Connect Your Mac to Another Mac

You can share data such as documents, bookmarks, and downloads between two Macs by connecting those Macs using a Thunderbolt cable or a network cable. The Thunderbolt connection is the better option because it is about ten times faster than the network connection. With the exception of the Mac Pro, all the latest versions of the Mac come with at least one Thunderbolt port.

This section assumes that you do not have a local area network set up, so you need to connect the two Macs directly. In either case, you must enable file sharing to share data between the Macs.

Connect Your Mac to Another Mac

Connect Using a Thunderbolt Cable

Attach one of the Thunderbolt cable’s connectors to the Thunderbolt port on one of the Macs.

Attach the other Thunderbolt cable connector to the Thunderbolt port on the other Mac.

Connect Using a Network Cable

Attach one of the network cable’s connectors to the network port on one of the Macs.

Attach the other network cable connector to the network port on the other Mac.

Enable File Sharing

Click .

Click System Preferences.

The System Preferences window appears.

Click Sharing.

The purpose of connecting one Mac to another is to share documents, photos, and other data between the two Macs. By default, a Mac is not configured to share its data with other computers, so you must enable file sharing on both Macs.

Once file sharing is turned on, after you make the Thunderbolt or network cable connection you can see the files shared on the other Mac by accessing Finder’s Network folder. You can also control which folders each Mac shares.

Connect Your Mac to Another Mac

The Sharing preferences appear.

Click File Sharing ( changes to ).

Note: See the tip on the following page to learn how to share other folders on your Mac.

Click .

View the Other Mac’s Files

Click Finder ().

Click the icon for the other Mac.

Note: If you do not see an icon for the other Mac, click Go and then click Network, or press ++.

A Your Mac connects to the other Mac using the Guest account.

Click Connect As.

Your Mac prompts you to log in to the other Mac.

Click Registered User ( changes to ).

Type the user name of an account on the other Mac.

Type the account password.

Click Remember this password in my keychain ( changes to ).

Click Connect.

Your Mac logs in to the other Mac.

B You see the folder associated with the user account that you used to log in to the other Mac.

Click a folder to see and work with its contents.