If you wish to share your Mac with another person, you can add a second user account. We’ll walk you through the procedure right here.
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While having a single computer for the entire family is practical, problems might develop if you don’t keep each person’s data separate from that of the other family members.
If everyone uses the same account, a lot may go wrong: data breaches, deleted files, unintended transactions. The easiest method to provide each Mac user their own unique experience is to set up several user accounts.
How does it all operate though? What kinds of user accounts can you create on macOS? How do you convert, then?
How to Set Up Multiple User Accounts on a Mac
You may add a second user account if you want to share your Computer with someone else. Right now, we’ll lead you through the process.
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It is practical to have a single computer for the entire family, but if you don’t keep each person’s data separate from that of the other family members, issues might arise.
Several things might go wrong if everyone used the same account, including data breaches, destroyed files, and unauthorised transactions. The simplest way to provide every Mac user their own distinct experience is to create several user accounts.
So how does it all work? certain kind of users
Your newly created account will be shown after the Users section.
Each user account receives an own Home subdirectory on the starting disk’s Users folder. Each user account will require more or less disc space depending on the activities.
Give everyone access to shared music and videos to limit the amount of space-hogging duplicates. If you’re running low on disc space, use our Mac storage space optimisation advice.
Changing Account Type in macOS
After the Users section, your newly created account will be shown.
The Users folder on the beginning drive contains a subfolder called Home for each user account. Depending on the actions, each user account will take more or less disc space.
Shared music and films should be made available to everyone to reduce the number of space-consuming duplicates. Use our Mac storage space optimisation suggestions if your hard drive is becoming low on space.
You must first log in to it in order to set up your Mac’s Screen Time feature, which enables you to manage which features and materials kids have access to, in order to turn this account into a managed account.
As an administrator, you can reset a user’s account password if they are unable to remember it.
To do this, click the Info I button next to the account you want to change the password for and then click the Reset Password button. After doing this, enter a new password in the Password and Verify fields and click the Change Password button to save the changes. If necessary, enter your admin password.
Adjusting Your macOS Login Options
Go to System Settings > Lock Screen to customise what appears on the login screen. Other login screen options may be changed, including how user accounts are shown.
Go to System Settings > Users & Groups, click the menu next to Automatically log in as, and select an account to log in automatically to configure the auto-login feature.
We don’t advise configuring your Mac to automatically log into an admin account for security reasons.
Go to System Settings > Control Center, scroll down to Quick User Switching, and turn on the menu bar and Control Center choices there.
Now, by choosing an account from the menu bar or from the drop-down menu, you may rapidly switch between user accounts without signing out of your own one.
5 Types of User Accounts in macOS
macOS supports several flavors of user accounts:
- Administrator: As the first user on your Mac, you’re an administrator with extensive privileges to manage system folders, apps, other users, etc. You’re advised to create a spare admin account for yourself. It’ll come in handy for troubleshooting issues and resetting the password of your usual admin account when you can’t log into it.
- Standard: Standard accounts can personalize the Mac experience without too many restrictions but are prohibited from messing with other users’ data.
- Managed: Suitable for children, these are standard accounts with parental restrictions configured to limit their screen time, restrict apps and websites, etc.
- Guest: A password-less account that auto-deletes all files after logging out. The Guest account is excellent for allowing friends to use your computer to quickly check their email and the like without having access to other users’ files or settings.
- Sharing Only: This account cannot log into your Mac or change settings. Instead, it’s used for screen sharing or giving someone remote access to your shared files.
Avoid deleting the administrative account you created when setting up your Mac, as that can prove disastrous.
Enabling the Guest Account in macOS
By default, the Guest account is disabled. Go to System Settings > Users & Groups and choose Guest User, then click the Info I button to enable it. Next choose the checkbox next to Let visitors use this computer. For more information on setting the Guest account, see Apple’s website.
How to Delete a User Account on Your Mac
Instead than letting a user account use resources on your Mac, you may delete it if you no longer need it. What you must do is as follows:
System Settings may be found under the Apple menu.
On the sidebar, select Users & Groups.
Choose the relevant account by clicking the Info I icon beside.
After entering your admin password and clicking Unlock, select Delete Account.
Choose Delete Account and decide what to do with the account’s home folder.
When a user’s account name is greyed out, it means they are already signed in. Until they log out, you won’t be able to remove the account.
Use Multiple Accounts to Share Your Mac
Some people regard their Mac to be their “territory” and are very protective of it. If you include yourself in that category, you might be reluctant to allow anyone to use your computer, even just briefly.
Sharing computers, though, is occasionally unavoidable, whether you’re doing it to save money on technology or to assist someone in need.
Multiple user accounts may be easily created, managed, and deleted in macOS, which makes it easy to manage which parts of your Mac and data you share with others.
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