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koroshiya1

macrumors newbie
Jun 14, 2010
2
0
Yep that is what I figured out. I setup a common iCloud account. Then I made this common account the primary iCloud account on each device and only selected photostream from the list. Then I added our individual accounts to each device for email, contacts, calendar, etc. ...

How did you get 2 different iCloud accounts registered on a single device? Or have I misunderstood? :confused:
 

drdave99

macrumors newbie
Mar 10, 2009
4
0
photo streams from multiple iphones

In our home we have 5 people with their own iphones, 2 ipads, and 3 macbooks. Looking for a way we could keep all of our photos synced with 1 iphoto library...

Looking at getting a mac mini as a hub that all devices will sync up to over wifi and photo stream..

we have 1 main apple ID that we use for purchases, and each device each of us has our own icloud account on each iphone..

If I use the main apple ID under the iCloud settings for each phone and only check photo stream, will pics taken from each phone all filter into the same photo stream (and into the same iphoto library)?

If I then add the other icloud accounts under the mail settings I can then have each phone have it's own synced mail & contacts....but I don't see a way that each device could have it's own reminders and notes (this only appears in iCloud settings)....I don't want all of my reminders to go to everyone else..

Any suggestions???
 

yalag

Suspended
Nov 18, 2007
1,448
81
In our home we have 5 people with their own iphones, 2 ipads, and 3 macbooks. Looking for a way we could keep all of our photos synced with 1 iphoto library...

Looking at getting a mac mini as a hub that all devices will sync up to over wifi and photo stream..

we have 1 main apple ID that we use for purchases, and each device each of us has our own icloud account on each iphone..

If I use the main apple ID under the iCloud settings for each phone and only check photo stream, will pics taken from each phone all filter into the same photo stream (and into the same iphoto library)?

If I then add the other icloud accounts under the mail settings I can then have each phone have it's own synced mail & contacts....but I don't see a way that each device could have it's own reminders and notes (this only appears in iCloud settings)....I don't want all of my reminders to go to everyone else..

Any suggestions???

You can't. You should give up now.
 

driftless

macrumors 65816
Sep 2, 2011
1,486
183
Chicago-area
It's goofy. I just wait until my wife sync's her iPad, sans iCloud & Photostream, to the Mac. To echo what everyone else has said you would think that Apple would realize that there core customer base is likely to have an iMac and then multiple iPhones, iPads, MacBook A or P's, etc, in the same same household. Not a very elegant solution to a predictable problem.
 

sandimacd

macrumors regular
Nov 17, 2010
120
3
FL
Sharing between spouses

I agree re poor Apple insight. Understand that they can't please all though. Since 2008 I have been looking for ways to sync between user accounts. Gave up locating any Apple soulions and went with setting up a shared google account and using that to sync calendars & contacts and photos via Picassa app on our touches. Each device has own mail and music because our music taste is not similiar. Also put all photos on ext HD so can be accessed from either account. Of course lose lots of iPhoto advantages and I am going to greatly miss Gallery which did provide options to easily share creations. Also used ext HD to share doc access. Went with Roboform to establish shared logins and safe notes. We have been together 30 yrs and have found Apple to be non supportive to share those things between user accounts. Suppose it is a security thing. But really all utility bills, mortgage documents, joint banks, correspondence related to home management and health care management are not ordinarily kept secret between spouses. At least with an old fashioned file cabinet we could each open the drawer. Technology has made it almost impossible to share e-data between 2 users. And yes, we like the look and feel of our individual desktops. Sugar sync does some of this OK but I am still hoping that someday Apple will take this issue to heart. I would love to have a shared photo stream, documents and only one calendar that each of our user accounts could sync to.
 

D.T.

macrumors G4
Sep 15, 2011
11,050
12,460
Vilano Beach, FL
Same boat. I'd love to have discreet iClouds but a way to access and share the Photostreams. You can add an additional iCloud instance on an iOS device, but it's only for WebDav type service (under the cal/mail settings).

Seems like a simple thing to implement, and I expect there to be a significant number of people that want to do this!
 

sandimacd

macrumors regular
Nov 17, 2010
120
3
FL
Family shared photo sync

This requires an eventual camera or device connection to upload and store originals for full size back up but also share them quicker.
I set up a Google account that is strictly for the family, not really an email account at all.
I installed that Google account on 4 iTouches but I turned off the Mail Sync and left only the Contact and Calendar syncs active. I then added the Google Picassa App and configure this for the shared gooogle account. Any photos taken with or stored on any of the devices will upload to the Google Picassa account in existing or newly created albums. Any Albums can be downloaded or just viewed on all the devices.
If you have a personal gmail account you can also add that, just activate the mail feature along with the others mentioned. It is not a perfect solution but has worked for our family for about a year now.
So nice to access the albums as soon as one user uploads. Also nice that there is one contact list that includes Dentist, Doctors, grandparents, godparents, joint friends so that each user doesn't have to keep current. And of course so easy for any user to add or modify a shared family event.
HTH someone else.
 

Mad Mac Maniac

macrumors 601
Original poster
more info on how we do it, and the results.

We share an iMac and have separate logins.
We have a shared iPhoto Library on a mounted image
We both have separate iClouds and Photostreams

is there a reason it HAS to be on a mounted image? I tried doing that but for some reason I kept getting an error message when I tried to copy my iPhoto Library to the mounted image.

So I tried simply placing the iPhoto Library in the a shared folder and having iPhoto point to the new location. It's sorta working, but really weird things are happening. I was able (with a lot of weirdness) to get all my wife's photostream onto an event that I can access from both user accounts, but now her photostream won't show up at all. It's just acting like it is completely empty. But when I initially open iPhoto it shows "empty" pic slots in photostream as if they are loading... but then it all disappears and flashes between an "add photos to photostream" type screen and a blank background. I tried taking pics on the wife's iPhone, and although nothing showed up in photostream it would show up in the photo library. But once I quit and restart iPhoto her photo's disappeared...
 

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
is there a reason it HAS to be on a mounted image? I tried doing that but for some reason I kept getting an error message when I tried to copy my iPhoto Library to the mounted image.

So I tried simply placing the iPhoto Library in the a shared folder and having iPhoto point to the new location. It's sorta working, but really weird things are happening. I was able (with a lot of weirdness) to get all my wife's photostream onto an event that I can access from both user accounts, but now her photostream won't show up at all. It's just acting like it is completely empty. But when I initially open iPhoto it shows "empty" pic slots in photostream as if they are loading... but then it all disappears and flashes between an "add photos to photostream" type screen and a blank background. I tried taking pics on the wife's iPhone, and although nothing showed up in photostream it would show up in the photo library. But once I quit and restart iPhoto her photo's disappeared...

Are you trying to have two iPhoto libraries share the same data? That sounds like it would be a mess since each library has it's own databases... and when the other user's library changes something, you would end up with synchronization problems.

/Jim
 

sandimacd

macrumors regular
Nov 17, 2010
120
3
FL
2 Users one library

I also tried sharing between 1 iMac/2User accounts by placing on ext drive. But also had instability. Basically I stopped using iPhoto for imports. We both mount our camera in Finder and import to the External drive to a subfolder named using the date. Each user can find and share the pictures. Each users iPhoto can import them selectively or be transferred selectively into their account for manipulation or onto their iPod.
In a way it works better because the original photo is never really used- just copied to the iMac User Account and the copied image is the one altered.
 

Mad Mac Maniac

macrumors 601
Original poster
Are you trying to have two iPhoto libraries share the same data? That sounds like it would be a mess since each library has it's own databases... and when the other user's library changes something, you would end up with synchronization problems.

/Jim

Sorta. I'm trying to share one iPhoto library with two users. Apple provides a couple examples to do this on their support documents. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198 Basically they recommend either putting the iPhoto Library on either an external harddrive or a disk image.

Again, I tried creating a disk image then transferring my iPhoto library, but I kept getting an error on the transfer. What is the difference between placing a disk image on shared folder and putting your iPhoto library in the disk image; and simply placing your iPhoto library in the shared folder?

Something I noticed. I have two iPhoto Librarys on my wife's user profile. The one I placed (from my profile) into the shared folder, and the iPhoto library that was defaulted on her profile (which resides in the Pictures folder). When I point iPhoto.app to the defaulted library I am able to view her photostream, but when I point it to the shared library Photostream doesn't work. And yes photostream will only work on one iPhoto library at a time, so as I switch between the libaries I switch the active photostream account.
 

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
Sorta. I'm trying to share one iPhoto library with two users. Apple provides a couple examples to do this on their support documents. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1198 Basically they recommend either putting the iPhoto Library on either an external harddrive or a disk image.

Again, I tried creating a disk image then transferring my iPhoto library, but I kept getting an error on the transfer. What is the difference between placing a disk image on shared folder and putting your iPhoto library in the disk image; and simply placing your iPhoto library in the shared folder?

Something I noticed. I have two iPhoto Librarys on my wife's user profile. The one I placed (from my profile) into the shared folder, and the iPhoto library that was defaulted on her profile (which resides in the Pictures folder). When I point iPhoto.app to the defaulted library I am able to view her photostream, but when I point it to the shared library Photostream doesn't work. And yes photostream will only work on one iPhoto library at a time, so as I switch between the libaries I switch the active photostream account.

I read the article, and it was confusing enough to come to the conclusion that *for us*, it is not worth the effort.

We choose to use a single photo library as the "master location" for our photos. We do this in my iMac account, and we use Aperture 3. Whenever we upload pictures from any of our cameras, we always do it in my account into A3 projects. I would also load my iPhone pics into my A3 account.

My wife does use iPhoto on her account, and her photostream loads into her iPhoto account. For the most part... we consider our iPhone pics to be "crap pictures"... but we still want them in our photo library. Our approach is to simply copy them over from her iPhoto to my account on an infrequent basis.

So for our various cameras, this is our workflow:

  • Nikon D7000: Import RAW+JPEG (JPEG Master) directly into A3 projects
  • Canon S990: Import JPEG directly into A3 projects
  • Jim's iPhone4: Photostream into A3, and occasionally move into A3 projects
  • Deb's iPhone4" Photostream to her iPhoto, manually transfer to A3 in my account, and file in A3 projects.

For us... moving her "crap iPhone photos" manually is the least if all evils.

BTW: Once you are using A3... you can do a lot by rating, and creating albums, slideshows, etc that are MUCH more interesting than just a glob of photos. By doing that in one place (A3 on one account), and then sharing the final product... she gets access to a better collection of photos rather than the whole rat's nest of photos that exist in most photo libraries.

/Jim
 

Mad Mac Maniac

macrumors 601
Original poster
My wife does use iPhoto on her account, and her photostream loads into her iPhoto account. For the most part... we consider our iPhone pics to be "crap pictures"... but we still want them in our photo library. Our approach is to simply copy them over from her iPhoto to my account on an infrequent basis.

Thanks for your thoughts. Yeah, if I can't get her photostream to work on the shared iPhoto Library file, I may have just do the same as you.
 

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
Thanks for your thoughts. Yeah, if I can't get her photostream to work on the shared iPhoto Library file, I may have just do the same as you.

In our house, we view our photos as a "family collection", rather than us each having our own "private collection". For us, by experience... any "collection" (private or family) of "stuff" needs to have a single "master location" where it lives. Hence, for our photos, we choose that my A3 library is the master location. It is a tad unfortunate that we have to manually move my wife's photostream to my A3 library, but it is minor.

We had a similar problem with our music. Luckily, iTunes Match solved that. The "master location" of our music was also my iTunes directory... but now, for just $25/year... it has moved to the cloud and we each can access all of the music, and any purchases by either of us (or the kids) gets added to the "family collection". It would have been nice if photostream followed the same model.

/Jim
 

sandimacd

macrumors regular
Nov 17, 2010
120
3
FL
Importing RAW

Flyn4, I posted earlier about putting all my originals to an ext drive folder via Finder. I have set up a Workflow to convert them to TIFF. My camera on my old PC imported automatically in TIFF but not on the MAC. How is it that you can import RAW? Is it a setting, software or camera function? I would love to be able to connect my camera and have the photos show up as either a TIFF or RAW instead of JPG.
 

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
Flyn4, I posted earlier about putting all my originals to an ext drive folder via Finder. I have set up a Workflow to convert them to TIFF. My camera on my old PC imported automatically in TIFF but not on the MAC. How is it that you can import RAW? Is it a setting, software or camera function? I would love to be able to connect my camera and have the photos show up as either a TIFF or RAW instead of JPG.

I use Aperture 3 as my photo library. One of the features of A3 is its support for RAW from a wide variety of cameras. My original Nikon D100, and my newer Nikon D7000 are both supported.

If you are an Adobe fan, their similar product is Lightroom which also supports RAW. From what I have seen, and read... I choose Aperture 3.

A3 allows you to import either as RAW, JPEG or RAW+JPEG. I choose RAW+JPEG so I have both available... but they are paired together and treated as a single photo. If you choose RAW+JPEG, you also choose which of the two is the "Master". This is not a permanent choice and A3 allows you to change between JPEG and RAW at will on an individual photo basis.

The reason I choose RAW+JPEG (JPEG as Master) is because my camera actually does a really good job with JPEGs (per my eye). This allows me to have have good photos with no editing effort for the vast majority of my pictures. However... if I want to make significant changes to an image, I can simply change the master to RAW, and then make almost any edit. I feel it is a good compromise between ease of use, and having full control.

The only downside of storing JPEG+RAW is the file size. I think that with ridiculously low cost of storage... it just is not a problem anymore.

/Jim
 

sandimacd

macrumors regular
Nov 17, 2010
120
3
FL
RAW imports

Thanks Jim for such helpful information. I have an older Photoshop ver that was bundled with my Wacum tablet so I am going to check and see if will give me the support to directly import a RAW + JPG file. If not you have given me a sound reason for considering Apperature. About the only thing I found iPhoto good for is to import selective images, add music and upload to Gallery to share. So quick and easy!!! With the loss of Gallery I will return to just uploading directly to web sites or FB.
I no longer tweak photos. With the advent of digital, I just shoot lots and delete all but the ones that came out good enough to keep the memory. So I don't need software to edit although I may return to doing that should I find that I need to entertain myself in retirement. But the value of importing a RAW image makes the software very useful for me.
 

bp1000

macrumors 65816
Jul 7, 2011
1,476
185
I also want the ability to share photo streams.

Currently my iPhone, mac and iPad all sync nicely with iCloud and photo stream but what we really want is the ability for my wifes iPhone pictures to show up in our photo stream.
 

sandimacd

macrumors regular
Nov 17, 2010
120
3
FL
Merge photos with GMAIL

BP1000. You can sign up for a Google account that is ONLY used to share photos in Picassa between you and your spouse. Just put the Google App on each iTouch and or User Account. It offers auto uploading and syncing of photos and albums. It will also download the photos and albums to your iTouch/iPhone. It accepts photos and video. This won't work between 2 different Gmail accounts- each of you must use the same Gmail Google account sign in to share, sync, upload, download and stream the photos.
It is the best way I found until Apple offers this type of service. I also use our shared account for contacts and calendar events and the email for utilities, banks, home stuff, etc that we both need to access.
 
Last edited:

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
Thanks Jim for such helpful information. I have an older Photoshop ver that was bundled with my Wacum tablet so I am going to check and see if will give me the support to directly import a RAW + JPG file. If not you have given me a sound reason for considering Apperature. About the only thing I found iPhoto good for is to import selective images, add music and upload to Gallery to share. So quick and easy!!! With the loss of Gallery I will return to just uploading directly to web sites or FB.
I no longer tweak photos. With the advent of digital, I just shoot lots and delete all but the ones that came out good enough to keep the memory. So I don't need software to edit although I may return to doing that should I find that I need to entertain myself in retirement. But the value of importing a RAW image makes the software very useful for me.

Aperture 3 (or Lightroom) are not photo editing programs. They have some editing controls, but their main purpose is to be a very powerful photo library/database.

I used to keep my photos in regular file system directories... which in retrospect was barbaric. In A3, you can rate your pics (it just takes a couple of minutes following an import)... and then you can instantly create almost any album, slide show etc using smart albums.

Bottom line: It makes a photo collection manageable.

/Jim
 

sandimacd

macrumors regular
Nov 17, 2010
120
3
FL
Aperture

Well that just blew me away! I have always seen Aperature rated and compared to Professional and Consumer programs and it fell in between. I avoided delving any deeper as I moved away from digital editing when I left the PC world ~5 yrs ago. Since the 90's I have used file directories by year, then by import date with batch renaming so I have both a secure TIFF and useable JPG. I stopped using CD backups and moved to external drive in early 2002. I posted and searched for answers on Mac Forums trying to learn how iPhoto manages and organizes. Eventually figured out it didn't so I moved to Finder and Automator Workflows.
Sounds like Aperature is exactly what I am lacking! I recently retired and plan to go though boxes of family photos from 70's-80's and selectively scan in those worth keeping. I suspect Aperature may come in very handy. Thanks so much, Jim.
 

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
Well that just blew me away! I have always seen Aperature rated and compared to Professional and Consumer programs and it fell in between. I avoided delving any deeper as I moved away from digital editing when I left the PC world ~5 yrs ago. Since the 90's I have used file directories by year, then by import date with batch renaming so I have both a secure TIFF and useable JPG. I stopped using CD backups and moved to external drive in early 2002. I posted and searched for answers on Mac Forums trying to learn how iPhoto manages and organizes. Eventually figured out it didn't so I moved to Finder and Automator Workflows.
Sounds like Aperature is exactly what I am lacking! I recently retired and plan to go though boxes of family photos from 70's-80's and selectively scan in those worth keeping. I suspect Aperature may come in very handy. Thanks so much, Jim.

You are welcome. If you would like to do some research... I really like the information that RW Boyer presents on his site... and even more so in the few web books that he publishes. They are just a few bucks each, and have a wealth of information in them. What I really like about his style is that he rather than describing "what" A3 does... he focuses on the "Why"... including a a (well deserved) opinionated view on the best ways to use it, as well as details on the how to use it effectively. If you are considering moving to A3... his ebooks are probably the best few bucks you could spend. You can find them on http://www.rwboyer.com along with lots of other articles. I ran across him when he was helping me on Apple's Aperture discussion forums and became a fan of his.

Enjoy... I think A3 is a good enough reason by itself to switch from a PC to a Mac. BTW: I am also in the process of converting 10's of thousands of slides and negatives from the 70's through 90's that I took in my pre-digital days. It is a formidable task, but also fun. If you decide to buy A3... the best deal (by far) is to get it from the Mac App Store.

/Jim
 

HarryHenk

macrumors newbie
Sep 30, 2007
5
0
You can't. You should give up now.

Uhm, yes you can. When I add an iCloud account under mail, contacts & calendars it has its own Reminders and Notes switches, separate from the ones in the main iCloud account. Maybe this is new in iOS6, but right now this is definitely possible as far as I can tell. This solution seems ideal for what people want in this thread: create a main iCloud account for all to share across devices and one or more Macs. This is just used for photo stream (and possibly Find My iPhone / iPad etc and other services you want to share). Then, add an individual iCloud account for each user under Mail, Contacts, Calendars (beware: it cannot be added in the main iCloud settings section, only under Mail, Contacts, Calendars). You can then use this individual iCloud account to back up mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, safari bookmarks, notes and find my iDevice. Great solution as far as I can tell, as long as you don't care about syncing Documents and Data and Passbook through iCloud.
 

yalag

Suspended
Nov 18, 2007
1,448
81
Uhm, yes you can. When I add an iCloud account under mail, contacts & calendars it has its own Reminders and Notes switches, separate from the ones in the main iCloud account. Maybe this is new in iOS6, but right now this is definitely possible as far as I can tell. This solution seems ideal for what people want in this thread: create a main iCloud account for all to share across devices and one or more Macs. This is just used for photo stream (and possibly Find My iPhone / iPad etc and other services you want to share). Then, add an individual iCloud account for each user under Mail, Contacts, Calendars (beware: it cannot be added in the main iCloud settings section, only under Mail, Contacts, Calendars). You can then use this individual iCloud account to back up mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, safari bookmarks, notes and find my iDevice. Great solution as far as I can tell, as long as you don't care about syncing Documents and Data and Passbook through iCloud.

You obviously want to have your own passbook and not share one with the whole family. So this is completely bogus. Nice try though.
 

HarryHenk

macrumors newbie
Sep 30, 2007
5
0
You obviously want to have your own passbook and not share one with the whole family. So this is completely bogus. Nice try though.

The OP said nothing about Passbook, and personally I don't care for it. You can use passbook btw, you just can't have it synced across devices which is something you'd hardly want anyway. If your passes are on your phone you're 99% there. The OP asked:
"If I then add the other icloud accounts under the mail settings I can then have each phone have it's own synced mail & contacts....but I don't see a way that each device could have it's own reminders and notes (this only appears in iCloud settings)....I don't want all of my reminders to go to everyone else.."

And my answer is yes you can, as I stated, as long as you use an iCloud mail address for the iCloud account under mail settings. So calling my answer bogus is overly negative, to put it mildly. Sure the solution is not ideal, but probably suits lots of people a lot better than no solution at all, which is what you were proposing by telling the OP to "give up now". Cheers.
 
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