Resolved Multiple iCloud Photo Libraries on a Single Mac

[calabi]

Hello!

I'm sure this is an ease question but when I did a bit of research into this I found lots of people trying to get multiple libraries on a single account I couldn't find any categorical advice on this.

Me and my girlfriend have our own iCloud accounts and I'm looking at getting a single family Mac for everyone to use. My question is one a single Mac can I have multiple iCloud Photo Libraries synced under different user accounts?

 

[guzhogi]

It depends: are you using separate computer user accounts? IE when you're done do you go to the Apple menu → Log Out <Your Name> and then your girlfriend logs into a different account? If so, yes, you can sync different iCloud photo libraries.

Unfortunately, if you use the same account, no you can't. While macOS allows multiple Photos libraries on the same account, only one syncs to iCloud.

 

[calabi]

It depends: are you using separate computer user accounts? IE when you're done do you go to the Apple menu → Log Out <Your Name> and then your girlfriend logs into a different account? If so, yes, you can sync different iCloud photo libraries.

Unfortunately, if you use the same account, no you can't. While macOS allows multiple Photos libraries on the same account, only one syncs to iCloud.

Ah thank you for this! Yes it would be seperate user accounts. Both of the libraries will need to be on external drives if that makes any difference?

 

[guzhogi]

Both of the libraries will need to be on external drives if that makes any difference?

Makes no difference as far as I can tell. Might be constrained by how fast the drive is, but should still sync.

 

[calabi]

Makes no difference as far as I can tell. Might be constrained by how fast the drive is, but should still sync.

Brilliant thanks for the advice!