Can Wife and I we share Icloud?

[Jungo]

My wife and I use the same itunes account and all has been good -

can we continue to do this with I cloud ?

We'd like to push new photos to both of our laptops from our ios devices.

 

[elit3nemesis]

I wonder the same thing. I am in the same boat as you.

 

[S1njin]

I'm using one iCloud account right now. I'm only synching contacts, calender, bookmarks, and notes.


I have my iCloud sync set up on 2 iPads, 1 iPhone, and 1 Mac Mini. All is well. Our devices use seperate gmail accounts for email.

 

[smacman]

Although the situation is a little bit confusing, it isn't too hard to wrap your head around. Think of it this way. Your iOS 5.0 device will be linked to the following Apple services:

1) Apple Store: For purchasing apps / media

2) FaceTime: Video Chat

3) iMessage: device to device messaging

4) iCloud: syncing services such as mail, contacts, calendar, photos, reminders, notes, etc.

These 4 items can all be linked to different Apple IDs. If you and your wife want to share the same Apple Store accounts, that is fine. It would however still be prudent to create her a new independant Apple ID so that you can both have separate FaceTime, iMessage, and email accounts.

 

[brezz]

Although the situation is a little bit confusing, it isn't too hard to wrap your head around. Think of it this way. Your iOS 5.0 device will be linked to the following Apple services:

1) Apple Store: For purchasing apps / media

2) FaceTime: Video Chat

3) iMessage: device to device messaging

4) iCloud: syncing services such as mail, contacts, calendar, photos, reminders, notes, etc.

These 4 items can all be linked to different Apple IDs. If you and your wife want to share the same Apple Store accounts, that is fine. It would however still be prudent to create her a new independant Apple ID so that you can both have separate FaceTime, iMessage, and email accounts.

Where can you find the ID that iMessage is using?

Brian

 

[gerball]

My girlfriend and I share one account, and it seems to be working fine, except for iMessage which seemed to get a bit confused. We've turned that off now.

 

[smacman]

Where can you find the ID that iMessage is using?

Brian

Settings -> Messages -> Receive At:

 

[brezz]

Settings -> Messages -> Receive At:

Great! Thanks.

Brian

 

[drober30]

Share an ID for Apple Store so one purchase counts for both of you.

Separate IDs for iCoud so you can have your own calendar, contacts and backup of the iOS device.

You can add a "shared" calendar just like it was explained by jobs in the keynote if you and your wife want to share a calendar.

This is how my family did it with MobileMe it and it works great.

 

[Jungo]

Great stuff - thanks BUT

but I am still curious as to how we can automatically share photos.... perhaps we can't

 

[gerball]

but I am still curious as to how we can automatically share photos.... perhaps we can't

You can share photos in your photo stream if you use the same Apple ID for iCloud.

I would just share your iCloud ID - you can still have separate back-ups (back-ups are per device), and you can turn off iCloud for certain things (such as Contacts, Calenders etc) if you wish to via the iCloud settings.

 

[dealmaker]

What do you do if you have Multiple accounts and multiple devices?

In my case we have 4 iPhone sharing the same iTunes account - and 2 iPads, 2 iPod touch , 2 iMac's 2 MBP's and 1 MBA.

Lets for argument sake say I have my iphone an my iPad open on my desk and I am in front of my iMac. If someone wants to FaceTime me - how do they know which device to connect to if they are registered to the same account??

 

[mantan]

Although the situation is a little bit confusing, it isn't too hard to wrap your head around. Think of it this way. Your iOS 5.0 device will be linked to the following Apple services:

1) Apple Store: For purchasing apps / media

2) FaceTime: Video Chat

3) iMessage: device to device messaging

4) iCloud: syncing services such as mail, contacts, calendar, photos, reminders, notes, etc.

These 4 items can all be linked to different Apple IDs. If you and your wife want to share the same Apple Store accounts, that is fine. It would however still be prudent to create her a new independant Apple ID so that you can both have separate FaceTime, iMessage, and email accounts.

I know I'll get flamed for this, but for a company that thrives on simple and easy, the whole ID thing is going to confuse a lot of customers. I think part of the problem is the shared nomenclature.

For the longest time the Apple ID was simple the itunes email that was often shared by family. Mom, Dad, the kids all used the same address.

Now there is a need for separate Apple ID's for some functions - FaceTime, iMessage, etc....but the same shared ID for the iTunes account. Add to the mix people trying to share some devices (Mom's iPhone and her iPad), but not others (son's iPod Touch and dad's iPhone) and it gets a bit messy.

It may have been easier if there was an 'iTunes Account ID', then refer customizable ID's as Apple ID's.'

This would make it a bit more intiutive for users to know when to enter their shared 'iTunes ID' versus individual things they wanted to set up (like FaceTime or iMessage'

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

I know I'll get flamed for this, but for a company that thrives on simple and easy, the whole ID thing is going to confuse a lot of customers. I think part of the problem is the shared nomenclature.

I don't think you will. A lot of people, myself included, are extremely confused (personally to the point of annoyance) by how this whole iCloud ID, Apple ID, facetime ID, iMessage ID works and how to sync things certain ways. It's all just a ball of mess.

I also want to be able to share photostream, but I don't necessarily want all the reprecussions that come with.

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

This is what I want. I have an iPhone an iPad, my wife will have an iPhone, and we share a Mac.

Joint photostream (or at least folder of my photostream and a folder for my wife's)

3 calendars- Mine, my wife's, and joint. I would also like to be able to view any of the 3 calendars from any of our devices.

Personal address book, but the ability to easily view my wifes contacts and easily add them to my contacts if I wish

Ability for 3rd party apps (on an app by app basis) to be able to sign into particular iCloud accounts. That way we can use the same iCloud account to keep our finance app in sync, but still keep some apps seperate (games in particular). Actually it would be great if you can have multiple accounts per app. That way we can each have our own Pages folder, but I can still access her documents if I need to.

Individual email accounts

I also want to be able to communicate (iMessage/facetime) between my devices (iPhone, iPad, and Macbook), while still having a primary account that links the 3 together. I think I've figured out how to do this. In theory I'm thinking I will use my main Apple ID (and primary email) for all 3, but then I will create a seperate email for each device and add them as additional emails under iMessage and FaceTime

 

[Jungo]

many are in this boat

It appears that there are several threads asking questions about family ties and icloud - I want my photos to appear in my wife's library etc. -

It appears that this is not going to happen. - and that separate icloud accounts are the way - that kinda sucks. - but we'll deal with it.

 

[Tremaine]

My family shares an iMac and my wife and I both have an iPhone and iPad for each. We also used to have a Mobile Me Family plan, that my wife's personal email was linked to.

It seemed complicated at first, but once I started to install everything it became clearer. I made sure all four mobile devices shared the same Apple ID (which is also my email address) for Apps, Music, etc.

I then used her old Mobile Me address for her new iCloud account. I added her iCloud account to her iPhone and iPad, turned on mail and the other features we don't share, but left the other iCloud account for the items we do share.

Its all very customizable about what information the device gets from iCloud.

 

[dhy8386]

It appears that there are several threads asking questions about family ties and icloud - I want my photos to appear in my wife's library etc. -

It appears that this is not going to happen. - and that separate icloud accounts are the way - that kinda sucks. - but we'll deal with it.

Quoting my own post here to address your issue. Sorry if thats lame.

Many people want to share photostreams which can't be done that way. also in iPhoto, it will only show one photosteam so sharing the iCloud is preferable.

The real workaround is:

1) Create an iCloud shared account. This is for shared photo stream and Find my iPhone
2) Every other user create their own iCloud accounts. This is to manage their personal info. If people want to share calendars and reminders, add each's iCloud account and turn on those features. The shared, master iCloud account would have cal, email, contacts, notes all off. Again just shared for the two key features.