The Practical Guide To Mac Security: Part 11, Mac User Accounts

[@randywdc1]

Thanks Gary! I’m really enjoying this “Mac Security” series. As someone who uses both PC and Mac it’s great to have this refresher and reminder.

[@isitwitha]

Mr. Gary, a fine educational exercise in security. Thanks for sharing what you've learned! Keep up the good work!

[@lb1701d]

Best Tech channel on the web! Thank you, Gary, for your expert advice - I have learnt so much. Quick Q about setting up additional accounts as you describe here - If a second person creates account on a Mac in this way, does that Mac device appear on their Apple ID, like the Mac would appear on the first (main) user’s AppleID?

[@macmost]

Appear in what way? Only one account can have "Find My Mac" set up at a time, if that is what you mean.

[@lb1701d]

@@macmost Thank you for taking the time to respond, Gary. I was referring to when you log in to appleid.apple.com - or on a Mac go to System Preferences > Apple ID or on an iPad/iPhone go to Settings > Apple ID, then you see a little image of each of your devices, their serial numbers, Find My etc. From experience, these appear when you have logged into a device with your Apple ID - e.g. buy a new mac, set it up, log in with your Apple ID. So I was curious if a person creating their own account on my Mac in the way you describe in this video, and signing into their Apple ID on it, would lead to the device appearing in their Apple ID too…

[@macmost]

@@lb1701d It should. Is that not what you are seeing?

[@lb1701d]

Thank you, Gary. I hadn’t tried yet - I was wondering what your expert view was - I was a little uncomfortable with the idea my mac and details about it would appear against another person’s Apple ID Account. Bit the bullet and tested this morning. The second account holder does get the name of the Mac / device appear against their Apple ID if they log into Apple ID on that device. As you said though, Find My can only be on one Apple ID so in setting up the second account, the current Find My user was asked to enter their Apple ID to disable it on their account before setting up against the new user. Clicking cancel on that meant the original user retained their Find My and the new user did not. So from a security perspective, that makes me more comfortable. Interestingly, upon deleting the second account on the Mac, doing so does not remove the Mac information from the second user’s Apple ID - it remains associated and requires the user to manually remove the device from their Apple ID. With Find My not in the frame, less of an issue for me. Well anyway, thanks Gary, for an incredibly helpful video - it got me thinking. I had never set up multiple accounts on a Mac before and given one user in my house has visual accessibility settings on, being able to have a separate account so I can have my own settings is great.

[@macmost]

@@lb1701d Did you log out of iCloud before deleting the account? That should have removed it. Otherwise, I would only set up accounts for someone on your Mac if you trust them, so this shouldn't be an issue.

[@johngriffin7071]

This series has been great. Thank you!!

[@loisskiathitis8926]

Very informative video tutorial today! It’s very nice to know what we should be doing. Thanks for the visuals! Thank you, Gary! 👏👍🏻❤️

[@Zerogravityremix]

Im glad i found your channel thanks

[@bigwoz78]

Would a second user or guest user still have access to all of the software that was installed by the administrater installed on the Mac? Word, Excel, or Photoshop for examples. Great series Gary.

[@dr.limouni]

Always giving value, Thanks man 👍👍👍

[@MrSkunky2009]

fantastic insight !!!

[@4philipp]

How did you create a second Apple ID for your demo account? I’m in the market for a new MacBook and want to set it up for personal and business. But the only way I have found to get a second Apple ID is by using separate email AND phone number. Email is easy to acquire but I wasn’t planning on adding phone lines. So how can this be done easily?

[@aurora571000]

My question also

[@gAlbert23500]

Thanks, a lot of this I knew, but was nice to have the refresher … I will share with some new users that I work with to reinforce Mac Fundamentals-- thanks for the series

[@ABHIMANYUSiNGH-ct4jm]

Buddy,your content is just amazing.i have some doubts about my mba m1,do i need antivirus for this as i plug in so many external devices.please let me know.

[@macmost]

See the previous lessons in this course. I talk about that.

[@theoneD1]

Very helpful in regards to the apple ID stuff. Thanks for the upload, hope your security series goes on and on and on, love hearing about them. cheers ;)

[@JohnnyInspiration]

Amazing Mac tips. 👍🏼

[@womenswellness1577]

so is there a practical reason or way of using numerous (say 3) user accounts for a one person mac? I'm thinking along the lines of having a business user account, a book writing authorship user account and a personal user account ~ reasons why this would or wouldn't work well?

[@pkpixel4679]

thanks and querry...hi garry love your content. they are helpful in doing so many things this cannel is my go to for most of the querries regarding mac. What if i already have malware or any bug? whenever my computer connects to internet some betting website and chillsearch opens up what i should i do please help....

[@macmost]

Sounds like you installed something from a site you wouldn't have trusted. Installing something like Malwarebytes (free) for a one-time scan and fix is hit-or-miss. Don't know if that is going to work for you. I'd take it to an expert for a firsthand look and have them thoroughly examine things.

[@hermes8258]

Do you recommend setting up a separate user account for when you have to take your device in for repair at an Apple Store? Any special instructions? I see that there was a setting that you did not mention: 'Adult'. Does this refer to websites catering to adults versus those for children or sexually explicit material versus non? I presume this option is to limit guests going to pornographic websites that may have malware or for personal distaste reasons of the computer owner. Is there any point setting up separate accounts for one's own self, e.g. personal and business? Also, a buddy who uses PCs recommended dividing one's hard drive (virtual hard drive or something like that, it had a special name). Don't know quite why he said so or what was the purpose.

[@namasterising]

Hi Gary, thank you for this video, question, If you get a breach on one user account can then also breach others? example, can you get a keylogger or malware on a mac while logged in to one account and it transfers to another? Ie. are user accounts separate at that level? Thank you!

[@macmost]

If you have malware installed on your Mac you have to assume that it affects the whole Mac and take action. It is hard to know how far the malware will reach.

[@namasterising]

@@macmost you are so kind to respond so quickly thank you so much. I wonder if you have a video that talks about how to safely scan for that. I have watched many of your videos on this and I don't think I actually have anything I just want to make sure and I'm wondering what's the best way as it seems all the downloadable software is to scan could have malware themselves. Thank you so much for your time and assistance!

[@macmost]

@@namasterising Your Mac already does. See kzbin.info/www/bejne/epnPapKGbdp1rZI and just don't install anything on your Mac you shouldn't trust.

[@namasterising]

@@macmost ty!!

[@qwincyq6412]

When I got my first mac I was advised for safety reasons to make two user accounts in my name. One account has administer privileges and the one I use every day is a standard account. Thus any system changes etc I have to be very deliberate about signing in and authorizing the change. No accidental downloads.

[@macmost]

Not true. You can install apps from a standard account too. I just use an admin account and keep things simple. Follow the rules in lesson 10.

[@qwincyq6412]

@@macmost yes I know but maybe the person who introduced me to the Mac universe was trying to protect me from inadvertently messing things up as a neophyte. It does add that extra “are you sure you want to do that” step

[@SandySez]

Just so ya know, I've been saving all of these on my own playlist to use (& or your list on your website) for when I get ready to sit down and dig in .. so views are pending! haha TY!

[@arfahhalerah]

Gary, how to make hyperlink formulas in numbers?? Please answer 🙏🏽

[@macmost]

What do you mean, exactly, by "hyperlink formulas?" Since this doesn't seem to be related to this video, ask here instead: macmost.com/ask Thanks!

[@dsteffler54]

Thanks for the review.

[@namansingh4684]

Sir can you explain something about "groups"? On my Mac it says I can add a new group as well, but I don't know what that means. Thanks

[@macmost]

You don't need to use Groups. Don't worry about it.

[@namansingh4684]

@@macmost yes sir that I know, I was just asking out of curiosity as to how my Mac will behave if I create groups. I knew that this KZbin channel covers exactly this, hence I asked it here. Maybe this could be the topic of your next tutorial 😊

[@macmost]

@@namansingh4684 So what's your situation? Are more than 2 people regularly using your one Mac? If so, for what purpose?

[@namansingh4684]

@@macmost no situation as such sir, I was just curious about various functionalities that come with my Mac and how they work, that's all

[@macmost]

@@namansingh4684 OK. Then you definitely don't need Groups (almost no Mac users do). There's a lot to explore, but this is not going to be something worth your time.

[@knightone57]

Why do I have to update certain apps separately for each account,ie same app updates separately?

[@macmost]

You shouldn't have to. Are these App Store apps? If you set things up to automatically update you should never even have to deal with it.

[@gremista]

this happens to me too. although i have two users on my macs, with different iCloud accounts, i only buy/download apps using the admin/"main" account. sometimes when an app is updated in one of the machines, the other one will only show the option to update on the "secondary"account. edit: yes, it happens even with the "iwork" apps

[@knightone57]

@@macmost They are from the app store but no I do not set anything to update auto as I want to know when it updates.

[@desertpatient]

Thank you

[@mauricesaunders5460]

Is there a way where all users won’t have the same apps?

[@macmost]

There is, but I wouldn't do it unless you have a good reason. Use ScreenTime if you want to block an app for a child's account. Otherwise, just ignore apps you don't use.

[@mauricesaunders5460]

@@macmost Ok cool, Thank you

[@21Lettere]

I think that, for security reasons, every user should login into the Mac as a standard user; the admin account should be used for maintenance and/or advanced tasks (such Disk Utility).

[@macmost]

No need for that. This doesn't work like that. You can still install software from a standard account. Standard accounts prevent that user from changing/adding/deleting other accounts. But if you are the owner and maintainer of that Mac, or any trusted adult that maintains it, then just use an admin account and don't overcomplicate things.