Sharing a single Mac can be easy for the whole family.
In order to make multiple accounts safe and secure, OS X compartmentalizes your data and settings, linking them to your user ID. That way, you can keep a shared Mac in the living room or somewhere else accessible to the whole family. Everyone can use it, but each person's data is siloed from other members of the family.
Setting up multiple users on a Mac is just as applicable to work situations where more than one employee has to use the same Mac. Individual user accounts provide the best protection for everyone: They ensure that no one accidentally deletes your data or sees information they're not supposed to see.
Note: The Managed with Parental Controls account option is the best for kids, giving parents a lot of control over how their children can access the Internet and use their Mac. To understand more how parental controls work on the Mac, read the link below!
How to set up multiple users on your Mac
- Click on the Apple menu and select System Preferences.
- Click on Users & Groups.
- Click on the lock icon in the lower left-hand corner of the Users & Groups window.
- Enter your administrative password, and click the Unlock button.
- Click the plus button at the bottom of the user list.
- Under New Account, select the account type. Administration can create new user accounts, can install apps and can change settings. Standard users can install apps and can change their settings only. Sharing only users can access shared files only. Managed with Parental Controls is pretty self-explanatory. Groups provide the same access privileges to more than one user.
- Enter the full name of the new user.
Enter an account name. The account name can be something else; this is what will be used for the name of the user's home folder.
You can tie this new account to their iCloud password if you know their iCloud ID. You can also have a separate password for this new account.
- Click on Create User when you're done.
Reader comments
How to set up multiple users on your Mac
Great how-to! I recently got an iMac and recently tried to figured this out. You should really mention fast user switching. That's my most favorite part of having multiple users.
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Thank you Peter! Was only asking someone how to do this earlier today so your very helpful article was perfectly timed.Much appreciated
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Once you've explained how easy it is to create accounts, it would be good to advise creating an extra account solely for managing the computer and making it the only one with the "administration" privilege. It's a simple thing to do and makes your system a little more secure (if only from your own inadvertent mistakes).
Very helpful how-to, thanks Peter! It is so fun to get more tricks on using Mac. :)
How does this affect backups? Can time machine backup other users files? If you have photos set to store a full copy of the icloud photo library, can one mac be set up to have a copy of several icloud photo libraries, one for each user account?