate it.
Regards
Mark

Right,
I have managed to move my iPhoto library into the shared users folder, but...
1> My wife now accesses either my library OR her library they are not merged
2> How do I merge them?
3> If I merge them do both our photostream albums come into the same library?
Anyone?

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Sharing files between users and macs

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- Have access to all the data remotely when traveling.
- Have all the data backed up locally (we already have a cloud backup, but we'd like to have a local backup too as it's easier and quicker to access)
We have read a lot about configuration, NAS, time capsule... but we get more and more confused, as we are obviously no tech experts.
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Using a NAS to store shared folders and backup the rest sounds good, but they either seem very complicated to set up, or they have mixed reviews in terms of stability, especially to access files remotely.
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Move any file you want to the other user to access to the Shared Folder. Anything you put in that folder is available to all users.
The shared folder is here:
Macintosh HD > Users > Shared

Sharing folders/files between users on same imac Intel

Hello,
Hoping the Gods of OSX can help me. I'm a recent convert from PC to iMac Intel. My wife and I both use the imac so we set up two different users (both have admin priv). I was able to network the imac and our PC together and pull stuff off the PC onto the mac (music videos, documents).
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We want to be able to share alot of stuff between the two users. for instance, If I were to login then connect my Digital camera and import in iPhoto then fast switch to my wife's account I want to be able to see those photos that were just imported. What are the steps (if any) to make folders synced/shared.
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The easiest way is to put the files you wish to share between users in the Shared folder (this is the Shared folder located in the Users folder.) All files placed there can be accessed by all users.
If you want to go a step further it's possible to set up multiple-user iTunes and iPhoto libraries:
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I would like multiple users on a single iMac to have access to all the pictures in iPhoto. And when I import new photos under one user, I want everyone to see them.
I've read the answers to previous posts on this topic, but hoped that in the last 6 months, it may now be possible to share photos between users on a single iMac. I don't have an external disk, and it seems that that's the best previous answer. Is that still the best answer?
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Ken
Put the iPhoto Library Folder in the Shared Folder, set the permissions to allow everyone access and then point iPhoto in the various accounts to that Shared folder. (To do this, hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. Choose Locate and navigate to the iPhoto Library Folder).
Some caveats: Only one user can access the library at a time. There is no way around this. iPhoto is a single user app not a file server. The risk of database corruption is increased, so backing up vital.
Regards
TD

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After many years of having one user account on our iMac, I have decided to segregate user accounts for me and my wife. I'm doing this because I have an iPhone and she is going to get one soon. When we sync our respective iPhones, we want to keep iCal and and Address book information unique to each user account. What I'm trying to figure out is how to share iPhoto and iTunes content between user accounts. I know there is a share preference that will allow the master libraries in these applications to be shared, but the photo albums and playlists created on the original user account are not "shared". Would it be possible to have playlists from iTunes and albums/events from iPhoto to be shared between user accounts? This would enable my wife to sync all her iPhone data from her user account. Thanks in advance.

I have an idea that uses a different approach. I haven't done this for this purpose, so if you decide to try, please do it one step at a time so you can undo it. I'll explain it for iTunes.
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Up to here, I'm confident it will work, because I have done it. The rest is "theory"...
Copy the old user's /Users/<username>/Music/iTunes folder (except the now duplicated iTunes Music Old folder) to the shared location. You are only doing this step so that it will be available when you log in as the new user (your wife's account), which is the next step.
Log out and log in to the new account.
Copy everything in the old user's iTunes folder (that you just put in the shared location) to the new user user's /Users/<username>/Music/iTunes folder. Replace any duplicated items. You want the new user's iTunes folder to look exactly like the old user's iTunes folder (except for iTunes Music Old). Hopefully, that iTunes Music alias will connect to the actual iTunes Music folder at the shared location. Try it. Run iTunes as the new user. Hopefully, everything looks like the old user's iTunes. Do the tests like before to prove it.
At this point, the two iTunes "looks" will start to diverge. But at least the starting point will be the same.
If something does not work as expected, log in to the old user's account. With iTunes NOT running, go to /Users/<username>/Music/iTunes folder. Delete the iTunes Music alias. Rename the iTunes Music Old folder back to iTunes Music. Everything should be back to the way it was.
If it works to your satisfaction, you can eventually delete that iTunes Music Old folder.
I don't use iPhoto, but if iTunes works, you can do the equivalent steps for iPhoto.

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Skimout:
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http://db.tidbits.com/article/10204
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I have a new black MacBook OS X I have set up two accounts on it, one for myself and one for my wife. However there are some applications which we would like to share (IPhoto and ITunes). I can see that there is a shared drive and I have tried to move these applications into there, however my wife's account still can't get access to these files/applications.
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LoIM
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
There are two ways to share, depending on what you mean by 'share'.
If you want your wife 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 her account. In her account, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Your Library will appear in her source pane.
Remember iPhoto must be running in both accounts for this to work.
This will work with iTunes too.
If you want your nearest and dearest to have the same access to the library as you: to be able to add, edit, organise, keyword etc. then:
Quit iPhoto in both accounts
Move the iPhoto Library Folder to the Users/Shared (or an external HD)
Make sure the file permissions are set to allow read/write access to everyone
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.
Regards
TD

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Sharing iPhoto between 2 users on 1 iMac

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