Thank you for your video on Users. If I have a user account on my son’s computer that is connected to my Icloud, but I also have my own computer connected to my iCloud, can the cloud maintain both sets of data? Or does one override the other? I’m wary of using my iCould on his computer because I don’t want to jeopardize the information I currently have from my own computer on my iCloud. Thank you so much.
I don’t want to lose the information I currently have stored in my iCloud; I gear that by connecting another computer to my cloud, it might not support both sets of information.
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Randi W.
You say that you "have a user account on my son's computer." So if the case is that your son's Mac has two accounts: one for him and one for you, then that is normal. His Mac account should be a "standard" account and your Mac account should be an "admin" account. His Mac account should be logged into his iCloud account, and your Mac account should be logged into your iCloud account. That's fine and the way a lot of parents do it.
The accounts are separate. He can't see your stuff and you can't see his (unless you log into his account). The iCloud accounts are also kept separate under each Mac account. As long as he doesn't have the password to your account, he can't get over to your account to access your iCloud stuff. There is a hard line between the accounts. The Mac will seem like it is just his and he can't see anything you have.
You may want to make sure that you have "optimized" turned on for iCloud Drive for your account and if you don't normally use this computer then turn off iCloud Photos completely. This will minimize the space used by your account on that Mac, leaving more room for him. This is assuming you don't use this Mac on a regular basis and don't really need it to access your Photos.
You never mention your son's age, but if he is not an adult then you may want to have his iCloud account be part of Family Sharing. This can be used to put you in charge of his account. See https://www.apple.com/family-sharing/
Randi doesn't (to me) seem to be inquiring about the privacy issue between his and his sons separate user accounts, but rather whether his having two sets of iCloud files, one originating on his computer and the other originating on his user account on his sons computer would somehow conflict, - "lose information" as he puts it within Randi's iCloud account? Or, are these two sources not really two separate sets?