Sharing an iphoto library between 2 users on leopard?

ferritt · Nov 7, 2007

Hi, I've searched the forum for answers but I still cant get this to work. As stated I'm running leopard and have 2 user accounts set up on my imac (me & wife). At the min I have all our photos stored in my iphoto library (default location is pictures folder). I've moved this folder to the shared folder found in the users folder and when logged in as me my iphoto finds the new location and works fine but when I do the same thing logged in as my wife i get the msg to choose an iphoto library but I cant choose the iphoto library found in the shared folder. The icon is a blank file. When i choose it it asks what application to use to open so i choose iphoto but just comes back and says it cant be opened. When I goto the shared folder logged in as me a can see the iphoto library file as normal with the default icon. What I'm I doing wrong?

cheers

Sorcerer8605 · Nov 7, 2007

That's weird. Do you have any screenshots?

ferritt · Nov 7, 2007

I've just tried it the other way round. First moved empty iphoto library (wife's) into shared folder then moved my library into shared to over-write empty one. Got a msg come saying I do not have privilages??? Both user accounts are set up as admin accounts so what have I forgot to do.

cheers

P.S

Cant post screen shot at the min as photobucket seems to be taking forever. Unless I can post using my iDisk??? ideas??

Neo · Nov 7, 2007

.....

Sorcerer8605 · Nov 7, 2007

Actually, you can host the images right from your computer if you take advantage of the built-in Apache server. If you go to your Sharing preferences, you can turn on Web Sharing, then go to /Library/WebServer/Documents and put the pictures in that folder. The Web Sharing preferences pane will give you your IP address, and you can use that to post your picture on here: so you'd click on the picture button and type the location of the file (e.g. 100.01.100.100/picture.png). And there you go!

But it doesn't really matter. It sounds like you MIGHT have a permissions problem, which makes sense. Only YOU can access your iPhoto library, even if you copy those files to the shared directory. What you need to do is make sure that both your and your wife's accounts have access to those pictures. So you've got them copied into the Shared folder. Now, right-click on the iPhoto library folder and go to Get Info, and then go down to the permissions area. You should be able to change the permissions from there. With Leopard, all you have to do is click the little plus sign, and that will let you add a new permission for your wife's account. Make sure to set the permissions for ALL FILES IN THE FOLDER; to do this, click on the little asterisk-looking button with a down arrow on it, then click "Apply to enclosed items." I hope that helps, and I hope that's the issue, because it's a relatively easy fix.

If this picture doesn't show up, just give it some time; I'll be taking my laptop to a meeting with me tonight, so the picture will be down for an hour or two, but as soon as I get back to my dorm room, it will pop back up. I love the built-in server!

P.S. Something I just learned: if you use the server method to show pictures, you have to leave the "http://" in front of the IP Address once you click the insert picture button on Mac-Forums. So like this: "http://###.###.###.###/Picture2.png," but with your numbers.

ferritt · Nov 8, 2007

Sorcerer8605 said:
Actually, you can host the images right from your computer if you take advantage of the built-in Apache server. If you go to your Sharing preferences, you can turn on Web Sharing, then go to /Library/WebServer/Documents and put the pictures in that folder. The Web Sharing preferences pane will give you your IP address, and you can use that to post your picture on here: so you'd click on the picture button and type the location of the file (e.g. 100.01.100.100/picture.png). And there you go!

But it doesn't really matter. It sounds like you MIGHT have a permissions problem, which makes sense. Only YOU can access your iPhoto library, even if you copy those files to the shared directory. What you need to do is make sure that both your and your wife's accounts have access to those pictures. So you've got them copied into the Shared folder. Now, right-click on the iPhoto library folder and go to Get Info, and then go down to the permissions area. You should be able to change the permissions from there. With Leopard, all you have to do is click the little plus sign, and that will let you add a new permission for your wife's account. Make sure to set the permissions for ALL FILES IN THE FOLDER; to do this, click on the little asterisk-looking button with a down arrow on it, then click "Apply to enclosed items." I hope that helps, and I hope that's the issue, because it's a relatively easy fix.

If this picture doesn't show up, just give it some time; I'll be taking my laptop to a meeting with me tonight, so the picture will be down for an hour or two, but as soon as I get back to my dorm room, it will pop back up. I love the built-in server!

P.S. Something I just learned: if you use the server method to show pictures, you have to leave the "http://" in front of the IP Address once you click the insert picture button on Mac-Forums. So like this: "http://###.###.###.###/Picture2.png," but with your numbers.

Cheers for that worked a treat! I had to allow all admin users as well to get it to work but no big deal as it works fine now.

cheers again

Sorcerer8605 · Nov 8, 2007

ferritt said:
Cheers for that worked a treat! I had to allow all admin users as well to get it to work but no big deal as it works fine now.

cheers again

Oh, good! I'm glad.

pcwinc · Nov 11, 2007

Sharing photos between mac users

I am also trying to make my photos accessible to all users on on mac.
Just got a new iMac with Leopard.
I read through your previous thread and tried the steps you outlined.
Putting the photos in the shared folder.
I get to the point where I go to "get info" I try to hit the plus button to add another user and it closes out everything. It won't let me add any other users.
I unlock it using my password but every time I hit the plus button it closes out of everything. Any ideas?

Sorcerer8605 · Nov 11, 2007

pcwinc said:
I am also trying to make my photos accessible to all users on on mac.
Just got a new iMac with Leopard.
I read through your previous thread and tried the steps you outlined.
Putting the photos in the shared folder.
I get to the point where I go to "get info" I try to hit the plus button to add another user and it closes out everything. It won't let me add any other users.
I unlock it using my password but every time I hit the plus button it closes out of everything. Any ideas?

Hmm. That's interesting. I've never heard of that happening.

Have you tried to restart your computer and see if it does the same thing? Maybe you just need a reboot. Before you do that, though, try to relaunch the Finder real quick. Just hold down Control, Option, and Command, then click on the Finder icon in your dock, then select "Relaunch." If that doesn't do it, try restarting. If THAT doesn't do it...well, I'm not sure. LOL. Try doing the same kind of thing from another account; maybe it's your preferences that are messing it up.

pcwinc · Nov 11, 2007

The restart didn't change things.
I went into the Macintosh HD and gave permission to users, then did the same thing for the Users Folder and the Shared Folder and then restarted. But I get the same results when I try to make the changes to the Photos folder. I click on the plus button to add permission and it closes out of all open windows. Really strange. I guess I'll try calling Apple Support.

pcwinc · Nov 11, 2007

I got it to work. Under info I changed my permission to read/write and the icon for "everyone" to read/write. And it worked. All users have access to the same shared library. Maybe this can help someone else.

NanoBite · Nov 12, 2007

Actually, you can host the images right from your computer if you take advantage of the built-in Apache server. If you go to your Sharing preferences, you can turn on Web Sharing, then go to /Library/WebServer/Documents and put the pictures in that folder. The Web Sharing preferences pane will give you your IP address, and you can use that to post your picture on here: so you'd click on the picture button and type the location of the file (e.g. 100.01.100.100/picture.png). And there you go!

Thankyou very very much Sorcerer8605, for an easy-to-follow tutorial on utilising Mac OS X's built in Apache Server to host photos on Forums such as this!

This is an aspect of my Macs power that I would never have utilised or even discovered so ....

Props'n'Kudos'n'Stuff!