Use Touch ID to Switch between Users on the Mac

0:01
In this video, we’re going to look at how we can use Touch ID to switch between our different users on the Mac. With Touch ID, what we’re able to do is have our Mac switch between our different users based on a fingerprint. Let’s see how this is done. Let’s go to my Mac. Let’s first review user accounts. What you can do with your Mac is have various accounts various user accounts, each user account is going to have their own documents folder, their own desktop folder, their own pictures folder. If we look at my Mac, here, you’re going to see I have various accounts. This is all located within my users account, every Mac has a user’s account.

0:43
Now usually you will only see one account in here. But you may add more users to your Mac. When you do that, it’s going to create a separate user folder here. And when we look at this, you’re going to see that Abigail has her own Desktop Documents, Downloads, movies, music and pictures folders, as well as Danwon sync. My personal account also has its own Desktop Documents, download movies, as well as pictures folder. So each user account has their own folders. It’s almost like you’re on a separate Mac. Now when you have it set up for multiple accounts, how you switch traditionally is you go up to the Apple menu here. And then what you would do is you would go and log out when you log out. It’s basically like shutting down this computer and then you can log into another computer so I could log in to Abigail’s computer. I log out of Abigail’s and I can go back into Johnny Appleseed so I can go back into my personal account. Another way of switching between these different accounts is to use fast user switching I have it enabled.

1:49
So if we go up to my menu bar here, you’re going to see I have my fast user switching icon. When I click on this, I can see all of the different accounts. So I want to go to Abigail’s right now I am logged into Johnny Appleseed. That’s why it is orange. If I want to go to Abigail, all I have to do is just click on this. I enter in the password. Or I could use Touch ID. And now I’m looking at Abigail’s account you’re going to see has a different desktop picture. It has a different doc. It’s almost like it’s its own computer. To switch back to Johnny Appleseed. What I do is I go back up to my fast user switching. And then I go over to Johnny Appleseed. When I click on this, I enter in the password, or I could use Touch ID. And now I’m back at Johnny Appleseed account. Now that’s pretty quick this fast user switching is pretty quick for switching between our different accounts. But we can also use Touch ID to switch between these different accounts. The key to making this work is each account has to have their own fingerprint attached to it. So when I go over to my System Preferences here, and then we go over to touch ID, you’re going to see that I have a fingerprint attached to Johnny Appleseeds. The fingerprint that I have attached to it is my index finger. So I use this index finger to use Touch ID. Now with Abigail, I have a different finger I use my ring finger for that. So now let’s go back over to Abigail’s. I’m going to use fast user switching here.

3:30
I’m going to use Touch ID. So now I just use my ring finger here and I press it on the touch ID. It recognizes that it is Abigail, and now I’m an Abigail’s account. Again, the way that I set that up is I went to my System Preferences. And then we go over to touch ID and you’re going to see I have a fingerprint assigned to it. The second thing you need to do is you need to make sure that you’re using touch ID professors are switching. So we need to assign a finger a fingerprint actually. And then we need to use Touch ID professors are switching. Once you have those two items set, you can now use your touch ID to switch between the different accounts. So I use my index finger for Johnny Appleseed. I want to switch over to Johnny Appleseed. All I need to do is just lay this on the touch ID let it read the fingerprint of this index finger. The Mac will figure out that that is for Johnny Appleseed. And then when I click on the touch ID I just push it down, it’ll automatically switch over to that account. So I just lay it on there for a second and doesn’t have to be long.

4:37
You just have to lay down the first second let it read the fingerprint and then you push to click and it’ll switch. So now let’s do that. I’m going to lay it on here. It reads it I push and we can see I’m in Johnny Appleseed account. I want to switch back over to Abigail’s while Abigail is using my ring finger here. So now what I do is I lay my ring You’re on touch ID, I let it read it and I push. And now we’re back in Abigail’s account. If I wanted to switch to my Danwon sync account, remember, I have three accounts on this Mac, what I would do is I would use my index finger on my left hand, this is the fingerprint that is assigned to that. So if I were to lay this on there, and then push, what it would do is it would switch to danhua Sync. So the key to making this all work is you need to have separate fingerprints for each account. If you use the same fingerprint on each account, your Mac will not know who to switch to. So what you need to do is you need to set up a separate fingerprint for each account. Once you do that, you also make sure that you’re using touch ID for fast user switching. And when you do that, all you have to do is just lay your finger on the touch ID let it read the fingerprint, and then push down your Mac will immediately switch over to that other account. So that’s how we can use Touch ID for fast user switching on the Mac.