User Accounts with 90 day Apple ID limit is a real pain!

[AndreUK]

My wife and I share an iMac. We have separate accounts, AppleID's, Itunes accounts and libraries etc. She pays for her stuff on her account, I pay for my stuff on mine. The world was in balance.

I subscribed to Apple music some time back... all good. My wife then subscribed to Apple Music (separately on her account) a few weeks back.... the world is no longer in balance.

Apple will not allow 2 users, each with their own accounts and Apple ID's, to download stuff into their own Itunes libraries. You will find that your device, for the sake of Apple Music / Itunes purchase downloads becomes linked to only one AppleID (in this case my wife's).

When I try and download something I get the message....

You can stream stuff, you just can't download stuff into your library, because the computer isn't linked to your AppleID anymore for Itunes purchases.

When you check your account within iTunes, and navigate to "Itunes in the Cloud" then "Manage Devices" you'll find that your computer is no longer listed under your account. In fact, it'll be listed under the other users account / AppleID (in this case my wife's).

As far as I know there isn't a workaround for this. Having been on the phone to Apple Support they ended up pointing me to the statement.....

"Computers and devices can be associated with a difference AppleID once every 90 days. Day's remaining indicate the number of days before you can associate that specific computer or device with a different AppleID".

...essentially means you have to wait 90 days to be able to download stuff into your account (the other user will then get locked out for downloading from their account for 90 days, and so on).

Wonderful.

 

[Fishrrman]

Have you ever considered that it might be time for each of you to have your own Mac...?

 

[AndreUK]

I am sure that's exactly what Tim Cook would want us to do!!! But then that's declaring that the iMac with separate user accounts is somewhat limited in this context.

We do have other Macs in the household, it just made more sense have the main desktop system acting as a central workstation and library for all, but at the same time retaining a degree of autonomy via individual user accounts.

I'm sure my wife would love her own iMac desktop, but these things don't come cheap!!!

 

[bogdanw]

An absurd situation, Apple practically forcing you to use one AppleID for two users, might be solved with an absurd solution. One user can use a virtual machine, thus being seen by Apple as on a different Mac.

 

[AndreUK]

...the only solution Apple Support offered was Family Sharing. I must admit I did consider this, but wasn't keen on the "one person pays for everything" model (this occurs even when you disable "purchase sharing" unless the other user has iTunes credit vouchers in their account, which all starts to get a bit ridiculous).