Separating Apple ID's

Hello,

Small problem, in our house we have one macbook with 3 different accounts/users and each account has its own separate iTunes library music. We also have 3 iPhones and currently sharing one apple ID (Mine). As of now photo streams and app downloads and contacts all are mixed with each other. Whenever theres an app update it requires my password on their phones and i just what to stop digging a bigger hole and set up an apple id per person. Originally i didn't realise although homesharing allows you to share purchases between devices its still linked to whoever bought the app in the first place and so it always requires that persons Apple iD, so if you have another apple id on your phone it will still require the original downloaders apple ID password. I think you can change the iCloud account setting to stop this but im thinking its best to just have 3 separate apple ID's where people can buy there own apps because this homesharing business is bugging me. Im guessing this means a simple case of going on iTunes setting up new apple ID's for them then going on there phones and deleting my iCloud account on their phones and linking there new ID's to their icloud phone account.

However if you delete an iCloud account from an iPhone will that delete date such as contacts and photos leaving them blank, or is this referring to data in the cloud (not really familiar with iCloud)

Thanks for any help

P.s i dont no what the difference between the photo library and photo stream is on your phone.

This is a challenging area for you and for Apple. The law and the content providers require them to take steps to avoid piracy, but said steps make it difficult for honest consumers as well (the latter of whom also tend to complicate the problem as you have above).

My GENERAL advice for families: everyone gets one Apple ID they can use for Mail and syncing. If they wish, they can also use that Apple ID for their own purchases that aren't intended to be made available to others: music, videos, et al. This leaves each person with the OPTION of sharing through Home Sharing, but also makes the purchases private if you want them private.

Then get a "family" Apple ID for app purchases (etc as warranted), movie rentals, maybe e-books. This means that any apps purchased by any member of the household can also be downloaded and used by another member. Turn *OFF* the "automatic downloads" part unless you want to annoy the other family members! Also works with Home Sharing.

If you've already got a mess on your hands as above, sadly Apple *cannot* consolidate accounts for you. You can set up new accounts and re-buy things from the inactive account (depending on how much was actually spent and still wanted, that could be a cheap option for many), or you can use the setup outlined above and just rely on Home Sharing for media belonging to older accounts that want to be shared.

Also: quick explanation of Photo Stream and Photo Library:

Photo Library = large library of photos (as large as you define) on your iOS device that is not shared, and is physically located on your device.

Photo Stream = can be configured, but by default is a cloud-stored backup of the last 1,000 (or 30 days' worth, whichever is lesser) photos also on your device, can be shared with others if you desire, and is there even if you remove the same photos from your Photo Library. Think of it as a mobile "recents" roll that is separate from the Photo Library.

chas_m said:

This is a challenging area for you and for Apple. The law and the content providers require them to take steps to avoid piracy, but said steps make it difficult for honest consumers as well (the latter of whom also tend to complicate the problem as you have above).

My GENERAL advice for families: everyone gets one Apple ID they can use for Mail and syncing. If they wish, they can also use that Apple ID for their own purchases that aren't intended to be made available to others: music, videos, et al. This leaves each person with the OPTION of sharing through Home Sharing, but also makes the purchases private if you want them private.

Then get a "family" Apple ID for app purchases (etc as warranted), movie rentals, maybe e-books. This means that any apps purchased by any member of the household can also be downloaded and used by another member. Turn *OFF* the "automatic downloads" part unless you want to annoy the other family members! Also works with Home Sharing.

If you've already got a mess on your hands as above, sadly Apple *cannot* consolidate accounts for you. You can set up new accounts and re-buy things from the inactive account (depending on how much was actually spent and still wanted, that could be a cheap option for many), or you can use the setup outlined above and just rely on Home Sharing for media belonging to older accounts that want to be shared.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your response, in that case ill go ahead and create multiple ID's