How To Move Files Between Different User Accounts in OS X

If you have setup different user accounts on your Mac, you will know that each user account comes with its own settings and home folders, which can only be accessed by the respective logged-in user. By default, for security and privacy purpose, OS X doesn’t allow any user to access the files of another user. However, there are times where you just want to move the photos from your folder to your Mum’s user account so she can view them when she login. So what are the best ways to share files between user accounts?

Your main option would be to make use of the “Shared Users” folder to easily copy files and access them from different user accounts.

This “Shared Users” folders is located in the “Users” folder at the root level of the system drive. The Users folder also contains all the User Account Home folders. It also contains all the data that is created by each of OS X’s user accounts. Your Home Folder is additionally identified by an icon of a house. You will also find the Shared Folder within the Users Folder.

Now, as I mentioned before, each user’s Home folder is off-limits to any other users, but the Shared folder is there for all users to use freely when files need to be shared. Remember, this Shared folder is only for local use – we won’t recommend using it to share files between machines or between different devices on a network.

Here’s how to access the Shared Users folder on your Mac:

1. In Finder, click on “Go” in the toolbar.

2. From the drop-down list, click on “Go to folder”.

3. Type in “/Users/Shared” (without the quotes, of course).

4. In the Shared folder, you can add various files and folders to be freely accessed by different OS X users.

Now remember, the files that you put in this Shared folder are owned by you, meaning that other accounts may not have the permission to open, modify, delete or even see your files, so you’ll need to take extra care of that.