Passing on my iMac to my wife

I totally understand that this subject has been discussed everywhere bar the Moon; but all the advice relates to "selling" and "privacy" and the need to remove personal data.

In my case, that is not a concern.

My wife will want to create an Apple ID of her own. As my "old" iMac came with SL (I have the discs) and I upgraded to Lion, my understanding is that the Lion OS cannot belong to another ID.

What I wonder is: if I create another User Account with Admin rights in my wife's name and then delete my account — firstly is this legal?; is this moral?; will it work, in the sense that my wife can then create her own ID?

I am not prepared, under any circumstances, to do anything improper or illegal. The reason for hoping to avoid using the SL disk & erasing the HD, re-installing SL then having my wife download ML again, is to save a great deal of time.

I am quite prepared to be told this is not on!

I'm much obliged.

Ian

When you purchase a copy of OS X from the App Store or back in the days of discs, you were allowed to install the OS on a number of machines all within the same household. 5 seems to stick in my head as that number, but it might be all computers in your household or less than 5..I don't recall.

Either way, the Apple ID is just required to re-download the Lion or Mountain Lion installer should you lose it, it isn't directly linked to the OS itself.

Since you are keeping the iMac within your family/household, it is perfectly fine for you to continue using the Lion OS installed on there, and it is perfectly fine for your wife to create her own admin account with her own Apple ID.

The admin ID on the Mac is different from the Apple ID that you use to purchase apps. So as Raz0rEdge pointed out, you and your wife can use the same Apple ID in the Mac App store to purchase or re-install whatever apps you want, including ML regardless of account names used to log in to the iMac.

I don't know if you already do this, but my wife and I use the same Apple ID on our iPhones, iPad, and our MBP and iMac. Whatever apps she purchases, I have optional access to and vice versa.

Great replies - and unbelievably quick!

Thank you so much, guys. Your continuing willingness to give up your free time is hugely appreciated.

Ian

Raz0rEdge said:

When you purchase a copy of OS X from the App Store or back in the days of discs, you were allowed to install the OS on a number of machines all within the same household. 5 seems to stick in my head as that number, but it might be all computers in your household or less than 5..I don't recall.

Click to expand...

Just a point of clarification that was made known to me..back in the days of the disc, the regular install disc was restricted to being installed on one computer. If multiple computers in a household needed to be upgraded, then a "Family Pack" was available to support up to 5 computers..

The versions available from the Mac App Store behave like the "Family Pack" and allow multiple installs..

A lot to be said IWT for burning Lion or ML to a USB thumb drive prior to running the installer. Works just like a DVD only faster and is of course bootable. If you go this way Google LionDiskMaker.

Thanks, harry_b. Exactly what I plan to do. All responses noted with grateful thanks.

Ian

IWT you can go into the App Store, hold down the Option key, hit Purchases and download Lion again f.o.c.