User accounts

[Perranoak]

Is it possible, like in Windows, to have different user accounts on a single iMac?

I'm thinking that I need one for me (administrator type) and one for the wife (not admin!).

Cheers.

[bobtomay]

Wise man!

System Preferences - Users & Groups.

[Slydude]

Yes it is possible. In fact I recommend it any time more than one person will be sharing the same Mac. The procedure is slightly different depending upon which version of OS X you are using. This document explains how to set up a new accoint in the last several OS versions.

Here's a description of the types of user accounts in Lion and higher.

[Perranoak]

Excellent, cheers.

So, with two different user accounts, can we have different iTunes "accounts"? I do not want James Blunt on my iPhone!!!

[harryb2448]

Two iTunes accounts means two Apple ID's with credit card details submitted for purchases. Just ignore Mr Blunt and run one iTunes 'account'.

[Slydude]

Instead of two iTunes accounts why not use a playlist to manage which songs get added to your phone . The directions suggest that when adding new songs to the library you must manually add them to the playlist.

If you don't want to manually add new songs to the iPhone playlist when they are added to the library here's a fix that should work. Follow the directions listed above but use a Smart Playlist instead of a regular one. Set the playlist rule to exclude music by James Blunt and to auto update. Now new songs get added automatically but none from Mr. Blunt.

[Perranoak]

But we both have iPhones. Don't we need two iTunes accounts?

[Slydude]

Not necessarily. You could have two iTunes accounts but that often means purchasing content and apps twice - once for each account. iTunes treats the two devices as separate entities. I have an iPad and iPhone 4 both associated with the same account. Each has different content. Even when they are connected to iTunes at the same time iTunes does not get confused.

[Perranoak]

But we have iPhones and iPods and iPad.

There must be a limit?

[Slydude]

I'm still pinning this down but have seen numerous references suggesting that the limit is 10 total devices. Of this ten count a maximum of 5 can be computer authorizations. See this article for example.