Using Safari Private Windows To Log In With Multiple Accounts

If you need to log into two different accounts at the same website at the same time, you can use Safari's Private windows. Each private window acts like a separate browser so the two accounts won't interfere with each other. This is useful for managing multiple social media accounts, checking multiple bank statements or web-based email accounts at the same time, and other uses.

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Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. On this episode let me show you how you can use Safari's private browsing window to log in the same site twice with different accounts at the same time.
So in Safari you probably know about the Private Window feature. This allows you to create a window where you can browse the pages and when you close that window things like cookies and such are removed. It's useful for a variety of privacy reasons. But one of the reasons I use it more so than anything to do with privacy is simply the ability to log onto the same web site with two different accounts.
For example, here I am logged into my main Twitter account but I've got other Twitter accounts that I manage. So if I wanted to log into another Twitter account what I would need to do normally is to log out of this one and log into the other one and then when I'm done with that log back out and log back into the main one. It's a bit of a pain.
But with Private Window you can log into that second account at the same time because a Private Window is like opening up a completely isolated instance of the web browser. It doesn't share things like cookies that are used when you are logged into a site.
I've seen people do the same thing but with two different browsers. Say they have Chrome installed so they log into the second account with Chrome when the first account was Safari. But you don't need to do that. You can do it both in Safari.
So I'm going to do a new Private Window here. Then I'm going to go to Twitter and you can see it doesn't think I'm logged in because this Private Window is separate from my main regular window here. If I were to make a regular window, a new window, and go to Twitter it shares information between these. So it sees that I'm still logged in. 
So Private Window is what you want and then you can go ahead and log in using different credentials. I'm going to log in using this other account here and now I'm logged into two separate accounts, one in this Private Window and one in my regular non private window in Safari.
When I'm done with this and I actually close this it removes all the cookies and all that. So it's kind of like a temporary version of Safari. It's only there as long as I keep this window open. As soon as I get rid of it and open a new Private Window you can see I'm no longer logged in.
So I can log in back into that account and then the cool thing is is that I can actually do this multiple times. I can go ahead and create a new Private Window here and it's separate from this first Private Window. So I can log into three, four, or five different Twitter accounts which could be useful for managing social media if you're a social media person and you want to manage other peoples accounts, things like that, it could be very useful to have several windows open.
Of course it can be used for lots of things beyond Twitter. You can do it if you manage another Facebook account or just about anything you log into. Even if you have a bank account you log in and you have another account that you need to log in with a separate ID but it's the same website, you can open a Private Window and have both side by side rather than having to log out of one and log back in when you're done.

Comments: 2 Responses to “Using Safari Private Windows To Log In With Multiple Accounts”

Douglas Brace

9 years ago

I use this functionality in Google Chrome all the time. Also, if someone is using Google Chrome instead of Safari, it is possible to use different "People". With different "People", your settings, extensions, apps, and browsing history data and all separate from each other.

Bob

I use this procedure to log into a different gmail account
than the one in my normal safari window. If we don’t mind
clicking between tabs, we can open as many gmail or twitter
accounts into separate private window tabs.

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Using Safari Private Windows To Log In With Multiple Accounts

Comments: 2 Responses to “Using Safari Private Windows To Log In With Multiple Accounts”

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