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Sharing items between Macs

Hi Gary,

You have probably covered this but I will ask….. I have a MB for personal use and a Mac Mini for work. How can I access (and change) files on my MB with the Mini? Do I need to copy those items/folders into a shared folder? Is all of that redundancy going to eat up HD space?

I was planning on using the Home Share for iTunes…assuming I could reauthorize the work Mini whenever I was done (and therefore not using one of my 5 computer authorizations).

Ideas?

Thanks!!

Jason

— Jason

Comments: 3 Responses to “Sharing items between Macs”

    14 years ago

    Home Sharing is only for iTunes -- it is for sharing music and video in your iTunes collection. For file sharing, simply turn on File Sharing in your network preferences. You can set it up in many ways, allowing one folder to contain files that can be seen by your other Mac. Or, you can simply let yourself log on to access all the files in your account with your ID and password. There are so many options. If it is just you looking at the files between machines, then you might as well let yourself have complete file sharing access with the entire account. Just make sure you have a secure password so others can't guess it.
    Don't duplicate files between your Macs, though. Simply grab a file from one and copy it to the other when you need it, then put it back. No point having duplicates which can get out of sync and confusing. If you need that sort of thing, then a server (like you get with an iDisk on a MobileMe account) might be more what you need.

    Jason
    14 years ago

    HOw would I set it up to "log on" to my MacBook from my mini? I have been looking at the sharing preferences but I do not see a place to enable a password access....

      14 years ago

      You enable password access on your account. System Preferences, Accounts, (your account), Password. Then System Preferences, File Sharing (turn it on). Then try to find your computer on the network from the other machine by looking in the Finder sidebar, or Go, Network in the Finder.
      Chapter 13 in my book is all about this. You may want to consider taking a look: http://macmost.com/book

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