Mac Basics: User Accounts - YouTube

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today let me  show you how to use User Accounts on your Mac. 

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So if more than one person is using your  Mac each person should have their own  

User Account. In addition, even if it's just  you using your Mac there maybe some reasons  

why you may want to have a second user  account as well. To create a User Account  

go to System Preferences. Then Users &  Groups. Here on the left you'll see a  

list of all of the current User Accounts.  At the top you should see Current User,  

and that's the account you're logged into now.  Then you'll see Other Users under that. You may  

need to expand this list. To change anything here  you need to Unlock by entering your password.  

Now you can change anything for anyone of these  accounts. You can also Add a new account with the  

Plus button here. When you add a new account you  get to choose between Administrator or Standard.

Now the main different between Administrator  and Standard is that an Administrator Account  

can create and remove other user accounts, also  reset their passwords and make changes to the  

other accounts. A Standard account can only  log into its own account. Both Administrator  

and Standard accounts can add applications and do  most of the things you normally do on a Mac. But  

it's a good idea to make every responsible adult  who uses your Mac an Administrator so if something  

happens to one person another person is able to  take control of the Mac entirely. However you may  

want to use a Standard account for anybody else,  perhaps a child that you want to setup parental  

controls and things for. This stops them from  being able to override the main system settings.

Now when you create an account  you enter your full name  

and then you want to create an account name. You  want to keep that short and simple. It's going  

to be the name of the folder for your user  account. It's nearly impossible to change.  

So you just want to keep it really simple. Maybe  just use your first name unless you have somebody  

else in the household that has the same first  name. Then you enter a password and verify the  

password. You can also provide a Hint as  well. But you should definitely write this  

password down somewhere and store it in a safe  place. It's not a password you want to forget.

The thing about User Accounts is that  under Users every user account gets its own  

Home Folder. So there's the current one I'm  using. But here's another one for another user  

account. If you had four user accounts you  would see four different things listed here.  

So every user has their own personal storage  space for files, videos, pictures, all of that.  

When somebody is logged in their account they  can access their files and make changes to  

their files but they can't access or make changes  to your files. In addition settings for apps and  

in System Preferences are specific to the user  account. So, for instance, in Safari for each user  

account there's going to be a separate history,  a separate set of Bookmarks, a separate set of  

Preferences for exactly how things are setup. Your  browser Homepage doesn't need to be the same as  

the browser Homepage for your spouse or for your  sibling. Even things like desktop backgrounds,  

Screen Savers and all sorts of customizations  will be specific to the user account.

Also, everybody should have their own Apple ID and  each User Account can be logged into a separate  

Apple ID. So when you log into your User Account  you have access to all of your stuff in iCloud.  

When somebody else logs into their User Account  they're logged into their Apple ID and they  

have access to their stuff in iCloud. So  it's like having several different Macs  

but the same computer. You login in  your account and everything is setup  

your way. It's your desktop background.  It's your Bookmarks. It's your settings.  

It's your email account. It's your Apple  ID. Then when somebody else is logged in  

with their account they have all of their  own things and don't have access to yours.

Now here you could see that's the current user and  I have another user here. Since both are Admins I  

can reset the password of the other person which  is handy. You also have an option down here  

as to whether or not you can get access to  a User Account if you forgot the password  

but you know your Apple ID password. Of  course that Apple ID is assigned to that  

account. Now you can also go down to Login  Items. This has a lot of useful settings.  

First you've got Automatic Login which should  always be turned Off for everybody. You should  

have to enter your password else your computer  is not secured. No matter where your computer  

is located, how secure it is, you want to  make sure that Automatic Login is Off. You  

have to enter a password. Otherwise it's like  leaving the front door of your house wide open.

Also on this screen you've got the very important  Show fast user switching. Turn that On. Then you  

get this little menu up here. You can set it  to Icon, Full Name, or Account Name. When you  

click here you can use Fast User Switching. Fast  User Switching is a great feature if you have  

multiple User Accounts because what it allows  you to do is switch to another account without  

logging out of the first one. Person A could  be logged in, could be in the middle of writing  

a document. They've got a Pages window open.  They've got Safari open. They're right in the  

middle of working. The other person could sit  down, switch User Accounts, check their email,  

and then the first person can come back, switch  back, and everything is just as they left it.

Another option to consider is Guest User. That's  handy if a visitor comes over and wants to use  

your Mac. They can then go from the Login screen  to login as a Guest user. This creates a brand new  

account on the fly. They can do what they want.  They can check their email. They can surf the web.  

They can save files, edit things. But they only  have access to this special user account that's  

there temporarily. They don't have access to your  stuff. Then when they log out when they're done it  

deletes that account completely. It erases it like  it was never there. Now the problem with Guest  

User Accounts is if you're using a Fire Vault then  guest users really aren't allowed. So instead,  

if you're using Fire Vault, which you should  if you have a portable Mac that leaves your  

house or office, then what you would want to  do is if a guest really wanted to use your Mac,  

say they really had no other option except to  use your computer, is that you would go in here  

and just quickly create a Standard account for  them. Allow them to use that Standard account  

and once they're done then you can remove that  account. You should never let another person,  

no matter how much you trust them, use your  account. It's not a matter of trust you see.  

It could be just a simple mistake that they  make that deletes files, that changes some  

sort of important setting or preference for you.  Even things like your Browser history or websites  

that you're automatically logged into or can  easily access using passwords stored in Safari,  

you don't want anybody to access  no matter how much you trust them.

Now besides having multiple people using the same  Mac another reason to have a separate account is  

if you're in a situation like I am where I create  a demo account to be able to create tutorials for  

you but you don't have to see all of my stuff. You  can see everything setup in basically a typical  

default account. Other people may want to use  it as a demo account to test things out. Maybe  

even an account to use when making presentations  especially if the presentations involve showing  

different parts of macOS. Also keep in mind that  if another family member primarily uses an iPhone  

or an iPad and they don't really use the Mac you  may still want to give them a user account on your  

Mac so they can get Mac specific things done once  in awhile whenever they need to. They can access  

all of the same information they have stored in  iCloud on those other devices when they log into  

the account on your Mac. While they're not logged  in it's not really getting in your way at all.

So the bottomline is that every person that  uses your Mac should have their own user account  

and be logged into their own Apple ID on that user  account. A handy thing to know is that if you buy  

an app with your user account it's available to  other users on that Mac as well. So you don't  

have to purchase the app twice. But in addition  to that if you use Apple's Family Sharing between  

your Apple ID's you could share other things  like music, movies, subscriptions and so on.