General Question

Hollister0221's avatar

If I have more than one user on my mac. Do I need to download family pack software?

Asked by Hollister0221 (502points) April 17th, 2008 from iPhone
Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

34 Answers

iwamoto's avatar

nope, you don’t even have to register, it’s about installing on multiple machines when you could use the family pack

wildflower's avatar

No. The licenses are based on the number of installations, ie. the number of units you install on – not the number of users on the one unit.

Hollister0221's avatar

ok so why when I purchased app zapper and disco on my account. It asks for registration number for those apps when under my wife account?

Hollister0221's avatar

I’m also thinking of getting Hazel app. Recommend?

wildflower's avatar

Do you by any chance have them installed in the Applications folder under the user? That may be it, if it’s in the main one, it should be shared across the users like all the others are.

iwamoto's avatar

uhm, good question, i never realy work with multi users, but since the app. folder is seprate from the user folder, i guess it’s shared

Hollister0221's avatar

at wildflower. Ok how I do that?

wildflower's avatar

First, have a look at your home folder, if there’s a folder called Applications there, check to see if that’s where it’s installed.
If it is, reinstall it, but during the installation, make sure you set the destination to the main Applications folder.
Failing that, contact tech support :P

Hollister0221's avatar

can’t I just move it to there. I mean when I download freeware I dont have this problem

iwamoto's avatar

it’s installed seperate, just checked, path for app’s is:
/Applications
path for users is:
/Users/Hollister for example,

and is there an appl. folder in your home folder?

Iwamoto:~ Camiel$ ls
Desktop Downloads Music Public
Documents Library Movies Pictures Sites

the answer is no

so yeah, every app. you install should be usable by all users as far as i know, why don’t you try it out? :)

Hollister0221's avatar

and plus I see the application in both my home folder and mac HD folder

wildflower's avatar

depends on whether or not it’s a self-contained app. Some apps need to build references and therefore need to run the installation process while others don’t.

wildflower's avatar

so maybe when you did the registration that only went on the prefs file for the version in your home folder and not the one on your HD.

Hollister0221's avatar

ok great tips guys. When I get home I will check. One other thing. What is a drop box folder. I noticed it under mac HD. And its the only folder not locked. So I tried dropping a song in there thinking when my wife logs in she could just grab it. However not the case. So I had to do the old way of flash memory

iwamoto's avatar

the drop box is there so when i want to share something with you over the network, you dont have to make a new share, and that way, i can’t look into your mac, so it’s just like it says. a dropbox, we connect, i drop the file, there we are

wildflower's avatar

Drop box is by default set up with ‘write’ access for everyone and read/write for the owner only, so it can – as the name suggests – function as a drop box for other users to leave files over filesharing.
However, you may need to enable file sharing before it’s readily accessible for other users.

Hollister0221's avatar

Not sure what self-contained app means. I mean she can open the applications in her user. Like I said it just says you have 6 free trials for her when I already paid for the shit. Excuse my french. Lol

Hollister0221's avatar

ok drop box makes sense. Just what I thought. How I enable file sharing? Ok better yet if u had more than one user and u wanted to give that user a song u downloaded off iTunes. Without copying to a flash drive(like I do now) what would yal do?

wildflower's avatar

That’s OK – French isn’t one of the languages I speak :P
What I mean is some apps have supporting files that need to be installed in Application Support and/or Library, others create them when you launch the application the first time.

It sounds like you have two installations and the registration is only set up for the one in your home folder. Best thing to do to know for sure, is remove the app and all supporting files and reinstall, making sure it goes on the HD location, not user location and then re-enter the registration and it should be accessible for all users.

wildflower's avatar

And you enable file sharing in the Sys. Prefs.
For sharing iTunes library across users on the same machine, you could just set up read/write access to your music folder. To do that you highlight the folder, press apple+i and the last section is access privileges, set that to read/write for all and copy to all subfolders.
that way she can just access them from the same location.

wildflower's avatar

damn you’re keeping me busy here!

Hollister0221's avatar

ok of course I think I deleted the app out of my download folder after installation. LOL. I just want to make sure I understand cause I am going to buy Hazel and I want to make sure I do this one right

wildflower's avatar

Just double-check the destination for the app during the installation process, make sure it’s set to the main Applications folder and you shouldn’t have a problem accessing it from different users.

Hollister0221's avatar

you know. I have seen that file sharing when I “get info” for a folder. Huh. That easy. So by applying read/write for iTunes library she can open by user than open my iTunes music and get it? That easy?

wildflower's avatar

All she’ll have to do is navigate to that folder through finder, i.e. go ‘harddrive’, ‘users’, [your user], ‘music’, etc. and she’ll see the full content and can play it in iTunes.

Hollister0221's avatar

you think that would be automatic on a mac. LOL

Hollister0221's avatar

Thanks a bunch

wildflower's avatar

nope, not even sure what it does?

robmandu's avatar

@Holli, In the event wildflower isn’t online (or her fingers have fallen off from so much typing ;-), you could like engage in similar problem resolution on Apple’s discussion boards.

Hollister0221's avatar

ok thanks. Lol

netspencer's avatar

it depend on the software. Almost always u don’t have to cuz the software licence us for the computer

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