[psmith2.0]

A husband and wife...each want their own bookmarks, Safari prefs and settings, Mail, iChat, etc.

However, they would like access to - to both play AND buy/add to - iTunes and iPhoto (since they have tons of shared music AND a cute baby that they're taking lots of photos of and both want access to, without having to make duplicates and keep two libraries synced.

They want some stuff separate/private, but iTunes and iPhoto to be shared between them. I know the multiple user thing gets their browsing, e-mail and documents separate, into their own accounts. But what about iTunes and iPhoto...sharing the same songs and photos, without duplicating/syncing hassles?

Is this easily done?

[thegelding]

yes


g



i is a smart ass

[MCQ]

No

Actually, it may be easy. Dunno. I would guess maybe they could do iTunes/iPhoto sharing, but that would probably require both users to be logged in simultaneously.

On a sidenote, I just tried to open up iPhoto sharing (to test the above). It says "you need to open up port 8770 in firewall". It's not listed in the firewall, no clue why... I go ahead and add the port. Then, I go back to iPhoto, and turn on sharing. It locks up. Force quit - open again - lock.

Not until I remove the port 8770 firewall addition, do I get iPhoto to open normally So, no sharing for me.

[psmith2.0]

Okay, well let me ask this, in general: SHOULDN'T this be an easy thing to do, perhaps via a simple checkbox in the Admin account controller preference?



"Share iTunes and iPhoto library among all accounts", or something like that.

For those who DON'T want to share these things, don't. Works as always. But in a multi-user household, where perhaps a husband and wife, roommates, etc. want to keep a single, consolidated iTunes and iPhoto library, they could? Easily?

Has this never occurred to anyone at Apple, or here?

[BlueRabbit]

I've tried to do the shared iTunes library thing before, and it doesn't work well. Even if you put the library in a public folder (like /Documents/), iTunes still wants to make the artist folders read-only for everyone else except you. So, if one user wants to add music to a folder the other user made, it will not work unless you go into the Finder and change the permissions.

[Mac+]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 Okay, well let me ask this, in general: SHOULDN'T this be an easy thing to do, perhaps via a simple checkbox in the Admin account controller preference? "Share iTunes and iPhoto library among all accounts", or something like that. For those who DON'T want to share these things, don't. Works as always. But in a multi-user household, where perhaps a husband and wife, roommates, etc. want to keep a single, consolidated iTunes and iPhoto library, they could? Easily? Has this never occurred to anyone at Apple, or here?

'scates - this is a great idea ... I know that I'd love to see it happen.

[adam_tj]

I've posted a guide to doing this exact thing at Apple Hacks.

Enjoy!!!

[ast3r3x]

If you want to do it yourself, just open up the terminal and check out 'man ln'.

[JLL]

Originally Posted by adam_tj I've posted a guide to doing this exact thing at Apple Hacks. Enjoy!!!

But what about having two iPods? Are the iPod sync settings stored in each user's com.apple.itunes.plist (or elsewhere)?

Edit: I checked it, and it works fine.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by adam_tj I've posted a guide to doing this exact thing at Apple Hacks. Enjoy!!!

Thanks. That's pretty interesting, but still a bit more work than it should have to be. I've pretty much figured something like that out on my own, but what a cumbersome pain in the ass! Hardly Apple-like. And ast3r3x, I shouldn't have to fart around with the Terminal. I'm not that kind of user, and neither are bazillions of others out there. Let's be sensible, and realistic, here.



A simple check box.

No Terminal stuff. No manual fooling around with Libraries and so forth. I'm fairly experienced and comfortable on Macs and OS X, and even I don't want to go down that road. And most people I know using Macs are somewhat new to it (or OS X) or just aren't that type of user, and certainly don't need to be doing that either. Do you realize how many botched, fucked-up Macs would result if casual, non-geek users get into the Terminal, or start monkeying around with moving System level stuff?

Exactly.



Besides, it kinda damages the notion that Macs are simple and elegant. A straightforward, easy-to-understand (and idiot-proof) check box is more "the Apple way".

[torifile]

I've been thinking about this for some time now. It's the one real deterrent to people using multiple user accounts.

[psmith2.0]

For whatever it's worth (and whatever good it might do), I did send Apple - via the OS X feedback page - a suggestion on this. Just a brief example and summary. They can e-mail me back for more details/info if they feel the need.

Surely I - and a few others here (torifile, Mac+, etc.) - can't be the only ones wondering about this, and wishing for an easier, better way.

But hey...for all we know it might be a new Tiger feature we're just not yet aware of? That would certainly be cool! It will make the lives of some people I know instantly easier.

[scratt]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 For whatever it's worth (and whatever good it might do), I did send Apple - via the OS X feedback page - a suggestion on this. Just a brief example and summary. They can e-mail me back for more details/info if they feel the need. Surely I - and a few others here (torifile, Mac+, etc.) - can't be the only ones wondering about this, and wishing for an easier, better way. But hey...for all we know it might be a new Tiger feature we're just not yet aware of? That would certainly be cool! It will make the lives of some people I know instantly easier.

To be honest with you.. I would say it is an essential system feature.
I have sent feedback to Apple about this too.

[W. Gallagher]

Yeah, I got interested when I saw the Title of this post, as being new to the Mac world/OS, I thought I was only dumb in not being able to share email/pictures/movies/*programs*(I had to load MS-Office on both my wife's and my side of the magic cube when we change users), and that I would eventually figure out the way to do this sharing thing. I had looked at the preferences for that magic "share everything" check-box, but didn't find anything. So, when I got to the end of the thread expecting that this would give me a clue to fixing my problem, I was very disapointed.
Indeed, I'm real sorry I set up two desktops as this is a true pain. Would it be pratical to re-load the OS and start over with only one user, if is there a better solution? I can't figure out how to share anything between the two sides of the blocks(users desktops). Thanks for listening, and pending any advise, will probably try re-loading or perhaps just deleting one user from the computer. Is that even possible? And your right, Not very Apple-like at all.
Best to everyone in the new year! And even w/the pain of two users, the simplicity of talking/seeing my family in Tokyo "live" makes the Mac worth every hour spent trying to learn the OS.
W. Gallagher
Chicago

[Kickaha]

Er, you don't have to install programs in two places unless you feel like it. Install them in /Applications while logged in as one of the admin accounts, and they're available to all.

Anything you want to share, toss into the /Users/Shared directory. Things like email, music, etc, are a bit more problematic, but you can use the Public folders in each user's space and they'll be accessible by the other user.

[johnq]

What he said. Thanks, saved me the typing.

[ShadowOfGed]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 Has this never occurred to anyone at Apple, or here?

Actually, it has.

I have a solution that lets me keep my family's music libraries synced across multiple machines using rsync. I also modified it to store stuff in /Users/Shared and keep things writable. Unfortunately, it's very UNIX-ey and relies heavily on perl. It's not user-friendly right now.

Being able to keep my library synced with my parents' has been useful, especially while I'm away at school. Right now it has no security, so I'm working on that along with a nice OS X interface.

I'd like to see Apple ship something like this, because it's really the next progression after personal media.

[billybobsky]

Now this was a *specious* bump.

[ShadowOfGed]

Originally Posted by billybobsky Now this was a *specious* bump.

Strange... I only bumped it because it showed up while I was browsing. I dunno how that happened if it hadn't been bumped in... wow, a year and a half.

Apparently I'm just special like that.