ios 5 and iCloud sync question - multiple people on shared iTunes account

[Herm]

My spouse and I are each upgrading to new 4s phones soon, and I also have an iPad. We share an iTunes account/Apple ID and currently manage our music manually since we share a lot of the same songs/apps but not all. Similarly, I don't put music on the iPad.

How will sync-ing work for us with ios 5 and iCloud? We will just have 1 iCloud account (because only 1 Apple ID). Will we still be able to manage manually or will our devices all have to have the same content?

 

[outphase]

Make a new Apple ID for iCloud purposes. The ID tied to iCloud is separate from the one used for the App Store.

 

[EddyP]

Make a new Apple ID for iCloud purposes. The ID tied to iCloud is separate from the one used for the App Store.

This.

You can also use a different ID for iMessage.

Our plan is to use the same ID for iCloud and have different IDs for iMessage. So far so good.

 

[Herm]

This.

You can also use a different ID for iMessage.

Our plan is to use the same ID for iCloud and have different IDs for iMessage. So far so good.

Sorry - so do you mean that one of use would use the original ID we have now and the other would use a new ID? I'm confused how iCloud will know to sync separate content... Thanks.

 

[EddyP]

Sorry - so do you mean that one of use would use the original ID we have now and the other would use a new ID? I'm confused how iCloud will know to sync separate content... Thanks.

I have 4 IDs I'm using now.
iTunes = gmail.com
Old Mobile Me = email, contacts, calendar, bookmarks
New iCloud mine
New iCloud wife

I use the gmail.com for both iTunes on all devices.
I also use the old me.com for Email, contacts, bookmarks, calendar, and all of that stuff.
We each use our own ID for iMessage.

I understand more what you're asking now. Unfortunately, I don't know yet. Let me play with syncing iTunes over the air and see if you can keep one iTunes ID and manually select what to sync like you are doing now.

I THINK you can just set it to not automatically sync so you could still manually sync like you are doing now (assuming you still want to share iTunes IDs) but do it over the air. Let me play some more tonight and I'll get back to you.



You could then each have your own ID you would use for email, calendar, and iMessage.



I know it's not exactly what you're asking but:
There are three places for AppleIDs in iOS5 (at least three I have discovered).
1 - the iTunes store
2 - iCloud - for syncing mail, etc. (like the old Mobile Me)
3 - iMessage.
You can put a different ID for each of these.

 

[Herm]

I THINK you can just set it to not automatically sync so you could still manually sync like you are doing now (assuming you still want to share iTunes IDs) but do it over the air. Let me play some more tonight and I'll get back to you.

Thanks - appreciate the help!

 

[EddyP]

Thanks - appreciate the help!

No worries. I'll try it out tonight with my iPhone and iPad to see how it works.

 

[EddyP]

OK. It's pretty damn easy to sync multiple devices over wifi with one iTunes account.

Once you set them up, they just show up in iTunes as if they were connected via the cable. I shut off "automatic downloads". It's just like syncing as if it was connected the "old way via cable". Pick what you want to sync, and it works. It's pretty slick.

This has nothing to do with the cloud ID. You can use the same iTunes ID for all of your devices. Then you can either use the same ID for the cloud (email, cal, contacts) or iMessage.


Note I am not including iTunes as part of "the Cloud". Sure, it's all done wirelessly. But I think it makes the most sense to think of them as separate animals.

 

[Herm]

OK. It's pretty damn easy to sync multiple devices over wifi with one iTunes account.

Once you set them up, they just show up in iTunes as if they were connected via the cable. I shut off "automatic downloads". It's just like syncing as if it was connected the "old way via cable". Pick what you want to sync, and it works. It's pretty slick.

This has nothing to do with the cloud ID. You can use the same iTunes ID for all of your devices. Then you can either use the same ID for the cloud (email, cal, contacts) or iMessage.


Note I am not including iTunes as part of "the Cloud". Sure, it's all done wirelessly. But I think it makes the most sense to think of them as separate animals.

Great to hear it works so well - thanks so much for coming back to this post!