It’s all fine to say that every account is segregated from all other accounts. It’s nice to know your stuff is safe from the prying eyes of your coworkers or family.
But what about collaboration? What if you want to give some files or folders to another account holder?
You can’t just open up someone else’s Home folder and drop it in there. Yes, every account holder has a Home folder (all in the Users folder on your hard drive). But if you try to open anybody else’s Home folder, you’ll see a tiny red icon superimposed on almost every folder inside, telling you, “Look, but don’t touch.”
Fortunately, there are a couple of wormholes between accounts (Figure 14-11):
Figure 14-11. Top: In other people’s Home folders, the Public folder is available for your inspection. It contains stuff that other people have “published” for the benefit of their coworkers. Middle: In the Public folder is the Drop Box, which serves the opposite purpose. It lets anyone else who uses this Mac hand in files to you; they, however, can’t see what’s in it. Bottom: Inside the Users folder (to get there from a Home folder, press ⌘-) is the Shared folder, a wormhole connecting all accounts. Everybody has full access to everything inside.
The Shared folder. Sitting in the Users folder is one folder that doesn’t correspond to any particular person: Shared. Everybody can freely access this folder, inserting and extracting files without restriction. It’s the common ground among all the account holders on a single Mac. It’s Central Park, the farmers’ market, and the grocery-store bulletin board.
The Public folder. In your Home folder, there’s a folder called Public. Anything you copy into it becomes available for inspection or copying (but not changing or deleting) by any other account holder, whether they log into your Mac or sign in from across the network.
The Drop Box. And inside your Public folder is another cool little folder: the Drop Box (not to be confused with the free online Dropbox service). It exists to let other people give files to you, discreetly and invisibly to anyone else. That is, people can drop files and folders into your Drop Box, but they can’t actually open it. This folder, too, is available both locally (in person) and from across the network.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION: The Forgotten-Password Survival Guide
Help—I forgot my password! And I never told it to anybody, so even the administrator can’t help me!
No problem. Your administrator can simply open up System Preferences, click Users & Groups, click your account name, and then click Reset Password to re-establish the password.
But you don’t understand. I am the administrator! And I’m the only account!
Lucky for you, Apple has provided you with not one, not two, but three safety nets. None of them work, however, unless your friendly neighborhood administrator turned them on in advance.
First: On your third attempt to type your password correctly, the Mac shows you your password hint (if you have one, and if the administrator left the Hint option turned on).
Second: If the administrator has turned on the “Allow user to reset password using Apple ID” in System Preferences→Users & Groups, then you can click the ? button right there in the Password box when you’re logging in. A tiny message appears, letting you know that, “If you forgot your password, you can reset it using your Apple ID.”
To proceed, click the button to bring up the Reset Password dialog box. Enter your Apple ID and password, and then click Reset Password. A message appears to let you know that changing your account password will also create a new Keychain (The Keychain). (The old one is still around, ready to be unlocked if you remember the old password at some point.) Click OK. Now enter a new password (twice) and password hint, and then click Reset Password.
You’ve just reset your account password. Click Continue Log In to finish logging in with your new, improved, not-forgotten password.
Third: If the administrator has turned on FileVault, described later in this chapter, then you can use its recovery key to log in, in a pinch. Before Lion, it was called the master password, but the point is the same: It’s a last-ditch, emergency, backup password.
If you have your recovery key, read on. (If not, and you opted to store it with Apple, call Apple tech support; they’ll give it to you. If not, and you didn’t store it with Apple, you’re completely out of luck. Your hard drive is encrypted, and you can’t do anything but erase it and kiss your files goodbye.)
Anyway, restart the Mac. On the login screen, click your name; then click the ? button. If the hint appears and it helps you out, great. If not, click “Reset it using your Recovery Key,” type in your recovery key, and then praise the Apple gods that this final safety net actually worked.
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