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HELP - Where do I place photos on mac so all users can see/edit?

RedlegsFan

RedlegsFan

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 15, 2012
530
248
I am coming over from Windows. On my Windows PC I had a folder (public pictures) that I placed my pics in and my wife could also see them on her user account. She was able to edit, etc as well.

How can I set up my photos on my iMac so that my wife and I can both view/edit our photos? Where do I need to place them.

Right now our pictures are in my picture library and I am finding out that only I can view them, obviously.

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
 
Hi,

officially : https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201517

The other way (although not supported by Apple) is to put your Photos Library in the Shared folder (Macintosh HD/Users/Shared).
After you have placed the Photos Library in the shared folder, you need to do this :

On the Shared folder, right-click, "show infos", go to the bottom of the window, open the lock, click the gear icon, then "Apply to enclosed items".
This can take a while, depending on the size of the Library.

I strongly recommend that you FIRST test this (unsupported) solution with a "Test" Library.
 
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There are several options. You can put your pictures into the ‘Public’ folder in your user directory. There she can access them. If you want a central location instead, you should move them to the /Users/Shared directory, in the root of the Macintosh HD disk
 
KALLT said:
There are several options. You can put your pictures into the ‘Public’ folder in your user directory. There she can access them. If you want a central location instead, you should move them to the /Users/Shared directory, in the root of the Macintosh HD disk
Click to expand...

Would she be able to edit them if I place them into the public folder or will they be read only?

Also, if I do have to move them, I guess I would have to do a copy/move of all the pics from my current location to the new location? I assume that's the way to move them cleanly?
 
You can add write access to the Public folder as needed. It is not clear to me, however, if you are just using the folder or the Photos application.
 
Bruno09 said:
What OS are you using, and do you use Photos or iPhotos for you pictures ?
Click to expand...

Sorry I should have stated that. I am using the latest iMac, running Sierra and Photos
[doublepost=1480784334][/doublepost]
KALLT said:
You can add write access to the Public folder as needed. It is not clear to me, however, if you are just using the folder or the Photos application.
Click to expand...

I would like the photos to be viewed by all accounts on my iMac, using the photos application. I want all users to not just have read access but to be able to edit the photos.
 
The Photos application is not really designed for that purpose. It has its own data structure and file permissions. Then Brunos solution will likely be the only option. You don’t need an external drive, however. You could split your Macintosh HD partition and use a smaller one just for your photos.
 
Bruno09 said:
Then you need to use either way of post #2.

No other solutions will work.
Click to expand...

OK, then I will move the photos to the public directly. Now, this should be my last question. How do I alter the folder settings so other users will have full access (not just read only)

Thanks for all the help in this thread. I appreciate it!
 
I've found the easiest way to do this is to place the photos on an shared external drive and then plug that drive into a router that supports that. AirPort Extreme for example. Then when you connect to the wifi router you have access to the drive. You can then open Photos App while holding the option Key, and then select that library to work from and have other private libraries on your computer.

I do like using Photos app, but have found that by keeping the libraries small, maybe a year at a time, or a trip, they interact much faster. So I almost always open Photos while holding the option key.
 
RedlegsFan said:
OK, then I will move the photos to the public directly. Now, this should be my last question. How do I alter the folder settings so other users will have full access (not just read only)

Thanks for all the help in this thread. I appreciate it!
Click to expand...
You need to move (copy) the "Photos Library" to the "Shared" folder, not a "Public" one.

Put your Photos Library in the Shared folder (Macintosh HD/Users/Shared).
After you have placed the Photos Library in the Shared folder, you need to do this :

On the Shared folder, right-click, "show infos", go to the bottom of the window, open the lock, click the gear icon, then "Apply to enclosed items".
This can take a while, depending on the size of the Library.

I strongly recommend that you FIRST test this (unsupported) solution with a "Test" Library.
 
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OK, so excuse my confusion... seems I am getting some conflicted posts. Is what I am wanting to do not entirely possible, or would I have to put the pics on an external drive? I would much prefer just having my photos in a public folder that all users on this iMac can access.
[doublepost=1480787753][/doublepost]
Bruno09 said:
You need to move (copy) the "Photos Library" to the "Shared" folder, not a "Public" one.

Put your Photos Library in the Shared folder (Macintosh HD/Users/Shared).
After you have placed the Photos Library in the Shared folder, you need to do this :

On the Shared folder, right-click, "show infos", go to the bottom of the window, open the lock, click the gear icon, then "Apply to enclosed items".
This can take a while, depending on the size of the Library.

I strongly recommend that you FIRST test this (unsupported) solution with a "Test" Library.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion I'm going to test that out today
 
You should be able to just use the Shared folder like Bruno09 suggested. One caution though. You want to make sure two users (people) don't open the Photos library at the same time, because this will corrupt it. You can either just make sure anybody with access knows to quit Photos before they walk away, or just turn off "fast user switching" to prevent two users from being logged in at the same time.

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18897
 
Doesn't seem to work. Copied all photos to shared. I can see them in the folder on the other account but when I go to add that folder as the main library from the other user account it gives me an error meessage and I'm not having any luck.

This should be very simple to set up, I'm surprised it's this complicated.
 
What you need to do is not copying the photos to Shared : you need to copy the "Photos Library" folder, which is in your "Pictures" folder.
Copy it to : Macintosh HD/Users/Shared.

Since I have very poor English, I will let Weaselboy or KALLT (could you help, please ? Thank you) explain.

In short :

- quit Photos
- copy your "Photos Library" located in your "Pictures" folder to the "Shared" folder
- on the Shared folder, right-click, "show infos", go to the bottom of the Infos window, open the lock, click the gear icon, then "Apply to enclosed items".
This can take a while, depending on the size of the Library (progression bar on top of the Infos window). Wait until the process is completed.
- now hold the Alt key down and launch Photos (required only the first time you open the now shared Photos Library)
- select the "Photos Library" located in the Shared folder and click "Choose Library"
(or you can click "Other" to browse to the Shared folder, select the Photos Library and click "Open")
- you should have all your photos (and albums, etc...) as before.
- menu bar : go to Photos/Preferences/General, click "Use as System Photo Libray"

Now let's test with another user :

- quit Photos in your account or quit your account (important as stated by Weaselboy before)
- log in to another user's account
- hold the Alt key down and launch Photos (required only the first time you open the now shared Photos Library in this account)
- select the "Photos Library" located in the Shared folder
- click "Choose Library"
- you have open the same Photos Library and are able to add/delete/edit photos


 
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Reactions: Weaselboy
Thank you Bruno, I appreciate the detailed explanation. I'll give that a shot today and see how it works out. Thanks again for taking the time!
 
Well, I tried once again. Using the steps above and I am getting the following error when I log off my acct and into the other users. I go to add the photo library as instructed and hey this:

"Photos was unable to repair permissions on your library".

This is such a simply thing to want to do but it'd pretty frustrating. Hmmm....
 
Hi,

do this again : in Finder, select the "Shared" folder, right-click, "show infos", go to the bottom of the Infos window, open the lock, click the gear icon, then "Apply to enclosed items".

Then, restart your Mac and it should work now.

Also, QUIT Photos before you switch from an account to another.
(if you don't you will get the warning about the permissions issue).

(it definitely works for me for a test Photos Library)
 
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Ok thanks Bruno. I'm out of town but will try again on Friday and report back. Thanks!!
 
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