I’ve had to buy a new MacBook Pro (got an M4) as the ports on my old MBP (Intel) stopped working. I use the MBP for personal stuff as well as work. The divide is probably about 70% work / 30% personal, but a lot of my personal stuff on my Mac is work-adjacent, e.g. papers I’d like to read that are not directly related to actual work I’m doing at present. I often find it hard to identify where work stops and personal interests take over.
It’s been suggested that as I’m switching to a new device and starting from scratch (I’m not using Apple’s setup process, I want to take the opportunity to review all my apps), it is a good time for me to set up a personal profile and a work profile on my machine. This would help with security compliance stuff for work (but isn’t essential). Most the apps I use specifically for work (and only work) are web-based.
I’m not certain I want to do this, because of my comment above about finding it hard to draw a line between work/personal anyway. I’m also not sure I want to handle multiple logins. I use an external keyboard and my laptop is closed so I can’t use Touch ID to login. My laptop rarely leaves the house, and everything of importance is synced to my iPad. No-one interacts with my laptop except me.
What are the pros and cons of doing this? Is there an alternative I should be considering? For example, I don’t use any browser profile function, but as a lot of the software I use is in-browser I am wondering if I should at least consider that?
I don’t think I’d create a separate profile on my Mac to separate personal and work but it’s provoked my thinking. Offhand I’d think it’s a hassle and one more account to manage. Easier to use browser profiles like the ones in Arc and others I’d say.
At work we are in Google ecosystem, I use Edge exclusively for Google Workspace applications (earlier Chrome) whereas I use Safari for other non-work browsing.
It started off when Gmail added offline capabilities which was exclusive to Chrome but then I found it to be convenient to keep things separate so kinda continued with it
I say, give it a try. I don’t see what you have to lose.
If in a month you want to discontinue, it’s not hard to setup your personal stuff on your work profile and when you’re happy that’s done blow away the personal profile (or leave it if it’s not using much space)
If it really works for you, you can continue the experiment, if it doesn’t you can chalk it up to experience serene in the fact that you gave it a try.
There’s more I’d need to know, like do you own this MBP and what sort of security compliance you need. HOWEVER this sounds like you are asking for trouble. Retired now since 2016, but used personal computers for about 45 years. My rules are:
Don’t put personal items on a work (company owned) computer unless you don’t care if they are seen by the company. Never put licensed software not owned by the company on the computer.
Don’t put company secret files on a personally owned computer. Don’t put company licensed software on a personally owned computer unless the license allows it.
If the computer is used for both work and home (not a good idea), use two separate logins and install software for the separate accounts in the home Applications folder. This will keep your work and personal use separate.
Sorry, I thought my post was clear that this is my device. My employer has an optional “bring your own device” policy if you don’t want to use one of the devices they provide.
My employer is a Google Workspace so all work-related files are stored “in the cloud”, and I don’t have any Google apps on my device.
I think this is what I’m going to do. There doesn’t seem to be a clear reason why I should set up a separate login profile (and no clear reason why I shouldn’t!), and I was already using half my work websites in a separate browser (Firefox) just to help keep logins separate. It isn’t much work to move all my work web-based activity to Firefox.
I use Choosy, which lets you sets certain browsers for certain activities. It’s very helpful, as it means certain URLs always open by default in the correct browser.
I use different browsers as well - together with different profiles.
For example everything to do with my main company and Microsoft 365 related I use Edge, all the work I do for a client that involves their SharePoint, SolMan, GitLab is done in Brave browser with a normal user profile and an admin profile. All „personal“ stuff is done in Safari.
I use a similar app to Choosy to automatically open the correct browser/profile when clicking on a link in Outlook or Teams … works like a charm.
What about work vs personal email? You can use different browsers as well but I use Apple Mail for both accounts and that mixes things. Focus modes can be setup to hide and show mailboxes.
Sounds like you are good to go as is. You already have a separation of work/personal data and apps and wouldn’t need to have separate profiles as well, assuming you don’t somehow get confused. Separate profiles might help you keep things mentally separate.