Iphoto question on a Mac

[smokey982]

I just bought an IMac over the weekend and I've been trying to get everything set up. I've created 3 different user accounts for my wife, daughter, and myself. I brought all of my photos from my PC to IPhoto using my external hard drive. And everything has worked great so far. But I'm trying to find a way for the pictures in my IPhoto to be seen in my wife's IPhoto also. I chose to share all my pictures but still doesn't work. I've tried using the help feature and also searched the web, but can't find anything. The only thing I found on the web was sharing between 2 different Macs. Is this possible?

 

[DodgerKing]

In windows there is a "Shared Pictures" folder as well as "Pictures" folder for each user. You can also set up a Homegroup on Windows 7. Any picture in the shared folder or Homegroup can be seen by all users, does MAC have the same type of shared folder? If so, you may have to move the images to a shared folder

 

[lparsons21]

It seems there is, though I haven't tried to set it up. Here's a link to a discussion about it :
Apple - Support - Discussions - Using a shared library between 2 users ...

Hope this helps.

 

[jpdubose]

I'm not sure how it would work with the photos on an external hdd (all of ours are actually on the macbook), but there is a "shared" folder. Open up a Finder window and click on the Macbook HDD (Should be the 2nd item in the list on the left). Either in there or under users there should be a "Shared" folder. I don't have my mac in front of me and I can't remember for sure. You have to move the iPhoto library to the Shared folder and then give all the other users full permissions (right-click -> "Get Info". Permission settings are at the bottom of the list that comes up). The final key is to point iPhoto to the shared library. You have to hold down the Option key while you click the iPhoto icon. Instead of opening up, it will ask you for the iPhoto library location. Point it to the shared library and iPhoto should open up as usual from there on out. You'll have to repeat the opening process with the other users in order to point iPhoto to the shared library for them.

The iPhoto library is a little different. It appears in finder as just "iPhoto Library" and should be under the user you imported the photos with. iPhoto keeps everything organized in this file for you. To see the contents you have to open iPhoto and then select a photo and then go to File -> Reveal in Finder -> Original File. This will pull up a Finder window with the contents of the iPhoto library opened.

One word of caution, when I upgraded to iPhoto '11, I started having problems where photos that my wife and I imported from our camera would show up only until we closed iPhoto. When we opened it back up, they were no where to be found. Using the "show original file" option in the menus though, I was able to find out that the pictures were still on the computer, just not showing up in iPhoto. After messing around with this for what seemed like forever, I stumbled across a work around. It seems that if any other users are logged in to the mac when you import photos from somewhere, iPhoto does something funky with the library and the imported pics won't show up the next time you open iPhoto. For things to work properly, you have to have all the other users logged out before you import. This kind of stinks as the fast user switching on the mac is incredible and one of the features that my wife and I use the most.

 

[smokey982]

I'm not sure how it would work with the photos on an external hdd (all of ours are actually on the macbook), but there is a "shared" folder.

Actually all of mine are on the IMac as well. I only used the external drive to import them.

It seems that if any other users are logged in to the mac when you import photos from somewhere, iPhoto does something funky with the library and the imported pics won't show up the next time you open iPhoto.

This is my first time using a Mac so I'm just now learning. But I thought a user had to log out before another user could log in.

I'll attempt this later tonight. If all else fails I call the Apple Care number for assistance. I'll probably hve to call them anyway about setting up my email. I can send emails, but for some reason I can't receive them. It keeps saying my server is offline for some reason.
Thanks for the help.

 

[jrp]

But I thought a user had to log out before another user could log in.

Enable fast user switching under login options in the accounts preferences to avoid having to log out.

 

[smokey982]

Well after talking to the Apple care rep yesterday. It appears the only way my IPhotos can be seen by the other users is if I leave the photos on my external drive and keep it hooked up to the Mac. I really don't want to do it that way, so I'm not sure what I'll do. I may just load those same photos on my wife's user account as well. I hate to take up double the hard drive space but it's not like I'll ever need it all anyway.

 

[jrp]

I put my photos in a public folder & other users on my family iMac can see them.