Help setting up all of our iDevices

[ChadB]

So this will be pretty long so please bear with me. I would appreciate any help that I could get.

I was just wondering what the best way to set all of this stuff up was.

I am the owner of an old ipod nano and a brand new iPhone 4s.

My sister has an iPad 1, iPhone 4s, and old iPod touch.

My mom is the owner of an old iPod nano.

We have one desktop computer (used mostly by my mother). My sister has a PC laptop, and I have a macbook running Mac OSX 10.5.8

In the past we have had one Apple ID/iTunes account used to purchase music and for my sister to purchase apps on her ipad/ipod touch.

How can I set all of this up so that we can continue to share music (however not all music, since I don't want to have to deal with my sister's sometimes bad taste... I don't care if this involves playlists or whatever) and apps (again.. I don't want all of her ridiculous games on my iPhone; however, I would like to have access to the useful ones such as words with friends etc.) However with the iCloud capabilities we don't want everything like our contacts, calendar, etc. to sync between our two iphones. Yet, I want to have access on my computer to all the apps that she has downloaded (and be able to pick and choose which ones I want on my phone). I don't care if I have to plug my phone into iTunes every day or whatever to sync everything. Right now I don't have any of the apps that she has bought on my macbook.. I have all of the music from wireless home sharing... but this is a pain because she is never home to turn on her laptop to do this. How do I get these apps, so that I can sync my phone with the ones that I want?

I would again appreciate any help.

 

[Thomasjtsi]

For a short answer.... the best way to have mulitple iDevices, share purchases amongst those iDevices, and be able to sync them separately w/o losing information or having info that you don't want... is to have a separate iTunes account assosiated w/ each iDevice. With iTunes you can authorize up to 5 other iTunes accounts to share your purchases. iTunes accounts are free... so there as easy as having an email address to set them up. There are instructions on Apples website for setting up an iTunes account without the need for a credit card to if you so choose. Another thing that's good to remember... is to name all of your devices different names once they're connected to iTunes and allocated to a specific iTunes account.Hope this helps... perhaps that answer ended up being a little longer than I thought. LOL!!!!

 

[ChadB]

Yes, I agree that that would be the easiest way... however, wouldn't that mean starting from scratch as far as purchases go. We have so many apps and thousands of songs that my family and I currently share via one itunes account (which is loaded on our 3 computers)

If my sister and I both wanted words with friends we would each need to buy a copy whereas right now we are sharing everything because we each have computers that are authorized.

Is there a way to share (selected) apps and music, but not contacts, calendar, etc automatically?

Right now... if I buy a song on my computer, for my sister to get that song on her phone/ipod/ipad, she has to get it via wireless home sharing which is a pain because it requires that we both be home. And it requires that we have synced our phones/ipods to the computer recently to transfer purchases that we made directly from the phone.

Is there a way to get all of those purchases from all of our devices to automatically sync to our itunes and from there we can decide what to sync to our idevices?

 

[zuluwhiskeyfox]

For a short answer.... the best way to have mulitple iDevices, share purchases amongst those iDevices, and be able to sync them separately w/o losing information or having info that you don't want... is to have a separate iTunes account assosiated w/ each iDevice. With iTunes you can authorize up to 5 other iTunes accounts to share your purchases. iTunes accounts are free... so there as easy as having an email address to set them up. There are instructions on Apples website for setting up an iTunes account without the need for a credit card to if you so choose. Another thing that's good to remember... is to name all of your devices different names once they're connected to iTunes and allocated to a specific iTunes account.Hope this helps... perhaps that answer ended up being a little longer than I thought. LOL!!!!

I have read this about apple allowing up to 5 iTunes accounts to share purchases. Well for the life of me I can't find where and how to set this up. My wife recently bought an iPhone 4s and set up her phone with its own apple id separate from mine. So now I would like to share my purchases with her. I can't find where to set that up. Apple and iTunes are not making it easy.

 

[iGaz]

The only way to share your music without having to use home sharing or sync is by getting iTunes match (well worth it). If your sister buys a song on her iPod you can still download it to your computer for free by going to purchases, without the need for match.

Go to settings > iCloud to set up what you want to share. You will get all or nothing of a particular thing (apps, bookmarks, etc.) but you can then pick and choose. You can also have automatic app downloads turned of then go to your purchases on your phone (under the updates tab in the app store) then choose what you want.

@zuluwhiskeyfox, you need to use 1 iTunes account to share purchases on 5 devices...

 

[zuluwhiskeyfox]

The only way to share your music without having to use home sharing or sync is by getting iTunes match (well worth it). If your sister buys a song on her iPod you can still download it to your computer for free by going to purchases, without the need for match.

Go to settings > iCloud to set up what you want to share. You will get all or nothing of a particular thing (apps, bookmarks, etc.) but you can then pick and choose. You can also have automatic app downloads turned of then go to your purchases on your phone (under the updates tab in the app store) then choose what you want.

@zuluwhiskeyfox, you need to use 1 iTunes account to share purchases on 5 devices...

Thomas wrote "With iTunes you can authorize up to 5 other iTunes accounts to share your purchases." now you say that I need to use just one account. I'm confused.

 

[KJM]

I have read this about apple allowing up to 5 iTunes accounts to share purchases. Well for the life of me I can't find where and how to set this up. My wife recently bought an iPhone 4s and set up her phone with its own apple id separate from mine. So now I would like to share my purchases with her. I can't find where to set that up. Apple and iTunes are not making it easy.

For her to download your iTunes account purchases on her phone, she has to temporarily log into your iTunes account (from her phone) to download the app. So from her phone go to Settings, Store and then log out of her apple id and log in with your apple id. Then go to the store app and search for the app and click on the buy/download button and it will look like you're going to purchase it but it will say something like "this app has previously been purchased", click on the button again and it will download it to her phone. After all your apps are downloaded, she can log back into her apple id account. She'll just have to re-log in to your account to download any updates for the apps that were purchased on your account.

Hope this helps!

 

[iGaz]

Much easier just to use the one account. With iCloud you can have automatic downloads turned on so that when someone downloads an app you automatically get it on yours...

 

[zuluwhiskeyfox]

Thanks guys. I used KJM's suggestion. I have a lot more apps than my wife is interested in. To use the auto download feature would bombard her phone with to much as she puts it crap. I think the crap word is a bit harsh but I digress.

Cheers