After iPhone 5s backup, contacts were unintentionally synced on Xr

[Lightning Bolt]

So I’m hoping some IPhone experts can help me.

I just backed up my wife’s 5s using iTunes on my MacBook. The Phone hasn’t been backed up in over a year.

She has now told me that all my Xr work contacts were duplicated on her 5s phone. We would like to delete them and make sure it doesn’t happen the next time we back her phone up using iTunes.

I’ve been using my Apple ID for both our phones because, at the time we both bought 5s’s, I figured she didn’t need her own (and was trying to be able to share apps).

So to the gurus, how can I fix this so that our contacts stay separate the next time we do a backup?

In addition (might be a dumb question), can we manually delete my work contacts in her phone without affecting my contacts the next time I back up my Xr using I-tunes?

I think I tried setting up a separate Apple ID for her a long time ago but I had an issue, so never completed the process.

Any and all help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[velocityg4]

Setup Gmail accounts for each of you and sync your contacts via GMail instead of iCloud.

You can also try out family sharing and share your apps and other content bought through Apple. Then you can each have your own account. The only limit I'm aware of is third party in app purchases can not be shared.

 

[Lightning Bolt]

Thanks. The thing is, is that I don’t want to use GMail.

I also don’t want to use more than my free 5GB of space on iCloud as I use local hard drives for backup.

That’s a problem now too, as it (last night) said I am at the 5GB limit. After I clicked ok for my wife’s pics (not many) and contacts to back up there on Monday night, it said I was only at 4.5GB.

The other weird thing is that now my wife’s phone number is attached to my Apple ID and mine is gone.

How did that happen? It will not let me change it back to my iPhone number.

 

[sbuntin]

You need to sign out of iCloud on your wife's phone, and set her up with her own.
Apps can be shared with family sharing.
Make sure when you back up her phone it's set to NOT sync anything. If you really want to be careful with it, backup her phone either on her computer or if you're sharing a computer, on her account on that computer.

 

[Lightning Bolt]

Thanks sbuntin. I did sign out of iCloud on her phone but now the phone doesn't show on my iPhone's "find my iphone" map. Somehow I did get it to work about a year ago but it took a long time and I can't remember what I did.

I thought I'd have to upgrade my iCloud space with family sharing but if not, I'll try that.

I'll also make sure I don't sync anything. We do share this Mac, so I could login to her account and back it up to itunes on her account. The issue I was have when I try to sign her up for her own Apple ID is I get a "that email address is already being used for an apple ID" or something to that effect. I guess I can get her a different email address for this purpose. She does not really want multiple email addresses like myself.

Thanks so much for your help! I'll let you know if it doesn't work. 👍