Choose the material before enabling sharing
Sharing a small collection of authorised home videos is a different request from making the whole media library visible on a local network. Start by identifying the exact items intended for other people. A convenient green sharing indicator should not be treated as proof that the chosen scope matches that intention.
Read Apple’s guest-sharing options
Apple’s Media Sharing settings distinguish Home Sharing for the same Apple Account from Share media with guests on the same network. Guest-sharing options include Require Password, All songs, movies, and TV shows, and Selected playlists. Apple also says the Mac must be turned on for others to access that library. These choices describe the sharing arrangement; they do not grant copyright or distribution permission for every file in it.
Prepare a narrow household example
Suppose a family wants to view its own holiday videos from another computer. Create or identify the intended playlist, review the selected-playlist sharing option and use an appropriate password if needed. Inspect the list from an authorised second device before inviting anyone to use it. Keep unrelated personal recordings and commercial downloads out of the selected scope unless their use is both intended and permitted.
Verify what the guest can actually see
Confirm the library name and the visible selected items rather than inferring the result from the host’s settings screen alone. If the guest sees more than expected, stop sharing and review the scope before continuing. When the session is finished, decide whether the sharing arrangement should remain enabled. Do not publish the local sharing password or describe a same-network configuration as an internet-wide media service.
Questions, answered
Must guest sharing expose the entire library?
No. Apple documents a Selected playlists option as well as sharing all media.