Two users on same Mac jointly managing photos?

My wife and I have seperate user names on our mac, and upload pictures from cameras and iphones under our logins. What is the best way to joinly manage all our pictures? In other words I'd like to have all the photos and videos in one central folder/album so that either of us can see all our photos in one location.
Right now I've shared my photos with her and vice versa, but I can only see hers when she is also logged in to the Mac, etc.
Also, if I import all her photos to my iPhoto, am I physically making duplicate copies of all those photos on the Mac, or when I import, am I really just adding those photos to my own profile without doubling the amount of space our photos take up?
I'm sure there's a straightforward way to do this...

The point of having two accounts on a machine is to keep your data separate so what you want to do involves a little bit of rule bending.
For iPhoto 09 (version 8.0.2) and later:
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.
Quit iPhoto in both accounts. Move the Library to the Users / Shared Folder - but many users report permissions issues with this on 10.7 and later - you can also use an external HD set to ignore permissions, a Disk Image or even partition your Hard Disk.)
In each account in turn: Double click on the Library to open it. (You may be asked to repair the Library Permissions.) 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.

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Two users on the same Mac - jointly manage iTunes library

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Myself and my wife share the same Mac at home. I would like to have the same music library on both accounts that either of us can administor. I know I can just turn on file sharing but that can be slow to load if there is a large library, it means both accounts having to be logged in and and one of the account will just have listening priviliges. I do not want to duplicate the librarys which i know is one way around it. So is there any easy way to do this?...Any assistance or suggestions would be appreciated.
I do hope you understand the question...
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I there, the same here. this is the way I did.
I put all the library under the shared folder, say Music. Then for every month like October 2006 I have created a folder and we keep adding music. Our iTunes points both to shared/music.
Both work on the same library / month. Once a while, one of us re-import only the latest month and will have the latest changes. Once the month is over, we create a new dir Nov 2006 and start working on that. The other months are backup and ready. Any refresh would be only the latest month. For privileges settings, have a applescript that applies automatically rights to any file in a month-music folder (does not matter who adds the file).
Hope this help. iTunes needs two features badly (like iPhoto):
1) a mechanism that automatically detect new files in the library
2) a mechanism that automatically detects changes in metadata and synch
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iTunes experts!
I am at it again with iTunes on the same topic I had back in June of 2006 (see thread link below). It would appear that upgrading to iTunes 7 snuffed my neat little set up, though everything still works with iPhoto.
I've had iTunes 7 for a while now, but am just now trying to get the problem fixed. I reset the permissions to my iTunes library which I have in a shared folder (harddisk/users/shared/iTunes/iTunes Library). I toggled back and forth on my two accounts (mine and my girlfriends) to see that it was working again and it was! ... for about a minute, then it cut and read me the same message on her log on:
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http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2538271#2538271
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Gryphen

... okay, this was weird, but I half figured it out, and it half corrected itself... I think.
I went back into the second user account and accessed the iTunes library alias I had put in the account (linked to the main library in the shared folder). It came up just fine. ... now everthing works fine.
Before, I was just openning iTunes from the dock icon.
I don't know if my verbage helped anyone understand anything, but hey, I have the same music, shopping cart, and playlists on both user accounts accessible without a need for syncing. I am happy.
Adios!

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So I logged in as the first user, browsed to .../mydevices and installed the trust profile. Then I clicked enroll to enroll the Mac.
Then I did the same with the second user on the same Mac.
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Is it possible for two users on seperate Macs to edit the same iPhoto Library

Hi,
I've recently been on an overseas trip with my partner, and now we have 5000 photos to sort through, tag, and add descriptions for.
Is it possible for us to access the same iPhoto library on each of our Macs to make it faster to sort through the photos? If so, how do I go about setting this up? We have a third mac, might it be better to move the iPhoto Library to that, make it act as server of sorts, and our other two macs as clients?

Yes it is possible, but there are a few caveats.
A strong warning: If you're trying to edit the Library (that is, make albums, move photos around, keyword, make books or slideshows etc.) or edit individual photos in it via Wireless be very careful. Dropouts are a common fact of wireless networking, and should one occur while the app is writing to the database then your Library will be damaged. Simply, I would not do this with my Libraries.
Only one of you can access the Library at a time. You can't both be working on the project at the same time.
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.
Quit iPhoto in both machines. Move the Library to the Users / Shared Folder
(You can also use an external HD set to ignore permissions, a Disk Image or even partition your Hard Disk.)
On each machine in turn: Double click on the Library to open it. (You may be asked to repair the Library Permissions.) From that point on, this will be the default library location. Both machines will have full access to the library, in fact, both machines will 'own' it.
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I want to set my wife up as a separate user on my mac and share my music file with her so we no longer mix up our iPhone apps. I don't want a second copy on my hard drive. I've tried one method on here HT1203 but it makes a second copy and fills up my hard drive. I do not want to share the whole media library just the music. There must be an easy way to use two iPhones with separate user ids on one Mac so we don't mix up our apps. I would have though that the great Apple would have just sorted this out when you plug in a different device.

First, back up your computer in case it does things you don't like. I'm not testing this on my computer.
You'll have to deactivate iTunes managing your music (deselect in preferences having iTunes organize your music and copying it to your media folder when adding to iTunes). Do the same for iTunes in her account.
Go to your iTunes folder and drag the music folder in Media to the Shared Users folder at the top level of the drive. You may also need to get info on the music folder and change permissions on it and all enclosing items so she has permission to use it too.
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Edit: Found this; compare with my concept piece above:
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Afrergy
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
There are two ways to share, depending on what you mean by 'share'.
If you want to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter the library, then enable Sharing in your wife's iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open your account. In your account, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Her Library will appear in her source pane.
Remember iPhoto must be running in both accounts for this to work.
IF you want to have the same access to the library: 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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Hi Alcolera,
Here are all the links I have on Sharing libraries between users on a network (works the same with users on one machine also) and sharing and using one library with two Users.
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.

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okay I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but i just imitated the same scenario on my mac and it seems to work fine. I made sure to change permissions of the shared folder AND the the actual photo library. I gave everyone access to everything (as far as the folder & library was concerned). I uploaded & viewed from both accounts. You might want to view permissions of your entire disk in disk utility to make sure there isn't an error.. Make a backup first though.
The permissions will not stick. Earlier iPhoto versions did allow this, because iPhoto did not write to an iPhoto Library if you only wanted to browse it, but with iPhoto '11 the behaviour changed. Opening an iPhoto Library from a different account will write files with changed ownership right into the library, and that will cause problems if you edit or tag photos from a second account. The document I linked to in my earlier post is Apple Support's answer to these permission problems, when using a shared folder: iPhoto: Sharing libraries among multiple users

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Using the same Mac at different times is really simple -- just add another account and log in as one account or the other.
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Two users on same Mac jointly managing photos?

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