Creative Tech Support

Creating Mac user accounts for each person or iCloud account

Need to split or combine accounts? We’ll create a new Mac user account for each user/iCloud account, then transfer normal user files and/or iCloud Drive documents. The Mac accounts can be deleted after the transfer or used by the appropriate people.

1. Log into the first user’s Mac account and sign into the first iCloud account if not already set up. Enable all except Photos, Back To My Mac & Find My Mac (and Mail & Notes if not using). Do not disable anything already checked.
2. Create a new Mac user account. Name it after the second user or iCloud account and enter the iCloud address. Repeat for each user or iCloud account.
3. Enable the root user account.
4. Log out of the user account and log in one of the users you defined in step 2.
5. Check iCloud settings. Enable all except Photos, Safari, Keychain, Back To My Mac & Find My Mac (or Mail & Notes if not using).
6. Wait until all data has downloaded & updated.
7. Repeat steps 4–6 for each user account.

Migrating documents & iCloud Drive between accounts

After creating user accounts, use the root user to transfer files between them. Root allows access to files from all users.

1. Log out and log in as the root user. Choose Other… and type root and the password.
2. Navigate to the Users folder by clicking the Go menu and choose Computer. Open the hard drive and Users folder inside, then open the folder for the first user. Make a note of the name of this folder – that’s the username.
3. Open a new window and navigate to another user’s home folder the same way. Make a folder inside called Transfer.
4. Drag items from the first user’s folder to the other user’s Transfer folder. Hold the option key to make a copy and leave the original in its place.
5. Each user folder should have a Mobile Documents folder inside Library, where iCloud Drive files are stored. You may drag items from one user’s Mobile Documents to another. Hold the option key to make a copy and leave the original in its place. You must maintain the original folder structure and folder names.
6. Repeat steps 2–5 for other user folders, moving/copying files to the correct users.
7. Open Spotlight and type Terminal, then open the Terminal app. We’ll use it to set the correct owner of transferred files.
8. In Terminal, type chown -R followed by a space and the first person’s username. Drag that user’s Transfer folder to the Terminal window. Press return to execute the command.
9. Again, type chown -R followed by a space and the username. Open the user’s Library folder and drag the Mobile Documents folder to the Terminal window. Press return to execute the command.
10. Repeat steps 8–9 for each user account, setting the correct owner of each Transfer & Mobile Documents folder.
11. Log out of the root user and log into one of the user accounts.
12. Wait for iCloud Drive to update. Items with a cloud icon are still being updated and some folders may appear slowly. You may need to upgrade iCloud storage.
13. Repeat steps 11–12 for other user accounts, logging in and updating iCloud.

Learn more about migrating data between accounts.