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User accounts help please

S

ScotRobson

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 3, 2004
310
3
Torquay UK
Hi

I have just set up a new user account for my partner, however he has the same contacts as me. Is there a way that I can copy the whole contents fo my Address book over to the new account.

Also we would like to copy some of the iTunes music over, the only way i have found to do that so far is to copy the music and put it in the shared folder one by one - is there an easier and quicker way to do this?

Thanks
Scot
 
Sharing iTunes between accounts

ScotRobson said:
Also we would like to copy some of the iTunes music over, the only way i have found to do that so far is to copy the music and put it in the shared folder one by one - is there an easier and quicker way to do this?

Thanks
Scot
Click to expand...

If you have the latest version of iTunes, go to Preferences>Sharing, and you'll find some options that allow you to make all of your music or selected folders available to other Users.
 
ScotRobson said:
Hi

I have just set up a new user account for my partner, however he has the same contacts as me. Is there a way that I can copy the whole contents fo my Address book over to the new account.

Also we would like to copy some of the iTunes music over, the only way i have found to do that so far is to copy the music and put it in the shared folder one by one - is there an easier and quicker way to do this?

Thanks
Scot
Click to expand...

In Home/Library/Addresses you'll find a file called Address Book.addressbook. Copy this to the same folder in the new account and you're done.

If you only want certain iTunes tracks you can create a playlist containing those tracks then share them. Go the Sharing tab in Preferences, select Share my music, select Share selected playlists and tick the playlist(s) that you want your partner to share. This way you don't have multiple copies of the same tracks clogging up your hard drive, and if your partner wants more music just add the tracks to the playlist.

The Shared playlist shows up in his iTunes with a blue icon with whatever name you give it in your Preferences.
 
Thanks guys thats great - address book worked a charm, but i'm still having problems with iTunes i will try to attactch a pic to show you what i have selected - i want him to have access to my full Library so I didnt set up a seperate playlist. First I was told I had to open port 3689 - there was an iTunes option for this which I have ticked, but when I go into iTunes in the new user account there is no music there.

Any ideas what i'm doing wrong?
 

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Sorry I couldnt work out how to insert as an image!

Also if my partner wanted to add new music to his iTunes will he be able to do that or will I have to add it to my library first under my log in name? Hope that makes sense.

I noticed you guys were both from the UK aswell, thats unusal to see on here both replys from the UK - so thanks a lot. :)
 
What I did was simple. I made one iTunes the master. It had its own folder. The other acct, just was directed to use this folder. This folder being the other acct music folder. Now they both share the same folder.
ScotRobson said:
Hi

I have just set up a new user account for my partner, however he has the same contacts as me. Is there a way that I can copy the whole contents fo my Address book over to the new account.

Also we would like to copy some of the iTunes music over, the only way i have found to do that so far is to copy the music and put it in the shared folder one by one - is there an easier and quicker way to do this?

Thanks
Scot
Click to expand...
 
seamuskrat said:
What I did was simple. I made one iTunes the master. It had its own folder. The other acct, just was directed to use this folder. This folder being the other acct music folder. Now they both share the same folder.
Click to expand...

Sorry but i didnt understand that. :confused:
 
More....

ScotRobson said:
Thanks guys thats great - address book worked a charm, but i'm still having problems with iTunes i will try to attactch a pic to show you what i have selected - i want him to have access to my full Library so I didnt set up a seperate playlist. First I was told I had to open port 3689 - there was an iTunes option for this which I have ticked, but when I go into iTunes in the new user account there is no music there.

Any ideas what i'm doing wrong?
Click to expand...

Your screenshot looks right -- try having iTunes open in both user accounts simultaneously. You should see a folder with your name on it in your partner's list of folders. If he clicks on it, it should build a list of your tracks in his Library.

He should also go in to Prefs>Sharing and make his library available to other users. Hope this works.

PS I don't understand seamuskrat's tip either.
 
Mustafa said:
Your screenshot looks right -- try having iTunes open in both user accounts simultaneously. You should see a folder with your name on it in your partner's list of folders. If he clicks on it, it should build a list of your tracks in his Library.

He should also go in to Prefs>Sharing and make his library available to other users. Hope this works.

PS I don't understand seamuskrat's tip either.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mustafa thats sorted it! I didnt realise I had to leave my iTunes open, so I guess I will just have to leave it open all the time which is no problem unless i want to log out of my account then he can't listen to music! :eek:
 
Scot -

I think that what seamuskrat meant was that he has one master iTunes folder which multiple accounts can access. Since you want your partner to have access to your full library this may be a good idea. To do it create a new folder at the root level of your HD, call it something like Shared Music, then move your iTunes folder (the one at Macintosh HD/Users/Your Home Folder/Music/iTunes) to it. So the path to the new folder will be Macintosh HD/Shared Music/iTunes.

In the iTunes preferences in both accounts click on Advanced and you'll see the iTunes Music folder location. Click on Change... then navigate to your new folder and select Choose. Both accounts now point to the same music library, and both accounts can access all the tracks

The advantage of this is that you won't have to have iTunes open in your account in order for your partner to access the music, as he'll have direct access to the music folder himself. One possible disadvantage (depending on his taste in music ;)) is that if he wants to add tracks to iTunes, which he can do regardless of where the music folder is that he uses, you'll get 'em as well.

Just as an aside, adding music into iTunes adds tracks to the music folder that you select in Preferences. By default a folder is created at Macintosh HD/Users/Your Home Folder/Music/iTunes the first time you run iTunes in a new account, so if your partner has already run iTunes at least once he will already have an iTunes folder.
 
Thanks MemphisSoulStew that helped a lot but as i dont want to add his music to mine i think i will go with the other option for now. Its good to know there are more options available and i might use that one in the future.

I have one more question - why am i unable to add apps to the doc on the new users? If I have allowed access to certain apps why can they not be "kept in the dock"? Is there any way around that?

Thanks
Scot
 
ScotRobson said:
I have one more question - why am i unable to add apps to the doc on the new users? If I have allowed access to certain apps why can they not be "kept in the dock"? Is there any way around that?

Thanks
Scot
Click to expand...

You've probably left a box unchecked when setting up the new account. Go back to the Accounts panel in Preferences, click Limitations on your partners account, and make sure you tick the box that says Modify the Dock

BTW just being nosy, but whereabouts in Surrey are you? I'm on the Surrey/Middlesex border, in the town Ali G calls home.
 
MemphisSoulStew said:
You've probably left a box unchecked when setting up the new account. Go back to the Accounts panel in Preferences, click Limitations on your partners account, and make sure you tick the box that says Modify the Dock

BTW just being nosy, but whereabouts in Surrey are you? I'm on the Surrey/Middlesex border, in the town Ali G calls home.
Click to expand...

Thanks that worked! The answer is always really simple! I'm on the Surrey/Sussex boreder in Horley right next to Gatwick airport. Where does Ali G call home?
 
ScotRobson said:
Thanks that worked! The answer is always really simple! I'm on the Surrey/Sussex boreder in Horley right next to Gatwick airport. Where does Ali G call home?
Click to expand...

Staines, right next to Heathrow airport...
 
BTW regarding your original question about Address Book contacts, if you add new contacts on your account they won't automatically be added to your partner's address book, but you just have to go through the process of copying over your Address Book.addressbook file again and click Yes when it asks if you want to overwrite the existing file.

BTW part 2 - you can do the same thing with iCal if you both use it and need to check each others schedule at any time - Home/Library/Calendars holds your various iCal data in files with a .ics suffix. Copy these into the Shared folder then rename them to something meaningful like Scot's Work etc, create new calendar(s) in the other account with the same name(s) then copy the file in the Shared folder into your partner's Home/Library/Calendars folder, again clicking Yes to overwrite the existing file. Obviously this works both ways if you need access to your partner's calendars. Oh, and make sure iCal isn't running while copying files in, as it can be a little funny about having files replaced while it's active.

If you've got a .Mac account you may be able to set it up so that iSync will keep your addresses synchronised between user accounts. It obviously works between different computers - I sync my addresses and iCal info between my eMac and PowerBook via .Mac and iSync - and it may work between different accounts on the same computer. I'm at work at the moment and although I've got my PB it's not connected to the 'net so I can't test it. I'll try it later when I get home and let you know.
 
ScotRobson said:
Spooky - i'm often up that way in Windsor visiting friends. I bet its more noisy there than Gatwick ;)
Click to expand...

It's not too bad as we're not under a flightpath - Windsor gets much more flight noise than we do, even though we're closer. Richmond is noisier too, as planes approaching from the east are well into their descent by then.
 
MemphisSoulStew said:
If you've got a .Mac account you may be able to set it up so that iSync will keep your addresses synchronised between user accounts. It obviously works between different computers - I sync my addresses and iCal info between my eMac and PowerBook via .Mac and iSync - and it may work between different accounts on the same computer. I'm at work at the moment and although I've got my PB it's not connected to the 'net so I can't test it. I'll try it later when I get home and let you know.
Click to expand...

Excellent that sounds good too - thanks for all your help.

i have one more problem that i have just descovered! I logged into the new acc just to check that everything was working ok. Now, when i use iChat I log in and out no problem all the time. However, on the new acc (which i have set up with his AOL screen name) everytime i log in it asks for the password - i have gone into prefs and it wont let me type the password in there.

I have tried selecting the option to store in keychain but if i log back from account to account the next time i try to log into ichat (under his new acc) it asks for the keychain password. All i want to do is for him to be able to click iChat and it opens and logs in (just like mine) without asking for any passwords that might confuse him! :D

So whats the simple solution to that one? lol Hopefully it will be the last.

Thanks again
Scot
 
ScotRobson said:
i have one more problem that i have just descovered! I logged into the new acc just to check that everything was working ok. Now, when i use iChat I log in and out no problem all the time. However, on the new acc (which i have set up with his AOL screen name) everytime i log in it asks for the password - i have gone into prefs and it wont let me type the password in there.

I have tried selecting the option to store in keychain but if i log back from account to account the next time i try to log into ichat (under his new acc) it asks for the keychain password. All i want to do is for him to be able to click iChat and it opens and logs in (just like mine) without asking for any passwords that might confuse him! :D

So whats the simple solution to that one? lol Hopefully it will be the last.

Thanks again
Scot
Click to expand...

When you say it won't let you type in the password in iChat prefs do you mean the box for the password is grayed out so you can't type anything into it? If you entered the password when you first set up iChat in the new account it shouldn't keep asking for the password, and it should show as a row of dots in the password box in prefs. Is this box empty?

I've set up a managed test user account on my PB and the iChat prefs allow me to enter a password so I'm not sure what your problem is this time.
 
MemphisSoulStew said:
When you say it won't let you type in the password in iChat prefs do you mean the box for the password is grayed out so you can't type anything into it? If you entered the password when you first set up iChat in the new account it shouldn't keep asking for the password, and it should show as a row of dots in the password box in prefs. Is this box empty?

I've set up a managed test user account on my PB and the iChat prefs allow me to enter a password so I'm not sure what your problem is this time.
Click to expand...

When i first set it up i got the password wrong a few times so im not sure if that caused the problem - but when i go to prefs its not "grayed" out but i cant click the curser or type in there, very strange
 
ScotRobson said:
When i first set it up i got the password wrong a few times so im not sure if that caused the problem - but when i go to prefs its not "grayed" out but i cant click the curser or type in there, very strange
Click to expand...

Hmmm, dunno then, sorry. You could try logging the account out and changing his access limitations temporarily then going back in to see if it'll let you change the password. Under the Limitations tab click on No Limits and his account will change to Standard type. Log back in and try again, but remember to change him back to a managed account.

If that fails, try deleting his iChat account and creating it again. The best way is to just trash all the iChat files. Search for all files with iChat in the name in his Home folder and drag them to the trash, then empty the trash. Start up iChat again and it will take you through the set up process again. Make sure you get it right :D
 
OK Scot - I've tested synching contacts and calendars via .Mac across different accounts on the same Mac and it works. If you've got a .Mac account you just have to enable it in both accounts and run iSync.

Run it from your account first to update the info on the .Mac server. If you haven't run it before you'll first see a message stating that "Before you can synchronise this computer, you need to register it with the .Mac synchronization server." Click on the Register button, enter a name or use the default name, then click Continue. This will produce an empty list of registered machines and 3 options for synching: Safari bookmarks, Address Book contacts and iCal Calendars and To Do items. Check whichever ones you want to sync then, making sure you're connected to the 'net, click the Sync Now button at the top. It'll take a minute or so to upload the data.

Then go to your partners account. From System Prefs go to .Mac and fill in your .Mac account details. Open iSync, go through the setup as above using a different machine name, and click Sync Now. All the data will be downloaded to your partners account and stored in the right places in his Home folder.

If you both use iCal you'll need to call your individual calendars by unique names, so Scot's Work, Scot's Home, Partner's Work, Partner's Home etc. otherwise if you use the same names you'll be overwriting each others calendars every time you sync.

If you haven't got a .Mac account I've just wasted 15 minutes of my life... :eek:
 
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