User Profiles & Data...?

Northants Rob · Oct 31, 2007

Hi

Just ordered my first Mac - a 20" iMac - can't wait for delivery!

Quick question, this is my first Mac so I have no experience of the Apple way of handling different user profiles, data etc. Ideally, the wife and I would each have our own user profile under Leopard, each profile containing our own music (in iTunes) and photos (in iPhoto) etc - presumably either of us would sign-in to Leopard when booting the Mac?

Does this sound reasonable and the best way of having things separated?

Thanks for help.

NanoBite · Oct 31, 2007

When you set up your iMac for the first time you will essentially be creating a user account ... once done you can create another one in System Prefs and it's here that you configure whether you want the iMac to boot automatically straight into one account or the other OR to a login screen showing both accounts.

The account types are either Admin (which will be created during the setup) or Standard. On my iMac I'm the only user but I have an Admin acct and a Standard one that I use 99.9% of the time. I prefer to do things that way for basic security reasons.

As you pointed out, both accts will have their own iTunes/iPhoto apps and you can even share them between each other if you want.

Here's a good read on Mac Security which covers account types etc:

OS X Security

There are 2 things that are best left alone regarding tightening up security on a Mac and they are Open Firmware password & Turning on FileVault. Unless you really know what the pros/cons are of making any changes to any of these features you can get really caught out big time .... In short, leave them alone ...

Northants Rob · Oct 31, 2007

Thanks - that's a great help.

NanoBite · Oct 31, 2007

Your welcome Northants Rob

sjniedz · Nov 3, 2007

How exactly do you share files?

I too am new to Mac and have ben trying in vain to figure out how to share photos in-between user accounts. My wife and I each have our own accounts but I want all our photos to be in one spot for each of us to see. I would like to do this also with music. Is this possible?

Spawn__Dooley;517727 said:
When you set up your iMac for the first time you will essentially be creating a user account ... once done you can create another one in System Prefs and it's here that you configure whether you want the iMac to boot automatically straight into one account or the other OR to a login screen showing both accounts.

The account types are either Admin (which will be created during the setup) or Standard. On my iMac I'm the only user but I have an Admin acct and a Standard one that I use 99.9% of the time. I prefer to do things that way for basic security reasons.

As you pointed out, both accts will have their own iTunes/iPhoto apps and you can even share them between each other if you want.

Here's a good read on Mac Security which covers account types etc:

OS X Security

There are 2 things that are best left alone regarding tightening up security on a Mac and they are Open Firmware password & Turning on FileVault. Unless you really know what the pros/cons are of making any changes to any of these features you can get really caught out big time .... In short, leave them alone ...

iLindzo · Nov 3, 2007

There are ways of having files available for both you and your wife, but they're not exactly the most... logical ways. One is: In your HD, you have a Users folder that will contain you, your wife, and then a shared folder. Anything that is put into that Shared folder can be seen by any user on the computer.

In order to use the Sharing in iPhoto or iTunes, both you and your wife would need to have sharing turned on and have the application open on both users. :/

Not sure if that's any help. I'm sure someone else may know of an easier way, but that may get you started.

shahvikram123 · Nov 3, 2007

Simply move your itunes library and iphoto library to the shared folder in Macintosh HD>Users.

Then from iTunes you can choose the shared folder as the default location to store music.

The article on Mac OS X Security is wrong....

Here is what it says....

By default, the account created when installing OS X is an Administrator account which has the equivalent of "root" access. It's not secure or necessary to use that account for routine work. While logged in as the administrator, use the "Accounts" System Preference tool to create a non-administrator user account and give it a different password. Then, use the user account for daily tasks.

By default, OS X logs in automatically after a restart, using the first account created during installation and this account's saved password. We've already seen that this is an administrator account, so if the Mac isn't in a perfectly secure location, any passer-by can start it up and make changes to it. To fix this, go to the "Security" System Preference, and click "Disable automatic login." Also go to the "Accounts" System Preference, click Login Options, and select "name and password" instead of "list of users". After making this change, log out. To log in, you will now need your user name and password.

The default user that the mac creates when you first set up your mac is a administrator account but it is no equivalent to root. The administrator account has access to your whole mac apart from the system folder in Macintosh HD. Whereas the root has total read and write access to any part of Mac OS X. Additionally the standard account can only read and write their own home folder, it can not touch anything in system, applications or library folders in Macintosh HD. If a standard user wishes to do anything to these folders they can authenticate an admin password.

The second point states that your Mac automatically logs in to your account when you set up your mac. I don't know if thats true, but when I got my Macbook, it displayed the login screen from the start, it never automatically logged in.

sjniedz · Nov 4, 2007

File Sharing in user accounts

This is good information, I am almost there. I have created a shared folder for both and I can see the files from both profiles. The only issue I have is keeping iTunes in synch. For example, I have 5 songs in the shared folder and load them into both iTunes applications. Then, from my profile I add 5 more songs. They go into the shared folder, but when I log into my wife's account they are not in iTunes. I have to manually load them in. Is there a better way?

shahvikram123 · Nov 4, 2007

The easiest way is to move your entire itunes library, which is by default in your music folder. Move that folder to the shared folder in Macintosh HD>users. Then change the settings in itunes to where the itunes library is in the shared folder on both accounts.

It should then stay in Sync.

sjniedz · Nov 5, 2007

I have done that, but it does not appear to be synching by itself. I have to manually reload the library. Is there a setting I am missing?

shahvikram123 said:
The easiest way is to move your entire itunes library, which is by default in your music folder. Move that folder to the shared folder in Macintosh HD>users. Then change the settings in itunes to where the itunes library is in the shared folder on both accounts.

It should then stay in Sync.

shahvikram123 · Nov 5, 2007

I'm not sure, because it worked for me flawlessly.... maybe you have to change to permissions for that folder to allow all users to read/write. This can be done by right clicking on the folder and clicking on get info. Then choose the ownership and permissions menu.

sjniedz · Nov 8, 2007

I will try that, thank you very much!

shahvikram123 said:
I'm not sure, because it worked for me flawlessly.... maybe you have to change to permissions for that folder to allow all users to read/write. This can be done by right clicking on the folder and clicking on get info. Then choose the ownership and permissions menu.