iPhone 5 or earlier One Apple ID on many iPhones - Good or bad idea??

[Rebani]

Hi all

I only have one Apple ID, i use on my iPhone, Mac, iPad, Watch etc.
I still have a lot of my old iPhones (3, 4, 5 etc.). I think it could be funny to set them up again.

Is it a bad idea to use my Apple ID on these iPhones? So I have the same Apple ID on several iPhones? Or should I create a new Apple ID, a kind of testing ID, or "just-for-fun" ID?

 

[Phil77354]

Hi all

I only have one Apple ID, i use on my iPhone, Mac, iPad, Watch etc.
I still have a lot of my old iPhones (3, 4, 5 etc.). I think it could be funny to set them up again.

Is it a bad idea to use my Apple ID on these iPhones? So I have the same Apple ID on several iPhones? Or should I create a new Apple ID, a kind of testing ID, or "just-for-fun" ID?

It's only you who will be using these devices? If so, then I don't see any issue. In fact my opinion would be that having multiple Apple IDs is going to give you a lot of complication and grief.

 

[eyoungren]

Hi all

I only have one Apple ID, i use on my iPhone, Mac, iPad, Watch etc.
I still have a lot of my old iPhones (3, 4, 5 etc.). I think it could be funny to set them up again.

Is it a bad idea to use my Apple ID on these iPhones? So I have the same Apple ID on several iPhones? Or should I create a new Apple ID, a kind of testing ID, or "just-for-fun" ID?

I have my same AppleID set up on my 3GS, my 4, my 4s, my 5, my 6s+, my 11PM, my 6th gen iPad and all my Macs.

It's useful to be able to use the same ID whenever I am using one of those devices.

Be aware though, that if you do this with devices running older versions of iOS, and have 2FA active, you're going to need to add the code that you get to the password for your Apple ID.

 

[Shirasaki]

It's only you who will be using these devices? If so, then I don't see any issue. In fact my opinion would be that having multiple Apple IDs is going to give you a lot of complication and grief.

With one extra Apple ID for contents from another region is generally manageable imo. Tho this use case doesn’t always work for everyone.

 

[ericwn]

It would only be a bad idea to have your id on devices that others use, as long as it’s all in your possession I don’t see a problem.

 

[Rebani]

It's only you who will be using these devices? If so, then I don't see any issue. In fact my opinion would be that having multiple Apple IDs is going to give you a lot of complication and grief.

Yes, it’s only my devices, so no orher will use it. OK thanks, as long as it doesn’t make any problems, I will use my only Apple ID for them all.

 

[Rebani]

Thanks for the answers. One gave me a hint, that I could make a Apple ID for another region, to explore that contebt. Maybe I will do that.

Or else I’m just gonna ude my only Apple ID on all devices 👍🏻

 

[nintendoswitch]

I don’t see why it would mess anything up.

 

[now i see it]

On my active devices I currently use, they’re all signed in to my one Apple ID (which is how it was intended to be used). All other devices, like old non active devices, I sign them out of iCloud entirely - my Apple ID is not associated with them.

 

[allenvanhellen]

iCloud Keychain will have you sign in between older and newer devices as you use them, and HomeKit might not work on newer devices until you’ve signed in again. That alone has made me think of setting up a second Apple ID to use with my older devices.

 

[Phil77354]

I don’t see why it would mess anything up.

Not suggesting it would mess anything up, necessarily. it just complicates things, and if you want to take advantage of iCloud storage, or subscriptions you have with Apple or that are linked to your Apple ID, then I don't know that those could be used with a device with a different Apple ID. That's all I'm saying.

 

[Rebani]

iCloud Keychain will have you sign in between older and newer devices as you use them, and HomeKit might not work on newer devices until you’ve signed in again. That alone has made me think of setting up a second Apple ID to use with my older devices.

That's a good point. One of the things I was wondering about, was if it could manage that I'm ex. running iOS8 on some devices, and the newest iOS15 on other devices.

 

[ian87w]

It's more about one Apple ID per user, regardless of the number of devices. If you're the user of all those phones, then yes, use 1 Apple ID on them so you can enjoy seamless integration between all those devices. Any different user should have his/her own separate Apple ID.

 

[Rebani]

It's more about one Apple ID per user, regardless of the number of devices. If you're the user of all those phones, then yes, use 1 Apple ID on them so you can enjoy seamless integration between all those devices. Any different user should have his/her own separate Apple ID.

OK! So when I’m using my iPhone 3GS with iOS6 for some fun, with the same Apple ID as on my iPhone 13, there will be no “confusion” between them?

 

[ian87w]

OK! So when I’m using my iPhone 3GS with iOS6 for some fun, with the same Apple ID as on my iPhone 13, there will be no “confusion” between them?

Any basic things will probably work, but features that already deprecated older iOS version won't. For example, notes made with newer iOS versions might not be supported on the older iphone, older iphones won't have access to icloud drive, etc. But contacts, calendar, and icloud mail will probably sync just fine.

 

[eyoungren]

OK! So when I’m using my iPhone 3GS with iOS6 for some fun, with the same Apple ID as on my iPhone 13, there will be no “confusion” between them?

One thing you may notice with iMessages on older versions of iOS is that if someone 'likes' your message you'll see an actual notification in the thread. For instance, 'X liked your message'. On newer versions of iOS you'd actually see the icon or indicator for that.

 

[Cobold]

No problems here 😜

 

[now i see it]

But contacts, calendar, and icloud mail will probably sync just fine

Only mail will sync. Syncing Calendars, Contacts, Keychain and Safari bookmarks with newer versions of iOS starting at least at iOS 13 was intentionally disabled by Apple on iOS 9 and below.

 

[marty1980]

There may be benefits to using a separate account. Such as being able to add contacts or other info that does’t taint you normal iCloud with useless test data.

Plus you can use Family Sharing so that your alt account has access to all your purchases and services from your main account.

It’s just an option to consider.