How to give someone else access to a limited part of my data

[Elsie]

I am fortunate enough to have access to three different external storage resources:

a OneDrive account (which backs up my laptop)

access to my son’s iCloud family account (2TB)

a 4TB network attached storage unit in my house


My ability to operate these systems is limited. My son (who lives in Oz) has provided me with all of them - but I am quite uncertain as to making proper use of them. I’m in my mid 70s and only partially computer-literate.

I run a small research project about a former children’s home in which I grew up. The digitised data for this project is held on my MacBook and on external hard drives which I link to the laptop. The amount of data held will be well under 500MB.

I have one colleague with whom I conduct this project. He is not particularly familiar with IT matters and tends to leave that to me (however, I am not that brilliant myself). As we live in different parts of the UK, easy access to the records is an ongoing issue.

I want to make this digital data accessible to my colleague without him gaining access to the rest of my personal data.

In the past I have periodically sent him a stick with the latest updated data included on it. Of course, the moment I alter or update anything on my computer, my colleague’s information is out of date.

Basically, I would like to set up a “system” where both I and my colleague have access to the same data and which is duplicated elsewhere for safety. Whether or not both or just one of us have the ability to adjust material can be a separate issue. What is important to begin with is that both of us can see all the information that is held at any time.

This may well be blindingly obvious for some - but not for me. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[john_smith]

Ask him to create a microsoft account
Put the data in a folder on your onedrive
Share that folder with him
Profit

 

[Rroff]

Most of the cloud storage platforms like MS OneDrive and Google Drive, etc. allow you to share a folder with someone as long as they have an account. The free tier of Google Drive has IIRC 15GB storage so comfortably fits your needs.

 

[darael]

I can only emphasise what everybody has said - Microsoft OneDrive.

Sharing is quite easy. Just sign in to your Microsoft account, click the box of dots (app launcher) on the top left, then select OneDrive. After that, just create a new folder, upload your files into the folder, then select the folder and choose Share on the menu bar that should appear. Add their Microsoft email address to the list of people you want to share the drive with and whether they can make changes to the folder - if they aren't overly savvy, I'd advise against this.