Just taken delivery of my wife’s new iphone 5c (yellow, not convinced in the flesh). That makes it (oh the shame) 2 iphones and a shared ipad in the house. Single laptop (macbook, it gets worse) repository for all music, photos etc.

I’m trying to work out the best approach – single apple id for all of them or different one for her (and maybe a third for the ipad). Single seems to make sense as all the bought apps can be used on all 3 devices without buying them again, all the photos taken will stream to a single icloud account.

But presumably this nauses up imessages, facetime etc. Any other benefits to sorting her a separate apple id?

iconfused

I haven’t fully sorted out our family accounts yet either but purchases can be assigned to a single (shared) account while iMessage, FaceTime and so on can be on a different account. Same for the PhotoStream, iCloud and so on.

So shared account for purchases (maybe, maybe, PhotoStream) and separate accounts for each device if that’s appropriate..

As you’ve identified, having a shared Apple ID will cause issues with iMessage in particular. Every couple I know has a story of text messages being seen by the other half because they’d tried to manage with one shared Apple ID. Fortunately nothing was seen that could damage relationships 😆

To be fair the same could happen with photos, so again only pursue this course if you’re 100% sure neither of you will take a photo that you wouldn’t want the other to see. Chances are it’ll be on Photostream before you get chance to delete 😉

My experience with Apple is that the whole infrastructure is pretty woeful for allowing multiple users to share content. My experience is also that trying to fight the “Apple way” is hard work, so I’d stick with separate Apple IDs if I were you.

Bear in mind my missus never buys music/films from iTunes, so it’s quite easy for me to manage the media in iTunes then sync content to her iPad and iPhone. Also, when you share i library from iTunes, other users/devices don’t have to have the same Apple ID as the iTunes library. My missus – a different Apple ID – can access my shared iTunes library from her iPad for example. That might be the way to go for you.

As you’ve identified, having a shared Apple ID will cause issues with iMessage in particular.

its fine.

messages > imessage > send and receive > choose which associated email or phone you want to send/receive messages on on that device.

I suppose if I was the suspicious type I could set it up so I got everything but I haven’t got the time to wade through all that crap.

Chances are it’ll be on Photostream before you get chance to delete

you can remove photos from photostream and it deletes off all associated devices.

you can remove photos from photostream and it deletes off all associated devices.

It might be too late by then, especially if said photo had already been published to Facebook 🙂

The point is, a shared Apple ID is a really good way of sharing most things that can be shared across multiple devices. If that’s your goal, go for it. If what you’re after is “his and hers” devices but to only buy apps once, you’re probably going to come unstuck.

iMessage

its fine.

Two phrases I don’t like to see associated. I love Apple stuff but I think iMessage is very badly implemented, despite being a good idea. I turned off iMessage on my wife’s iPhone because she was constantly missing my text messages that Apple tried to send as iMessages, simply because she had no internet connection. Trying to disassociate a mobile number from a device that used iMessage then presents further hurdles.

FWIW we have separate accounts it seems to work OK

Single seems to make sense as all the bought apps can be used on all 3 devices without buying them again

Simply sign in to the appropriate account on the appropriate iDevice and download it again

Can you not set the devices up with their own Apple ID, but use a separate ID (or the same as one device) to make all purchases in iTunes and App Store?

When she got her iPad I set it up with my ID so we could share purchases, photostream etc. Then I got a text message from her bezzy mate telling me to book her out for the night in 6 months as she’d got them Robbie Williams tickets for Xmas. Cue delighted squeals of ‘Robbie!’ from the other room.

We now have separate IDs and can share photostreams etc. The apps that were bought through my account never got deleted from her iPad. Not sure how that worked.

You can use more than one Apple ID on a device.
We buy apps through my ID and it loads to both iPhones and the iPad.
Calendars are on the same ID, so we can sync our time.
iMessage / Facetime / etc are on separate ID’s so not seen by the other partner. You need to explore the Settings to find the different places to enter the IDs.
Easy and works for us.

This is roughly how we set up:

iCloud:
Settings – iCloud – Account
Set up as separate individual IDs

Facetime:
Settings – FaceTime – Apple ID
Set up as separate individual IDs

Apps:
Settings – iTunes & App Store – Apple ID
We set this up with the same ID

iMessage should be linked to your mobile no. Can’t remember how to set up on iPad

Went for one id for all for the moment – but turned off various email and phone numbers on all the different devices in facetime and imessage so that they don’t all try to connect and so that one can easily call another. Yes, if one of us takes a photo we’ll end up sharing it but that might be good too.

My two hassles now are google turning off exchange compatibility for new devices on free accounts so no push email.

And….rubbish reception! Her last phone was a blackberry on orange, this is an upgrade to ee so effectively the same network. In the house the old blackberry could maintain a steady 3G connection, the flipping iphone is struggling to manage 1 bar of 2g and is dropping out every 5 minutes altogether. Not good – might have to send back in the 14day cooling off period.

mrs xiphon and I have 2 iphones and a shared iPad.

The share is more like 80/20 in her favour…. so her account is the App Store/iCloud etc.

I use DropBox + Chrome Sync for desktops/laptops/iphone/ipad.