iCloud AppleIDs, MobileMe, iCloud and Sharing: A Guide

[dhy8386]

If you mean this article

Please scroll to the bottom of that page
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Ha. Thanks. I only spent 1 hour on this so being accused of copying it makes my eyes roll.

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But after having read your thread if I understood it correctly I can basically have two iCloud accounts on our phones? So therefore maybe we can share a separate iCloud account just for contacts? Is this advisable?

Assuming that's the approach is the multi iCloud account applicable on the Mac? Because we need to sync with our macs as well.

The way the iPhone and Mac integrate multiple accounts works well for your purposes. You have an iCloud account and so does your gf. Each is separate. All you have to do is add each others iCloud account to your respective phones. Then you turn on her contacts and cal. He turns on your contacts and cal. In your address book app on your phone, it now has both sets of contacts integrated. same on the calendar and both cals are differentiated by color. Works same way on mac.

 

[danckwerts]

Less of a Problem than it Seemed

I have to confess that the whole ID merging business has been less of a problem than I expected. I removed my mobile me account and turned off syncing, signed up for iCloud and then re-activated my mobile me account. It's just a pity that Apple's instructions weren't a bit clearer. iCloud certainly seems a lot faster and more reliable than MM so far.

 

[dhy8386]

HOWEVER, how can iPhone #1 and iPhone #2 ~share~ a common set of Contacts and a common Calendar (I presume using iCal's sharing function) even if they have separate Apple ID's for cloud purposes?

Look at my iCloud Option 2 in my guide on the first page. Read including the Note section on SHARING. That explains it all.

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My husband and I share everything on our AppleID, but I don't need to be notified every time he dowloads an app or music... how do I turn off that notification?

I didn't realize it sends you a notification? As in notification center notification? Or do you mean an email from iTunes saying you purchased something? Or Do you mean when he downloads something it appear on your phone too and you don't want this?

 

[cleung]

Thanks for such a great article. However, I'm still a bit confused. All my accounts are for my own use and I'm not sharing with anyone. It mostly has to do with my songs in iTunes.

I started with .Mac and moved onto MM when MM was launched. I now use MM for everything -- e-mail, contacts, calendar, iTunes purchases, etc. However, before 2008, I used another name@domain.com address as my iTunes account. And on top of it, I have another name@gmail.com iTunes account for access to the Italian iTunes store. I have songs purchased from all three iTunes account on my iTunes now and everything is on my iphone. My understanding is that you cannot merge your iTunes account. So if I use my MM for my iTAB account, does it mean that none of my songs purchased from my name@domain.com or name@gmail.com would be on my iDevices?

Thanks!

 

[WhoDatWayne]

Thanks for this awesome guide!

 

[kas23]

Thanks for the guide. Good job!

Has anyone else had any problems pulling their Notes off of iCloud? I had notes on my old iPhone 4 and made an iCloud account for this ld phone yesterday. When I put this very same iCloud account on my new iPhone, everything populates except for Notes, which remain blank.

 

[HunttVillage]

Look at my iCloud Option 2 in my guide on the first page. Read including the Note section on SHARING. That explains it all.

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I didn't realize it sends you a notification? As in notification center notification? Or do you mean an email from iTunes saying you purchased something? Or Do you mean when he downloads something it appear on your phone too and you don't want this?

Like every time my husband downloads an app or music, I get a little "reminder" type thing that says, essentially, an app was downloaded, and do i want to download it to my device.

 

[yalag]

Ha. Thanks. I only spent 1 hour on this so being accused of copying it makes my eyes roll.

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The way the iPhone and Mac integrate multiple accounts works well for your purposes. You have an iCloud account and so does your gf. Each is separate. All you have to do is add each others iCloud account to your respective phones. Then you turn on her contacts and cal. He turns on your contacts and cal. In your address book app on your phone, it now has both sets of contacts integrated. same on the calendar and both cals are differentiated by color. Works same way on mac.

Works same way on the mac. But how do I add it? Do I uncheck contacts in the iCloud panel and then manually add an icloud account in the contacts app?

 

[dhy8386]

Thanks for such a great article. However, I'm still a bit confused. All my accounts are for my own use and I'm not sharing with anyone. It mostly has to do with my songs in iTunes.

I started with .Mac and moved onto MM when MM was launched. I now use MM for everything -- e-mail, contacts, calendar, iTunes purchases, etc. However, before 2008, I used another name@domain.com address as my iTunes account. And on top of it, I have another name@gmail.com iTunes account for access to the Italian iTunes store. I have songs purchased from all three iTunes account on my iTunes now and everything is on my iphone. My understanding is that you cannot merge your iTunes account. So if I use my MM for my iTAB account, does it mean that none of my songs purchased from my name@domain.com or name@gmail.com would be on my iDevices?

Thanks!

See my Scenario 2 in the guide. Basically, you consolidate in ITunes on desktop and then it seems it may be advisable to pick one store account going forward.

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Works same way on the mac. But how do I add it? Do I uncheck contacts in the iCloud panel and then manually add an icloud account in the contacts app?

No. Simply go into Settings>Mail, Cal etc on your device and add an iCloud account. Enter the other persons iCloud login info. Once you do, you'll have the option of turning on the other persons Mail, Contacts, Cal, Etc. Pick whichever you want to see on your device.

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Like every time my husband downloads an app or music, I get a little "reminder" type thing that says, essentially, an app was downloaded, and do i want to download it to my device.

Never have seen that before. Sorry. Can you take a screenshot and post? Next time it pops up, hold down the sleep button and power button at same time. This will take screen shot. Then take that file and post it here.

 

[cleung]

See my Scenario 2 in the guide. Basically, you consolidate in ITunes on desktop and then it seems it may be advisable to pick one store account going forward.

Sorry if I'm a bit slow today. I've already done that and it has been that way for years since I stopped using my name@domain.com account. I pretty much only use my MM account for everything since 2008. If I've already done that, does it mean that everything on my desktop iTunes account will sync to itunes in the cloud even though they are purchased with different apple ids?

 

[TomH TX]

dhy8386:
First of all, thanks for the effort, and guide. I have read the WHOLE thing, and all 3 pages of posts. However, I still have two items of concern/confusion:
1. Your Guide refers at one point to a Scenario 3, relating to separate itunes and mm accts, but there is in fact no Scenario 3 in your guide. Did I miss something?
2. I have a gmail TAB acct, and a functional and current mm acct, which I use for synching all of my stuff. It appears that for me to "migrate", I just need to "move" the mm acct, using the pw associated with the acct. However, I have seen a couple of posts, including one in this thread, which refer to having to first "remove" the existing mm acct, and then essentially reinstall it, to make this all work. ??? is that really necessary, or do I just go in through my existing mm, and use "move".
Sincere thanks,
Tom

 

[notnat]

Change master iCloud account (two iPhones wrongly sharing main account)

Hi,

Does anyone know if I can change the master iCloud account?

I'm asking because my sister's iPhone wrongly took my Apple ID as her master account (even though she typed her own during setup). Now we both share the same master account, and as I understood, we are bound to share photo stream, settings, etc, which we do NOT want to do! O.O

We can't find any option to change the master account on the phone, only to delete it (or to create new secondary account, which doesn't solve our problem). And when she chooses to delete it, the system warns her that stuff might get deleted. Does anyone know which stuff might get deleted if one deletes their master iCloud account?

Neither of us has performed any backup. Only she opened her Weather app and all MY cities are now displaying there. Contacts, messages and mail seem to be ok.

Any clues? Thank you very much for any kind of help!

 

[dhy8386]

[
First of all, thanks for the effort, and guide. I have read the WHOLE thing, and all 3 pages of posts. However, I still have two items of concern/confusion:
1. Your Guide refers at one point to a Scenario 3, relating to separate itunes and mm accts, but there is in fact no Scenario 3 in your guide. Did I miss something?

Oops. Never wrote it. Will have to do that.

2. I have a gmail TAB acct, and a functional and current mm acct, which I use for synching all of my stuff. It appears that for me to "migrate", I just need to "move" the mm acct, using the pw associated with the acct. However, I have seen a couple of posts, including one in this thread, which refer to having to first "remove" the existing mm acct, and then essentially reinstall it, to make this all work. ??? is that really necessary, or do I just go in through my existing mm, and use "move".
Sincere thanks,
Tom

When you say migrate i assume you mean to iCloud? Its straight forward. Just go to iCloud.com, enter your MM credentials, it will recognize you haven't migrated and walk you through process. When its converted, then just set up iCloud on your device by entering your MM credentials for iCloud and then going into the Store settings and changing it back to gmail.

I assume you are using Lion on your Mac? Just want to makes sure cause iCloud won't work on 10.6.x

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Hi,

Does anyone know if I can change the master iCloud account?

Im hesitant to give you an answer unless I understand exactly what you did sooo...see question below.

Normally, just delete it under iCloud. Where did the contacts and stuff come from? Obviously it has to me MM since any other non @me ID would not have any personal info associated with it? Regardless, even if MM, deleting it won't delete all the stuff on your MM (or hopefully now converted to iCloud) account. Its just deleting it on the phone.

If you have entered data on the phone you want to stay on the phone, thats not somewhere else in the cloud (google, yahoo), then let it leave it on phone when asked.

 

[TomH TX]

I am indeed using Mac OSX 10.7.2.
I truly appreciate the help, and responses.
I have held off from migrating to icloud because of all of the concerns about "losing" emails, contacts, etc...., when MM is working just fine, but may have to "push the button" this weekend.
Thanks again.
Tom

 

[notnat]

Im hesitant to give you an answer unless I understand exactly what you did sooo...see question below.

Normally, just delete it under iCloud. Where did the contacts and stuff come from? Obviously it has to me MM since any other non @me ID would not have any personal info associated with it? Regardless, even if MM, deleting it won't delete all the stuff on your MM (or hopefully now converted to iCloud) account. Its just deleting it on the phone.

If you have entered data on the phone you want to stay on the phone, thats not somewhere else in the cloud (google, yahoo), then let it leave it on phone when asked.

Thanks for the answer!

Let's see if I can make it clear:
- I installed iOS 5 on my iPhone. When prompted for an account to associate with iCloud, I used my Store account (a gmail address, I have no MM).
- My sister installed iOS 5 on her iPhone. When asked to chose an iCoud account, she chose HER Store account (also a gmail address), but instead her iPhone shows MY Store/iCloud account as her iCloud account. She was able to input her store account as a secondary iCloud account and as her store account, but not as her primary iCloud account.

When I go to icloud.com, the contacts displayed are mine. On my phone, contacts are ok, on her phone, her contacts are ok.

I just realized both of us have the option "documents and data" turned on, meaning we both allowed for apps to sync data with iCloud. That probably explains why our Weather apps are now merged...

My doubt is: by deleting my iCloud account from her phone (in order to try and start over with her own correct account), I think I won't be affected at all (since, as you said, everything on the cloud stays on the cloud), but will SHE lose anything on her phone as well? The message says something like "if you delete your account, all documents stored on iCloud will be erased from this phone". I mean, if it's just the Weather app info, it's fine, but... I'm not sure about the rest, hehe.

I'm guessing we won't have any other option but delete the account, since there is no way to just start using a different master account, right?

Thanks again, and by the way - this thread is fabulous! As soon as we get to separate out master accounts, we can configure it the right way, yay!

 

[AppleFan360]

Wow! What a great thread! Thanks for the info.

Question. I managed to upgrade my MM account to iCloud. Everything went smoothly except for one thing. When I open iCal on my iMac and click on "Calendars" it gives me an error message saying that my MM password may be wrong. The password is fine so it's like there is a conflict or something.

When I go to icloud.com, I can login there without an issue and I can even share out the calendars (although I can't send an invite).

Any ideas what the disconnect is between iCloud and the iMac iCal program? It's amost like the iMac missed the boat for some reason during the upgrade.

Thanks.

For all who care, the problem was that I didn't upgrade to Lion 10.7.2 before going to iCloud. Dopey me.

 

[jbg232]

Not that this doesn't work as a sticky, but maybe it should be made into a guide so that it can be edited in the future if things change. Just an idea for any takers...

 

[paulold]

Is there any way you could create a guide like this for individuals instead of families or people sharing IDs? It's just me here with a MacBook Pro, an iPad and an iPhone and I need a guide for setting up iCloud/iMessage with all my devices.

I have been using a really old address as my main Apple ID to do all my song/app purchasing. I did sign up for MobileMe back when it was .Mac, so I have a .Mac/.Me Apple ID as well. I am actually waiting right now to chat with Apple Support to totally cancel my MobileMe cause it's really confusing me as I try to set up everything with iCloud.

I have somehow created two iCloud accounts - one for my iTunes account and one for my MobileMe account (which was created when I moved my MobileMe to iCloud). I just want one Apple ID, one billing account, one iCloud.

But I also have to figure out how to set up my devices to work best with iMessage since even my old iPhone was somehow getting messages from my friend even though I had already switched to my 4S. How does it know which device to send the message to?

Do I need to setup a new email address for each device like xxxxiPhone@aol.com and xxxxiPad@aol.com to keep iMessage in line and so that my friend can know which device he is contacting?

I am so confused and tired.

 

[Slip Jigs]

I am so confused and tired.

Me too, and I haven't even started yet. I'm just updated iTunes, now I'm on to my devices. I appreciate the effort of the OP in writing the User Guide, but frankly, I feel more confused than when before I read through it. My starting place is not unique in that all I'm currently familiar with is what I already have in place. What that is doesn't matter, but it falls within the scope of a brand new user with no existing Apple IDs for iTunes, the Store, the Forums or any .mac or MM accounts - to those with several IDs and MM Family plans and so on.

So while these scenarios do appear to have a wide variance, the list still if finite, and that's where I suggest the How To Guide should start. I'm sorry if all this sounds critical, but I also have suggestions.

First, don't be afraid to make it simple. You're not going to insult anyone's intelligence. The guide should identify a scenario, then provide a walk-through of what to do along with any options. Start with a comprehensive list of scenarios, then refine that list by grouping them according to their solutions. I recognize that that's sort of how it's set up, but it's written more like a reference than a how to.

I think, once the short list of scenarios is created. it will be easy for anyone to spot which one they belong to, and easily configure their services. Also, it wouldn't hurt to define some of the acronyms by spelling out the words along with the acronym the first two or three times theiy're used.

Well, gotta reboot then update the iPhone!

 

[dhy8386]

Is there any way you could create a guide like this for individuals instead of families or people sharing IDs? It's just me here with a MacBook Pro, an iPad and an iPhone and I need a guide for setting up iCloud/iMessage with all my devices.

To this point and the poster below you, my intention wasn't to create an Apple Support document. If you go to the Apple support website, there are actually some good resources for walking you through iCloud setup. What Apple did not do however, was contemplate the multi device multi family environment which is much more confusing than the single user use cases. I will go find some links and include them in the OP - EDIT - OP updates with some useful links.

I have somehow created two iCloud accounts - one for my iTunes account and one for my MobileMe account (which was created when I moved my MobileMe to iCloud). I just want one Apple ID, one billing account, one iCloud.

You can create 50 iCloud accounts. It doesn't matter. Just use the iCloud account that matches your store AppleID (i.e. name@gmail.com) and cancel your MobileMe service.

How does it know which device to send the message to?

iMessage can be tied to a phone number and any AppleID you want. It could be one or three. It could be your iCloud ID or something different. In Settings>MEssages, you will see that you have the option to associate it with whatever AppleID you want.

Do I need to setup a new email address for each device like xxxxiPhone@aol.com and xxxxiPad@aol.com to keep iMessage in line and so that my friend can know which device he is contacting?

Actually its the complete opposite. The point of iMessage and one of the benefits is that you only need one associating ID for all your devices. That way if your friend just iMessages you (and lets say you have decided to use your name@gmail.com ID as the iMEssage ID on all iDevices) to the one ID, it will show up on all devices.

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So while these scenarios do appear to have a wide variance, the list still if finite, and that's where I suggest the How To Guide should start. I'm sorry if all this sounds critical, but I also have suggestions.

Appreciate the suggestions but you are misinterpreting why I wrote this. It wasn't to be a 4 page how to. It was to address the hole apple created in the family multi device multi id environment. If people actually take time to go to Apples website, there are very detailed walk throughs of some basic iCloud and iOS5 setups. Im trying to fill in the holes. And I have been helping people out on these boards for four days and I can tell you I have come across probably 12 different variations and use cases. Simply not the scope of the OP to address every one. I am sorry i cannot do that. Just don't have the time.

 

[am2am]

Great guide - thanks
I believe there are at least two consequences of selecting option 2 which we have to remember about:
1. you will have only one 5GB iCloude storage for the family as you will have one shared main icloud (if you have separate main accounts you have multiple storage spaces)
2. All bookmarks will be shared (only main iCloud account supports bookmarks) - if you don't want it you must keep separate primary iCloud accounts

 

[dhy8386]

Great guide - thanks
I believe there are at least two consequences of selecting option 2 which we have to remember about:
1. you will have only one 5GB iCloude storage for the family as you will have one shared main icloud (if you have separate main accounts you have multiple storage spaces)
2. All bookmarks will be shared (only main iCloud account supports bookmarks) - if you don't want it you must keep separate primary iCloud accounts

Yup. Thats a great point for people who decide they want to backup their devices to iCloud. Those backups take up a ton of space. I will add that now as its very important to note.

 

[kriista1234]

Great guide!

Has anyone figured out how to use older devices at the same time as new devices?

I have an iMac and Macbook both with Lion, then an iPad2 with iOS5, my phone, however, is an iPhone 3G on iOS4.

Is it possible to cloud sync all the new stuff, but for my iPhone to sync to the same data through iTunes?

It seems crazy to me that iCloud is a different set of data, rather than a way to sync the same data. (I freaked out when I opened iCal and saw two of everything!)

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Great guide!

Has anyone figured out how to use older devices at the same time as new devices?

I have an iMac and Macbook both with Lion, then an iPad2 with iOS5, my phone, however, is an iPhone 3G on iOS4.

Is it possible to cloud sync all the new stuff, but for my iPhone to sync to the same data through iTunes?

It seems crazy to me that iCloud is a different set of data, rather than a way to sync the same data. (I freaked out when I opened iCal and saw two of everything!)

I have like many an iPhone 3G, iPad 1, MBP w/ Lion and I am a long time MM user. For now I just upgraded the MBP to 10.7.2 and left the iDevices at iOS4 as I don't now if iOS5 works nice with MM. I have to continue using MM Calendar and Address Book as my iPhone3G cannot be upgraded to iOS5.

So basically just upgrading the MBP works fine.

 

[notnat]

Update!

My sister deleted my account on her phone, and set up a new iCloud account for her. Everything looks fine (contacts, settings, etc, are all ok) - the only visible exception is her Weather app - it reverted to an apparently clean one. She lost both MY cities (which came from syncing with my ID) and HER cities (which were set on her phone to begin with). Weird.

That's not a terrible loss, but if I want to delete my iCloud account on my phone in order to start over with a new iCloud account (just because I actually wanted a new iCloud ID, instead of using my Store ID for both), I suspect my losses would be bigger, no? I figure I'll lose contacts and app data because those are now associated with my iCloud... I think. Not sure.

I'm not really sure I want to try this one out and see what happens.

Thank you for your help and congrats again on the sticky - you've been very helpful!