Sharing files and folders on Mac Sharing files and folders on Mac somehow confuses me. There are Public Folder, Drop Boxes and Shared Folder. What confuses me is the following:


Which one of the above to use when sharing folders between multiple users on the same Mac?
Is sharing folders using any of the above makes it available to whoever on the same network?
How to share folders and files between users and not network?
There's an Apple support page that explains these three folders. These folders are for sharing files with users of the same Mac, and by default are not used for transferring files through the network.


The Shared folder is located in /Users.
Your Public folder is in your home folder. Each user has one by default.
Your Drop Box folder is in your Public folder.


The Shared and Public folders can be read by anyone, regardless of administrator access. However, only the owner of a file (i.e. the user who put it there) can modify or remove it.

The Drop Box folder is used to share items with another user, and not every user on the Mac. Anyone can put items in the folder by dragging and dropping it into the user's Drop Box. However, only the user that owns the folder can open and read what's inside the folder.

If you want to allow any user on the Mac to have access to these files, use the Shared folder or your Public folder. If you want to share a file with a limited amount of user(s), put the file in their Drop Box folder(s) located in their Public folder(s).