iPhoto 5.0.x: Solution for sharing photo libraries between multiple users

Several MacFixIt readers have recently noted difficulty with sharing iPhoto libraries between multiple users of the same machine.

Gregg Ibendahl writes:

"My wife and I each have our own login for our iMac. As such, I set up iPhoto to store files in the shared directory. Unfortunately, ComicLife did not like this and I had to move our iPhoto directory to my side of the Mac and then had an alias so my wife could still use iPhoto. This seem to work except I've run into the problem that if my wife uses iPhoto and then I use iPhoto later, the photos won't load for me (my wife can still load the photos on her side). Investigating a little further showed me that the permissions of a couple of those database files had been changed so that only my wife could read the files and in fact she was now the owner of those files. Fixing the permissions allowed me to once again load iPhoto. However, the problem has just happened again so I don't know what is going on."

As Gregg described, the intuitive approach to sharing libraries would be to place the desired iPhoto library in the /Users/Shared, switching the default location in each users iPhoto preferences to the newly located folder, then changing the permissions of the shared directory (using the "Get Info" command in the Finder -- Command-I) so that all users can read and write to that directory.

The problem, as also described by Gregg, is that once new information is added to this shared folder, it will inherit permissions for whichever user added it. Other users will not be able to modify the added data.

Trenton Davies has identified a potential solution to this problem, that involves modifying ACLs (Access control lists) through the Terminal.

The steps are outlined in Trenton's blog.

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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