Macbook Air M1 multi user question

[ade555]

Looking for bit of advice as I visited apple store and might have got wrong advice so here I am and hope someone can help.

Looking to get Macbook Air M1 for home use mainly and when out about on holidays ect, will be used by min 2 users and would like to set up own accounts and here is the question? Can we log in to accounts using touch I'D? or do I still have to type password? Mainly looking for fast user change, so I can do whatever I do and if wife/daughter wants to use it we can just change the accounts via touch id. I have been told I can't do that by Apple store but I'm sure there was a settings for fast user change or something like that under touch ID settings.

Thanks

 

[Phil-from-Hamburg]

I cannot answer all of your questions. But I'm using two accounts as well. 1 for work and 1 for private things. What I recogniced is, that I cannot safe more than 5 Touch ID Fingers on total for all accounts. And I use the "User Button" in the menu bar to switch between the accounts fast. That's works very well and fast. Switching via Touch ID directly seems not to work for me. I bet I did sth. wrong in the settings. Or maybe it is required to be logged in, in the account you want to access via "Touch ID". Maybe its sth. with the same fingers used for different accounts.
Somebody else might have the exact same use case that you are asking for.

Further I recognized that M1 Air with 8GB is a little bit slower compared to 16 GB model when I am logged in with both accounts simultaneously. But that does not cover your question

 

[Phil-from-Hamburg]

Ahh...its works perfect. You simply have to press "Touch ID Button" with the correct finger for instant switch of the user account.
So I think you can achieve what you are looking for with M1. You find how it works in the "User Settings" by pressing the questionmark in the bottom right corner.

 

[ignatius345]

I cannot answer all of your questions. But I'm using two accounts as well. 1 for work and 1 for private things. What I recogniced is, that I cannot safe more than 5 Touch ID Fingers on total for all accounts. And I use the "User Button" in the menu bar to switch between the accounts fast. That's works very well and fast. Switching via Touch ID directly seems not to work for me. I bet I did sth. wrong in the settings. Or maybe it is required to be logged in, in the account you want to access via "Touch ID". Maybe its sth. with the same fingers used for different accounts.
Somebody else might have the exact same use case that you are asking for.

Further I recognized that M1 Air with 8GB is a little bit slower compared to 16 GB model when I am logged in with both accounts simultaneously. But that does not cover your question

I use mine exactly the same way. I'm using different fingers of the same hand, and it occasionally gets confused about which is which. In my experience it's a lot better if you rest your finger a moment before pressing down.

I also heartily endorse the "more RAM" suggestion if you're running multiple users. My iMac M1 has 16GB and switches quite smoothly between 2, 3 or even 4 accounts. My MacBook Air M1 has 8GB and often stutters when switching between multiple users and can seem sluggish when working that way.

I have been told I can't do that by Apple store but I'm sure there was a settings for fast user change or something like that under touch ID settings.

Yeah, the Apple Store person was quite wrong here. There definitely is a setting to enable it:

 

[ade555]

I appreciate all of your replies, looks to me the young girl wasn't correct in apple store, shame as I was ready to walk out with product, one of the main reason we looking to move everything to apple is easy of use or accounts switching ect. feed up with typing passwords, also I guess the likes of messages/facetime will change with the account is well? so my wife iphone will be connected once she log in?

hmm I was looking at the 8gb ram with 512GB, Would go for 16gb ram but this is mainly for some homework tasks/youtube and general browsing we still have very powerful PC for everything else which will get replaced once apple release something that I like for main PC.

 

[Phil-from-Hamburg]

1. I use two different iCloud accounts, one for each user account. That works great.
2. 8GB will work. I do most work related stuff on it with 8 Gb. It's not bad or a total mess. But 16Gb is slightly and for me noticeable nicer Don't know how long you will keep the device. I personally upgrade tech stuff every other year because I simply like to experience the new things. How fast they are and so on. But if you consider keeping the device two or more years, you may rethink of how hard 16GB ram would hurt you. I have the feeling that 8Gb is ok right now, but a little tight overall.
3. Either way, you will like the M1 Air. Its a pretty nice laptop

 

[ade555]

ok great, we have all our own iCloud accounts so will use that, can someone advice for general usage no video editing can you notice 7 core gpu vs 8 core? Problem with 8 vs 16 is price point been honest, 8gb version for £899 from retailers with 2 years guaranty from John Lewis, as for upgrades I tend to change my tech within 24 months for cheap devices but I don't chase the latest and greatest if you know what I mean, little difference when it comes to main work horse we still own windows pc with i7 and rtx3080 64gb ram so that take care of other staff which I tend to keep for longer due to cost.

 

[Phil-from-Hamburg]

I dont really know about the graphic core. I plug the 7core M1 Air to my external monitor and it works fine. I personally feel that 7 vs 8 GPU cores is not that big of a deal. At least not for my tasks which are Video meetings, Word, Excel, Miro, Reading and annotating documents, playing around with garage band.
But maybe someone else has more experience.

 

[StoneJack]

ok great, we have all our own iCloud accounts so will use that, can someone advice for general usage no video editing can you notice 7 core gpu vs 8 core? Problem with 8 vs 16 is price point been honest, 8gb version for £899 from retailers with 2 years guaranty from John Lewis, as for upgrades I tend to change my tech within 24 months for cheap devices but I don't chase the latest and greatest if you know what I mean, little difference when it comes to main work horse we still own windows pc with i7 and rtx3080 64gb ram so that take care of other staff which I tend to keep for longer due to cost.

Difference is not that big.

 

[ade555]

Ok Thanks, should be here tomorrow

 

[ade555]

Happy to say the account switching works great using Touch ID after has been setup including own iClouds, great little machine